Ida Tarbell, the American 19th-early 20th century researcher, biographer and editor of McClure's Magazine, had to calm her staff whenever the owner of the magazine (Samuel McClure) drove everyone mad with his unpredictable bi-polar behaviour.
"Try not to mind" Ida advised her staff in a soothing voice. An investigative journalist and a biographer conversant with human psychology, Ida seems to have been something of a Stoic philosopher. Her rational moderation would be helpful in today's workplace.
Corporate workplaces compete with each other to be "sensitive" by forcing employees into "training" (as China did in communist-revolution days, through self-criticism and re-education camps). Corporate training too boils down to compulsory self-criticism through "customized coaching" meant to produce "cultural competency" and curb inappropriate behaviour in the workplace. The key bad-words are bullying and harassment. Words that should ring alarm bells for employees are coaching, training, and "building trust". When employers tell you they are going to build trust -- mistrust them.
This corporate team-building is Sensitivity Training, which aims to promote diversity even as it enforces uniformity. Never trust a thing that is being its opposite. Better to do the real opposite, which in this case would be Insensitivity Training.
How would Insensitivity Training work? Mainly it would do exactly what Ida Tarbell recommended: practice not minding things that you can't change anyway. We're meant to tolerate differences in the workplace? That would seem to mean stop minding that everyone's not the same. Some will be a pain, some delightful, some in-between: diversity.
Rules of Insensitivity Training
1. Resist group-obsessing about skin colour, ethnicity, and diverse ableisms.
2. Forget "identities".
3. Drop the word "racism" (especially after the adjective "systemic"). Also drop "harm" and "stigma".
4. In the name of freedom of expression, appropriate whatever you like. (Let's call it intersectional creativity.)
5. As far as respect is concerned, respect the right to privacy.
6. Let no manager harass and bully you into giving up your right to introverted non-participation in group whining and parroting.
7. Understand that the core of democratic liberal humanistic civilization is about acknowledging other people's right to express opinions you despise. Then, ignore them.
8. While it is unkind to express hate, there are times when hearty dislike is unavoidable.
9. Forget micro-aggression, make your just aggressions adult-sized. Share them when appropriate, and then retreat into dignified silence.
10. Don't get drawn into competitive victim-narratives.
11. Embrace the Enlightenment ideal of merit. Who wants to live in a shabby, meritless world of self-obsessed equitable mediocrity?
12. Claim your inalienable right to walk away from invasive staff meetings to the safety of your own desk.
