DEI Is Great and All—But Can We Please Just Use Common Sense?

Let’s be honest, DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) initiatives can be powerful. They aim to create workplaces where everyone feels valued, heard, and included. Awesome in theory, necessary in practice—we support that.

But here’s the part HR secretly wants to scream into a void: Why do we need fifteen policies, four training modules, and an acronym to remind people not to be jerks?

It’s not that DEI is wrong—it’s just that it’s become a giant, bureaucratic Band-Aid for behavior that should already be covered by one basic concept: common sense.

If You Need a Handbook to Know Not to Be a Racist...

You’re not going to be saved by a PowerPoint on unconscious bias. Most of us learned how to treat people decently in kindergarten. Somehow that wisdom seems to disappear the moment folks hit the office and start hoarding snacks and interrupting everyone who isn’t named Chad.

More Policies Won’t Fix What Manners Should

HR has a folder full of guidelines on respect, inclusion, and equity. We’ve added DEI slides to onboarding, built resource groups, hosted awareness months, and still—someone manages to “accidentally” send a wildly inappropriate meme to the whole team.

At some point, it’s not a lack of training. It’s a lack of emotional intelligence and social grace. Would it kill people to just let it go?

Inclusion Shouldn’t Be a Workshop. It Should Be a Given.

The dream? A workplace where people are kind, open-minded, and thoughtful without needing a 50-slide presentation to remind them to be decent humans.

Until then, yes, we’ll keep rolling out the initiatives. But just once, we’d love to say:

“If we all used half a brain and a little empathy, we wouldn’t need a DEI task force—we’d just have a good company culture.”

So yes, DEI is important. But also yes—we’d really love it if people just used some dang common sense.

HR out. 🫡