Day Fifteen

Halfway through the month, and I’m still ranting about the Trump administration. Well, what did you expect? He is tearing things up for women, for everyone. So inspired by one of his favorite phrases, I decided to rant about him again. Here you are.

MEDIOCRE DEI HIRE

I have a confession: I was a mediocre DEI hire. Not actually, but…in the current administration, I would be deemed such, since I am in one of the protected groups…two, actually. Since I was not hired BECAUSE of my protected characteristic, and I was not mediocre, I think it would be a bit much to call me such, but that’s the way it is…the more times you say it, the more it is so.

It has been my experience that no one has ever lost a job to a more qualified candidate. People can find all sorts of reasons why they weren’t hired: I’m a healthy, straight, white male has become one of the favorites, in spite of the fact that healthy, straight, white males are still running things in most places.

For people like Trump and Musk, mediocre DEI hire simply means someone who doesn’t look like me. It might be more pigmentation, it might be the inability to pee standing up, or it might be the inability to stand up at all. It might be the fact that they have a beautiful partner of the same sex instead of a beautiful partner of the opposite sex (I’m assuming no one truly has ugly partners here; after all, they must have something beautiful to those who marry them, right?). So we get Darren Beattie in charge of the State Department’s worldwide public diplomacy efforts, a man who said a few months ago that ‘competent white males must be in charge if you want things to work”. He is a white male; whether he is competent, I cannot say. Time will tell.

While it is popular on both the left and the right to assume that anyone hired under affirmative action or any other diversity policy is less qualified, or maybe not qualified at all, this is simply not true. When I started my job teaching science, there were few women in the department. Those who were there had exemplary credentials; my credentials topped all of them. My credentials topped almost all the males; there was only one other Ph.D. in the science faculty. He retired not long after I started.

Over the years that I was there, women became more common. None of the women were ‘mediocre’ and none of them were ‘DEI hires’. They were hired because they were, quite simply put, the cream that rose to the top of the field of candidates. To be fair, most of the men hired were the same. In a tough job market, there is often a prime slate of candidates to select from; you aren’t lucky to have a job, they are lucky to have you.

The interesting thing is, the women in my department were actually more credentialed than the men. The preference for hiring males at large universities made women Ph.D.s available, and the smaller colleges and universities snapped up those that were available. They could get faculty of a quality that could hold their own at a research university. They might not be able to hold them for long, but hey, anything you can get, right?

I have known some mediocre hires in my life, at the numerous jobs I’ve worked. I have known some people hired because of diversity. It was rare that they were the same person. In fact, the two most mediocre employees I’ve ever worked with were white males…but in interest of fairness and honesty, I will also acknowledge that the two worst bosses I ever had were women. Of course, the best boss I ever had was a woman, too. Like men, women come with a wide variety of skills and personalities.

It is likely there are some mediocre employees in the federal government; with an employee base of that size, it would be a miracle if there weren’t. It is probably best for the country if those who are mediocre are not given jobs above their skill level, but seriously, firing someone for being mediocre is firing them for being average. Get rid of the bad employees; work with the mediocre ones to ensure you are getting the best out of them.

The way Musk and Trump are going about it is foolish and dangerous. It is like curing an ingrown toenail by cutting off your foot…or maybe that should be your whole leg. Since they aren’t really doing it to improve efficiency or make things work better, they don’t care. The rest of us should. These women, people of color, disabled, or sexually different people are doing important work we depend on. Most of them are doing it well. Those that are not probably have some indication in their performance evaluations, even if it’s only a hint of sarcasm on the evaluation of the boss’s son. Actually improving efficiency takes time, study, and work.

If you believe, however, that females are not competent, you can shortcut by firing the females. Same with other protected characteristics, but since this is Women’s History Month, I usually focus on women. I’m peculiar that way. If you believe that only competent white males can make the country work, you can get rid of anyone who doesn’t fit that description. Is that what they are doing? No. They are like the archer who shoots all his arrows, then draws the bullseye around where they land. They are operating without the knowledge and care needed to prevent disaster.

In the battle to put things in the hands of competent [anyone], I suggest there’s a better way to start. Trump should fire everyone in his administration, including himself. He can start with Musk, a man who knows little about government, and even less about women. Once he’s fired himself, we can work to find some competent people to hire and take his place. It might be too late. With all the ‘mediocre DEI hires’ gone, there may not be anyone left to fix it.