I wish this were just a joke - but I've worked for companies like this

 

Scott Adams' Dilbert cartoon strip is usually funny, and sometimes very near the bone.  That was the case with yesterday's comic.  Click the image to be taken to a larger version at Dilbert's Web page.

There are any number of companies who, in the past, in response to social and political pressures, hired "token women" or "token blacks" or "token whatever" to give the public impression of complying with contemporary requirements.  However, those appointments were essentially meaningless.  No real transformation took place;  instead, they were a cloak to hide "business as usual".

The cartoon is funny, sure, and I laughed when I read it;  but it's also painfully true.  If you impose artificial requirements from outside, companies will meet them artificially, rather than in reality.  It's all a con game, from both sides at once.  It's all about giving the right impression, to get pressure off their backs.  After that, who cares?

Expect something similar in response to the Gamestop fiasco, which we discussed earlier this morning.  "Oh, dear!  Something terrible happened!  Let's appoint a commission of inquiry - but make sure it doesn't breathe a word about the real problem.  Let's put measures in place to stop it happening again - but they'll just be window-dressing."  Meanwhile, the people behind it will go right on making money any way they can, and ignore fairness, equity and the law - because the only thing they care about is the money.  The Teds of this world will be used, then discarded as soon as they're no longer needed or useful.

Peter