Man, oh man! There are so many thing to talk about with this whole Goodyear thing that I could easily write a hundred pages. Instead, I’m going to unpack it a bit and spread it across several days.
Here’s the first:
In case you missed it (though it’s hard to imagine that anyone could have), someone leaked a screen shot and audio from a presentation at the Topeka plant about approved workplace attire. The leaked info clearly say that you can display “Black Lives Matter” or “LGBTQ Pride” but you can’t display “All Lives Matter”, “Blue Lives Matter” or “White Lives Matter” (those were the exact examples given).
Goodyear responded to the uproar that followed with a clarification that wasn’t much clearer. This is part of what they said (from their corporate Web site):
“To be clear on our longstanding corporate policy, Goodyear has zero tolerance for any forms of harassment or discrimination. To enable a work environment free of those, we ask that associates refrain from workplace expressions in support of political campaigning for any candidate or political party, as well as similar forms of advocacy that fall outside the scope of racial justice and equity issues. Second, we appreciate the diverse viewpoints of all of our more than 60,000 associates, which are at the heart of many of the policies we establish.
Fostering an inclusive, respectful workplace is important to establish teamwork and build culture, which is another reason we ask associates not to engage in political campaigning of any kind in the workplace – for any candidate, party or political organization.”
The actual release was a bit longer, but I grabbed the section germane to this discussion. I encourage you to read their entire statement and listen to the audio or you can trust me that the parts I didn’t include aren’t relevant to what I’m about to say.
Their “clarification” says, essentially, that you can’t show support for a candidate or party, but everything else is OK. That sounds really good until you realize that it’s only OK if your “workplace expression” is about racial justice and equity issues, and then only if you support a certain side of those issues. By allowing employees to show support for ONLY certain, pre-approved things, they’re creating the discriminatory and exclusive environment that they claim to disavow.
Here’s the thing. If they’re truly trying to create an environment of inclusivity, diversity and equality, Goodyear has two choices:
- Allow ALL forms of expression
- Allow NO forms of expression
There is no other option that will help them achieve their stated goals.
This isn’t a new concept. I’ve worked for several companies where the dress code said that no clothes with logos was allowed. I don’t remember anyone complaining about the rule because it applied equally to every single person in the company.
As it stands, Goodyear will have some employees that can display the BLM logo and a group of people who don’t necessarily support BLM but can’t express it. Or maybe they want to show their support for the police. Nope. That’s not allowed. At Goodyear it’s OK to say “Black Lives Matter” but not OK to say “All Lives Matter” even though the latter is a more inclusive and less divisive phrase.
By discriminating against some forms of expression, they’ve inserted divisiveness into their organization.
People can’t agree on much these days but we mostly agree that laws and rules should apply to everyone equally. That’s why Goodyear, and all other companies should allow freedom of expression for EVERYONE or NO ONE.
There’s a right way to handle this and that’s by creating rules that apply equally to everyone. That’s what “equality” is. What Goodyear has done by trying to be “woke” is to create the very environment they were trying to prevent.
