A new survey has highlighted a potential spanner in the works for efforts to retain older workers: the ‘woke’ workplace. But is there more to it than an aversion to vegan-compliant blocks of squashed soya beans and a preference for a builder’s tea over almond-milk lattes?
There are few words in the zeitgeist as loaded as “woke”. Its origins lie in the African-American political discourse of the 1960s while the acclaimed singer Erykah Badu elevated it to wider usage in the noughties, putting her own spin as “not being placated, not being anaesthetised”.
Since then, with the advent of Black Lives Matter in response to police brutality towards African Americans, “woke” has defined the frontlines of the so-called culture war, and has been contorted to suit the political agenda of figures such as home secretary Suella Braverman who famously coined the phrase “tofu-eating wokerati” – many would argue her wittiest, indeed, only, contribution to the national conversation.
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HR, with its interest in improving diversity and social justice, has long felt vulnerable to attack for being “woke”, with the likes of tangy psychologist Jordan Peterson launching salvos of withering criticism in its direction along those lines.
Now, recruiter Randstad UK has added grist to Peterson’s mill. According to its latest survey older employees are retiring because their workplaces are too “woke”. The timing isn’t perfect, coming just a few days after the chancellor announced measures to encourage older people back to work as the government sought to alleviate skills gaps.
Randstad’s poll of 2,000 people found that a third of workers over 55 described their workplace as “too woke”. This was almost double the percentage of those under 35 years old (17%). Apparently, researchers found that one in every two people over-55s who worked somewhere they deemed “woke”, said the atmosphere made them more likely to leave – either to retire or to get a job somewhere else. Only 29% of workers under the age of 35 said the same.
We have to appreciate that real inclusivity is also about embracing those who aren’t necessarily on board with the mixed sex loos in offices” – Victoria Short, Randstad
Interestingly, there was a gender split. While 22% of men told Randstad their workplace was too woke, only 13% of women said the same. If this fact wasn’t galling enough for – what shall we call them? – the “traditionalists”, a large proportion of younger workers believed their workplaces should be woker still.
Victoria Short, chief executive of Ranstad, alluded to this while posing the question of how companies could appease their diverse workforces: “While these results suggest ‘woke’ works for younger people – indeed, a third of workers under 25 still think their workplace isn’t woke enough – there are multiple generations in the workplace, all with different expectations and life experiences. This polling suggests too many over-50s feel left behind in workplace environments where cultures aren’t as inclusive as they ought to be.”
She added that workplaces had been getting more woke for “at least a decade” and said: “We have to appreciate that real inclusivity is also about embracing those who aren’t necessarily on board with the mixed sex loos in offices, the awareness days in the kitchen, and the pronouns on email signatures.”
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So it’s all about “kitchen awareness days” and so on. Is it though? Surely what really eats the “PC gone mad” brigade is the thing that sums up everything that’s bad about the world changing around them and the old certainties disappearing. Yes, tofu being served in the staff canteen.
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