According to a representative survey of British workers, authoritarian Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Climate (EDIC) training has become endemic in British workplaces, with 65% of employees saying they have been put through some kind of diversity training, either by their present or former employer.

EDIC training is supposed to make offices more inclusive, attractive places to work, particularly for members of historically disadvantaged groups. But according to the people we surveyed, it’s having the opposite effect – and is particularly unpopular among ethnic minorities and members of the LGBT communities. Sixty-two per cent of workers said they have had to conceal what they really think about the training they’ve received, including 22% who have been compelled to say things that they don’t really believe. This rises to 31% among Black and Asian respondents.

Forty-five per cent reported that the training they’d received conflicted with their personal, religious or political views, with 31% saying  they had left a job because of their employer’s promotion of woke ideology. This figure is higher among minority groups – 43% for Black employees, 46% for Asian and 46% for LGBT.

Perhaps most shocking of all, 36% said they had witnessed staff being penalised in some way by their current employer because they challenged EDIC training. This includes 12% who have witnessed staff being fired for doing so.

The author of the report, Thomas Harris, the FSU’s Director of Data and Impact, concludes that our whole approach to diversity training needs to be overhauled. There is no evidence the current approach is making Britain’s offices more welcoming, friendlier places to work, and plenty of evidence that it is turning them into hostile environments, particularly for minorities and those who do not subscribe to woke ideology.

Postscript: This briefing paper now includes an appendix documenting two egregious, real-world examples of EDI training in which employees are not allowed to challenge the trainers’ ideological biases. The first is a training course called Glamazon that anyone at Amazon with supervisory responsibilities is required to do, while the second is a guide produced by The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, a professional association, that’s intended for all speech and language therapists, as well as support workers and students.