Do Not Trust Employee Resource Groups (ERGs)

They’re no replacement for a union. In fact, they’re often created to distract from collective bargaining efforts.

The top result for “diversity and inclusion” on Unsplash is this photo by Nathan Dumlao. By using a work-fueling stimulant as a vacuous stand-in for actual human diversity, it’s funnily apt here — but probably not in the way the creator intended.

As a public academic who writes about anti-productivity and neurodiversity, I’m often invited to speak at organizations’ Employee Resource Groups (ERGS). In the past year, I’ve given talks at…