JANUARY 27, 2025

Talking Points

Last week, President Donald Trump rolled back 60 years of equal-opportunity employment in one day, a major blow to DEI. ICYMI, he put all federal DEI staff on paid leave (to be fired), and now major companies like Amazon, Meta, Target, and Walmart are scaling back their DEI programs too. Is this the end of workplace diversity as we know it? Well, yes and no.

Workplace Diversity Is at Stake

What happened?

On January 21st, Trump signed an executive order ending “radical and wasteful” DEI programs in federal agencies. This executive order put all federal employees involved in DEI initiatives on paid administrative leave and mandated the closure of DEI-related websites and social media accounts. The Trump administration also directed government agencies to draw up plans for firing workers in DEI roles and to report DEI efforts to the government or face “adverse consequences.” 

The administration's actions extend beyond federal agencies. Plans are underway to dismantle DEI programs in universities and private businesses, aiming to prioritize "merit-based" hiring over DEI initiatives. However, DEI has been publicly under fire in corporate America for the past year, long before Trump won his second term.

Major US companies like Amazon, Meta, Walmart, Ford, Target, and Toyota, among others, are already starting to turn away from DEI—some quietly removing their LGBTQ+ and Black equity policies from their websites (looking at you, Amazon). Luckily, other companies are fighting back, like JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Costco, and even Apple, who have resisted the rollback to diversity initiatives.

Can we clear this up?

Anti-DEI advocates believe that “creating a level playing field for one group means taking opportunity away from another (it doesn’t), that any consideration of someone’s background is inherently discriminatory (it isn’t), and that DEI is about giving unfair advantages to marginalized groups instead of correcting for real systemic inequalities (it’s not),” writes Joelle Emerson, the founder and CEO of DEI strategy firm Paradigm, for Fortune.

Let us just shout this from the rooftops once and for all: DEI does not mean companies are hiring unqualified candidates just because they are a [insert minority here]!!! 😤 If anything, it means these candidates are beyond qualified cause they’ve had to jump through hoops to prove their worth.

So, what now?

Companies that abandon DEI policies could open themselves up to discrimination lawsuits from employees. No shocker there. “The Trump administration can't save them and nothing in this executive order can save them," Jason Solomon, director of the National Institute for Workers' Rights, told Reuters.

You might also see companies rebranding their DEI initiatives and calling them things like “employee experience” or “wellbeing and inclusion” instead. Can you still do the work without actually saying you’re doing the work? 🤔 We’re not so sure.

And it begs the most important question of all: No matter what executive order the President of the United States signs, can DEI ever really go away?

Avery Francis, the host of Girlboss Radio and the founder and CEO of Bloom, a workplace design consultancy shares her thoughts: “DEI has always been a critical part of traditional HR systems and the various employment laws that guide them—they just had a different framing for it. For that reason, DEI won’t/can’t be ‘out.’”

If you work in DEI or HR, we’d love to hear your thoughts about where employees and companies who want to create equitable workplaces should go from here (as always, answers are anonymous, and they could be featured in an upcoming newsletter).

“How Long Should I Wait to Ask for a Promotion?”

You asked, Style Nine to Five career expert Christie Lohr answered! When should an employee expect a promotion before it's time to start looking for a different role? Christie shares her tips for making a promotion action plan and knowing when it’s time to take your talents elsewhere.

“If you’ve consistently expressed interest in a promotion to your manager, gone above and beyond in your role, and watched others get promoted while you remain overlooked, it’s time to take action,” says Christie. Take these steps to put a promotion within your sights:

🚀 Define the growth needed for a promotion. Work with your manager to identify the skill or experience gaps that you need to tighten up to advance in your career. There might be a course you need to level up your skillset, or it might be a matter of taking on specific responsibilities. Rather than guessing what it will take to get promoted, sit down with your manager to clearly lay out what’s expected. 

🗓️ Ask for a clear timeline. Once you’ve established the areas of growth that you need to focus on, the next part of the conversation should be around timing. Ask your manager for a reasonable timeline for when your professional development will pay off and when you can expect to advance. 

📏 Make it measurable. Take the development steps that your manager has pinpointed and create clear, measurable ways to determine if you’ve met those expectations. For example, successfully leading a team toward accomplishing a well-defined goal, like executing a project under budget. This way, there’s no gray area on whether you’ve checked the boxes that your manager is looking for. 

🚧 Set personal boundaries. Listen to your gut instincts and set your own personal timeline for how long you’re willing to continue working towards a promotion before you start thinking about moving on. For example, if you’re consistently meeting your professional targets after 12 to 18 months and there’s no progress in your promotion plan, let that be your own indicator that it’s time to look elsewhere. 

Ready to take the next step in your career journey? Set your job search up for success with Style Nine to Five’s Get Hired in Your Dream Job Workbook.

Got a job-hunting question for Christie? Drop it here (submissions are anonymous), and the answer to your q could be featured in an upcoming newsletter.

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Snacks

⚠️ If you're lucky enough to WFH, don’t quit.

🇪🇸 What a major win for single working moms in Spain!

⏲️ This cool, real-time calculator tells you how much your meetings cost.

😩 That’s exactly what the world needs right now. Trillionaires!

💄 In case you needed a reminder of Selena Gomez’s influence.

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