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> Spotify waste so much money on their employees, who effectively do very little Plenty of businesses waste money on some employees who effectively do very lit

> Spotify waste so much money on their employees, who effectively do very little Plenty of businesses waste money on some employees who effectively do very little, like diversity officers, equality consultants and such useless positions ... The problem isn't them , the problem here is Spotify unstustainable business model, period. They will go down, sooner or later. The fact that they had to take a loan means they can't raise money through VC rounds anymore. It's clearly the end of an era for a LOT of startups. And that's fine. It's call redistributing cards.

jrowley 11y ago
A diversity officer isn't necessarily a waste of money. They can be crucial for ensuring a solid company culture that levages talents from a diverse pool of people. If you make your company inhospitable to groups of employees based on their race or religion you are only hurting your bottom line.
- danieltillett 11y ago
  You shouldn’t need a diversity officer to stop your business being inhospitable to employees on the basis of background - this should be core to your business culture. It is like having a come-to-work-and-get-stuff-done officer.
  - jrowley 11y ago
    Well I agree, ideally this should be automatic and inherent to a business, but when a company gets to a certain size you need people to be really thoughtful and consciously focused about this stuff, otherwise it can slip. So sometimes growth necessitates a dedicated person thinking about these issues.
    - p4wnc6 11y ago
      More often, the person is just a token hire who functions more to ensure legal deniability on the company's part for anything that might pop up related to a diversity issue. I hope more companies hire diversity officers for the sake of thinking hard about how to ensure that policies and company behaviors aren't harmful. But for me it's a "I'll believe it when I see it" sort of thing. The default belief has to be that it's just a token position for the sake of legal deniability, just as most of HR has evolved into.
      - LoSboccacc 11y ago
        Yup. I've yet to see a diversity office having an actual budget and spending power.
        lolidaisuki 11y ago
        I have two words for you: GNOME Foundation
- JonFish85 11y ago
  A diversity officer isn't a waste of money if it impresses other people who want to give you business and pat themselves on the back for supporting diversity. If you pay someone $500k/year to be a "Chief Diversity Officer" and that shields the company from bad publicity, then it's probably "worth it", even if that person sits in their office playing solitaire all day long.

jrowley 11y ago

A diversity officer isn't necessarily a waste of money. They can be crucial for ensuring a solid company culture that levages talents from a diverse pool of people. If you make your company inhospitable to groups of employees based on their race or religion you are only hurting your bottom line.

danieltillett 11y ago
You shouldn’t need a diversity officer to stop your business being inhospitable to employees on the basis of background - this should be core to your business culture. It is like having a come-to-work-and-get-stuff-done officer.
- jrowley 11y ago
  Well I agree, ideally this should be automatic and inherent to a business, but when a company gets to a certain size you need people to be really thoughtful and consciously focused about this stuff, otherwise it can slip. So sometimes growth necessitates a dedicated person thinking about these issues.
  - p4wnc6 11y ago
    More often, the person is just a token hire who functions more to ensure legal deniability on the company's part for anything that might pop up related to a diversity issue. I hope more companies hire diversity officers for the sake of thinking hard about how to ensure that policies and company behaviors aren't harmful. But for me it's a "I'll believe it when I see it" sort of thing. The default belief has to be that it's just a token position for the sake of legal deniability, just as most of HR has evolved into.
    - LoSboccacc 11y ago
      Yup. I've yet to see a diversity office having an actual budget and spending power.
      - lolidaisuki 11y ago
        I have two words for you: GNOME Foundation
JonFish85 11y ago
A diversity officer isn't a waste of money if it impresses other people who want to give you business and pat themselves on the back for supporting diversity. If you pay someone $500k/year to be a "Chief Diversity Officer" and that shields the company from bad publicity, then it's probably "worth it", even if that person sits in their office playing solitaire all day long.