Boeing Bails On Diversity Division, Reverts To “A Merit-Based” System

Will this is the straw that breaks the DEI camel’s back?

Bloomberg reports that Boeing just became the latest big corporate entity to abandon the DEI debacle amid growing pressures to perform and be woke.

Anti-DEI activist Robby Starbuck, who claims credit for convincing Toyota  and Harley-Davidson to scale back DEI, said he had reached out to Ortberg and board chair Steve Mollenkopf by e-mail earlier this month to alert them he was considering an online campaign against their diversity programs. 

Bloomberg reports that the planemaker has dismantled its global diversity, equity and inclusion department, making it the latest high-profile corporation to make changes to its DEI policy as its new top leader oversees a broader revamp of the company’s workforce.

Staff from Boeing’s DEI office will be combined with another human resources team focused on talent and employee experience, according to people familiar with the matter.

And you’ll never guess what approach the new CEO is taking – “merit-based” performance appraisal.

“Boeing remains committed to recruiting and retaining top talent and creating an inclusive work environment where every teammate around the world can perform at their best while supporting the company’s mission,” the planemaker said in a statement.

The company added that it prohibits discriminatory hiring practices and maintains “a merit-based performance system with procedures aimed at encouraging an equality of opportunity, not of outcomes.”

Boeing had promised to increase opportunities for under-represented workers, including Black employees, in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death in 2020.

As part of that effort, the company pledged to increase overall Black employment by 20% by 2025.

Boeing was already closing in on that goal last year, as Black employment rose to 7.5% in 2023 –  a 17% increase, according to data reported to the US federal government.

Sara Liang Bowen, a Boeing vice president who led the now-defunct department, left the company on Thursday.

“The team achieved so much — sometimes imperfectly, never easily — and dreamed of doing much more still,” Bowen wrote in a farewell post on LinkedIn.

What exactly did u achieve Ms Bowen?