August 25, 2015

"People Love Your Sarcasm, Really/It can work with people you trust; correlates with creativity."

I'm only linking to this article (in the WSJ) because of one phrase in this anecdote, which comes from Adam Galinsky, a Columbia Business School professor:
Recently, his fiancée woke him up in the middle of the night to tell him some new ideas she has for their wedding next month. Many were expensive, he says.

Instead of getting mad, Dr. Galinsky says he responded with some ideas of his own: “Why don’t we get Paul McCartney to sing, Barack Obama to give a benediction and Amy Schumer to entertain people,” he told his girlfriend. “I used sarcasm to make her see the practicality and to express it with humor,” he says.

His girlfriend, Jennifer Olayon, got the point: “I did giggle, and I knew he meant well because I trust him,” says the 38-year-old diversity inclusion consultant, who lives in Manhattan.
The phrase is: diversity inclusion consultant. I won't say anything sarcastic about that, because I don't trust everyone in the world which I now know includes diversity inclusion consultants.

77 comments:

Rusty said...

diversity inclusion consultant.




That's a job?



Christ.

Michael K said...

I got about half way in the article and gave up. I tend to be sarcastic but try to curb it because it does make people angry and they believe you think you are better than they are. I am better but try not to get too obvious about it.

See ?

Larry J said...

If the real world won't hire Angry Studies majors, then consulting jobs will be created such as diversity inclusion consultant. No employer in his right mind would hire a toxic person with an Angry Studies degree. Still, enough of them have been employed by the government to make employers jump through diversity hoops.

traditionalguy said...

Dr Phil is a Diversity Inclusion Consultant with his own TV show: Professional Lives Matter.

Hagar said...

Do not get sarcastic with your wife unless you want to get divorced anyway.

Hagar said...

Wax sarcastic?

David Begley said...

You have a community relations guy at WI that said it is okay to steal from the bookstore.

http://www.jsonline.com/news/crime/uw-official-sparks-controversy-with-remarks-on-policing-b99563282z1-322750981.html?ipad=y

Charlie said...

Diversity inclusion consultant is what you come up with when all else fails.

Hagar said...

Sarcasm is also going to cost you extra in the divorce settlement.
Better give it a pass>

Brando said...

I'm trying to imagine a situation where society falls, and everyone is running around trying to hoard food and form themselves into impromptu societies, offering their own skills to the group. Doctors, mechanics, farmers--they'd all be fine, but then when they got to this woman and she said she was a "diversity inclusion consultant" someone would strongly suggest she join a different marauding gang.

In other news, we have created a society where someone can make a living as a diversity inclusion consultant.

campy said...

Diversity Inclusion Consultants will bunk next to Telephone Sanitizers in the B Ark.

Tank said...

Not sarcasm, amplification.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

How much money does a diversity inclusion consultant make, and how much value or wealth does he/she add to the country (or subtract)? We have WAY too many people working in "jobs" that create no wealth. Whatever else a diversity inclusion consultant is, it is overhead.

MayBee said...

It seems to me a Diversity Inclusion Consultant would be the kind of person who does not like sarcasm. Oh well.

Brando said...

"It seems to me a Diversity Inclusion Consultant would be the kind of person who does not like sarcasm. Oh well."

Unless she's actual a cardiac surgeon and simply told her fiance she was a diversity inclusion consultant...because she was being sarcastic!

Paco Wové said...

You have a" community relations guy at WI that said it is okay to steal from the bookstore."

Well, not the bookstore. They, presumably, are Good Capitalists™. Target and Wal-mart, on the other hand, are Bad Capitalists™ and are fair game, besides, insurance, which is free money, pays for all that shrinkage, and anyway, stop over-policing our children, you racist.

Ann Althouse said...

"I'm trying to imagine a situation where society falls, and everyone is running around trying to hoard food and form themselves into impromptu societies, offering their own skills to the group. Doctors, mechanics, farmers--they'd all be fine, but then when they got to this woman and she said she was a "diversity inclusion consultant" someone would strongly suggest she join a different marauding gang."

This is an interesting idea for a screenplay ONLY IF the DIC (hmmm) turns out to really help in the end after everyone assumes she's useless.

Ann Althouse said...

"You have a" community relations guy at WI that said it is okay to steal from the bookstore.""

Well, he didn't say that.

Paco Wové said...

"This is an interesting idea for a screenplay ONLY IF the DIC (hmmm) turns out to really help in the end after everyone assumes she's useless."

Seriously, Althouse? Isn't that just about the most hackneyed movie trope of them all?

I think it would be better if she ended up in a stew pot. Still hackneyed, but not so much.

Scott said...

"Well, he didn't say that."

You mean, he didn't say that. You forgot the italics.

Unknown said...

http://www.shrm.org/publications/hrmagazine/editorialcontent/pages/0604agenda_diversity3.aspx

https://careers.nationwide.com/psc/hcm/N_SELF_SERVICE/HRMS/c/HRS_HRAM.HRS_CE.GBL?Page=HRS_CE_JOB_DTL&Action=A&JobOpeningId=28138&SiteId=310&PostingSeq=1&

https://www.governmentjobs.com/jobs/1023702/diversity-inclusion-consultant-hrc4


$4114-$5395 per month -- Department of Corrections (no jokes, please)

Ann Althouse said...

@Paco Wové

I don't go to the movies much anymore. I think the stories have to follow a certain predictable arc to interest the powers that be. I'm not interested in any stories myself.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

Ann Althouse said...

This is an interesting idea for a screenplay ONLY IF the DIC (hmmm) turns out to really help in the end after everyone assumes she's useless.

As Campy alluded to above, one of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books includes a side-story of a civilization that ships off all of its useless professionals ( including telephone sanitizers ) to another planet. Spoiler Alert: The civilization is then wiped out by a telephone-borne disease.

Scott said...

Naw, you're right, he didn't say that kids should steal from the bookstore. He just said that shoplifters at Walmart and Target who get caught shouldn't be prosecuted. There's a massive ethical difference between the two.

tim maguire said...

Sarcasm can be part of the personality of a good person, but only if it's a small part.

On a side note, how much you want to bet she locked down that doctor hubby before going off to be a diversity consultant?

Chris N said...

Ok, Althouse is a woman, and there are a lot of gay commenters, but I'm not seeing too many black and brown people.

C+

That'll be $350

Bob R said...

UW has a whole office full of DICs.

tim in vermont said...

Seriously, Althouse? Isn't that just about the most hackneyed movie trope of them all?

Name one.

The closest I can come to is Cold Mountain, where a woman, Nicole Kidman, was raised to be the wife of an anti-bellum southern aristocrat and the war came along and she was all but useless. Except for her great beauty, of course, that still had value. So maybe the diversity consultant is stone cold, no allowances needed, beautiful, but otherwise utterly worthless in the new world.

Brando said...

"This is an interesting idea for a screenplay ONLY IF the DIC (hmmm) turns out to really help in the end after everyone assumes she's useless."

In a true Shamylan-type twist, it turns out the DIC was useless all along! Until the marauding gang realizes that they have no way of finding out just how diverse they are, and this keeps them up nights.

Greg Hlatky said...

She had to be a diversity inclusion consultant because she was shut out of a STEM career.

tim in vermont said...

At the end Kidman's character is redeemed by a lesbian lover who has the practical skills required to run her farm, Kidman's character not only could not kill a rooster for dinner, but was cowed by the rooster. To the competent go the spoils is the moral of that story.

hawkeyedjb said...

In municipal government, if you're plugged in they give your worthless cousin a "job" leaning on a shovel or some such. It's the cost of keeping you loyal, and it's coming out of somebody else's pocket anyway. Diversity Inclusion Consultant is the much-higher-paid equivalent. Still, it's a pretense that the person was hired to do any useful work. Everybody knows it but God help you if you work in a university and say it out loud.

And yes, private industry has its own DICs, hired into positions that exist only to keep the SJWs in the human resources department quiet and complacent.

tim in vermont said...

We could call Althouse's movie "Gone with the Wind."

I think that title will be available again now that the original is probably banned.

tim in vermont said...

I wonder what percentage of outstanding student loan debt is due to the cost of these programs?

lgv said...

The only thing worse would be for her to have a full time gig with an organization. You hire the DIC to consult and then they are gone. It's a one and done kind of gig. You shouldn't need one full time. Then she would be a Diversity Inclusion Specialty, rising to Director of Diversity Inclusion, then Diversity Inclusion Department Manager. If you deny her request to add much needed staff, then: 1) you really aren't into diversity and inclusion, 2) you can't have a one person department "manned" by as a single white person, you must have a department that covers all the diversity possible.

This field is so special, it needs its own educational institution. I call it Diversity University.

Fandor said...

Sarcasm has taken the place of sophistication.
It's commonplace and oh so boring.

Laslo Spatula said...

“I did giggle, and I knew he meant well because I trust him."

Thirty-eight-year-old women should NEVER giggle.

Seriously.


I am Laslo.

Laslo Spatula said...

Appropriate times for a female to giggle:

When they are six and the monkey does something funny at the zoo.

When they are eleven and talking with other girls about what they know about sex.

When they are sixteen and about to try their first blow-job and the pants are unzipped.

After that: no giggling.

I am Laslo.

David Begley said...

The UW employee did effectively say it was okay to steal from the bookstore. That's why his supervisor made him walk it back.

Peter said...

Yes, it's a real job. Here's text from a job ad for "Sr Consultant, Diversity/Incls"

"Evaluates diversity and inclusion opportunities. Assists and provides diversity and inclusion consultant on the project....

JOB SUMMARY: Responsible for the incorporation and implementation of the diversity and inclusion strategies with alignment between business drivers and financial implications, value mapping and competitive position, and scenario planning and testing of strategies. Contributes strategic vision and serves as the top-level contributor and lead for the most complex diversity and inclusion business transformation related initiatives.

RELATIONSHIP: Reports to AVP, Diversity and Inclusion; no direct reports but may lead project or virtual teams.



So how is a "diversity consultant" differ from affirmative action compliance officer (or are they the same and this is this just an updated title)?

Perhaps they're just the American version of zampolit, the political officer who's tasked with ensuring political conformity. From the business' viewpoint, their purpose is mitigate the risk of being held up from ransom by a government agency, or by a private grievance shakedown operation.

The growth in such positions is comparable to the growth of well-paid administrators in academe and, just as there is much ruin in a great nation, there is much ruin in a large, prosperous company. Yet even so, a day comes when the burden becomes unsupportable, and the once-great company succumbs to global competition that is not similarly burdened.

Anonymous said...

AA: This is an interesting idea for a screenplay ONLY IF the DIC (hmmm) turns out to really help in the end after everyone assumes she's useless.

Road Warrior, the Afterschool Special.


(I bet everyone here can think of much more interesting ideas for a screenplay involving a diversity inclusion consultant.)

Sebastian said...

"Diversity inclusion consultant."

One more reason why we are screwed. Of course, diversity inclusion consultants are actually orthodoxy enforcement officers.

@AA: "I'm not interested in any stories myself"

Funny. For someone so attuned to the way other people fool themselves, you can be oddly non-introspective at times. (Agree with your aversion to most movies though.)

Anonymous said...

Brando: In a true Shamylan-type twist, it turns out the DIC was useless all along!

There's always the Donner Party scenario. So, not necessarily entirely useless.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

Ann Althouse said...

I don't go to the movies much anymore.

Can't really blame you, after the way that whole Gran Torino thing worked out.

Larry J said...

Brando said...
I'm trying to imagine a situation where society falls, and everyone is running around trying to hoard food and form themselves into impromptu societies, offering their own skills to the group. Doctors, mechanics, farmers--they'd all be fine, but then when they got to this woman and she said she was a "diversity inclusion consultant" someone would strongly suggest she join a different marauding gang.


Actually, in that scenario, I can easily see Diversity Inclusion Consultants being invited to dinner...as the main course. Liberals, they're what's for dinner. They are, after all, white meat also known as long pork.

MayBee said...

Brando- hahaha!

Laslo Spatula said...

"I don't go to the movies much anymore."

Sometimes I will wait by a theatre for a lone teenage girl who needs an Adult Guardian to buy her a ticket for an R-rated movie.

Then, yeah, I'll see that movie.

I am Laslo.

Roughcoat said...

This is an interesting idea for a screenplay ONLY IF the DIC (hmmm) turns out to really help in the end after everyone assumes she's useless.

In a real-world scenario the DIC would adapt by becoming a political commissar, like Strelnikov in Doctor Zhivago. Formerly known as Sasha Antipov, Strelnikov in pre-revolution days was a university student with a passion for social justice. As a political commissar the DIC like Strelnikov would become the most ruthless, doctrinaire, murderous, and humorless of tyrants, smashing hither and yon across the vast landscape in her Red Train, executing counter-revolutionaries and kulaks, razing recalcitrant villages, spreading "revolutionary terror," meting out revolutionary "justice." This is the ideal career path of DICs and their ilk. Given the opportunity the DICs and the progressives who presently run academia can be counted on to release their inner Strelnikovs.

Significantly, "Strelnikov," Sasha Antipov's revolutionary nom-de-guerre, roughly translates from Russian as "Shooter."

Laslo Spatula said...

Diversity Inclusion Consultant On The Planet Of The Apes.

"Get your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty consultant!"

Writes itself, pretty much.

I am Laslo.

bbkingfish said...

This is yet another example in action of the wondrous simplicity of the markets' "Invisible Hand."

"Analysts of employment trends explain that the recent, unprecedented, growth in the field of diversity inclusion consultancy mainly is an organic, market-driven reaction to the explosion of diversity exclusion consultants which originated as a feature of white, corporate backlash to the success of the civil rights movement in the '60s."

rhhardin said...

Teens do sarcasm because it's easy.

It's at best lazy. It says, "Something is wrong and you have to figure out what it is because I'm not capable of figuring it out myself."

The sarcastic mode can last a lifetime.

Jim in St Louis said...

I work at a very diverse company….da longer ya work here, da worse it gets!


ba-dum-chink!

Matt said...

Is diversity inclusion consultant a job where it's ok to have binders full of women?

rhhardin said...

Sarcasm cartoon, an old BC one.

X: Meet Smiley, master of sarcastic wit.

Y: Say something sarcastic.

Smiley: Pleased to meet you.

Alas, that isn't sarcasm. It's irony. Sarcasm is never funny.

Laslo Spatula said...

I wonder if the Ashley Madison company had Diversity Inclusion Consultants.

Sir, maybe it is time you try something different than a blonde with big breasts?

I am Laslo.

Captain Curt said...

Scott: You said, "He just said that shoplifters at Walmart and Target who get caught shouldn't be prosecuted."

They're not "shoplifters", they're "undocumented customers" (no receipt). You obviously need sensitivity training. Maybe a diversity inclusion consultant could help you!

Laslo Spatula said...

"“I used sarcasm to make her see the practicality and to express it with humor..."

I.e., I was a dick and she let me get away with it. It is my way of keeping the power balance in my favor.

If she were to attempt sarcasm I would tell her that she was out of line. I would do that by employing scorn disguised as sarcasm.


At least that's how I read it.


I am Laslo.

KLDAVIS said...

This guy is described as having a fiancée and a girlfriend in the span of a few sentences in a widely read publication. Maybe we could learn a thing or two from him about the power of sarcasm.

Scott M said...

Yeah, I admit it. I threw up a little in my head when I got to diversity inclusion consultant who apparently makes enough bank to live on the island.

Jupiter said...

He's going to be sorry he married that.

Original Mike said...

"I wonder what percentage of outstanding student loan debt is due to the cost of these programs?"

Excellent question.

Rick said...

There's a journalism axiom that any example supporting the statement someone is witty or funny will not seem witty or funny and ruin the piece. Apparently it holds for sarcasm also.

William said...

I'm into tragic irony, but the dumb fucks always mistake it for sarcasm. Oedipus didn't blind himself to facilitate copping cheap feels off the women he encountered...........A shrewd diversity consultant would tell the reporter that she works in Human Resources. This woman is a sarcasm magnet.

David said...

"A shrewd diversity consultant would tell the reporter that she works in Human Resources."

How many shrewd diversity inclusion consultants do you suppose there are?

Lewis Wetzel said...

Do you need a college degree to be a "diversity inclusion consultant"? I wonder if the job is hourly or exempt?

wildswan said...

"Seriously, Althouse? Isn't that just about the most hackneyed movie trope of them all?"

It could still be a good movie or song - say there was reindeer with a very shiny nose and all the other reindeer used to laugh and call him names and never let him join in reindeer games but then one foggy Christmas eve he guided Santa's sleigh?

Or what if there was a politician with a very funny hairdo ...?

What if there was a country whose motto was E pluribus unum? and everybody came?

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Ann Althouse said...This is an interesting idea for a screenplay ONLY IF the DIC (hmmm) turns out to really help in the end after everyone assumes she's useless.

Too easy. Better would be for her to encourage incorporation of some seeming outcast from another tribe, to triumph over members of her own tribe who object, to have that "diverse" member seem to fit in and help, but then ultimately betray the tribe and deliver them to their enemies. "But, but, diversity is our strength, we're all one big family!" she cries, as the men in her tribe are slaughtered before her eyes.
Bleak, but bleak can sell, too (The Road).

Charlie said...

Maybe she's in the CIA and DIC schtick is just a cover?

Michael K said...

"A shrewd diversity consultant would tell the reporter that she works in Human Resources. This woman is a sarcasm magnet."

Sadly true.

Also a reliable Democrat vote.

Fred Drinkwater said...

All these comments, and not one mention of Mrs. Obamas former job?

Known Unknown said...

I'm not interested in any stories myself.

That's a pity.

wildswan said...

As for that Wisconsin community relations officer - wasn't his meaning that he didn't think that Walmart shoplifting should lead to the Walmart area being designated a "hot spot" requiring more police. Designating an area a "hot spot" leads to a greater police presence and more police stops. This guy wants to say that lots of crime against property owned by corporations should not lead to a "hot spot" designation. Maybe he meant that hot spot should be violent crime?

But if Walmart and big stores move out of poor areas because there is no police protection, then prices go up for everything in that area - including for groceries which are about 20% cheaper at Walmart than at regular grocery stores and 40% or more cheaper than at a gas station market. So how does having Walmart leave help the poor? So this guy isn't much of a community guy, he's just an empty-shelves-socialist like Hugo Chavez.

Anonymous said...

That guy's future marriage will be a minefield- I give it one year max. Seriously, the both of them make things more complicated than they really are.

Lewis Wetzel said...

Blogger Fred Drinkwater said...
All these comments, and not one mention of Mrs. Obamas former job?

It would be nice if some liberal could describe Mrs. Obama's former job, the industry she worked for, and how it gave her expertise in managing local schools' lunch menus.

JoyD said...

Enjoyed the thread immensely, Althouse, and I needed the humor particularly today. Better than a glass of wine...but I'm having one anyway.

Anonymous said...

Blogger Anglelyne said...
AA: This is an interesting idea for a screenplay ONLY IF the DIC (hmmm) turns out to really help in the end after everyone assumes she's useless.

Road Warrior, the Afterschool Special.


(I bet everyone here can think of much more interesting ideas for a screenplay involving a diversity inclusion consultant.)


In the newest version of the Road Warrior, she becomes a breeder, used for her womb and her milk.

campy said...

"It would be nice if some liberal could describe Mrs. Obama's former job, the industry she worked for, and how it gave her expertise in managing local schools' lunch menus."

Not a liberal, but I can answer two parts of this: She worked for a hospital, and her job was to be a Woman of Color.

As for part 3, no clue.

Propccrack.net said...

I'm really impressed with your writing skills, as smart as the structure of your weblog.

This is a very informative post. I will use the suggestions discussed here for optimizing my new blog site. This post will be very helpful for beginner SEO worker who is new in this field.

magnet-axiom Crack