Businesses encouraging a work hard play hard attitude guilty of unconscious discrimination

Organisations in the UK are unwittingly discriminating against, and subsequently alienating, a large proportion of the workforce by encouraging a work hard play hard culture, according to a leading diversity consultancy.

The Clear Company has called on senior executives to review the impact such a culture is having on both their brand’s reputation and company diversity levels. The firm made the point that this type of culture is already seen as outmoded by many employers that recognise the link between work and play being heavily reliant on ‘out of hours’ social interaction.

Kate Headley, Development Director at The Clear Company comments: “We work with many leading UK employers who are all competing to hire the best talent, but it’s very common to see many of them doing so by promoting the work hard play hard culture that isn’t appealing to a large portion of the population and is, more importantly, a biased approach. Not only does this limit the pool of talent available, but it also has the potential to damage an employer’s reputation as a great place to work. However, in most cases employers simply don’t know they’re not being inclusive.

“Unfortunately, I don’t think that people complaining individually will do much to change cultures like this. The approach has to be much more strategic and come from the senior executive level where the business case for change can be fully explained so that a plan for implementing this can be adopted by the whole organisation. That said, I do think that individuals within an environment with such a culture should voice their want for alternative ways to build team spirit and should proactively introduce positive alternatives.”