Hey folks, I’m a freelance voice-over artist and QA reviewer working on training content, usually things like workplace harassment and diversity courses. Recently, I was asked to QA a course on workplace harassment—and noticed the client had removed all references to gender, replacing it with sex. Anywhere the word “gender” appeared, it was just… gone or replaced.
It seems like a subtle thing on the surface, but it’s not. It completely shifts the tone and scope of the training. It feels like a quiet rollback of DEI principles, and honestly, it made my stomach turn. The kicker? I need this job. Turning this down could burn a bridge I can’t afford to lose.
I have a good relationship with the lead on the project (who’s just relaying instructions—they don’t have control over the content decisions), and I want to say something. At the same time, I’m scared that even a polite pushback could cost me.
Has anyone else been in this kind of situation? How do you draw the line when your ethics and survival are at odds? Would really appreciate your thoughts.
I encourage you to read on the history and structure of resistance movements: what succeeded, what happened to make them eventually dissolve or fall apart. Requiring everyone to be max extreme, to give up their jobs and put their families at risk is not going to build a movement. Plenty out there, here are easy-to-find starters:
Black against Empire: The History and Politics of the Black Panther Party by Joshua Bloom
Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict Columbia Studies in Terrorism and Irregular Warfare by Erica Chenoworth and Maria Stephen
Activism, Inc. : How the Outsourcing of Grassroots Campaigns Is Strangling Progressive Politics in America by Dana R. Fisher
Beautiful Trouble: A Toolbox for Revolution by Andrew Boyd
The Lady and the Peacock: The Life of Aung San Suu Kyi by Peter Popham