If LW is in the US academia-adjacent (and some of the language here makes me think they might be) they have slightly more options than if this is private industry or government. Academia is chock full of this BS, but there's also often a department that's obsessively concerned with not letting this sort of bad press leak to, say, The Chronicle of Higher Ed.
If they are not in higher ed but the proposals have to have non-CisHet-White-Ablebodied-Male-Etc. members to hit some required target for government or academic RFPs, then the LW should consider whistleblowing if the manager responds poorly to Alison's (excellent) initial script. Putting fake membership on an RFP to be eligible to meet certain targets is fraud, and if it's for grants or government contracts, that is the kind of behavior that gets companies in big trouble.
And LW should polish up their resume and work on building enough of a portfolio at this company that they can move on to a better employer, because their manager is making it pretty clear that they're a token so the manager would meet some target or get out of trouble.
no subject
If LW is in the US academia-adjacent (and some of the language here makes me think they might be) they have slightly more options than if this is private industry or government. Academia is chock full of this BS, but there's also often a department that's obsessively concerned with not letting this sort of bad press leak to, say, The Chronicle of Higher Ed.
If they are not in higher ed but the proposals have to have non-CisHet-White-Ablebodied-Male-Etc. members to hit some required target for government or academic RFPs, then the LW should consider whistleblowing if the manager responds poorly to Alison's (excellent) initial script. Putting fake membership on an RFP to be eligible to meet certain targets is fraud, and if it's for grants or government contracts, that is the kind of behavior that gets companies in big trouble.
And LW should polish up their resume and work on building enough of a portfolio at this company that they can move on to a better employer, because their manager is making it pretty clear that they're a token so the manager would meet some target or get out of trouble.