Written by Tyler King, CEO of Less Annoying CRM

Many companies talk about valuing DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion). Unfortunately, it’s not as common to define what that actually means, and so these concepts are often muddied and even co-opted by people acting in bad faith. I want to clearly define what we mean when we say that DEI is important to us.

A common misconception is that DEI means welcoming all people into the company. While that sounds nice on the surface, it’s not actually good, or even possible. If you have a person who is Black, and another person who is racist against Black people, those two people cannot both feel included at the same time. As a company, we have to be willing to take a stand and say that some opinions are wrong, and we don’t welcome those opinions. We don’t tolerate intolerance.

Our DEI efforts are specifically focused on supporting and welcoming people from groups that are traditionally disenfranchised. We expect all employees to be committed to this work, and it touches all areas of the business, from regularly reviewing our interview processes, to constantly working to make our culture more inclusive, to making our software more accessible to people with disabilities.

It is not necessarily the case that every type of person would be a good fit as an LACRM employee. For example, if you love hustle culture, aren’t willing to talk with customers, think technology is more important than people, etc. that doesn’t make you a bad person, but it does mean that this company probably isn’t right for you.

Most importantly, I want to be clear that this company is not welcoming towards people who oppose our DEI values. If you think that companies shouldn’t care about diversity, or you hold bigoted views, this company isn’t for you. People who oppose DEI often use the phrase “diversity of thought” to suggest that companies shouldn’t discriminate against them for having different ideas. Sorry, but that’s bullshit. If “ideas” support the inequity that many groups currently face, then they’re bad ideas, and they shouldn’t be welcome at a company like this.

We’re a very small company, and we stand behind our values and culture. Our DEI work isn’t about watering down who we are, it’s about actively working against systemic disenfranchisement that traditionally excludes groups of people from working at companies like this for reasons that have nothing to do with their fitness for the job.