Diversity training - who needs it?

I've got diversity on my mind this week. I know, I know - "political correctness, bah humbug". I hear you. But you see, I write training materials for a living and I'm currently being paid to write a workbook on diversity. Believe me, I'm no expert on the subject. I've never had any equality and diversity training myself, I can't be bothered with political over-correctness and I've even been known to laugh at the odd non-PC joke.

But I did my research, read a load of stuff other people have written (some of it good, some of it complete "right-on" garbage) and thought about what "diversity" actually means. In case you're interested, it's not about treating everyone the same; it's about treating everyone as an individual. It's not about stamping out witty banter in the workplace; it's about considering how others feel.

In other words, it's all common sense and good manners. So why, in this enlightened day and age, in this culturally diverse society of ours, do we need to explain this to people? Why do companies still need people like me to explain it to their employees? After all, we've had legislation relating to equality for 30 years and more. Surely this kind of thing is taught in schools?

Then, this weekend, I met a woman called Pauline. We were at my future sister-in-law's birthday party and Pauline is her best friend. It was a great party and, as often happens, a load of us finished up putting the world to rights into the wee small hours. We were talking about the different jobs we have done over the years and Pauline told us about an interview she attended when she wanted to return to work after bringing up her family. The interviewer noted that she had not been in full-time employment for some time and asked her why she didn't just "go back where she came from". Pauline comes from Oxford. But that's not what he meant.

This wasn't 50 years ago, it was very recently. The interviewer was not a stupid or uneducated man. Just ignorant. And bloody rude.