Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) has been pivotal to organizational strategies over the past decade, striving to counteract historical exclusion and systemic biases. It set out to ensure equal opportunities for all, regardless of gender, race, identity, or ability.

However, within corporate settings today, there’s a growing sense of “DE&I fatigue.”

Alarmingly, even men who have supported inclusivity are now expressing concerns that DE&I undermines merit. This reflects complex issues organizations face: has DE&I shifted to being a checkbox, rather than a living, breathing value?

Who Did We Champion Under DE&I?

DE&I aimed to address and close deep systemic gaps, making workplaces inclusive for all. Traditionally, companies have thrived on homogeneity.

With DE&I formalization, the focus expanded to include:

• Women facing gender bias in the workplace
• Diverse gender identities fighting discrimination
• Various racial and marginalized communities lacking equal opportunities
• Individuals with physical and mental disabilities often underestimated
• Neurodivergent people needing understanding and accommodation

Then Why is Fatigue Setting In?

DE&I fostered inclusion and rebalanced opportunity access, yet in striving to meet quotas, priorities got skewed.

1. The Unseen Casualties —  The Forgotten Loyalists

Millennial CIS men, who had previously championed diversity, started to feel overlooked. They faced uncertainty in the “new order,” where their well-intended support made them feel taken for granted. Their loyalty seemed undervalued when because of forced diversity hiring, their bosses bore down on their growth paths. When loyalty is ignored and merit is dismissed for box-checking, organizations risk losing not just people, but commitment and morale.

2. Forced DE&I Hiring and promotion decisions

Adding DE&I hiring mandates complicated hiring by design. Problems arose as companies struggled to find candidates meeting all criteria – while regular candidates applied for a certain job, the HR reached out to specific women candidates to fill the position and many times made compromises on certain qualifiers to ensure that they filled the seat. This lowered quality in hiring led to leaders seeing DE&I as an undue burden on operational efficiency and performance.

3. Reassigning Roles Without Appropriate Context

Instead of creating more opportunities, some organizations simply reshuffled existing roles, leading to reduced opportunities for their otherwise well-performing employees. For example, a senior CIS male leader saw his role diminished to nearly one-tenth to improve DE&I portfolio, thereby stirring resentment instead of fostering true inclusion.

Overall, leaders have felt forced to meet quotas in hiring, training, and appraising DE&I candidates over traditional hiring, apart from the fact that it has caused a disruption to a world obsessed with linear, bottom-line growth! Therefore, when someone important directs to cancel DE&I altogether, leaders easily follow suit.

Should We Let Sleeping Dogs Lie?

Let’s admit that cutting DE&I is the easiest way to maximize short-term profits. Inclusion, by definition, takes effort, time, and sometimes, a little bit of mess before clarity emerges.

Anything that requires deep reflection or slows down capital progress, becomes questionable and easy to discard.

The truth is, that our system was designed to exclude —  this started with the education system. So even before, solving for the inclusion challenge in labour force, a bigger issue is creating an inclusive education system.

Unless DE&I remains intentional, exclusion will always be the default mode.

Axe inclusion and boardrooms will be filled with men in grey suits; culture fit would mean “someone like us” always and forever; racial minorities will be tokenised or excluded; women will go back to sacrificing careers for homecare – unseen and unheard – because possibly they didn’t “lean in enough”; Transgender individuals will be pushed back to begging for identity and dignity. In short, many people will be considered “too complicated to hire.”

The Indian Context

India, culturally inclusive yet needing reminders from structured Western systems, must refine DE&I strategies. Despite some Western countries retreating from DE&I, India can continue to leverage its diverse talent and social inclusion values for economic growth.

Successful cases, though fewer, demonstrate inclusion’s role in socio-economic progress. The TATA Harrier manufacturing unit is an all-women shop. The TATAs are one of the largest industrial houses in India, who have also exhibited a strong value of social responsibility. Their message was to invest in a successful inclusion case.

Charting a Path Forward: Beyond Fatigue

Remember that implementing inclusion needs investment, intention and sustained leadership values. To truly embody inclusion, organizations must move past mere checkbox strategies. Leadership development programs are of help here.

1. Focus on structural change, not just numbers —  If your leadership team doesn’t reflect diversity, ask why —  and then build pipelines and mentorship, not just lateral hires.
2. Educate, engage & repeat —  Bring everyone into the conversation. Don’t make the mistake of excluding one group to include the other. Help CIS men, senior leaders, and existing employees set and achieve their goals through continued mentoring and positive engagement. Create programs that help to remove systemic biases
3. Foster psychological safety — Hiring a diverse team is one thing. Making sure they feel safe, valued, and heard is another – and these are the real game-changers that will encourage a culture of true inclusion.
4. Reward merit, allyship, and loyalty alike —  This is the most important. Don’t ignore those who have stood up for inclusion all along. They are your best partners to make real change. Help them to grow
5. Define new and customized developmental plans – Measure & recognize the value that individuals bring to the system. Regroup
6. Remove Optical Disparity About DE&I

Often, DE&I was wrongly equated with increasing female hires, ignoring other crucial aspects like race and disability. This narrow perspective weakens DE&I’s effectiveness, turning efforts into a numbers game.

Yes, DE&I fatigue is real. But it’s not a sign to stop —  it’s a sign to evolve. To move from compliance to compassion, from numbers to narratives, from fatigue to fulfillment.

Because when everyone has a seat at the table, we all eat better.             

This article has been written by Sukanya Bhadra, an Associate Partner with GrowthSqapes.