Pod cast

Tyler Hunt hosts a podcast called Three Poodles and a Dude, where he discusses various topics with three poodles. In this episode, they talk about managing a diverse workforce and address questions about diversity in the workplace and stereotypes. Tyler mentions that his government agency has implemented initiatives such as reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities, whistleblower protection, union representation, minority scholarships, and a minority path to leadership. He also shares a personal experience of having negative assumptions about big, intimidating-looking guys but realizing they were actually friendly. Tyler concludes the episode by thanking listeners and signing off. Hello, my name is Tyler Hunt, and this is Three Poodles and a Dude Podcast, where I'm the dude and I sit around with three poodles and we talk about stuff. Today we're talking about managing a diverse workforce, and we'll be answering a couple of questions about diversity in the workplace and stereotypes at work or at school. The first question, considering significant trends related to diversity that have affected my agency, what strategic human resources management initiatives have been established in your agencies to meet these challenges? It's a government agency, so we have the plethora of reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities, whistleblower protection, union representation without even paying dues, they'll advise you either way. We did the minority scholarships to help people that maybe grew up in poorer neighborhoods and couldn't go to extended schools, they can now get a degree in something and move out of the warehouse that they work in or whatever low-paying department they're in. And they also offer a minority path to leadership, kind of along the same lines as the scholarships, only this way, in this avenue, it's teaching them the ins and outs of leadership throughout the agencies and how to promote themselves to leadership roles. And then question two, can I think of an example when I might have had a negative assumption, attitude, or stereotype from a co-worker or fellow student because they appeared different from myself? Yeah, for years I did not like big mean guys that just looked like big mean guys. I felt unsafe around them, like, hey, we got to watch this guy, I don't know what it was about him, you know, and it didn't matter what race, ethnicity, tattoos, no tattoos, you know, just that they were kind of a big scary looking dude in my eyes, then I didn't really like them and tried to distance myself from them. But I always, they were always teddy bears, every single one of them were just nice guys and ended up being great friends. And so, do I still feel that way today? No, I immediately warm up to the big burly dude that seems scary and again, he'll end up being a teddy bear and that's because I was wrong every time, so now I don't make that assumption. And that's all we have time for today. Thank you for tuning in to Three Poodles and a Dude, we'll see you next time.