Diversity

Have you encountered excluders?

What to do about excluders who, despite corporate interventions, continue to treat people differently based on their perceived visible or invisible trait(s) or social grouping, in particular women? 

Being a woman at CERN back in 1990

On Tuesday, March 8, we celebrated International Women's Day. It is my pleasure to write an article from the Ombud's corner on this occasion.

Three powerful tools to meet the challenges of 2022!

As this brand new year starts, I would like to offer my best wishes, from the Ombud’s Office, for a healthy, happy and successful 2022! 

Each and every one of us matters

Some visitors to the Ombud’s office tell me that they are “too insignificant” or “too low” in the chain of command for their opinion to really matter.  We would all like to believe that they are isolated cases, because it’s painful to hear. No one is insignificant – everyone matters! 

Gender at CERN

CERN has a demographic imbalance in gender, only about 20% of employees are female. The Organization has always been aware of this situation and aims to create a welcoming and safe environment for all employees, regardless of gender.

“Women negotiate poorly, lack self-confidence and are risk-averse.” Really?

This stereotype is often trotted out to explain the lack of equality between men and women in the world of business, but recent research completely disproves it.

Don’t forget experience!

Frans started his career at CERN as an engineer in 1992, after having worked for about 10 years in industry in his home country. He’s an ordinary chap who has progressed regularly in his career and has survived several reorganisations.

Highly sensitive people: an asset to your team

We’re working to increasingly busy schedules, under escalating pressure and with almost constant connectivity due to the increasing number of communication tools and applications available to us. 

Unearned Advantage

One of the topics that never failed to arouse interest during the recent Diversity workshops organised at CERN was that of “unearned advantage”, or the relative ease with which doors open for certain people, simply because they belong to dominant (often majority) groups, as compared to others.