Why Minority Employees Really Leave

Tiffany Warren has written a piece for AdAge about why minorities leave the industry. In bullet points:

- “In order to be successful, they’ve had to not only be culturally flexible but twice as good as their white counterparts. They leave because this daily burden becomes too much to bear and often overshadows their work and lowers their morale.”

- “One side is that professionals of color who began their careers in multicultural marketing agencies have often felt “blacklisted” because they have no general-market agency experience and have found it difficult to transition from Multicultural Marketing Agency A to General Market Agency B. The flip side of the myth involves those individuals who began their careers at general market agencies but are terrified to accept a senior position at a multicultural marketing agency for fear they may never be able to work in a general-market agency again.”

- “Diversity training often focuses on the “Can’t we all just get along?” approach, which may help a company in the short term but does not improve the management skills of its leaders.”

Read the entire article here.

We think that a lot of these issues would span across any industry, not just advertising. The Civil Rights Act was signed in 1964 just 43 years ago. While we all deserve full equality, such a thing is going to take time as generations with bigoted views phase out and new perspectives, realities phase in. Minorities are going to be involved in some sort of struggle for a long time. Thankfully, times change and articles like this one help keep the issue on the front burner where it belongs.