Grant Thornton Demonstrates Its Instinct for Diversity in Its Paid Time-Off Video

Grant Thornton’s video announcing their unlimited paid time off policy was exceptional cinema. For starters, everyone in the video looks very uncomfortable — like they weren’t sure if they were giving feedback on company policy or making a sex tape with a tax manager.

It’s also clear that the people who were ambushed in the video clearly didn’t have time to think through what was being offered: that GT giving them unlimited paid time-off without any change to their utilization goals is bullshit. It’s like a broccoli farmer telling his children, “You don’t have to eat broccoli unless you really feel like eating broccoli; however, you are still required to eat three pounds of broccoli per week, and if you ever choose to go a day without eating broccoli, you’ll bring shame on yourself and on our family because we’re broccoli farmers, Goddammit!”

But above and beyond all that, the video is also a showcase of the amazing level of diversity at Grant Thornton. If we’re to assume the video is a representative sample of the GT workforce, then Grant Thornton’s demographics look like this:

However, according to the AICPA’s 2015 Trends Report, the demographics of the accounting profession as a whole look like this:

Not only were there just two (!) white males in the video, but the one Muslim woman in the video seems just as surprised as you are that there was one Muslim woman in the video.

So either Grant Thornton is incredibly diverse, or they don’t know how to do random sampling.

I understand that an organization can demonstrate its commitment to diversity by highlighting its diversity in the media it creates. But if you work at GT and you’re not a white male, you’ll be at a disadvantage regarding your utilization goals because you can’t¹ bill a client for the time you spent doing a diversity cameo in an HR video.

¹ Shouldn’t.