White Men Learn the Hidden Cost of Suing for Discrimination

0:00Jeff Vaughn:They told us to expect change. They warned us about the transition. But honestly, they forgot the best part. This is the chapter where we finally focus on us. LifeMD delivers expert menopause and midlife care right from your home. From hormone health to holistic wellness, LifeMD helps you feel your best for the best years of your life. LifeMD, it's just getting good. Visit LifeMD.com slash goodlife.

0:30Andrea Lucas:So there's a lot of noise about AI, but time's too tight for more promises. So let's talk about results. At IBM, we work with our employees to integrate technology right into the systems they need. Now, a global workforce of 300 ,000 can use AI to fill their HR questions, resolving 94 % of common questions. Not noise. Proof of how we can help companies get smarter by putting AI where it actually pays off, deep in the work that moves the business. Let's create smarter business.

1:27Jeff Vaughn:IBM. JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A. Member FDIC. Copyright 2026. JPMorgan Chase and Company. Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts. Radio. News.

1:43Andrea Lucas:You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Tim Stenevek on Bloomberg Radio. Well, let's bring in Jeff Green. He's Bloomberg News Management and Diversity Reporter. He joins us from Detroit. Right. Hey, Jeff, good to have you on. It's always good to talk to you. You know, Carol and I have been doing this together for over five years. When we used to have you on the program, the conversations were a lot different. It was about, OK, these are the companies. These are these are the this is the makeup of the of of the workforce of a certain company. These are the goals that a company has put out there.

2:18Andrea Lucas:You guys were the ones that were crunching the numbers and seeing if the companies were actually meeting those standards. Your beat in recent years has really shifted with the way that I think a lot of corporate America and politics have shifted. Before we get to the individual stories that we want to talk to you about, can you just talk a little bit about, even though your title is the same, the way that you cover management and diversity in this environment has changed completely?

2:45Jeff Green:Yeah, I mean, it's kind of interesting. each of these situations you're kind of watching companies be pushed and pulled into directions they're not necessarily comfortable with it's kind of like this process where they start out you know resisting talking about the diversity of their workforces and not wanting to share and then they're sharing it all in their headlong in one direction and then now where we are now they're sort of trying to find their way back toward something, you know, undo some of what they've done. So they're in this weird position that it's really hard as a corporate CEO to figure out where you settle in, where you stay out of trouble.

3:25Jeff Green:Like what's the least risk position to take? And clearly they've been wrong repeatedly.

3:30Jeff Vaughn:Yeah, it's really tricky. And I know that we've talked to various leaders, Jeff, and they're saying, you know, we got to think about our employee base and the culture of our company and what employees expect, especially a younger employee. Having said that, let's get into this story that you put out. We've been talking about it in the newsroom. It involves Jeff Vaughn and what happened to him and what he learned. Tell us a little bit about his story.

3:56Jeff Green:I mean, initially, we thought we should just write a story about are more white men suing and what does that mean? And part of the problem is it's really difficult to determine that. We don't really have a good sense of what kind of court cases are happening and who's making them. Grace is not something automatically gathered. So as we were kind of talking to these guys and looking at it, though, and even looking at the cases, it became clear. It's interesting. They're really no different than anyone who takes on corporate HR. You stand up and you say you think something is wrong and then you cease to have work.

4:32Jeff Green:And and that, you know, so at the same time, we're talking about how there's this push for more white guys to show up. There's also the same reality that the system is maybe broken by which we hold corporate HR accountable for how they are treating their employees.

4:47Andrea Lucas:So what did you find when you initially wanted to go out and write this story about this demographic that is suing? What did you find?

4:56Jeff Green:well i mean clearly there's more permission as a white male to say i feel like i was discriminated against than there was you know in 2020 um and for a large segment or you know significant segment of the population it's still kind of an insulting proposition um but there's also been a lot of sort of i don't know soul searching on this topic the supreme court ruled unanimously basically there's no such thing as reverse discrimination and people need stop thinking that way and I mean not just a unanimous decision but written by the minority of the of the court so it's like been the shift toward trying to think about these in a different way we're talking about belonging instead of diversity we're doing all these sort of shifts in an approach to try to get to something that is somehow less controversial and moves us forward and And I don't think we've come even close to figuring out what that looks like yet.

5:55Jeff Green:But clearly there's chaos and struggle as we try to do that.

5:58Jeff Vaughn:I love, though, this stat, you know, this is a great story for like debate and just conversation. You say, so here's a white man who sued for discrimination. But as you remind us in the story, men still, white men are discriminated against, or I guess some of the claims of that white men are discriminated against are confounding. Men still make up 90 % of chief executive officers of S &P 500 companies, largely white, I would kind of add, I think, based on research, as well as about three quarters of all C-suite employees. And the proportion of black men or women who have held the top job is extremely small, currently hovering at about 1%.

6:41Jeff Vaughn:But to be fair, and I think we try to figure out what's going on in society, Jeff, that there is a younger or white male population that feels like they have been left behind. I know people who feel that way, who had opportunities and so on and so forth, but things just didn't work out. And they feel like, wait a minute, you know, society was supposed to promise me certain things if I did this and it didn't happen. So is there something to this that there are some white men with a rise of diversity issues that maybe were left out? I'm not quite sure how to deal with this.

7:17Jeff Green:well the challenge is that what we see when we look at the smp 500 ceos and we look at the c-suite we're seeing the past those are the men who got ahead when things were different yeah where people like jeff vaughn come from is in the messier spot where things are actually changing and shifting more than you can see the demographic of the whole country is changing where you can't really see it because you see those powerful white faces and and so it's hard when you see those powerful white faces to really recognize that there's something else happening at people who are closer to where the churn is it still doesn't say that like if you're a black woman um you know you're not in a worse situation there's no no no i'm not trying to say that i'm just saying there is something happening as you said you know the stay-at-home sons the not the needs the not employed educated or in training young men who are having a different lived experience, but you can't see them.

8:16Jeff Green:What you see is, what, 10, 15, 20 years of power for white men allowed to happen. And so that's what makes it hard for people.

8:26Jeff Vaughn:It's fascinating. You do also say that President Trump's deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, co-founder of America First Legal, it's a conservative not-for-profit, is representing Vaughn and other white men in cases against companies, including Meta, IBM, and Shell. So a lot more on this story. Head to the Bloomberg or Bloomberg.com. Jeff Green, thank you so much. A Bloomberg News management and diversity reporter. Glad we could get to this story.

8:54Jeff Vaughn:If you follow markets, you know the value of long-term thinking. You plan, you diversify, you prepare for volatility. But in life, even the best strategies can't prevent every bad day. A fire, a loss, a disruption that demands immediate attention. When that happens, what matters isn't just what you planned, it's who shows up. That's where Cincinnati Insurance comes in. For more than 75 years, they've helped individuals and businesses navigate life's toughest moments with care, expertise, and personal attention. Together with independent agents, Cincinnati Insurance focuses on relationships, not transactions.

9:31Jeff Vaughn:Their approach is grounded in experience, follow-through, and trust built over time. Bad days happen, and when they do, you deserve an insurance partner who understands risk, respects what you've built, and is ready to help you move forward. The Cincinnati Insurance Companies. Let them make your bad day better. Find an independent agent at cinfin.com.

10:24Andrea Lucas:We'll see you next time. Deadlines shift, plans change, and sometimes you just need promo products fast. Turn to 4imprint. 4imprint has hundreds of promotional items available with 24-hour turnaround. From custom apparel and drinkware to trade show gear, writing tools, and more. And their 360-degree guarantee promises your logo will be printed with care. Your order ships fast, and it'll show up right and on time. That's the certainty of 4imprint. Check out the full 24-hour selection at 4imprint.com. For imprint. For certain.