I work in an office that is pretty much like any other up and down the country. We’re a pretty mixed bunch of people, from various different backgrounds, all trying to make hay while the sun shines or just trying to get from one payday to the next without too many things going wrong. Some of us are career hungry, greasy pole climbers, while others are just wage-slaves with one eye permanently on the clock, willing it to reach 5pm just that little bit faster.

We live for time off, bonus month, doughnuts on Fridays, the hope that one day the coffee out of the machine might actually resemble coffee and generally try and keep ourselves busy and out of the firing line. Pretty unremarkable really.

The social make-up of the people there is hardly a statistician’s dream, although God knows what that would actually resemble! It was therefore a collective draw dropping moment when we were all handed a “Diversity Monitoring Form” for completion.

Normally, any Human Resources/Personnel Department just need to know where you live, which bank to pay your salary into and who to call if you keel over at your desk. Although I’ve long since gotten used to filling in job application forms and ticking a couple of boxes at the end to state gender and ethnicity, I was rather unprepared for a liberal dose of diversity monitoring.

“What is your religion?” was one of the questions, with all options listed in alphabetical order, so as not to give any kind of emphasis to one or the other. While there was a box for “Zoroastrianism”, the “Catholic” box seems to have been missed off. They were lumped in with the Christians in the end it seemed.

The feeling that somebody somewhere either had a wicked sense of humour or had just run hell for leather across the line between reasonable questions and downright nosiness, was hanging in the air as everyone read their form.

Another question was: “Are you bisexual, gay/lesbian or heterosexual?” The line was now well and truly crossed and this was going too far.

How many would be honest to such really private questions anyway? Religion is something that some like to shout about and others prefer not too. That’s their right and they shouldn’t have to declare their beliefs just so that some number-cruncher can make the statistics say whatever it is they want them to say. Similarly, there are plenty of people, even in today’s enlightened times, that would tick the heterosexual box, even if they had to keep their fingers crossed at the same time.

When it comes to race, of course it shouldn’t matter whether or not a person has white, black, brown or even green skin. The ability to do the job is what counts. Similarly I don’t see it as an issue if someone asks for a bit of flexibility around time off, if their religious festivals are not easily accommodated by the standard Bank Holidays. In a large company employing hundreds of people, there will always been different cultures and walks of life. That’s what makes life interesting. What do we gain by learning that a certain percentage of a workforce is made up of single, black women that swing both ways ?

I my opinion, not much and my main concern about such forms is that they are making an issue out of everything they say isn’t an issue.

I see that as something that can only lead to more problems.