Top Tip for ERGs: Maintain an active institutional memory for your network, documenting ongoing workplace challenges and policy progress so that incoming members do not have to fight the same historical battles from scratch.
A 5-part spooky series by Tim Macavoy, Head of Product at Radius Networks.
Since workplace diversity initiatives seem to spook certain audiences, we’re leaning into the fear with a seasonal guide on monsters, myths, and workplace culture—delivering practical tips, tricks, and treats for ERGs and DEI Leads to help you build genuine inclusion without losing your head.
Part 5 – Ghosts & Institutional Memory
While physical monsters terrify through brute force, spectres operate on an entirely different emotional frequency. Across global folklore and literature, ghosts rarely appear without cause. In Japanese folklore, the Onryō is a vengeful spirit bound to the physical realm specifically by an act of injustice that demands resolution. In Western literature, Shakespeare’s King Hamlet returns to reveal hidden institutional corruption, while Toni Morrison’s landmark novel Beloved renders the ultimate ghost narrative: a visceral manifestation of collective, unaddressed historical trauma. As sociologist Avery Gordon notes in her influential work Ghostly Matters, haunting is a distinct social phenomenon where lingering past violence or silence forces itself into the present, demanding to be reckoned with before anyone can move forward.
In modern organisations, ghosts rarely wear bedsheets or rattle rusty chains. Instead, they manifest as lingering institutional habits, historic pay gaps left uncorrected, or the unacknowledged burnout of minoritised staff who built early diversity programmes without budget or support. When leadership attempts to rebrand over real systemic issues without addressing root causes, the workplace becomes visibly haunted. Employees feel the cold spots instantly: the unspoken cynicism in team meetings, the subtle hesitation during town halls, or the quiet understanding that certain historical mistakes are taboo to discuss.
Looking back across this series, every horror myth offers a mirror for workplace culture. Whether navigating the global sensitivities of spiritual calendars, stopping the energy-draining impact of vampire-like microaggressions, providing systemic support to avoid Frankenstein’s mistake, or redistributing the invisible labour highlighted by zombie lore, the core lesson remains connected. Workplace cultures cannot construct an inclusive future while being haunted by an unaddressed past. Ghosts do not vanish simply because an organisation hangs a celebratory banner or issues a generic values statement. They quieten down only when leadership faces institutional history with genuine honesty and commits to active, long-term repair.
Reclaiming the ghost in diversity and inclusion work means refusing to let uncomfortable truths fade into the ether. Spectres demand accountability and truth before peace can be restored. Real belonging takes root when organisations stop running from their spectral pasts, honour the institutional memory of their people, and clear away historical barriers so everyone can thrive in the light.
Top Tip for DEI Leads: Conduct transparent historical audits of promotion velocity, pay equity, and exit interview trends, publicly acknowledging where past systems fell short and detailing the concrete structural steps being taken to correct legacy inequities.
Top Tip for ERGs: Maintain an active institutional memory for your network, documenting ongoing workplace challenges and policy progress so that incoming members do not have to fight the same historical battles from scratch.
