The Sky Business Multiculture@Sky network have been leading ‘Let’s Talk about Race’ sessions, as part of a wider Sky initiative. The sessions are to help our people feel comfortable being themselves, making Sky a great place to work for everyone.

Hardeep Sehgal, a Business Comms provisioning specialist, was one of the co-leaders at a recent session, and tells us why these sessions are so important.

Why did you want to get involved in the ‘Let’s Talk About Race sessions?

Race to me is a person’s physical characteristics.  We tend to make assumptions about a person based on this before we get to know them. I wanted to get involved in the sessions as I was curious to hear about other people’s journeys as well as wanting to share some of my own stories.

It’s easy for people to make assumptions because of the way you look, but when you get to speak to people you realise there’s so much more to that person. I feel in life no two journeys are the same and I wanted to hear about what other people had gone through in order to get to where they are today – both in their personal and professional lives.

What did you expect to achieve from the sessions?

The objective from this session was to get people talking about their experiences, and have people feel comfortable to ask questions about one another. We can then also work more collaboratively the more included everyone feels. It’s easy not to ask a question with the mindset you may offend someone, but if we never ask questions then we also never get answers.

Were there things you didn’t expect to hear or learn?

I was surprised on multiple occasions hearing people share similar stories to me who did not look the same way as I did. Even more surprising was hearing people talk about certain words and how they trigger reactions based on what a person had experienced. There are certain words I wouldn’t use anymore as a result – it was a real eye opener!

What’s your biggest learning from the sessions?

Not to judge a book by its cover. It’s probably been said about a million times but it’s true.

If you could choose three words to describe the sessions, what would they be?

Educational, inspiring, eye-opening