It happened fast. One day you’re a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) manager at a federal agency or a big-cap corporation, and the next, your email access is cut. You’re told to stay home. You’ll keep getting your paycheck, but you aren't allowed to work.
Honestly, the "paid leave" era for DEI professionals has been one of the weirdest chapters in American employment history.
In early 2025, a wave of executive orders—specifically Executive Order 14173—turned the federal workforce upside down. The directive was blunt: put DEI staff on administrative leave immediately. By 5 p.m. on a Wednesday in late January 2025, thousands of workers were effectively sidelined. It wasn't just a government thing, either. The private sector took the hint, with companies like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and even some tech giants following suit by placing their diversity leads on "investigative leave."
The Logic of the Sideline
Why not just fire everyone?
It basically comes down to legal insulation. Firing thousands of people at once is a bureaucratic and legal nightmare. By using paid administrative leave, organizations could freeze DEI operations without immediately triggering the massive "wrongful termination" lawsuits that follow a traditional layoff.
At the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), about 60 employees were put on leave in early 2025. Those workers alone represented an $8 million annual payroll. The VA's stance was that they were "pivoting back to core missions." But for the people sitting at home, it felt less like a pivot and more like a purgatory.
They were essentially getting paid to wait for their own pink slips.
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Not just a vacation
If you think this was a "free break," talk to the people who lived it. Stacie D. Jones, the head of the CFPB’s Office of Minority and Women Inclusion, was placed on leave in January 2026. This happened while the agency was undergoing a massive shift in how it handled fair lending.
When you're a high-level director and you're suddenly blocked from your own office, the reputational hit is massive. It's not a holiday. It’s a signal to the rest of the industry that your role—and perhaps your expertise—is no longer "in style."
The Legal Tightrope
Law firms like Sullivan & Cromwell and Polaris Law Group have spent the last year deconstructing these moves. Is it legal to target a specific group of workers for leave based on their job title?
The courts are currently chewing on that.
- The Argument for the Leave: The administration argues that DEI programs were themselves discriminatory. They claim that by pausing these roles, they are simply "restoring merit-based opportunity."
- The Argument Against: Attorneys for federal employees argue that since the DEI workforce is disproportionately made up of women and people of color, sidelining them constitutes systemic discrimination.
There's also the "protected activity" angle. Many of these workers were responsible for handling Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) complaints. If you sideline the person who investigates discrimination, are you retaliating against the process itself? The EEOC has already hinted that reassigning or sidelining EEO advocates can be seen as unlawful retaliation under Title VII.
The Corporate Ripple Effect
While the federal government was using the "paid leave" tactic as a precursor to permanent layoffs, the private sector was doing a different kind of dance.
Corporate America didn't necessarily send everyone home, but they did something called "ghosting the department." Budgeting stayed the same for a few months, but the work stopped. According to Gravity Research, the term "DEI" dropped by a staggering 98% in Fortune 100 communications throughout 2025.
Companies like Walmart and Meta started scrubbing their websites. If you were a DEI worker in one of these firms, you might not have been on official "paid leave," but you were often on "quiet leave." You had no meetings. Your projects were "under review" indefinitely. You were getting paid to do exactly nothing while the company figured out how to rebrand your department as "Office of Culture" or "Colleague Success."
What We Get Wrong About the "Purge"
Most people assume the leave was about saving money. It actually wasn't.
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In the short term, putting people on paid leave costs more than keeping them working. You’re paying for 100% of the salary and getting 0% of the output. The real goal was the total cessation of certain ideologies in the workplace.
The OPM (Office of Personnel Management) memos were very specific: stop the trainings, pull the websites, and cancel the contracts. They even asked employees to report on coworkers who tried to "relabel" DEI programs to hide them. It was an era of high suspicion.
The numbers tell a story
A 2024 Pew Research study showed support for DEI had dipped to about 50%. Yet, when you ask people if they want "fairness" or "equitable pay," support jumps to over 80%. The disconnect isn't about the goals; it's about the branding.
By the time 2026 rolled around, the "paid leave" phase mostly ended. Most of those roles were eventually eliminated or folded into general Human Resources. But the precedent remains. We now know that "paid leave" can be used as a political tool to freeze an entire sector of a workforce.
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Actionable Steps for Displaced Workers
If you're still navigating the fallout of a DEI role that was sidelined or eliminated, you've got to be tactical.
- Audit Your Skillset (The "Neutral" Version): Don't just list "DEI Strategy" on your resume. Translate it into "Organizational Development," "Compliance Management," or "Employee Engagement." These are the terms that are surviving the 2026 corporate landscape.
- Document the Leave Period: If you were put on administrative leave, keep every email and memo. If you plan to file a claim with the EEOC or a state agency, you need proof that the action was taken against your specific role rather than a general reduction in force (RIF).
- Watch the "Right to Sue" Deadlines: You usually can't just jump into a federal lawsuit. You have to file a charge with the EEOC first. There are strict timelines for this—often 180 or 300 days depending on your state.
- Pivot to "Culture" or "Belonging": The work hasn't vanished; the name has. Look for roles focused on "Social Impact" or "Talent Optimization."
- Consult a Labor Specialist: Organizations are using "investigative leave" more frequently now. If you're on leave but no "investigation" is actually happening, you may have a case for constructive discharge.
The transition from a DEI-centric workplace to a "merit-only" framing has been messy. For the workers caught in the "paid leave" limbo, it's been a masterclass in how quickly corporate and federal priorities can shift. The paycheck might keep coming for a while, but the real challenge is figuring out where the industry goes next.