5 Things / The Year in Good Vibes
This week I received a message from a former client: "Yippee for our marriages being codified into law!"
Some of you may know that I spent years as a wedding planner with an LGBTQ+ specialty and a speaker on inclusion in that industry. I started that business in 2004. I was so young! It's been nearly 19 years since the first legal same-sex marriage licenses were issued in Massachusetts -- and only NOW are those marriages — and interracial marriages – codified into federal law, thanks to the Respect for Marriage Act. Those marriages were allowed due to Supreme Court decisions, which could have potentially been challenged.
19 years of waiting for same-sex marriages; 55 years of waiting for interracial marriages to become officially official.
Still, I'll take it. I'll celebrate it. And here it is, in 5 Things.
I'll take progress towards equality in most forms. Progress, even with caveats, as this law has. More equity and inclusion that starts tomorrow, next year, or the year after.
In the new year, I’ll keep sharing 5 Things, and maybe one of these stories will inspire you to take the next step forward toward greater equity and inclusion.
Just start.
To cap off the year, I’m sharing what I found to be the top 5 good vibes of the year, that I predict will become more common and expected in years to come.
Here are my top 5 good vibes of the year:
Hybrid Work Models
This year brought fits and starts as organizations tried to figure out hybrid work models. It’s incredibly important as employees increasingly value flexibility and women and underrepresented people report a higher sense of belonging when working remotely. A hybrid ideal is beginning to emerge for organizations that can pull it off: remote work as an option for everyone, and requiring employees to come in for gatherings and retreats. The many folks I’ve spoken to who work this way appear to love both the flexibility and the camaraderie.
Companies Speaking Out Against Injustice
With the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision earlier this year allowing states to set their own abortion laws, many companies spoke out in support of their employees. From reimbursing travel expenses for employees who have to cross state lines to obtain an abortion to reimbursing employees’ relocation expenses, many major companies like Salesforce and Levi showed support. (This doesn’t come without backlash though – now some politicians are in retaliatory mode.) Regardless, a precedent was set and Gen Z, in particular, will expect companies to keep speaking out when there’s injustice.
Awareness That Diversity Means Everyone
Diversity is more diverse. With the rise in anti-Semitism, increasing awareness of caste discrimination, more conversations around mental health, and increasingly frequent addition of “accessibility” to DEI, there’s more awareness that diversity means everyone. And that’s a good thing because the more people who see themselves as part of the conversation, the more engagement and investment there will be in this work.
Diversity in Sports
There’s more diversity in sports…a number of races including the Boston Marathon and New York Marathon now have non-binary categories, which leads to a downstream effect of smaller races doing the same. We’re seeing more women in executive leadership in men’s professional sports franchises. And this year, a new women’s professional soccer team in LA began to play – the Angel City Football Club - with founding members such as Natalie Portman, Serena Williams, and Eva Longoria. Not only is there more diversity, but greater access to these stories with the launch of the Women’s Sports Network.
Four-Day Workweeks Gain Momentum
The four-day workweek is gaining traction. With a successful pilot program in the UK and Unilever adopting it in Australia after a successful pilot in New Zealand, this model is showing leaders that employees can be even more productive in a shorter period of time. While we haven’t seen this take off in the U.S. yet, there’s no doubt it’s coming. And when it does, you can read about it right here in 5 Things!
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