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:

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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!

---

Listen Here:

Watch Here:

5 Things / Community

Last week, I spent a few days at my mastermind retreat with a group of other business owners. I enjoy my mastermind so much because, honestly, being a founder can be lonely and I need all the support I can get to achieve my BIG vision for equality. I need community. 

You may need it, too. Being an ERG or HR leader and/or DEI practitioner can also get lonely, especially if you are one of the few DEI champions within your organization. When the pressure is on to increase diversity and employee engagement, yet your team is small, and others have differing priorities, the work can feel overwhelming. If you’re looking for a supportive community of peers, I highly recommend the Belonging Community led by my good friend Rhodes Perry.

Get started by checking out Rhodes’ free upcoming Belonging at Work Summit, featuring thoughtful speakers like my friends and DEI leaders LaTonya Wilkins and Jennifer Brown.

Here are the good vibes I found this week:

This week’s stories all relate to the corporate response to the decision by the US Supreme Court to eliminate the constitutional right to abortion. The majority of Americans disagreed with that decision, so there was outrage. 

Some brands responded swiftly by modeling policy and communication supporting the right to choose. Many others sent comms reminding employees of how their benefits addressed reproductive care but didn’t condemn the decision. 

My favorite of the responses are this week’s good vibes – and they matter because this is about personal reproductive freedom, body autonomy, equity, and so much more. Your employees are paying attention to your response, or lack thereof.

1. Patagonia Will Bail Out Employees Arrested in Abortion Protests

   • Patagonia and Live Nation will bail out employees who peacefully protest against the ban on abortion. Patagonia will even pay for training on nonviolent civil disobedience.

2. CEO: Duolingo Will Move Operations Should Pennsylvania Ban Abortion

   • Duolingo, the language learning tech company, promises to move its HQ from Pennsylvania if the state enacts a ban on abortion. The company knows a ban in PA might make it harder to attract top talent.

3. Retailers Rush to Cover Abortion Care, but Not All of Their Workers May Be Covered

   • The best of the companies (like Levi and Patagonia) ensured that hourly workers also have access to benefits. Hourly workers are the most likely to need these benefits, yet the least likely to have access.

4. Online Pharmacy Is Offering Steep Discounts on Birth Control and Plan B

   • Mark Cuban’s new online pharmacy, Cost Plus Drugs, has marked down birth control and Plan B-type bills to expand access to these products, which are in heavy demand at traditional pharmacies. They’re now available at even more extreme discounts.

5. Red Hatters Should Be Able to Access Healthcare No Matter Where They Live

   • Red Hat’s benefits provider will reimburse employees and their companions who need to access abortions (outside of a 60-mile radius) a $10,000-lifetime travel benefit. I like this one because the travel distance is lower than others, the benefit is higher, and because many companies used “women” in their communications (thought not necessarily in their benefits), forgetting that non-binary people and trans people may need abortions also.

5 Things / Benefits Edition

This week I made some new friends, including a man who went undercover with Al Qaeda and wrote a book to tell the story. He’s a great guy, and like my other new friends, is very different from me. But one thing we all have in common is that we’re speakers. During the pandemic, I enrolled in Heroic Public Speaking (HPS) to level up my speaking game, and one of the unexpected benefits was meeting a bunch of new people with completely different lived experiences, stories, and perspectives than me. I loved it.

This week some of us connected at HPS for a Homecoming event, and again, I found myself in the most fascinating conversations. I had dinner Thursday night with my undercover friend, a former Navy SEAL, and a Canadian woman my age who’s sold her first company and is building another. One thing all of us had in common was a genuine curiosity about one another, a willingness to ask deep questions, respect those answers, and connect with what was said. We were all unconsciously following the ARC, which many of you know (Ask - Respect - Connect).

Meaningful connection happens when we’re willing to simply be more curious about those who are different than us. Now that many of us are meeting again in person, I hope you find yourself in honest and real conversations with people who are different from you. And in those conversations, I hope you’re willing to talk about burnout, lack of balance, pandemic challenges, and all the other real-life stuff – the things we have in common yet struggle to share. The magic happens when we share some of our own stuff first.

Here are the good vibes I found this week:

A Software Company Is Offering Its Staff Discounts on a Breast Milk Delivery Service as It Seeks to Help Its New Moms

It’s been a while since I wrote about MilkStork, the company that ships breast milk for nursing parents who are traveling. The company provides its services as an employee benefit, and employers typically cover all costs of using the service. MilkStork’s newest client is ActiveCampaign, and this benefit matters because it helps nursing parents transition back to work with less disruption and more ease.

Announcing New Gender Inclusive Benefits for Salesforce Employees

Speaking of benefits, Salesforce expanded its benefits for transgender employees, to now include new wardrobe reimbursement, partial payment for the fees associated with changing government IDs, and specialized mental-health services and counseling. These expanded benefits came about after conversations with the LGBTQ+ Employee Resource Group at the company. The most inclusive companies already include full coverage of the costs associated with medical transition, but these expanded benefits are notable. This matters because it acknowledges and solves some barriers to authentic living.

Karine Jean-Pierre Will Become the 1st Black White House Press Secretary

The White House has a new Press Secretary,Karine Jean-Pierre, and she’s the first Black and openly LGBTQ person to hold this position. While I don’t always celebrate firsts, this one is particularly notable and matters because it’s wonderful to see someone with multiple marginalized identities in such a visible role.

How One Organization Is Funding Equity in the Chicago Area

U.S. Bank is investing heavily in Chicago’s Black communities, in partnership with nonprofit Greenwood Archer Capital, focused on community development. While this is wonderful, this matters because the new partnership is focused on supporting businesses owned by people with lower credit scores, and without high collateral and a robust financial history. That’s equity in action - removing barriers that can create greater wealth.

The End of Roe v. Wade Is a Workforce Issue. Businesses Can’t Avoid Talking About Abortion Anymore

In light of the likely overturn of Roe vs Wade in the United States, an increasing number of companies are showing their support for abortion rights. A number of companies, such as Levi, announced travel reimbursements for employees who would need to travel to another state for an abortion, and notably, these benefits extend to part-time employees. Given that 47% of Americans recently said they wouldn’t want to live in a state where abortion was unavailable, Salesforce will also cover moving expenses for employees. This is an issue that employees are paying attention to, and companies can’t afford to be silent on. This matters because it sends a message to employees that their full services can be cared for.

5 Things / lessons

Sometimes I feel like being a leader means I’m in a near-constant state of asking myself, “OK, so what can I learn from this?”

I often look at work (and sometimes life) as an experiment. I’ve been a business owner for over 17 years now and it’s impossible to get it right all the time. And it’s certainly impossible to be all things to all people. My work, whether it’s writing, or speaking, or building and leading a team, is constantly being evaluated, tweaked, and adjusted along the way. But one thing being a business owner has taught me is to focus on progress over perfection. 

Your work towards creating a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive organization is also an experiment. There is no one way to do this work. Mistakes will happen and you might even accidentally offend someone. It's unrealistic to expect otherwise. But self-reflection, tweaking, and adjusting are (or should be) part of the process. I often say in my talks, “what matters is how you recover.”

Will you stall out or keep moving forward? 

---

Here are some good vibes I found this week:

• There are some great virtual Pride ideas in this article which focused heavily on ActiveCampaign. Among other things, they had a drag queen read the children's book A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo, and made an effort to involve the employee resource groups for parents. AC's Pride group was inventive this June and there are some good ideas in this article you can file away for next year. This matters because virtual employee engagement can be challenging, and AC showed real creativity in how it builds allies.
  
  

• L'Oréal USA became the first company to achieve certification of pay equity across gender, race, ethnicity, age, ability, and LGBTQ identity. The company used a global third-party auditing company to certify the results. For L'Oréal, this is not a new initiative - they got started in 2011. This shows a real commitment and matters to the underrepresented employees who will benefit from equal pay for equal work.
  
  

• The abortion law that recently passed in Texas is the strictest and most archaic in the U.S., and most companies said nothing. The dating app companies Match and Bumble, however, created relief funds to help people affected by the law. Uber and Lyft said they would cover all legal costs for any of their drivers who get sued for driving a customer to an abortion clinic. This matters because those companies used their influence and power to speak out against a law that is abhorrent and will affect thousands of people.
  
  

• Speaking of Bumble, the woman-led company unveiled a fantastic new employee leave policy which includes, among other things, 20 days paid time off for victims of domestic violence and 15 days paid time off for grief. This matters because employee wellbeing matters and a generous employee leave policy is a signal to employees that they matter.
  
  

• The Football Association of Ireland is now paying equal match fees for its men and women's teams. There was previously a €2000 disparity. The men's teams willingly took a pay cut to create pay parity. This matters because it shows allyship on behalf of the men, and because equal pay for equal work is just the right thing to do.

Image by Chaos Soccer Gear