new perspectives & anti-resolutions
Hello friends, it’s 2023. Happy New Year!
I am back in action after nearly a month in India and some much-needed time exploring off the grid. I had forgotten how powerful spending time alone in a new place can be. Sometimes there is nothing like being the stranger on foreign land to reconnect with yourself and shift the way you prioritize your day-to-day.
India was an incredible as well as overwhelming experience. After 2 ½ days of flying just to get there; stepping out into the streets of Mumbai, I was immediately hit with culture shock. Around every corner was another new paradox. Some of the most extreme poverty I have ever seen was met with a surprising unequivocal joy that seemed to be experienced by everyone around me. The smell of spices and incense in the air, music coming from all directions, bright clothes and dance parties in the street, it was like one, big celebration. Even the trucks on the highway are adorned with glittery tassels and positive quotes like ‘Smile while you drive- it takes you miles.’ No matter what region you are in, you are met with genuine kindness and hospitality from every person you encounter.
Being there over the holidays, I tried to see as much of the country as possible from the old pink city Jaipur to Mumbai and Kolkata a well as down South to the backwater rivers of Kerala and beaches on the Arabian sea. One of my favorite moments was sitting on the banks of the Ganges at sunset in the Himalayan Mountains just soaking in all the magic. Remember the Beatles album inspired by their time there in the ashram? In 1968 George Harrison said ‘India is such a groove: Everything is slightly more in perspective.” And it still is…
Being in a country that is 1/3 the size of the US with a population of over 1 billion more, the sheer number of people creates a constant buzz that throws your senses into hyper-drive. The closest thing I can compare it to is standing in the middle of Times Square on New Year’s Eve, except everywhere all the time. Like the ancient eastern traditions they are known for- yoga, meditation, ashrams and ayurveda- the country will teach you that it’s up to you to create the space you need.
Getting anywhere at a certain time is nearly impossible, but in India that doesn’t really matter much anyways. Unlike the western world, where it’s all about outcomes and we use apps to navigate out of jams as fast as possible. In India, it’s the journey itself that takes center stage.
Back home and re-adjusting, I dove headfirst into the New Year with a fresh perspective to obsess less over the outcome and enjoy the process of getting there. This is my ‘anti-resolution’, as it requires me to let go of the overall goal. And hey, if you are going to miss your flight because of the holy cow walking on the highway or the dance party in the middle of the street, then you may as well create a little more ease in your life and have fun as it all unfolds.
My hope is that we all bring more ease and joy into the Journey this year!
Natalie
what the FRIDAY!
The tech industry has laid off more employees in the first three weeks of 2023 than any other month since the pandemic started (cite). And to no one’s surprise, these layoffs are hitting DEI departments hard.
In 2020, on the heels of George Floyd’s murder, the Black Lives Matter movement took center stage and pushed all of us to re-examine our part in perpetuating systemic inequality. Remember how many companies posted ‘It’s about Time’ and “We Stand with BLM’ on their social media?
Back then, it was encouraging to see the business-led movements to re-evaluate efforts across internal systems. This included audits and action plans to bring diversity into leadership, workforce and management teams; transparency into supply and distribution chains; increased capital investments to support underrepresented innovators and the creation of dedicated DEI departments.
Bloomberg reported, “After Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, organizations of all stripes made promises to boost gender and racial diversity in their ranks. Dozens brought in their first ever Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officers. In the three months after George Floyd’s murder, DEI job postings jumped 123%, according to data from jobs site Indeed.”
Now, just three years later, DEI departments are amongst the first to go, jeopardizing many of the highly publicized pledges companies made to prioritize underrepresented workers and leadership. Reports show that listings for DEI roles sank 19% last year, and some DEI departments have been fully shut down. One ex-Twitter employee admitted that the tech giant’s diversity department has shrunk from 30 employees, to two. And according to Bloomberg, leadership at at-least two separate major tech companies have stopped setting long term goals for DEI Departments entirely.
Some people are referring to these step backs as ‘George Floyd money that has run dry’. This jarring reference to rolling back policies designed to level the playing field is not entirely unfounded. TechCrunch reporter Davis recently discussed this in Essence as the ‘abysmal state of diverse venture capital investment in black startups’ and ‘the age of corporate DEI over-promising.”
This move may also work against those companies in the long run. As we know, workers are more likely to leave companies where equity efforts aren’t a priority. Nearly one in five female leaders have left a job in the past two years because of a company’s lack of commitment to DEI, according to an October report from McKinsey and LeanIn.org. In a 2019 survey of 2,000 workers, McKinsey found that 39% decided against pursuing or accepting a job because of a perceived lack of inclusion at a company – and even that number is pre-pandemic.
Back when the world was forced to stay at home and do everything - and we mean everything - online, Big Tech companies bathed in the glory of pandemic-driven hyper-growth and many went on a hiring spree. And now that we’re spending more of our time IRL and their revenues are dropping, we understand their need to re-evaluate and scale back. But for a refreshingly dry take on it all, we recommend reading The Verge article that lists several Big Tech official statements re:layoffs and how they were overwhelmingly framed as an industry-wide ‘Oopsy.’
That said, this isn’t what we are looking at here. For tech companies who are collectively viewed as future focused, we worry that this backslide could have a ripple effect. And it poses the questions… how much does this matter to companies, and how much do these issues really matter to us?
When the public’s attention moves so quickly from one scandal to the next, do we actually hold ourselves and the companies we work for accountable for the changes we expect them to make? If this IS a priority for the workforce, what does this look like for companies moving forward. And what could it look like for DEI to have a role across the ecosystem, no matter where you sit in the company.