As we start February, I’m feeling more than a little melancholy about not being a part of my team at Google. Yes, there’s the very real pressure to line up something new soon so that we can continue to pay our bills (Congress, they’re just like us!), but I’m also lamenting the loss of one of the roles I played in our org: writing our monthly Diversity and Inclusion newsletter.
At the start of every month since December 2020, I would publish a handful of links to share with our team. These included internal events, outside resources, book recommendations, relevant podcast episodes, and the like, to help foster a greater sense of belonging on the team and more broadly as a part of Google. It was work I enjoyed. And cherished. Although I didn’t get a chance to gather this year’s stats on how we were doing, anecdotally our D&I group heard we were definitely making a difference.
Now, I don’t want you to think that this was an extra task we took on. On the contrary. As part of our job descriptions, we were highly encouraged to add a people-focused working group to our daily duties. We had choice over which ones we could contribute to, and it just felt natural for me to take the lessons and activism I learned at Twitter and incorporate it into my day-to-day at Google. We didn’t have a lot of access to the sentiment metrics which HR tracked, but we were given pretty broad leeway about the topics we covered and events we could sponsor and promote.
The February newsletter, which I started drafting a few days before the Google layoffs happened, obviously included links to our Black History Month events. But in addition to any monthly themed events, we also made a point in each edition to show our team that belonging wasn’t just an effort based on how you presented or how you’re perceived. So we also included information about things like neurodiversity (there’s an incredible internal support group at Google), parenting (working from home added a whole new component to work-life balance), and ageism in the workplace (did you know Barbara Walters started “The View” when she was 67‽).
I’m incredibly proud of the work we were doing. And gutted I can’t still be a part of it. But I know those who are still there continue to put in the work to make sure everyone on my old team knows they are seen, respected, and understood. In short, they belong. Wherever I land after this layoff, I hope to join a team with very similar priorities.
Tighter & Tighter
01 February 2023
Stuck on unfinished work.
As we start February, I’m feeling more than a little melancholy about not being a part of my team at Google. Yes, there’s the very real pressure to line up something new soon so that we can continue to pay our bills (Congress, they’re just like us!), but I’m also lamenting the loss of one of the roles I played in our org: writing our monthly Diversity and Inclusion newsletter.
At the start of every month since December 2020, I would publish a handful of links to share with our team. These included internal events, outside resources, book recommendations, relevant podcast episodes, and the like, to help foster a greater sense of belonging on the team and more broadly as a part of Google. It was work I enjoyed. And cherished. Although I didn’t get a chance to gather this year’s stats on how we were doing, anecdotally our D&I group heard we were definitely making a difference.
Now, I don’t want you to think that this was an extra task we took on. On the contrary. As part of our job descriptions, we were highly encouraged to add a people-focused working group to our daily duties. We had choice over which ones we could contribute to, and it just felt natural for me to take the lessons and activism I learned at Twitter and incorporate it into my day-to-day at Google. We didn’t have a lot of access to the sentiment metrics which HR tracked, but we were given pretty broad leeway about the topics we covered and events we could sponsor and promote.
The February newsletter, which I started drafting a few days before the Google layoffs happened, obviously included links to our Black History Month events. But in addition to any monthly themed events, we also made a point in each edition to show our team that belonging wasn’t just an effort based on how you presented or how you’re perceived. So we also included information about things like neurodiversity (there’s an incredible internal support group at Google), parenting (working from home added a whole new component to work-life balance), and ageism in the workplace (did you know Barbara Walters started “The View” when she was 67‽).
I’m incredibly proud of the work we were doing. And gutted I can’t still be a part of it. But I know those who are still there continue to put in the work to make sure everyone on my old team knows they are seen, respected, and understood. In short, they belong. Wherever I land after this layoff, I hope to join a team with very similar priorities.
See you tomorrow?