On Speaking Up, Calling Out, Careers in Peril, and the HR "Professional"

As an HR “professional,” I’m more than willing to hold my ground, speak up, speak out, call in, call out, and demand accountability from organizations for their workplace culture and the harm it is doing. I speak up and call out folx around abuse, overt and covert racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, transphobia, anti-Blackness, antisemitism, and hate and oppression and expect action. I speak out against my abuse, and the abuses levied against others in the organization. I call out and speak out regardless of the oppressor's power, positionality, or pallor. And I do this knowing that my job, career, and livelihood are in peril. I will lose my job if I have to in order to be a voice for others. Real talk? I already have on multiple occasions. And the likelihood of it happening again in my career is high. Understand that this isn’t martyrdom. This is me standing up for decency. It’s what a person in my position should be doing.

To summarize: as a Black person in “professional” settings, I refuse to toe the line and contribute to the status quo of white supremacist workplace culture “norms,” regardless of the salary and the “perks,” even if it means I’ll lose my job.

If you’re a white HR “professional” and aren’t willing to go there and fight for others when the likelihood of you being laid off or being pushed to resign is super-low due to your race, power, and positionality? Then you’re not here for the employees. You’re here for the status quo. And you’re likely okay with the harm happening all around you. Hell, you’re probably participating in or supporting the damage done to people in your workplace.

You might need to rethink your cute rebranded “People and Culture” title.

Monday's Opening Thought: April 18, 2022

This week’s opening thought, for Global Majority folx, people of color, and people of culture: know your worth and hold to it, not just your financial worth but your worth as a human being.

Don’t let these white supremacist and colonizer-based systems and organizations we must grapple with to survive decide what they think your worth is because they will always offer you pennies instead of diamonds. Don’t accept anyone underpaying you or undervaluing what you bring to their company. You are much more than a diversity hire. Your lived experience and work experience are more valuable than they want to admit. They need you more than you need them or the added stress of their urgency to position you as the magic solution to their issues.

Yesterday’s price is not today’s price.

And today’s price might go up this afternoon if people keep trippin’.

On Interview Questions, Nicholas Sparks, and Unrealistic Love

Image description: A scene from the film adaptation of the Nicholas Sparks novel "The Notebook." Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams, the film's two white co-stars, are kissing in the rain, both of them heavily drenched. Ryan Gosling is lifting Rachel McAdams up. Rachel's legs are wrapped around Ryan Gosling's waist.

I think it's time for us to collectively agree to stop asking candidates interviewing for positions the question, "Why do you want to work here?" (especially if you're asking that question because you seek candidates ready to enter into a "love affair" with your employer). Why should we all agree to stop asking this question?

1. You're looking for someone who's in love with your company. You're looking for someone to gush over how awesome your company is, not a candidate that could do a great job. Real talk? It's weird to expect someone to love your workplace without working for you for at least six months, which is usually when people know if they even like working for you (note: for marginalized folx, that timeframe is generally shorter). Just because a candidate loves the PR work your company did to put a positive image out on the internet and the DEIA blurbs and proclamations on your company website don't mean the reality of working for your company won't leave them wanting more.

2. You realize that many candidates who apply for positions with your company are applying because they have the skills and experience you claim you're seeking and are just looking for steady employment, right? Sometimes a job is just an end to a means. Sometimes it's doing what you need to do to survive and live a life with less stress and anxiety around job security and financial security. And that's OK. We need to normalize this. You and the candidate both have needs that you want to be met, and it's OK to hire folx who will do great work for your company but aren't in love with your company or go to your company game nights every week. You're hiring to fill a role, not to find a new buddy or "family member." By default, the "right fit" mentality is filled with bias and questions like this. By asking this question, you're making filling a position a popularity contest or an episode of The Bachelor.

You want a better question to ask candidates than "Why do you want to work here?" How about "When you saw this job posting, what was it about this position that made you want to apply?" This question de-centers your needs and hopefully allows the space for a candidate to share why the job interests them.

Stop looking for "love affairs." Your workplace is most definitely not a Nicholas Sparks novel.

Image description: A scene from the film adaptation of the Nicholas Sparks novel "The Notebook." Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams, the film's two white co-stars, are kissing in the rain, both of them heavily drenched. Ryan Gosling is lifting Rachel McAdams up. Rachel's legs are wrapped around Ryan Gosling's waist.

Monday's Opening Thought: April 11, 2022

This week’s opening thought: organizational culture change takes years. Not two or three years, mind you. Organizational culture shifts take five-plus years to implement, adjust, maintain and sustain. In a 2021 survey of workplace culture consultants, the folx who are hired to provide advice on changing an organization's culture shared that they generally estimate that the chances of success are low. How low? Typically one in three or four attempts takes root. Studies have shown that the single most crucial element in determining success in changing an organization’s culture is its leader's interest, support, and even passion. Not just the CEO or Executive Director but the interest, support, and passion for change of the senior leadership team or C-suite. But the leader? That person is the core driver of organizational change. And because organizational culture change takes such a long time, it is often longer than the tenure of a leader and much longer than the attention span of the organization or the organization’s willingness to sit with and process the discomfort of its oppressive states and processes.

So why do organizations think they can hire one person, often a person from an underserved community and a person of color fighting against the oppressions of intersectionality, to change an organization’s culture single-handedly with an unrealistic timeline for completion? And with little to no support or backing from leadership or the primary leader of the organization?

Whether intentional or unconscious, this is a recipe for failure and harm.

Leaders: hiring one person and placing the enormous weight of changing your entire organization for you on their shoulders while you passively "participate" in said change is not leadership. That’s setting someone up for failure – and giving yourself a scapegoat and excuse for why your organizational culture doesn’t have the opportunity to change.

If you’re a CEO, President, or Executive Director, it is your job to stand up and call in your senior leadership team and company leaders to help you center organizational change as something that matters.  And you can’t be ready to bail when it gets uncomfortable, or the realities of the negative impacts of your workplace culture on your staff come to light. You have to be willing to take responsibility for the current culture and atone for the harm your workplace has caused and may still be causing. You also have to be responsible for standing with the folx (plural, not one person) you’ve hired to help move your organization forward, not standing next to them long enough to throw them under the bus when things get complicated or uncomfortable.

Step up and quit hiring one person and expecting them to somehow make rainbows and unicorns happen for your organization with minimal involvement or support from you and your leadership team.