Issue #104: Prepping for (virtual) pride

Good morning, friends!

Next Thursday marks the 1st of June, and the beginning of both Pride and Canada’s National Indigenous History Month. Since the shift to remote work, we’d noticed another not-so-great shift; with less visibility in a physical space, organizations seemed to be investing less budget and effort into celebrations like Pride. In our latest piece, writer Briony Smith investigates this change, and talks to our team about meaningful ways teams can celebrate from home. Think less rainbow cupcakes, more actual policy change; programs like parental support and bereavement, for example, can be altered to reflect alternative and chosen families. Like many other things about the WFH shift, perhaps this is a good change. Curious about celebrating Pride remotely? Read more here.

The great thing about inclusive policies is that they often positively impact multiple communities. The same changes to family policies can also have impact through an Indigenous lens, and many folks have intersectional identities, meaning they identify across a number of communities. For more on Indigenous inclusion (and reconciliation) at work, take a moment with these tips and reflections from Métis HR and DEI consultant (and Bright + Early team member) Stephanie Bergman.

For more curated, team-sharable resources, see the (mega) link section below. And remember, these times are not just for learning and speaking about the injustices in a community, or educating those outside of it, but of appreciation, celebration, and hope. And those should be year-round.

Happy (almost) June,

Team Bright + Early

Bright Reads

• Looking for Pride learnings for yourself or your team? Check out these well curated resources on a number of topics from Qmunity, learn about trans acceptance in Indigenous cultures worldwide, or sign up for events from Out in Tech and QueerTech.

• Celebrating Indigenous history month? Donate to organizations working with and run by Indigenous people and communities (we support Miziwe Biik through the Bright and Early Fund), complete a free Indigenous Canada course, or order some copies of Alison Telford Seaweed’s new book on Indigenous inclusion at work and have a book club to discuss it.

• Using Slack at work? Here’s a list of tips and features to make it more accessible.

• ‘Give Away Your People’ — How Managers Can (and Should) Prep for High Performers to Leave

• Adopting a UX approach to Employee Experience

• This Black woman in tech created a fake assistant– and named it “Matt”

• Tech loves digital nomads; but local economies, not so much.

• People do want to work, but priorities have changed. Here are some realistic tips for engaging folks after the major shifts of the past 3 years.

• In the USA? As of July 31 the Federal Government is no longer allowing employers to review I-9 forms remotely. There are some suggested work arounds in this article for those of you with remote employees.

• In Canada? In 2022, Bill C-19 made amendments to The Competition Act. The changes criminalize employer wage-fixing and no-poaching agreements, and will come into force on June 23, 2023. If you would like to learn more, Aird Berlis are hosting a free webinar on May 31. 

• Tech gossip platform Blind has published a report on the changing market of Software Engineer Salary expectations; which, with the flood of talent in a post-layoff market, have mostly dropped.

Coming Up

• June 1 kicks off Pride month.

• June is National Indigenous History month.

• Heading to Tech Talent North in Vancouver? Say hi to our own Stephanie Bergman, who will be part of a panel on fostering Indigenous Tech Talent (May 31).

• Lesbian Who Tech’s Pride Summit is happening in person throughout the month of June, and online from June 12-16.

• June 18 is Father’s Day.

• June 19 is Juneteenth in the USA.

• June 21st is National Indigenous People’s day in Canada.

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