#72: Pivots and personas, why office space for women works, a culture deck you need to see, and equal pay
Hello hello hello!
Next week, you can find me at Brightcove PLAY in Boston - I'm hosting a session on Tuesday on using video in social media. Now, the videos I make on social tend to be silly recaps of dancing at conferences. Luckily, the fabulous Sharifah Niles-Lane and Tim Mayer from Eastern Bank and Everyone Active will be showcasing how they use video on social channels. See you there!
In this edition of the World's Best Newsletter:
1. Pivots, personas, purpose, and brand, oh my.
2. Behind the rise of women-only coworking spaces
3. Millennials are projected to outnumber Boomers next year
4. The deck you need to see re: company culture
5. Feeling underpaid? Here's proof:
6. The unintended result of equal pay - bruising fragile egos
7. Quote of the week: Opportunity
1. Pivots, personas, purpose, and brand, oh my.
I got to live out my fantasy of being a celebrity in yesterday's Facebook live interview with Nikki Nixon, who manages the FlipMyFunnel community on behalf of ABM tech company, Terminus.
We talked pivots, branding, personas, Jane Walker, and company culture. It was a hoot.
Then, she dropped this promo code "KATIEMFBLIVE" which saves you 15% on tix to the FlipMyFunnel sales and marketing conference in August in Boston. Register here.
2. Behind the rise of women-only coworking spaces
Shared office spaces are booming - WeWork itself is drawing $1B a year with 300+ locations worldwide. And, along with this trend, spaces catering to women are growing.
This article in Slate explains that demand for women-only shared office spaces is on the rise. Companies like Hera Hub, Shecosystem, the Allbright Quilt, and the Wing are booming.
Some folks (you know, the ones who react with "NOT ALL MEN!!" as soon as anyone accuses men of bad behavior) bring up non-discrimination laws here. But, as the article articulately states:
“Instead of asking whether a gender-segregated workspace is discriminatory or not, let’s first ask what kind of society we’re in that makes the demand for this space so high.”
Some reasons shared within:
Gig economy is on the rise - and over half of independent workers in the US are women.
Community - millennials who overwhelming prefer not to go to church/synagogue/mosque regularly need community, fellowship, inspiration.
Lack of psychological barriers - graduates of girls' schools are 6x more likely to consider majoring in math, science, and tech, and 3x more likely to considering engineering compared to girls at coed schools. Without the psychological barrier in the workplace, a single-sex work environment becomes equally as empowering.
And the most obvious:
1 in 4 women are impacted by sexual harassment at work (though the rates are likely much higher) - per the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
These spaces are a response to the current climate of the workplace - they're not a problem in and of themselves. If you find yourself angry that they exist, perhaps you should misdirect those emotions towards improving the support of women in your own organizations and communities.
3. Millennials are projected to outnumber Boomers next year
Mwahahaha...
Numbering 71 million in 2016, Millennials in the United States are approaching Baby Boomers (74 million) in population and are projected to surpass them as the nation’s largest living adult generation in 2019. The Millennial generation, defined as Americans born from 1981 to 1996, corresponds to adults ages 22 to 37 in 2018.
via Pew Research
4. The deck you need to see re: company culture
FastCo ran a feature of the work of Patty McCord, who created Netflix's wildly successful company culture as Chief Talent Officer. See the full deck here, "a 124-page document that’s now been shared over 13 million times on Slideshare, and was called “the most important document ever to come out of the Valley” by Sheryl Sandberg."
While many companies write down their values, Netflix made those values clear and actionable. "For instance, if the company wanted courageous employees, they also wanted employees to know what “courage” looked like and what it didn’t look like."
The origin of the deck itself is fascinating -- per this NPR interview, Patty says:
We're in the car driving, and I'm like, why is this so fun? I can't wait to get to work. I don't want to go home at night. I mean, we're working so hard. What is it about this? And Reed's like, go find out (laughter). Let's find out. Let's write it down."
And, ultimately, the high-performance culture she helped built was the reason she was asked to leave, after she backed the disastrous decision to split the company into two - one for DVDs one for streaming (800k customers cancelled their subscriptions.)
5. Feeling underpaid? Here's proof:
From the Boston Globe - public companies have started to report the median salaries of their employees.
It comes from a new Securities and Exchange Commission requirement that took effect in 2017. While the intent was to rein in CEO pay, the biggest impact may be empowering workers with knowledge about salaries at their own companies and elsewhere.
At Vertex Pharmaceuticals, the median is $211,511; at Biogen, $148,904; at Raytheon, $144,589; at Eversource Energy, $124,959; at State Street, $85,322; and at TJX Cos., $11,243. (The median is the level at which half the employees earn more and half earn less.)
I'm a huge proponent of pay transparency for the benefits it has in increasing the negotiation power of anyone seeking a boost -- grounding difficult conversations about equal pay in real data (otherwise we all know that discussion is f*cking awkward sometimes.)
****READ THIS! Did you know the city of Boston provides FREE ZERO COST salary negotiation workshops? Yes, really! Learn more!
Related: Actually, Women Do Ask For Raises As Often As Men–They Just Don’t Get Them
6. The unintended result of equal pay - bruising fragile egos
Companies that have introduced transparent, equal pay do face an interesting reaction from some employees.
Per this FastCo piece:
Still, not all employees responded favorably when Crowdfunder started publicizing salaries. Employees who were underpaid received raises and were “instantly gracious,” according to McClurg, but “it was the people that were overpaid that were like, ‘Well, why don’t we get raises too?'” Their argument, he says, was essentially, “We’ve been here just as long as these people have; we perform. Just because we negotiated a higher pay coming in and we constantly negotiate our pay doesn’t mean that we should suffer.
It may come as little surprise that most of these employees were men, McClurg reports, and that most have since left Crowdfunder”
These poor snowflakes. How unfortunate that your self-confidence is so deeply rooted in your given systematic advantage that you can't bear to be paid the same as your colleagues for doing equal work without a bruised ego.
Boo hoo.
7. Quote of the week: Opportunity
"When somebody gives you an opportunity, don't insult them by telling them that they do not know what they're talking about by believing in you."
- Franchesca Ramsey, writer, comedian, activist and TV & Youtube personality on Luvvie Ajayi's podcast.
Have a marvelous weekend.
Katie
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Events not to be missed:
I talk social + video at Brightcove's PLAY event, May 20th - 22nd in Boston. Save $50 with code "BOSTONCONTENT."
Let's talk femvertising at the Chief Marketer event, Marketing to Women in the #MeToo Era, June 19th in NYC. Get your tickets here!
Who's going down at the #B2B Marketing and Sales Feud at #FlipMyFunnel 2018? (Can't we all just get along?) Come cheer me on! Details and promo code in this blog.