Google’s Post

Wonderful to see Google championing Disability Pride Month and shining a spotlight on the impactful work of the Disability Alliance Employee Resource Group! 👏 It's inspiring to hear how this community empowers Googlers to advocate, build awareness, and share valuable insights around disability-related topics. Fostering inclusive teams, products, and workplaces that truly consider the needs of all users is such an important goal. Google's commitment to "Build for Everyone" is a powerful ethos. Ensuring accessibility and equity across the entire product development lifecycle is crucial for creating innovative, user-centric technology that uplifts and empowers people of all abilities. Kudos to the Disability Alliance and all Googlers who are driving this important mission forward. Their work is not only valuable for the Google community, but also serves as an example for other organizations to follow. Celebrating Disability Pride Month is a meaningful way to uplift the disability community, challenge stigmas, and promote greater accessibility and representation. I'm excited to learn more about Google's initiatives in this space. Keep up the awesome work, Google! This is the kind of authentic, thoughtful allyship that creates real, lasting change. 💪🏻 #DisabilityPrideMonth #InclusiveDesign #Accessibility #LifeAtGoogle Google

"Job Search Tip" Writing emails? Writing well-structured, comprehensive, and warm emails are important to make a positive first impression. With an email, you have an opportunity to demonstrate 3 important skills: 1) to express enthusiasm for the role, 2) demonstrating your excellent communication skills and 3) demonstrating your attention to detail in action. Don't miss this opportunity to impress! You can get some guidance by utilizing Microsoft CoPilot or Google Bard. As an example you can use the prompt: Please act as a Hiring Manager. How would you responsd to the following email. (Now paste or write your email below). #disability #jobsearchstrategies disABLEDperson.com

"Job Search Tip" Writing emails? Writing well-structured, comprehensive, and warm emails are important to make a positive first impression. With an email, you have an opportunity to demonstrate 3 important skills: 1) to express enthusiasm for the role, 2) demonstrating your excellent communication skills and 3) demonstrating your attention to detail in action. Don't miss this opportunity to impress! You can get some guidance by utilizing Microsoft CoPilot or Google Bard. As an example you can use the prompt: Please act as a Hiring Manager. How would you responsd to the following email. (Now paste or write your email below). #disability #jobsearchstrategies disABLEDperson.com

A Texas Law going into effect on January 1st that reinforces the moves of Tech Companies. Senate Bill 17 – Bans DEI initiatives at public institutions of higher education. Texas Senate Bill 17, known as the anti-DEI law, bans diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) offices, programs, and training at publicly funded universities. Universities cannot create diversity offices or hire employees to conduct DEI work. They also can't require any DEI training as a condition for being hired or admitted. University practices must be "color-blind and sex neutral." Why did DEI become a political focus? In my humble opinion, it was used as a Civil Rights tool rather than a teaching tool of how to be psychologically welcoming to people of all differences. That is the reason that I wrote my program book which focuses on inclusion without a Civil Rights focus at all. Inclusion means ALL must be included... somehow. And, we cannot become more welcoming of our differences by focusing on the negativity that was created because of our differences, all in hopes that people become empathetically inspired to change their minds. https://lnkd.in/gMUg4qqK #diversityandinclusion #senatebill17 #inclusionmeansall #higherlearning #education #ThisIsAmerica

“There was a project that I volunteered for. In front of everyone, he said, ‘Don’t touch that project because you’re ill-fated.’” - Tech Project Manager, to NBC News. I recently learned that many AAPI employees contend with caste in the workplace. Pulitzer Prize winner Isabel Wilkerson, author of "Caste: The Origins of our Discontents", describes caste as an example of artificial construct of supremacy, based on "traits that would be neutral in the abstract but are ascribed life-and-death meaning in a hierarchy." In 2022, Founder of Equality Labs, Thenmozhi Soundararajan, had her talk at Google canceled after some employees complained that her views on caste were against their religion which, unlike caste, is a protected class. Efforts were made in California to ban caste discrimination, but the bill was vetoed by Governor Gavin Newsom in Oct 2023. Cities like Seattle & Fresno have successfully passed bans on caste discrimination. The Google Program Manager who had invited Soundararajan, Tanuj Gupta, resigned in protest. Gupta described her experience in a news interview: ""If you’re not attuned to what the issue is, you won't even realize what’s happening. Asking things like 'What’s your last name? I’m not familiar with it.' Then, when the manager hears that last name, they’re, like, 'Oh, so you're from this caste – no wonder you have these leadership skills.'" Original article from Washington Post, with link to Gupta's resignation letter: https://lnkd.in/g__Tm9ti Article & interview, The New Yorker: https://lnkd.in/gQ3XzGJd NBC News, "Big Tech's Big Problem": https://lnkd.in/gZ6GfrKT Slate, Interview with Soundararajan: https://lnkd.in/gD-GRxUN LA Times: https://lnkd.in/gB78APAT CNN reporting from 2020: https://lnkd.in/gj_-5Fwa #AAPI #WorkplaceDiscrimination #Workplace #EmployeeEngagement #WorkplaceCulture #DEI #Management #Leadership https://lnkd.in/gyarXpUx

Passionate about inclusion? Let's work together to support the blind and low-vision community. I’m thrilled to be part of Valley Center for the Blind’s Workforce Development team. Our mission is clear: to support, train, and employ individuals who are blind or have low vision. At VCB, we provide a nurturing environment where those experiencing vision loss can thrive. From rehabilitation courses featuring assistive technology and braille to independent living skills, we tailor our programs to meet each individual's unique needs and aspirations. Our track record speaks volumes. We've successfully placed candidates in various roles, from Amazon to the Office of the Inspector General. Today, I'm reaching out to my LinkedIn network to help us expand accessible employment opportunities even further. If you're a business owner or part of a company dedicated to fostering inclusivity, let's connect. And for all the software developers out there, how accessible is your website? Let's spark a conversation about how we can support each other. Together, let's build a more inclusive future. #fresno #fresnocounty #madera #inclusivehiring #inclusiveworkplace #inclusivetech #employmentopportunities

As an older job seeker I'm feeling like age discrimination doesn't get the kind of reaction that many other types of discrimination get. I've been noodling over why that is, especially since, if we're lucky, we'll all get old one day. Hell, you've aged a bit since you started reading this post! Partly this is inspired by watching 77 year-old Emmy Lou Harris kill it last night at the Botanic Gardens. She's famous for telling Pete Seeger as a young woman that she hadn't experienced enough hardship in her life to write quality songs; he said, just wait a bit baby girl, it will come for you...or something like that. Here's the thing, I have been an ageist myself and I know it. As an employer for nearly two decades I almost always favored youth over experience. Mainly I thought we needed more "fresh thinking" or that the young people had the corner on manipulating tech. Of course wisdom is also important, but I now appreciate I under-valued it. Tech prowess is great too, but can we all admit tech isn't the beast it once was because the tech companies have made it so much easier to use their stuff. (Side note, the skills questions on job applications are often pretty silly. Can you use Word? How about Slack? Really??? Yes and yes. I can also manipulate my phone and pay my bills online, two tasks that are about the same challenge level as using these software platforms.) So, I'm going to wrap this up because, frankly, you're getting pretty old reading it and I don't want your employment cred to fall too much. 😉

The right to free speech is one of the most valued privileges granted in the United States. https://lnkd.in/e3tb-jBE But it has limitations - something 50 (now former) Google employees discovered the hard way in March and April. In the most recent episode of Art of Supply, I explore the legality of employee speech and social activism in corporate America. #freespeech #socialactivism #atwill

Rule 6 of the 6 Rules for Workplace Harmony is Be Professional Sounds obvious, doesn't it? But how many examples have you seen in the last few years where those who should know better have acted in an unprofessional way at work? For example - it used to be 'unprofessional' for employers to take partisan positions on ideological matters. It used to be 'unprofessional' to permit political activism from employees or to be a political activist at work. Google learned this lesson, following Trump's victory in 2016 their leadership famously announced (in private) that they would no longer be neutral. What followed was 8 years of partisanship on issues from BLM to Gender issues... and this created a cadre of employees, mostly younger ones, who had been encouraged to be employee activists... until of course their activism and demands went too far for Google when they occupied the exec floors and demanded that Google cancel its contracts with Israel... So Google fired the lot of them... a scenario that GOOGLE had created by encouraging activism at work - this is why you don't do it, all of which was entirely predictable but they did it anyway. So - Be professional - set the example for your employees, set the standards of professionalism at work, it doesn't matter if you are a very small business or a global corporate. #employeerights #leadership #google #employeeactivism #woke #UKEmployers #HumanResourcesManagement #HR

"There are a set of critical questions that help open one's mindset and encourage leaders to take a step back and think more broadly about what is needed to ensure their companies are successful. I would start by asking leaders, as you think about the talent within your company, do you see talent as an expense or as an asset? If you see talent as an asset, what do you think your talent needs to ensure your company is not only successful, but profitable? Not just experiences or competencies – but what conditions do people need to bring their best selves to your company every day? The recipe for ensuring a business is the most successful is having people who feel included and like they belong at a company."