October is Disabilities Awareness Month
According to the most recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate for persons with a disability is 81.3% that means only a 18.7% employment rate. Among persons with disabilities ages 16-64, the unemployment-population ratio is 70.7% (29.3% employment-population ratio)
These numbers prove we have inclusivity problems in areas beyond the media & government websites. By “we” I mean people with disabilities. I am a wheelchair user and part of the disabled minority that has a higher-education degree. I am part of the 32% of working disabled persons who work part time and the 10.6% of working disabled persons who are currently self-employed.
At the time I’m writing this post, I’m simultaneously trying to boost my freelance salary to a full-time equivalent and/or find full-time employment. I wish I could claim to be an “expert” on helping people with disabilities find employment; I’m not. I’m a freelance writer who knows what the climb toward (and fall away) from full-time employment feels like.
I’m always learning on my journey. One thing I know is that if you’re looking for a job, it’s important to know your rights as a disabled person under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA,) the U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment Commission (EEOC,) the Department of Justice (DOJ,) the Department of Labor (DOL) and state and local government. All of the aforementioned departments are responsible for upholding the rights provided to you by the ADA.
I’ve also acquired a wealth of tips that have made job searching with a disability less overwhelming. Hopefully, this post will make your climb a little bit easier.
Know Your Employment Rights & What They Mean
After July 26, 1994, the ADA protected persons with disabilities from job discrimination by “all employers, including State and local government employers, with 15 or more employees.”
That sounds simple enough, but as with most laws, you won’t clearly understand your rights until you know the definitions of key terms and know where the loopholes are.
To be covered by the ADA, you must have all of the academic qualifications and work experience required by the employer to do the job. Your disability must be a “substantial” impairment, meaning that it affects a major life activity like seeing, hearing, speaking, walking, breathing, self-care, completing manual tasks, learning, and other functions. You must be able to perform the essential roles of the job with or without reasonable accommodations.
“Reasonable accommodation” can be defined as a modification or change to the job or environment that helps a disabled person perform essential tasks or receive equal benefits to other employees. This includes the application process.
Some examples of modifications include providing readers or interpreters, adjusting work schedules, modifying training or tests and more. Your employer is required to provide you with reasonable accommodations unless they can prove that doing so would cause “undue hardship.” Undue hardship is substantial difficulty or financial distress.
Employment practices that the ADA covers includes:
- Recruitment
- Hiring
- Training
- Firing
- Pay
- Promotion
- Benefits
- Leave
- Lay off
During the hiring process, your employer cannot ask you if you are disabled or about the severity of your disability. They can ask you questions about completing job-related tasks with or without accommodation, including asking you to demonstrate how you would perform a task.
You cannot be required to take a medical exam before being offered a job. After a job offer, an employer can ask that you complete a medical exam if they require one of all employees. You cannot be discriminated against based on any information that comes from the exam. When you begin working, your employer can only ask questions about your disability if they relate to the job. All of your medical information is to be kept confidential.
Your employer is not required to offer a health care package that includes pre-existing conditions. The ADA does not require that a person with a disability be hired over other qualified applicants because they have a disability.
An employer can refuse to hire a candidate if they pose a threat to themselves or others. The threat must be an objective fact based on evidence. The employer cannot refuse to hire you because of a “slightly increased risk” or perceived risk to you or others.
Building Codes & the ADA
All of the employment protection in the world won’t help you if a building’s structure is inherently inaccessible. The ADA has compliance guidelines for contractors so there is an accessibility standard when building businesses. There are a lot of technical points regarding space needed for wheelchairs and it’s very technically worded and impossible to memorize. Unfortunately, there are loopholes and exceptions written in, as with most laws. But, it’s good to understand some basic rules and note if they aren’t followed upon your first visit to the building.
Tips for the Job Search & Beyond
The hard truth is that the ADA is not your biggest advocate, you have to be. It takes us more work to land the interview, and we can’t relax when we’re in the room if we want to get the job. Here are some tips I’ve learned to help you make job searching less stressful than it already is.
Tip 1: Use Your Resources
If you have resources available to help you find a job at the level your qualification/experience allows, use them. Able-bodied people do it all the time.
Networking with a disability can be difficult, especially in person. I find that as a wheelchair user, I’m constantly fighting to be heard. A group of people (OK, honestly even one person) is not likely to kneel down on my level, so I have to look up constantly and be loud often.
It shakes my confidence, especially in professional situations. Disabled people know that the ADA only protects us so much. Do what you need to do to level the playing field as much as possible. Here are some ideas:
- Vocational services
- Resume writing services
- Headhunting services
The statistics above prove that even with the ADA in place, having a disability makes it more difficult to get a job. Don’t be ashamed to reach out wherever you can for help.
Always speak up for yourself. Make sure the jobs you are seeking are not below your intellectual abilities.
Tip 2: Know the Building
If, when and to whom you disclose your disability is entirely your decision. If you choose not to disclose, you still need to be sure the building meets your needs before an in-person meeting.
Have a friend or family member call to ask if the building is accessible. That term is general and means different things for everyone, so future accommodations might be necessary. (See above for some basics.) But any barrier that keeps you from having a successful interview or first day should be addressed as soon as possible.
If you are a wheelchair user and there is a huge staircase in front of the building, for example, you need to know of alternative entrances. Having a friend call is a way to maintain your right of non-disclosure for as long as you can. They don’t have to identify themselves or ask anything beyond basics.
Look at the bathroom before the interview if you can. If the bathroom doesn’t meet your needs or is being used for storage, address the issue carefully. Do not view the facilities with your employer.
If you feel like your rights are being violated, record it. Digital records are more reliable than paper these days as it’s more difficult to misplace them.
If you don’t feel comfortable asking a superior to record agreements or conversations for you, do it yourself. If your rights are being violated, you’ll need to prove it in court, and that’s not easy. The more records you have, the better your case will be. Contact a lawyer or call the EEOC for more information.
Guest Contributed by Sarah Turner
Sarah is an experienced content writer and digital marketer. She is a well-versed online strategist and produces quality content to help others improve their website. Her expertise covers site development, social media promotion, SEO and content creation.
5 Tips For Avoiding Miscommunication in the Workplace
Career Advice, Guest ContributionBy Guest Contributor
New research into communication in the workplace has revealed that 56% of all workers have committed some kind of miscommunication in the office (defined in the study as unintentionally sending a communication to the wrong person at work).
Communication is a key aspect of your everyday working life but, clearly, there is work to be done when trying to get your point across. Follow these five tips and minimize the likelihood of a misunderstanding in your office.
1. Use the best methods available
Alongside investigating how often miscommunication occurs in the workplace, TollFreeForwarding’s recent research uncovered the mediums with which it takes places.
Email was the chief culprit, with just over a third (34%) saying they’d sent an email to the wrong person when at work. Other platforms where regular miscommunication occurs include texts or instant messages (such as Whatsapp) at 22%.
Despite it probably being your go-to method for communicating in the office (269 billion are sent worldwide every day), email isn’t actually the most efficient way of communicating at work.
This is particularly true when communicating internally, so take a look at which platforms you predominantly use and look to give new ones a try. Try collaboration tools like Skype (which had a much lower 16% miscommunication rate in the survey) or Slack, which are designed for inter-team comms. You could even go a little old-fashioned and encourage more face-to-face communication. Some companies have incorporated tech-free office hours in a bid to encourage more verbal communication.
2. Know your data restrictions
Data compliance is everyone’s responsibility in business, but the research revealed how often information is leaked by employees. Almost a quarter (23%) of the workforce said they had sent some form of confidential information to the wrong person at work. Most of this was personal information about another colleague (13%), but that still leaves 10% of workers who have admitted to miscommunicating confidential business information. This can often be down to not applying the correct level of protection for your data, or simply using the wrong platform. Again, emails aren’t terribly secure, so communicating across them with confidential information can lead to disaster. Be extra vigilant with what you’re saying, who you’re saying it to and what medium you’re using to say it.
3. Separate work and personal communication
Methods for work and personal communication are often blurred. If using instant messaging to chat with others becomes the norm at home, chances are you’ll begin to adopt it in working life.
This does come with its own complications, particularly if you’re using the same device in both instances. Almost one in five (19%) said they’d left a voicemail on a colleague’s mobile phone that it wasn’t intended for, and just over one in five (21%) said they have accidentally sent a photo or video to a colleague.Depending on the content, this can be embarrassing for both the sender and receiver of these communications.
17% of workers said they had sent insulting comments to the wrong person by accident. The majority of these instances (10%) were comments about someone who wasn’t the receiver of the communication, but the remaining 7% admitted to accidentally sending insulting comments about the person who received it.
There are vastly different communicative expectations between work life and home life. Get it wrong, and this can lead to inappropriate content being sent to a colleague at work. To avoid the potential pitfalls, look to separate work and personal communication wherever possible. As an easy starter, pick up a cheap work mobile phone and don’t use your personal email address for any work-based communications.
4. Don’t be afraid to speak up
That last point should be applied as a general rule in your communicative habits. Bad communication at work happens – it’s a skill to get it right and sometimes we fail to hit the mark. This can lead to unwarranted stress, confusion, unclear strategies and missed deadlines.Sometimes, it can be daunting to approach your boss if you didn’t understand their instruction, but it’s a key part of avoiding miscommunication in the office. If in doubt, just ask.
5. Try something new
Like an earlier suggestion, you could choose to switch up your daily communication methods and attempt to loosen your reliance on technology. Frank, face-to-face conversation is always going to be the most efficient way to discuss workplace problems and bring about solutions. So, how can you incorporate more of it into your working day?
An alternative to the tech-free hour mentioned above is the “Scrum” or “Daily Standup”. This is essentially a brief, daily team meeting that gives everyone an opportunity to mention blockages and barriers to success. Issues can be addressed early at the start of the day and you can avoid a back-and-forth email exchange that can so easily be misinterpreted or ignored.
Where miscommunication occurs in the office
Alarmingly, throughout the research conducted, men were found to miscommunicate at work with much more regularity. In every aspect of miscommunication investigated in the survey, men were found to do it more.
Earlier, we said that 56% of workers had miscommunicated in the office – but break it down by gender and the story is different. 70% of men say they have miscommunicated in the office, compared to just 49% of women. The same is true of the method of communication. For example, 43% of men have accidentally sent an email to the wrong person at work – 12 percentage points higher than women.
As for the content of the communication, the trend continues. Over a third of men have accidentally sent some confidential information (35%), almost double that of women (18%). Similarly, more than a quarter of men (26%) have sent insulting comments to the wrong person at work – the same category is just 15% for women.
In summary, women are much better at avoiding miscommunication in the office than their male counterparts – but that too comes with its own risks. To boost productivity and avoid the embarrassing pitfalls of poor office communication, we’ll need to give and take instructions from both men and women. Following the tips above, and encouraging others to do the same, could lead to a decrease in the level of miscommunication we see today.
Voice of Experience: Vilaiporn Taweelappontong | PwC Thailand
Voices of Experience“In our culture, many young women still shy away from sharing their dreams, as they do not want to be seen as aggressive. But my message is that it’s ok to speak up. It’s your career, and you are the one responsible for it,” she says.
She notes that in Asian cultures, employees are taught to look to supervisors for approval before proceeding with any tasks or making big decisions and that if you work hard enough and do a really good job, you will be noticed and considered for promotion. But while in the United States office, she realized she was missing opportunities by not speaking up, and soon decided that being more vocal and visible and sharing career aspirations and then aggressively pursuing them would lead to success. That, combined with a strong network and supportive mentors, have propelled her career.
From Consulting to Leading
Taweelappontong has spent more than 20 years in IT consulting, with the past five as a country leader. She started her career in Thailand with a different global consulting firm, with the intent to just stay for a few years before moving to the corporate environment. But after a few projects, she fell in love with the speed of the consulting business and the opportunity to meet people and learn from the best, along with working with different technologies. She had the opportunity to work in many countries, including three years in the United States, where she learned a great deal about leadership, practice building and people management.
One of the professional achievements she’s most proud of is building the Thailand practice, achieving more than 75 percent growth in the past five years and growing the team substantially.
Earlier in her career, she preferred working with technology, rather than dealing with people. “Technologies are much easier to handle, since you don’t need to address emotional people or tough characters,” says Taweelappontong.
So when offered opportunities to step up and lead, she was hesitant at first, but having good coaches and mentors supported her confidence by allowing her to make mistakes and share her worst fears in order to learn and grow. Although she has conquered that reticence and has proven to be an effective leader, technology remains her area of most interest. She is currently working on several projects where the team is assessing how emerging technologies can help improve clients’ back office operations by automating tasks that are currently done by humans and using analytics to help inform better decisions. The goal is not necessarily to reduce costs but to improve efficiency, reduce human error and redeploy employees to more interesting and strategic roles, such as customer service and analytics.
“As a business technologist, I’m always passionate about learning the new technologies, like how robotics can perform a surgery, how AI can help with screening candidates and how analytics can help predict customers’ and employees’ behavior and needs,” Taweelappontong says.
Helping Create Balance
IT consulting is a demanding job and that can lead many women to resign once they reach the manager level in order to gain more time for their families. Taweelappontong says that as exit interviews continued to show the parallel path of promotions coinciding with family, they worked with HR to introduce flexible work arrangements.
For example, one single mom who needed to come in later in the morning after school drop-off or leave early some days to help with homework, received a 60 percent work arrangement that allowed her to coordinate with colleagues to meet those needs. Another manager whose husband asked her to resign for more family time was given a three-day-a-week schedule. “These flexible work arrangement programs help retain many of our talents in the workplace, and when we expanded the program to all genders, many men also applied.”
Taweelappontong helps maintain her own balance as a serious yoga practitioner, finding that the mind-body practice releases stress and relaxes her mind. She has blocked three hours every Saturday morning to go to the studio and practice yoga, and over the years has developed a network with a group of people who enjoy full-body stretching.
“Typically people who practice yoga also have an overall healthy life style — eating well and living well,” she notes, adding that she has picked up many health tips from the class.
Voice of Experience: Emma Maconick, Partner, Shearman & Sterling
Voices of Experience“If I could, I would tell the junior version of myself to focus on relationships because they will all matter in some way,” she says. “Giving without expecting anything in return will do more to enhance your career than anything else. The act of being a helpful, useful person in your network is an incredibly valuable skill.”
Seizing Opportunities Provides A Strong Foundation
“Meandering.” That’s how Maconick describes her career, which began in England in the mid- 90s. Back then, she was doing computer and tech work for corporate entities and capital markets. And the more she heard about private equity investing in the then-new “internet,” the more interested she became in the sector.
Thanks to a contact she made at a casual party, she ended up working for an Australian law firm’s Auckland, New Zealand office, which in retrospect she believes was an excellent career move. She found herself traveling up the career ladder, becoming a big fish in a little pond with tremendous exposure to a host of smaller tech companies.
Later on, thanks to a former colleague in the San Francisco Bay Area who knew she was interested in transactional law, she came back to the United States to work at Davis Polk. She worked there for several years before moving to Shearman in June.
While Maconick has spearheaded a variety of impressive technology projects, product launches and fascinating deals over the years, she is most proud of the teams she’s built throughout her career. “My legacy isn’t as much what I personally will do, but what the people I have managed will do,” she says. “I tend to give them a lot of rope to venture out on their own, but I am also there to catch them before they fall. My job is to make them not need me, but always want me,” she says.
Her current work is focused on data, sitting at the intersection of intellectual property, cybersecurity and governance. While an Economist article had famously stated that “data is the new oil,” Maconick goes a step further. “I think it’s even more elemental; it’s the new carbon,” she says, adding that everything will be data-driven, which is why issues around artificial intelligence and ethics and how we build the upcoming digital world are so crucial.
Standing Out To Get Ahead
Maconick recommends that professional women develop an indispensable set of skills, and put their own spin on it.
She says it’s imperative to find out what’s valued in a particular organization — whether it’s culture, sales, creativity or something else — and focus on that. “Nothing magnifies your voice more than being able to generate work for your team.”
As women move up in the corporate world, Maconick believes women can take advantage of their inherent disposition for being relationship and empathy-focused. As computers take over manual tasks, interconnectedness, an area where women excel, will be a real value driver, allowing them to understand clients and their business challenges.
“These skills can shift the balance of power in your favor,” she says.
Professional women can help uplift others through tiny, incremental changes. For instance, if there is a spot open on a key project, suggest it be staffed with a woman capable of doing the job.
Shearman places a lot of importance on diversity. The firm provides skill-building sessions such as “practice your pitch,” and encourages associates to take the time to participate in conferences. It also holds monthly meetings featuring new opportunities or support with professional growth.
Finding Balance With Varied Interests
Maconick is active with the national group Ellevate, as well as Shearman’s WISER (Women’s Initiative for Success, Excellence and Retention) group. She also sits on the board of Upward Women, which focuses on elevating senior-level women. “The key is to find or form your own stiletto network or book club or whatever works for you, as a way to connect with other professionals.”
Most of her time outside work is devoted to her two sons, ages three and seven. Although her schedule is limited, she also enjoys ceramic arts and pottery, which provide both a mental and creative boost.
A travel junkie, Maconick is proud of her 6 x 8 foot map covered in pins marking all the places she’s been. “My life is oriented toward the next cool trip,” she says, adding that her kids are becoming highly adept travelers as well. She continues, “I traveled a lot as a kid and love other cultures, food and languages; whether we seek them in the next state or on the other side of the world, I find it enormously enriching.”
Why Gender Equality is Good for Men – Part Three of Three
Career AdviceGuest Contibuted column by Lisa Levey
Parts one and two of Exploring Why Gender Equality is Good for Men have highlighted how the familiar trope that gender equality is a boon for women and a bust for men is just plain wrong.
Today, we spotlight how gender equality is linked to positive career, and most significantly overall life, satisfaction.
Gender equality supports men’s satisfaction in the workplace and in their lives
Men in more egalitarian couples report greater job satisfaction and less intention to leave their jobs. It follows that men who don’t feel as beholden to problematic work norms [having more flexibility and choices] and who spend more time with their children, developing stronger relationships, are better able to enjoy rather than feeling trapped by their work.
Men who feel less pressure to conform to rigid stereotypical gender roles have a stronger sense of being in a high quality relationship with their partner, and may even have more, and better, sex. A controversial 2014 New York Times article Does a More Equal Marriage Mean Less Sex?, that reported more traditional gender norms meant less sex when it came to household chores, caused a stir. The problem was the 1980’s data meant many of the couples married in the 1970’s or earlier, when changing gender norms were far less acceptable.
A Cornell professor and her colleagues analyzed 2006 data and found more egalitarian couples indicated having sex as frequently, if not more so, in addition to reporting as great or greater satisfaction, than peers in more traditional relationships.
Based on data for men across European countries and American states, a 2010 study concluded that men in more gender equal societies – compared with those in more traditional ones – had a better quality of life overall based on factors such as less violence and stronger marriages.
It’s not difficult to understand why many men feel disoriented as shifting gender norms continue to redefine what it means to be a man. The masculinity code – translated as needing to always be in control, focusing disproportionately on accomplishment, suppressing emotions of sadness and tenderness, and perhaps most challenging of all, continually needing to prove one’s manliness, day in and day out – was clear.
But that definition of masculinity, while accruing benefits for men, also does great harm. Ironically, that masculine worldview is largely responsible for the challenges plaguing men today – jobs sent overseas to maximize profits, a revised employer- employee value proposition that’s transactional in nature, an implosion of the financial markets brought on by out-sized risks, technology without safeguards, and the list goes on.
Men demonizing gender equality are sadly fighting the wrong enemy. Gender equality is about men having more choices and less pressure, more support and less isolation. Males live in a gender straight jacket with a long list of “shoulds”that define how men must behave – and not behave – to be deemed worthy.
In recent decades the world has opened up for women to new possibilities and ways of being [and yes, big challenges remain] yet men are deeply constrained by old gender scripts.
Gender equality is not the enemy of men. In fact, it just may be thing that can finally set them free.
Contributor Bio
Lisa Levey is a veteran diversity consultant, having worked with leading organizations for more than two decades to assist them in realizing the underutilized leadership potential of women. Her current work focuses on engaging men as allies and partners. She led the design and development of the Forte Foundation’s Male Ally signature resource platform for engaging men in diversity work and architected a pilot program to launch corporate male ally groups. She blogs for the Huffington Post and the Good Men Project on gender norms at work and at home. In the spring of 2018 partnering with her husband Bryan, Lisa is launching Genderworks, a coaching practice for dual-career professional parents to support them in navigating the obstacles to gender equality at work and at home. Lisa earned an MBA with highest honors from the Simmons School of Management and a BS with distinction from Cornell University in applied economics.
Disclaimer: The opinions and views of guest contributors are not necessarily those of theglasshammer.com
Can a Notepad and Pencil Save your Sanity?
Career Advice, Guest ContributionImage via Shutterstock
Guest contributed by Sarah Dixon
You may have caught the headlines recently that being a mother is the equivalent of working two and a half jobs.
Mothers put in a whopping 98 hours of work in a week, between their actual jobs and time spent caring for children. Ms Average starts at 6:23am and carries on until 8:31pm. Although this information (gathered from a study by the US juice company, Welch’s) may grab headlines, it really only confirms to women what we already know; our plates are full.
Another survey, back in 2013, claimed that 85% of women feel over-burdened, and listed 26 jobs that women ‘have to’ do on top of their paid work. Participants revealed that they often had so much to remember that things inevitably got forgotten – 1 in 8 said they’d forgotten to pick their kids up from school!
Of course, what we need to do is to change society to make sure that women don’t take on the brunt of the caring duties (whether it’s for children or older family members) and that men truly co-parent and take on a bigger share of the parenting. But while we’re working towards a change in society, how can we save our sanity?
Go Analog
While there are any number of apps out there that claim to help you manage a busy schedule, many people are finding the key to managing the tasks in their lives by going analogue. The system that is helping people all over the world to get organized is called Bullet Journalling or BuJo for short. It was developed by Ryder Carroll, a digital product designer from New York but is now used by converts all over the world.
From the relatively simple beginnings of Carroll’s system, bullet journalling has gone on to become a catch-all term for a pen and paper system. The Bullet Journal Junkies group on Facebook has almost one hundred and fifty thousand members, who share their own take on the idea. The most commonly used features are: An index to help you find information, and a daily/weekly to-do list that is kept deliberately brief. Tasks that don’t get done are migrated to the next day/week so they don’t get forgotten. Double page ‘spreads’ of reference information or long-term goals/challenges are also common; for example weight-loss trackers.
Of course, this isn’t the only system. Pen and paper journaling has become an industry in recent years with some systems launching via Kickstarter campaigns and others using more traditional means. What do they have I common? They tend to either be in a hardback journal or a binder which means they can be carried around with you, without getting damaged. They also make it a pleasure to use; focusing on good paper, including inspirational quotes or the opportunity to personalise or colour them in.
Brain Dump
Part of the reason that being busy is stressful, is because our brains are working overtime to remember all the things we need to do. That’s why a brain-dump is so helpful when dealing with anxiety. Rather than mentally juggling a hundred different things, you can just ‘download’ them into your journal and relax, knowing that you won’t forget them.
A journal becomes a permanent brain dump. Once you get into using a system, you come to trust that you won’t forget things; everything you need to remember is there, even that appointment in six-months-time and which episode of the Gilmore Girls you need to watch next. That frees up brain-space because the only thing you need to hold onto is ‘remember to check your journal’.
Your journal can also become a useful source of reference information. The Bullet Journal Junkies facebook group is filled with stories of how someone got a job, or a promotion, because they were in a meeting and had the information they needed at hand, because they had their journal with them.
Getting Started
Although journalling addicts may spend a fortune on journals, pens and washi tape, to get started you only need the nearest notepad and a pencil. Use the system for a while, and if it works for you? Then you can invest in something that will last longer. You may become one of the people who finds their busy life is much more manageable using this system.
The important part of any journaling system is that you should want to use it. It’s no use persisting with a pre-printed journal that doesn’t have the features you need or drawing up your own every week if your time is better spent elsewhere. Experiment with different ideas and see what works best for you.
Disclaimer: The opinions and views of guest contributors are not necessarily those of theglasshammer.com
Voice of Experience: Laura Takacs, Managing Director, Goldman Sachs
Voices of ExperienceThroughout her career she has successfully operated through many exciting times, from navigating the financial crisis from a tech perspective to building systems for a new business venture to a myriad of technical issues that can arise day to day – and she has learned through each of them that nothing is insurmountable.
“The strongest collaboration, teamwork and creative solutions have come during these tough periods, and I have emerged with unparalleled experience and an attitude to tackle anything,” she says.
Engineering a Successful Career
After earning a BCE in Computer Engineering from Villanova University and an MS in Computer Science from the University of Pennsylvania, Takacs started her career hacking into computers, as one of the “good guys,” finding vulnerabilities in military systems.
She joined Goldman Sachs as an analyst engineer in 1999 and has spent the past 20 years working in several different areas of the firm, from developing electronic trading and risk systems to her current role as global head of Human Capital Management (HCM), Compensation Accounting and Services Engineering. Takacs notes that the mobility Goldman Sachs encourages has allowed her to have incredibly broad experiences as an engineer.
Her career trajectory has been gratifying. The adrenaline rush from earlier experiences of hacking has continued as technology has shaken up every aspect of finance. “Earlier in my career, most of the tech disruption was happening in the trading businesses, so I spent my time engineering the exciting world of Fixed Income. But now a lot of the innovation and energy has spread to other areas of the firm, including HCM and our real estate technology groups.”
In her current role, she helps determine the future state technology for the firms’ global building footprint, influences infrastructure for security surveillance and protection of the firm’s assets and people globally, and applies analytics to help drive informed decisions regarding our people.
Building the Pipeline
Takacs mentions something that is top-of-mind for most people today in education and technology: the fact that many girls opt out from a potential career in engineering at an early stage. “We have a lot of work to do to ensure that girls don’t decide engineering is not a viable path before they have even had exposure to technology,” she says. “Unfortunately, even though technology and engineering can be such an adventure, many girls don’t even have it on their radar as a career path.”
She is working hard to combat this issue and is involved in a number of initiatives inside and outside the firm.
Throughout her time at GS, Takacs has been actively involved in the Women in Engineering Network, an organization built around the mission of recruiting, developing, retaining and promoting women in Engineering, and has served as its co-head in the Americas for the past seven years. The organization also focuses on community outreach to girls through programs including teaching computer topics in schools and working with groups like Girls Who Code, all contributing to the purpose of developing the pipeline.
“It’s rewarding to give back, help influence some of these programs and work with women and girls who are equally passionate, supportive and engaged in the importance of these programs at a firm like Goldman Sachs that is highly supportive and takes concrete actions to improve diversity,” she says.
Takacs says that early in her career engineering was less supported and more scrappy. “When I started working, I had to assemble my own circuit boards. Now engineers get the benefit of open source software and cloud infrastructure. But, I still carry a Leatherman in my purse just in case I need to cobble together some electronics.”
As a mom to three kids, ages 9, 7 and 6, she knows it’s vital to have women in senior positions whom other women can look up to as role models. “As senior professionals in Finance, we work hard and sometimes that hard work trickles into personal time,” she says, “For example, this past weekend, my team and I spent hours fixing a challenging issue to ensure it was resolved for the entire firm by start of business Monday morning. This happens periodically but I’ve still managed to go to over 170 of my kids sporting events and activities last year – baseball, basketball, softball, soccer matches, tumbling, cheerleading and dance performances as well as being a classroom mom and active in the school Parent Teacher Organization. It is rewarding when my kids see how hard I work, but also that I am able to participate in their activities. It is not easy, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Having women in leadership positions allows more junior colleagues to see that it is possible to balance work, family and other obligations and interests. “The number of questions I get about my career path when I speak to other female engineers underscores that this is on their mind,” she notes.
She believes in balancing her mental activities at work with physical activities, including running and participating in endurance and obstacle races. She enjoys the fast pace that comes with balancing family time and work responsibilities, so it is no surprise she is excited about an upcoming event – a gift from her husband of a trip to a speedway to race cars . “I enjoy action in whatever form it comes,” she notes.
Shearman & Sterling’s Fintech Foundry and Women’s Inclusion Network Host “Leaders in Blockchain” Panel
NewsShearman & Sterling LLP’s women’s inclusion network, known as WISER, and the firm’s FinTech Foundry, recently joined forces with The Collective Future, a global collective of leaders in blockchain and cryptocurrency, to host a panel discussion in New York City on recent developments in blockchain technology, including its wide-ranging impact and its evolving legal and regulatory landscape.
Donna Parisi, Partner and Co-Head of Financial Services and FinTech at Shearman & Sterling, moderated the panel. Rupa Briggs and Mary Pennisi, co-chairs of WISER and members of the FinTech Foundry, planned and opened the panel with welcoming remarks. Joining them were a panel of female experts on blockchain and law, including Emma Channing, CEO and General Counsel of Satis Group; Wendy Callaghan, Chief Innovation Legal Officer and Associate General Counsel at AIG; Joyce Lai, Law and Technology Officer at ConsenSys; and Cathy Yoon, General Counsel of Genesis Block and GB Capital Markets. Joshua Ashley Klayman, Chair of Wall Street Blockchain Alliance’s Legal Working group and CEO and Founder of Klayman LLC and Inflection Point Blockchain Advisors, offered opening remarks and creatively introduced the concept of blockchain technology with a visualization exercise.
The panel demonstrated that women are making strides in becoming experts in this emerging field, and highlighted the speakers’ expertise through a lively discussion about recent regulatory developments in blockchain, use cases in various industries, privacy issues, smart contracts, and challenges ahead in developing the law applicable to this evolving technology.
In the U.S. especially, the legal and regulatory frameworks surrounding initial coin offerings, for instance, are not being established quickly enough, creating uncertainty that leads many entrepreneurs to seek other countries in which to do business. This is a topic that is echoed by the industry as a whole. In late September, executives from the cryptocurrency industry, financial institutions and venture capital firms met in Washington, D.C. for a discussion with Ohio Representative Warren Davidson, who plans to introduce a bill that will aim to update regulations surrounding cryptocurrency offerings.
Another challenge to the growth of blockchain and cryptocurrency is the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). According to the panelists, it is still unclear how exactly the data privacy provisions of GDPR will impact how personal data is distributed on public blockchains in particular. The panelists noted that there is still no set definition of “erasure of data,” an important part of GDPR’s “right to be forgotten.” Without clear definitions, blockchain companies will face difficulty in maintaining compliance with GDPR.
Despite the challenges, the panelists were confident that there is ample room for growth for blockchain and cryptocurrency on a global scale. They recognized blockchain as offering new seats at the table and also discussed why blockchain appeals to women and led them to assume leadership roles in the space.
Ms. Parisi offered the theory that women are attracted to the field because they are not satisfied with the status quo and are driven to innovate. All agreed that diversity is an important objective and ingredient for success in technology in the future. Two of the panelists recalled meeting and learning from each other through a diversity mentorship program.
With events such as this one and the incredible examples set by the accomplished panelists, there is hope that more women will be motivated to take leadership positions in the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry, and become recognized for their expertise.
This article is part of Theglasshammer.com’s annual women in technology celebration and we are recognizing women in technology with coverage from Oct 22nd to Nov. 22nd. Enjoy profiles and related articles!
OP-ED: Navigating Employment with a Disability
Career Advice, Guest ContributionOctober is Disabilities Awareness Month
According to the most recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate for persons with a disability is 81.3% that means only a 18.7% employment rate. Among persons with disabilities ages 16-64, the unemployment-population ratio is 70.7% (29.3% employment-population ratio)
These numbers prove we have inclusivity problems in areas beyond the media & government websites. By “we” I mean people with disabilities. I am a wheelchair user and part of the disabled minority that has a higher-education degree. I am part of the 32% of working disabled persons who work part time and the 10.6% of working disabled persons who are currently self-employed.
At the time I’m writing this post, I’m simultaneously trying to boost my freelance salary to a full-time equivalent and/or find full-time employment. I wish I could claim to be an “expert” on helping people with disabilities find employment; I’m not. I’m a freelance writer who knows what the climb toward (and fall away) from full-time employment feels like.
I’m always learning on my journey. One thing I know is that if you’re looking for a job, it’s important to know your rights as a disabled person under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA,) the U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment Commission (EEOC,) the Department of Justice (DOJ,) the Department of Labor (DOL) and state and local government. All of the aforementioned departments are responsible for upholding the rights provided to you by the ADA.
I’ve also acquired a wealth of tips that have made job searching with a disability less overwhelming. Hopefully, this post will make your climb a little bit easier.
Know Your Employment Rights & What They Mean
After July 26, 1994, the ADA protected persons with disabilities from job discrimination by “all employers, including State and local government employers, with 15 or more employees.”
That sounds simple enough, but as with most laws, you won’t clearly understand your rights until you know the definitions of key terms and know where the loopholes are.
To be covered by the ADA, you must have all of the academic qualifications and work experience required by the employer to do the job. Your disability must be a “substantial” impairment, meaning that it affects a major life activity like seeing, hearing, speaking, walking, breathing, self-care, completing manual tasks, learning, and other functions. You must be able to perform the essential roles of the job with or without reasonable accommodations.
“Reasonable accommodation” can be defined as a modification or change to the job or environment that helps a disabled person perform essential tasks or receive equal benefits to other employees. This includes the application process.
Some examples of modifications include providing readers or interpreters, adjusting work schedules, modifying training or tests and more. Your employer is required to provide you with reasonable accommodations unless they can prove that doing so would cause “undue hardship.” Undue hardship is substantial difficulty or financial distress.
Employment practices that the ADA covers includes:
During the hiring process, your employer cannot ask you if you are disabled or about the severity of your disability. They can ask you questions about completing job-related tasks with or without accommodation, including asking you to demonstrate how you would perform a task.
You cannot be required to take a medical exam before being offered a job. After a job offer, an employer can ask that you complete a medical exam if they require one of all employees. You cannot be discriminated against based on any information that comes from the exam. When you begin working, your employer can only ask questions about your disability if they relate to the job. All of your medical information is to be kept confidential.
Your employer is not required to offer a health care package that includes pre-existing conditions. The ADA does not require that a person with a disability be hired over other qualified applicants because they have a disability.
An employer can refuse to hire a candidate if they pose a threat to themselves or others. The threat must be an objective fact based on evidence. The employer cannot refuse to hire you because of a “slightly increased risk” or perceived risk to you or others.
Building Codes & the ADA
All of the employment protection in the world won’t help you if a building’s structure is inherently inaccessible. The ADA has compliance guidelines for contractors so there is an accessibility standard when building businesses. There are a lot of technical points regarding space needed for wheelchairs and it’s very technically worded and impossible to memorize. Unfortunately, there are loopholes and exceptions written in, as with most laws. But, it’s good to understand some basic rules and note if they aren’t followed upon your first visit to the building.
Tips for the Job Search & Beyond
The hard truth is that the ADA is not your biggest advocate, you have to be. It takes us more work to land the interview, and we can’t relax when we’re in the room if we want to get the job. Here are some tips I’ve learned to help you make job searching less stressful than it already is.
Tip 1: Use Your Resources
If you have resources available to help you find a job at the level your qualification/experience allows, use them. Able-bodied people do it all the time.
Networking with a disability can be difficult, especially in person. I find that as a wheelchair user, I’m constantly fighting to be heard. A group of people (OK, honestly even one person) is not likely to kneel down on my level, so I have to look up constantly and be loud often.
It shakes my confidence, especially in professional situations. Disabled people know that the ADA only protects us so much. Do what you need to do to level the playing field as much as possible. Here are some ideas:
The statistics above prove that even with the ADA in place, having a disability makes it more difficult to get a job. Don’t be ashamed to reach out wherever you can for help.
Always speak up for yourself. Make sure the jobs you are seeking are not below your intellectual abilities.
Tip 2: Know the Building
If, when and to whom you disclose your disability is entirely your decision. If you choose not to disclose, you still need to be sure the building meets your needs before an in-person meeting.
Have a friend or family member call to ask if the building is accessible. That term is general and means different things for everyone, so future accommodations might be necessary. (See above for some basics.) But any barrier that keeps you from having a successful interview or first day should be addressed as soon as possible.
If you are a wheelchair user and there is a huge staircase in front of the building, for example, you need to know of alternative entrances. Having a friend call is a way to maintain your right of non-disclosure for as long as you can. They don’t have to identify themselves or ask anything beyond basics.
Look at the bathroom before the interview if you can. If the bathroom doesn’t meet your needs or is being used for storage, address the issue carefully. Do not view the facilities with your employer.
If you feel like your rights are being violated, record it. Digital records are more reliable than paper these days as it’s more difficult to misplace them.
If you don’t feel comfortable asking a superior to record agreements or conversations for you, do it yourself. If your rights are being violated, you’ll need to prove it in court, and that’s not easy. The more records you have, the better your case will be. Contact a lawyer or call the EEOC for more information.
Guest Contributed by Sarah Turner
Sarah is an experienced content writer and digital marketer. She is a well-versed online strategist and produces quality content to help others improve their website. Her expertise covers site development, social media promotion, SEO and content creation.
6 Ways to Mentor Others to Change their Trajectory and Yours!
Career Advice, Guest ContributionIn all great ‘mentor-mentee’ relationships, both lives are changed for the better.
As a mentor, not only can you share your experience to benefit another, you also gain from their unique perspectives and insights that differ to yours. Mentoring is a two-way street where, if maximized, can contribute to both you and your mentee’s growth and success in surprising ways.
If you desire to create successful mentoring relationships, here are six essential “do’s” and “don’ts”:
Tip 1: Don’t advise
Considering the traditional meaning of mentor is “advisor,” shouldn’t the one thing a mentor definitely be doing, is giving advice? Sharing your experiences and making suggestions is not a bad thing, but a truly empowering mentor knows that what creates more than giving someone an answer, is asking them questions. Asking questions allows you to invite the unique leadership capacities of another to come to the fore, rather than mirroring yours.
What if it was never about getting someone to do it your way? Even when someone comes to you for advice, ask them simple questions like, “What do you know about this?” “What are you aware of that’s required here?” and begin empowering them to find their own way.
Tip 2: Do Inspire
Inspiring others is ten thousand times more effective than advising them. By you not holding yourself back from being successful, being committed to never giving in and never giving up – and going for it with the speed, perseverance and determination you do – you become an inspiration for others to go as well.
Inspiring rather than advising also helps you avoid the trap of trying to get people to become more than they are willing to be. Most times, you want more for other people than they want for themselves. Trying to be the motor for people that don’t want to go takes a lot of energy and doesn’t lead anywhere.
Put your energy towards those you know can and will go further. Ask yourself: What unstoppable greatness can I choose to be to inspire others? Who can receive my contribution? Who is willing to be successful? Asking these questions will make you aware of those who can go and those who can’t and where you can make the greatest difference.
Tip 3: Don’t set goals
Particularly in a business mentoring relationship, the expectation is for the person you mentor to succeed by setting goals and attaining them with your help. The danger of setting goals however, is clearly indicated in the origin of the word, meaning “gaol” (a limit or boundary). With goals, your sights are fixed on an outcome. You become hyper-focused and invested in that result, excluding any new information that potentially threatens it – even if it would mean a change for the better.
Do set targets
Instead of identifying fixed goals, create broader targets of what you would like to achieve. Unlike goals, Targets are movable and more flexible. You can shoot at them numerous times and you can adapt and change them. As you create a project or run a business, you have to be open to constant change and re-evaluating your targets to match the next level of where you want to go.
Ask yourself every day: What is my target? Is it still relevant, or do I need to change it? Adaptability is a highly desired and required leadership skill. By setting targets in your mentoring relationships, you will increase your ability to use adaptability to create greater than expected.
Tip 4: Don’t visualize
Visualizing is great, but it has one big limitation: your mind. When you visualize, you can only see as far as your brain’s capacity to visualize things. It cannot go beyond that. And there is much more available than what your mind can come up with!
Tip 5:Do actualize
Actualizing is not just about visualizing or talking about what you desire, but making it show up in physical reality. Trajectory change occurs when you actualize beyond what you can visualize, and it starts with a question. Ask: What can I truly create that is far greater than I can imagine? What steps can I take today so that what I am asking for can come to fruition? What action is required for this to actualize?
A question takes you beyond your mind and imagination. It takes you beyond definitions – definitions of success, of what is possible for you, your business, or another person. Definition by definition alone is a limitation. If you don’t define your future, your success, your capacities – there are no limits to what you can achieve.
Don’t forget to allow mentoring to be easy! Successful mentoring should not be all about what you do, but about what you choose to be in the world and with others that creates the future you would like to see.
Guest Contributions are not necessarily representative of theglasshammer.com’s views. We have no formal or informal connection with our guest contributors.
About the author
Susanna Mittermaier is a psychologist, psychotherapist and author of the #1 international bestselling book, “Pragmatic Psychology: Practical Tools for Being Crazy Happy.” A sought after public speaker, Susanna has been featured in magazines such as TV soap, Women’s Weekly, Empowerment Channel Voice America, Om Times, Motherpedia, Newstalk New Zealand and Holistic Bliss. Susanna offers a new paradigm of therapy called Pragmatic Psychology and is known for her ability to transform people’s problems and difficulties into possibilities and powerful choices. Follow on Twitter @AccessSusanna.
Voice of Experience: Jessica Tan, Marketing Director, Head of Global Field Marketing, FIS
Voices of ExperienceFIS’ Jessica Tan credits two factors for her ability to segue from an education in psychology and theater to her current position heading a global field marketing team in a fintech company.
Firstly, agreeing to try things outside her comfort zone, and secondly, realizing that her success depended on finding people who were willing to teach her. Tan comments, “The people you network with can help open up avenues that you aren’t able to open on your own,” she says.
A Career Path Winding Through Locations and Industries
Tan’s first job interning at a lifestyle magazine was the “most fun and carefree” job she ever held. She then joined the “real world;” after finishing her education in Singapore, she moved to Sweden for a position as a project manager and editor at a communications firm, working for Swedish multinational clients. Upon a return to Singapore, she dabbled in PR before ending up as a marketing manager for an Australian bank, which ultimately opened her eyes to the world of financial technology.
During the financial crisis in 2008 she began looking for new opportunities and joined SunGard Financial Systems (ultimately acquired by FIS) in 2009 as its Asia-Pacific PR and marketing manager, subsequently taking on additional roles in international marketing, where she worked with emerging markets such as China, the Middle East and Latin America. She has now been there for almost 10 years and currently heads a team of 14 marketers responsible for executing global marketing campaigns.
This international career has sparked several professional achievements she is proud of: One major one was beginning her career in Sweden, where English is not the first language; although her colleagues were effectively bilingual in Swedish and English, she was able to eventually converse and conduct business in Swedish. “I grew up speaking English and Mandarin, and learning another language really helped me broaden my ability to understand how different cultures create different business environments,” she says.
These early experiences provided her with the sensitivity to work with people from all types of cultures, which paved the way for her global role today where nearly 80 percent of her interactions are outside of the United States, including Asia, Middle East, Africa and Europe.
She has worked on the firm’s evolution of its marketing model over the past five years – from one that depended on events and other traditional forms of marketing to capitalizing on the explosion of marketing automation, and using technology to track efforts and improve the effectiveness of outreach.
Learning to Find Balance
In her early years Tan notes that she threw herself into her work, believing that the more she got done, the more she would advance her career. Then while her mom battled cancer for three years, she realized that she needed to learn to carve out time for her family while continuing to maintain the same high quality of work, delivered as efficiently as possible.
“You want to be present when you’re with your family, so the solution to that is to become more efficient at work. Then you can go home and not bring your worries with you.” In fact, today she says her role models are those who have found ways to balance their responsibilities at home and work. “Often I see women who take on many burdens at home but are able to perform well in both settings – not taking their problems home or bringing their domestic issues to work,” she notes. “I admire those who can juggle and don’t let their worries invade either sphere. Both sides sculpt you as a person; you do what you need to do at work and home.”
She feels fortunate to work for a company that understands the numerous roles its employees play and recognizes that it’s important to offer day-to-day flexibility to manage work as well as home life.
“I can be where I need to be for my family and for my work, whichever I need to focus on at the time,” says Tan. As mom to a three-year-old son, she appreciates working for a company that believes people can project manage their own time and one that is proactive in ensuring that there are strong women across the C-suite.
Given her international experience, Tan notes that she still loves to travel, frequently visiting her in-laws in Europe and fitting in weekend holidays whenever she can.