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Confronting Disability Bias During Deaf Awareness Month
September marks Deaf Awareness Month, a time to celebrate the rich heritage, culture, and contributions of the Deaf community while reflecting on how we can build more inclusive spaces for people with disabilities. This month offers us an opportunity not just to learn about Deaf culture and history, but to examine our own biases and commit to meaningful inclusion that extends far beyond awareness campaigns. The Power of Deaf Culture and History The Deaf community has a vibrant, distinct culture with its own language, traditions, and values.
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Unpacking Coded Language in the Workplace
“Let’s keep this civil.” “That’s not very professional.” “We need to maintain a professional tone here.” These types of phrases echo through conference rooms and Slack channels daily, often delivered with apparent good intentions. After all, who doesn’t want a respectful, professional workplace? Yet for many employees, particularly those from marginalized communities, these seemingly neutral terms carry a hidden weight that can silence authentic voices and perpetuate exclusion. The challenge isn’t that civility and professionalism are inherently bad concepts.
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Labor Day 2025: A List of the Workers’ Rights Being Rolled Back, What’s Being Done, and What You Can Do
Labor Day is often treated like just another long weekend, but its roots run deep. It was created to honor the fight for fair wages, safe conditions, and dignity at work. This year, that legacy is more urgent than ever. Across the country, we’re watching a coordinated dismantling of worker protections, from collective bargaining rights and safety regulations to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs that support the most marginalized among us. In short, labor rights are under attack, and it’s happening fast. Your coworkers, your neighbors, maybe even you, are feeling the effects.
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What Happens When We Ignore the Warning Signs at Work
We notice the signs. We see the slurred speech in a meeting, sudden forgetfulness, a colleague stumbling over their words, or even their feet. But when it’s a leader, a founder, a long-time executive, people get real quiet. We’ve all seen it. A senior leader starts missing cues. They lose their train of thought in meetings. Their once-confident gait now looks uncertain. They take a wrong turn or get confused on a commute they used to navigate by heart. They repeat the same stories, forget key points, or fumble over details they used to command with ease.
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When Words Lose Their Meaning: The Weaponization of Language at Work and Beyond
We live in an era where words don’t just describe the world, they shape it. And increasingly, they’re being twisted into tools of control, erasure, and manipulation. Terms that once stood for fairness, care, and truth have been flipped into something else entirely. What happens when language itself becomes the battleground? The Hijacking of “Woke” and “DEI” “Woke” used to signal that someone had a deeper awareness of the world, meaning they were awakened to issues of injustice, systemic inequality, and the lived experiences of marginalized communities. But over time, it’s been hollowed out, caricatured, and repurposed into a slur.
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How to Respond When Someone Says Systemic Bias Isn’t Real
In 2025, the idea of “bias” is being twisted in ways that would’ve been hard to imagine a decade ago. Policies like the recent Executive Order on Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy claim to eliminate discrimination but end up dismantling tools like the disparate-impact standard, which was built to uncover hidden inequities. The language of fairness is being repurposed to make it harder to address unfairness. We’re in a political moment where conversations about systemic bias aren’t just polarizing, they’re being weaponized.
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Rethinking Power at Work: What Happens When We Build “With” Instead of “Over”
Most of us have experienced that invisible hierarchy in a workplace where decisions flow one way, power is guarded at the top, and collaboration is a buzzword more than a reality. The traditional “power-over” approach is so baked into our systems that it can feel inevitable. It’s the assumption that leaders must control, employees must comply, and the measure of success is who comes out on top. And the feeling is clearer now more than ever, as more workers are awakening to how power works in practical terms. But there’s another way to think about power at work: power-with.
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The Missing Middle: Why Most Change Efforts Fail at the People Level
When organizations go through change, whether it’s a new strategy, technology rollout, or restructuring, most of the focus goes to plans, timelines, and processes. The people side of change often gets overlooked, yet it’s the most important factor in whether the change sticks. This is what we call the “missing middle.” It’s the human layer of change, the part where fear, uncertainty, and identity shifts live. It’s where employees are asking: When this middle layer is ignored, even the most carefully planned initiatives can stall. Lasting change requires more than strategy and execution.
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Which Paid Time Off Practices Are Fair for Remote, Hybrid, and Front-Line Workers in 2025?
Paid time off (PTO) is often framed as a perk, but it’s not just something “nice” to have. It’s a fundamental necessity for employees to remain healthy, engaged, and able to perform at their best. Work doesn’t equal life. People have families, responsibilities, and identities outside of their jobs. Without true balance and recovery time, even the most committed employees will burn out. Post-pandemic, PTO has become both a symbol and a test of how much companies value their people. Are employees given real opportunities to step away, or is time off just another line item in the handbook?
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How to Move from Resistance to Resilience in Times of Change
Change is messy. Even when it promises better outcomes, it’s often met with resistance that can manifest as hesitation, skepticism, and fear. But resistance isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s a sign that people are paying attention and that they care about the impact of what’s happening. The real opportunity for leaders isn’t to bulldoze through resistance but to transform it into resilience. Resilient organizations don’t avoid change. Instead, they adapt, learn, and strengthen through it. They recognize that people’s initial pushback often holds valuable insight about what needs to be clarified, communicated, or aligned.
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Webinar Recap: Building Micro-Resilience at Work and Beyond
What does it mean to be resilient, not just in response to life’s major curveballs, but in the quieter, everyday moments that slowly chip away at our energy and focus? In our latest webinar, Felicia guided us through the concept of micro-resilience, a framework built on small, intentional practices that help us reset, recharge, and re-engage throughout the day. The session was rich with practical strategies, gentle mindset shifts, and powerful reminders that resilience doesn’t have to be big or dramatic. It can live in the little things we do, moment by moment.
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What New Labor Force Data Tells Us About Inclusion
A recent Brookings article shared some important findings about the state of the U.S. workforce, and while they might get lost in the current news firehose, they’re well worth our attention. The piece highlights several insights, but one headline stands out: prime-age labor force participation (ages 25–54) is at its highest point in more than 20 years, currently sitting at 83.4%. That’s not just good news for the economy, it’s a powerful reminder that people want to work when the conditions make it possible.