A lot of changes have happened at my company since I’ve started. A number of people have left, a few boomerangs have happened, and last week, the announcement of a new CEO came. The specific team I’m on has been growing quite quickly, and it’s been a really good feeling to know that I have a team where everyone seems passionate not just about their work and the company, but about taking care of each other. It’s such a different place for me to be from a work perspective — to feel like people genuinely, truly care not just about my outputs but about me.
Difficult conversations have come up in light of our new CEO. Our former CEO and co-founder discussed ensuring that they met with a diverse set of candidates that included women and people of color; if they never set this rule to begin with, they probably never would have even had a first round interview with someone who fit either category. And a result of this mention during the announcement was: how hard did we really look for someone who was a woman or non-white person? And what does white male privilege actually mean?
When I heard this conversation in our New York office this week, I couldn’t help but smile and suddenly feel really excited. It was obviously a very uncomfortable and awkward conversation, but the fact that it was even happening and people were willingly choosing to participate and admit their privileges was such a relief to me. I’ve been working full-time for over nine years now, and I’ve never had a moment of such pride and gratitude that I work where I work than I did today. It wasn’t even just this conversation that sparked it; it was the overall feeling in general of coming to work every day, having the good relationships I already have with so many of my colleagues across teams that I not only like but respect and think are truly smart and driven people, feeling like our company is actually trying to solve a real problem and that we’re really going somewhere and not being delusional about our future. It’s such a good feeling to finally have.