By Junna Ro
Junna Ro (jro@metromile.com) is General Counsel for Metromile in San Francisco, California, USA.
Those of us who work for companies that mobilized quickly to enable employees to work from home during the COVID-19 pandemic—in industries where this is even feasible—feel fortunate. The possibly once-in-a-lifetime experience of living during a global outbreak of a highly infectious, novel virus has had such a disruptive, devastating impact on the world around us. For me, it has triggered such a range of emotions, particularly as it became apparent that this strange, new alternative universe would be our reality for the foreseeable future. After a particularly thought-provoking conversation with a friend, I’ve reflected on this time and its connection to another issue that matters: diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
Different realities
I have such gratitude for a job that allows me to continue to work safely from home and for a company that has been so thoughtful and caring in its approach to this broadscale change to the workplace. I have also been vigilant about avoiding infection for myself and my family and have adapted day-to-day activities, like ordering groceries online and switching to contactless pickup for virtually all imaginable needs.
The workday has changed dramatically too, and I find myself overcompensating for not being physically in the office—manically replying to multiple, often simultaneous, instant message threads while taking back-to-back video call meetings. Hours pass before I remember to get up from my seat as I power through the weeks that have now bled into months, determined to demonstrate that I can make this all work successfully. I am daunted by the efforts required to try to be all things to all people during this time: productive worker; responsive, empathetic leader; insightful business partner; nurturing mother; thoughtful daughter; masterful, resourceful home chef.
Overwhelmed with the hectic frenzy of activity required to manage my pandemic life, I relish the few moments of downtime I have, like my regular virtual happy hour with my girlfriends. On a recent video call, as I looked at all of their faces, I asked how everyone was doing. I assumed we were all living this same harried, frazzled, and hopelessly exhausting life, and I looked forward to commiserating. Then one of my friends answered, “I am actually pretty lonely.” This stopped me in my tracks. How could that be, with all that we are managing? To my friend, a single woman who lives alone in a chic urban apartment, her quarantine experience clearly looked very different from mine. How could we both be experiencing the same event in such vastly different ways? Her perspective felt completely foreign to me, and I found myself pondering it repeatedly over the next several weeks.
Needless to say, the current predicament we have found ourselves in has presented incredible challenges on so many levels, underscoring for me that quarantine at home does not look the same for everyone. In fact, it looks infinitely different depending on whom you talk to. Each story, each adaptation of this surreal experience reflects our different living arrangements, family dynamics, economic situation, personal strengths and weaknesses, values, disabilities, dependencies, fears, interests, and so on—indeed, far too many dimensions to list entirely. Considering these aspects, I began to realize why reflection on diversity and inclusion is so important in my role as a legal and compliance professional.
We often make assumptions that people understand and share our perspectives, and we make decisions—and reach conclusions—based on those assumptions. However, I am regularly reminded, especially now, that this line of thinking is often shortsighted. What has become crystal clear during this unprecedented time is that there is no one shared experience.
We hear others’ stories on the news, through social media, and from our colleagues at work. Some people are primary caregivers for high-risk family members and have heightened concerns about bringing a potentially deadly virus into the home. Some have young children who need regular care and supervision, while others have new “coworkers” at home in the form of working adult children, partners, spouses, and roommates, making tough compromises and adapting their workstyles. Some are doctors who are living temporarily in hotels so as not to risk infecting their families at home. Others are struggling to manage their mental health issues, exacerbated by their inability to access meaningful interventions. And interestingly enough, many people have actually welcomed a simplified lifestyle at home, pared down to the basics for a newfound sense of quiet introspection and inner calm. For better or worse, everyone has a uniquely individual experience, from their response to the stay-at-home order to their employment situation to the set of expectations placed on them.
Considering this diverse group
Understanding the varying experiences of people who are in quarantine is a reminder that we all bring such different perspectives and sets of values to work. Not only is it important to consider how to effectively communicate with a broad range of voices across our organizations, but also to understand that the way they will respond to those messages may be just as diverse. Using a lens of diversity and inclusion can only make us better legal and compliance professionals.
Our jobs involve many things: ensuring people, policies, and processes work to enable compliance with laws and regulations; communicating and enforcing appropriate standards of business conduct; and creating and maintaining a culture of compliance where people are empowered to speak up if they see something wrong; as well as ensuring people are committed to operating with integrity, to doing the right thing, and choosing the ethical path even when no one is looking. We work hard to reach the hearts and minds of the employees at our organizations to instill in them the notion that people should feel comfortable speaking up if they observe misconduct and to cultivate and maintain the safe place to do just that.
Our differences shape our perceptions and expectations of others, so we need to work hard to ensure that we’re not only demonstrating the importance of unwavering integrity—for our customers, regulators, business partners, and employees—but that we are connecting with people so, in spite of our differences, they will come along with us. In doing this work, it is critical to think about how to connect with people who have different perspectives, goals, and motivations; when considered together, they help lead to better, richer outcomes for serving customers, operating effectively, and meeting desired business objectives.
During this time of significant change, there are emerging compliance risks that are looming, such as heightened privacy and cybersecurity risks related to the increase in remote workers accessing information and bad actors seeking to do the same, planning for various return-to-the-office scenarios, and ensuring required COVID-19 safety protocols are in place if and when employees return. Companies of all sizes are grappling with how to bring back some degree of normalcy to their business operations while mitigating the legal and compliance risks associated with the potential solutions. These solutions may largely define a new normal for companies large and small, such as allowing employees to work from home permanently (and for some, moving to a permanent work-from-home model for all) while maintaining the quality and integrity of customer transactions, or adapting physical office spaces for a post-pandemic work environment that may look very different from the past. These changes may themselves push employees to work differently than they had previously and introduce even more change to be absorbed by their organizations. How will meetings of the future be run? How will the frequency and nature of personal interactions change, and might these changes in turn affect the perception and reporting of ethics issues? Will we share more exponentially sensitive data online, and how can we effectively mitigate the risk associated with exposure? To have successful outcomes, it is critical to consider both the diversity of perspectives among those who are affected and the manner in which solutions are implemented to appropriately address and aim to resolve those potential effects.
Diversity and inclusion brings clarity
I still think about how my friend has been feeling an overwhelming sense of loneliness during this pandemic—the exact opposite of my manic reality. She also reminded me that in all the madness of my current existence, there was so much to be grateful for in my life, from the tiny flittering hummingbirds in my backyard to the family bonding over the latest trending television series, bread baking, and game nights, to my newfound appreciation for our home, which has served double duty as learning and office space for us. This underscores for me the importance of a diversity and inclusion mindset in everything that we do because we don’t always have all the right answers. We need to broaden our perspectives to find clarity.
Practicing diversity and inclusion in our work and our lives conjures up images of the residents in towns all over Italy—and, similarly, those in communities here, from New York City to San Francisco—opening their windows to safely come together to make beautiful sounds in celebration of frontline healthcare workers. It is in embracing our differences in service of a larger purpose that makes us stronger as a whole. I encourage you to consider embracing a diversity and inclusion mindset at work because, as we’ve discovered through this pandemic, we are better together.
Takeaways
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The pandemic has underscored the importance of using a diversity and inclusion mindset, as we are all experiencing the impacts of COVID-19 in different ways.
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For legal and compliance professionals, checking your assumptions and considering a broader set of perspectives when problem-solving will lead to better, more effective solutions.