Media training 101 for small businesses

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Great news: you just scored a big press interview to promote your business. The story will expose your brand to the perfect new audience and drive meaningful traffic to your website. So…don't blow it. Yes, just as quickly as the excitement for the opportunity arrived, the realization that you now have to do an interview sets in. I get it—press interviews can absolutely be intimidating. The resulting coverage represents a significant opportunity to acquire new customers, drive sales, or raise awareness, and you want to be sure to represent your brand well and really compel the audience to check out your company. On top of that, you have to contend with adrenaline and nerves in the moment. You may be thinking, "So many other business owners are so polished and articulate in their interviews. How am I going to pull that off?" Deep breath. A successful interview is usually the result of good media training: preparation and practice in advance of an interview. I've tr...

The benefits of remote work for women

Women in remote work face plenty of the same issues as women in a typical office, including the very real gender pay gap that exists no matter where you work. But working remotely creates a unique set of circumstances—good, bad, and just different—that affect women's professional experiences.

Zapier recently released our remote work report, and one of our findings stood out: women are more likely to want to work remotely, but they're less likely to be given the option.

According to our survey, female knowledge workers are more likely than male knowledge workers to say the option to work remotely is one of the work perks they would most prefer to be offered (62% vs. 53%) and that home is where they would be the most productive when working (50% vs. 37%). At the same time, female knowledge workers are more likely than male knowledge workers to say they don't work remotely because their company does not allow it (40% vs. 25%), and that they have quit a job because the company didn't offer a flexible work schedule (24% vs. 17%).

When I asked my female coworkers about their experiences working at a distributed company, their answers supported these findings: they had overwhelmingly positive things to say about being women in remote work. What follows is just the tip of the iceberg.

Keeping personal choices personal

When people talk about women in remote work, it's often a discussion about being a mom in remote work. And I get it: I'm a woman and a mom. When I think about the best parts of working from home as a woman, a lot of what comes to mind is mom stuff. But we need to be sure that we don't equate "working women" with "working moms." Most of the parental benefits of working remotely benefit both moms and dads: things like getting more time with kids every day (no commute) and more flexibility to be involved with kids' lives.

Another benefit for all parents who work remotely is the freedom to make non-public choices about their children. But, of course, there's one that's specific to women: breastfeeding.

I had my first kid while working in an office full-time. I chose to breastfeed, so I had to walk through an open office three times a day with my pump bag and ask my boss to leave so I could pump in his office, the one room with shades I could pull down. Pump bags look like regular bags, so people would constantly ask, "Where are you headed?" which was…awkward.

I had my second kid six months ago, while working at Zapier. As a remote worker, I can pump without it being a public display of my personal decisions every time I do it. None of my coworkers need to know whether or not I breastfeed, let alone exactly when I'm about to go pump 15 feet from where they're working.

Removing the bias of physical stature

When I asked for insights in our #fun-women channel at Zapier, our content designer, Lina Koh, commented on something that she thought might just be her personal experience:

this is a very specific upside, and may only be my personal, anecdotal experience: remote work levels the playing field physically. i've been in work situations in the past where there were taller, larger folks who boomed louder during meetings and made me feel less inclined to speak up. in asynchronous communication, this is a lot less of an issue. even in :zoom: calls, we all look (relatively) the same size (one of the most interesting things at retreats is seeing how tall some folks are!). it's an interesting way to subvert some of these unconscious effects of an in-person work environment.

But it turns out it's not just Lina. While researchers are yet to land on exactly why, multiple studies have shown that taller people are generally favored in work environments: they make more money, hold more leadership roles, and even feel more confident about their work.

And yes, there are plenty of tall women out there, but the average height of men in the U.S. (5'9") is almost half a foot taller than the average height of women (just under 5'4"). That means that a remote environment levels the playing field for one of the many examples of unconscious bias against many women that exist in person.

Putting communication on equal footing

Studies dating back to the 1970s and as recently as 2014 have shown that women are more likely to be interrupted (by both men and women). Zapier Customer Champion Nivedha Venkatesh notes that remote communication can help with that issue.

Using tools like Slack to voice your opinions publicly means that no one would shut me down before I complete my view point - I’ve been shot down many times in past companies for being a woman

Remote work, especially when it's asynchronous, leans heavily on written communication. That means fewer chances for being interrupted, at least in the traditional sense. Remote communication, in theory, allows everyone equal opportunity to express their ideas in full without being cut off.

Opening opportunities for marginalized groups

In some cases, remote work is the only option for an individual. There are a whole slew of reasons why that might be, but Zapier Customer Champion Kaushi Bandara noted the benefits of remote work specifically for marginalized women.

Upside: As 100% remote work becomes more common, it can even out the playing field for groups of people who have become marginalised and exploited due to life's circumstances. An example of this are military spouses who tend to be women in most circumstances. The trailing spouse is typically the caregiver and they have a much harder time finding jobs in a new city especially if its a short term move to a place where they don't speak the language. Also sketchy businesses such as MLMs largely prey on military spouses and exploit their isolation...imagine how awesome it would be if they had legit remote jobs.

The mere existence of remote work allows military spouses (who, as Kaushi points out, are 93% women) to find work. With a 24% unemployment rate for military spouses (compared to about 4% nationally), an increase in remote work opportunities could make a huge difference.

This extends beyond military spouses as well. Research overwhelmingly shows that heterosexual couples are more likely to relocate for a man's job than the woman's. While recent research suggests this is because of the types of jobs that men choose, it still means that women are more likely to be what's known as the "trailing spouse." Remote work allows these women to stay at the same job even when they relocate for their husband's career.


Being a woman in remote work can be a struggle—especially with issues of visibility being exacerbated. But women want to work remotely, and remote work offers advantages for women in the workplace, mitigates biases against them, and creates opportunities that they might not otherwise have.



from The Zapier Blog https://ift.tt/32T13YN

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