Oksana Sobol’s Post

Do you know what it means to be disabled by society? A lot of workplaces might not realise that some of the basic things they do in their office are disabling in some way. And newsflash, they're not just disabling to disabled colleagues. Here's a few examples: You don't send clear agendas in advance of a meeting. So anyone who struggles to follow long meetings or to think on their feet is immediately struggling. Your social events all involve drinking after work, in a busy pub, without enough seating. Really chatty teammates are sat next to those who need quiet to work. You're stuck in the 9 to 5 Monday to Friday routine, where everyone has to work those set hours in an office. You don't #CamelCase your hashtags and use image descriptions. In reality, you can flip this pretty quickly, with adaptations that are no or low cost. So what's stopping you? I'll be delivering a workshop on the 9 April online to help employers understand how better to support their disabled employees and customers. Fancy joining me? Sign up link in the comments👇 Any questions, drop me a DM, I won't bite! #VideoDescription: Alice Hargreaves stood in a room with tall white walls, holding a powerpoint clicker and talking to a seated group of people. Alice is a white woman in her thirties with blonde hair that falls just past her shoulders. She's wearing a black jumper with thin white stripes across it, deep purple trousers, and brown laceless boots. #DisabilityInclusion #DiversityInclusion #InclusiveWorkplace #HRUK #UKBusiness #InclusiveLeadership

Let's talk about the *3 trillion hours* of women's unpaid labor that makes the world go round and how that shows up in one woman's life (mine). Like many women in hetero relationships, I am the unofficial "family cruise director" planning all the things, and it drains my brain and energy, especially around back-to-school time. After receiving dozens of emails with important dates, athletic schedules, health reminders, etc., I tried out a virtual assistant (free trial with TaskBullet) to put everything on my calendar for me. *What happened next was STUNNING.* As I sat at my computer, I received 30+ calendar invites for my daughter's soccer schedule alone. It literally blew up my inbox (see below) and blew my mind. -How much time are we giving every day to caregiving and household stuff? How many weeks? Years? Lifetimes? -How much mental load are we carrying? -And what does this all mean for our careers, let alone our equality? Until moments like these, it's hard to see the invisible. But when you finally do see, you can't unsee. Where do you see this happening in your life? What are you doing about it to reframe, navigate, and advocate against it?

Women have long felt that our personal and professional worlds had to remain separate. Home and family stayed in one neat little space, while work and professional commitments filled another space. It was a strategy we deployed in our fight for equity and representation: to ward off stereotypes, we felt we had to keep our worlds from mixing. It’s time to move past that. Sometimes your spaces overlap, and that’s okay. I was on a call with a candidate one night, and my kids were getting ready for bed, so you could hear them in the background. That’s life, and I don’t feel the need to apologize for that. We have business versions of ourselves and home versions, and we code-switch between the two. But we code-switch at home too, because we play many different roles there - as moms, spouses, sisters, daughters, and friends. It’s a universal experience for women, whether they’re working professionally or as a full-time stay-at-home mom. We all need to wear multiple hats and operate in different spaces. Let’s normalize that, talk about it, and share strategies to make it all work.

"When you look at the statistics, 69% of Australian part-time workers are women and 77% of women are mothers, but if you try and look for a part-time role in our industry, and many others, you definitely don’t see them. Which makes you think of all the women being shut out of roles, and the knock on effect that this has on not just them personally but on the pipeline of female talent in the industry. " We recently spoke with the amazing team at Mums In Ads about an issue very close to our heart - helping mums stay in the creative industry after having kids. Wanting to come up with something tangible and easily actionable, they created The Part Time Pitch. It's an initiative where the creative agencies involved agree to label every role they advertise as full time/part time negotiable. Our chat with them is insightful and inspiring and if you're looking to learn more about the difficulties mums in the industry face or how to get involved with The Part Time Pitch, it's 100% worth the read (and perfect for your morning commute!) ➡️ https://buff.ly/48RcWjc #creativenatives #workingmums #parttimework

With International Women's Day just around the corner, we’re highlighting a significant chapter in many women’s lives: entering motherhood and going on maternity leave. Preparing for it, journeying through it, or returning to work after can feel daunting, so join us for a discussion with Bread+Butter to hear from other women who’ve experienced all facets of this journey, and supported other mums at work too: You’ll get to hear from: 🎤 Alice Glen (née Roper) (Managing Director, Talentful) 🎤 Abby M. (Founder and executive coach, Bread+Butter) 🎤 Kim Stringer (our very own People Director) We'll discuss: 💡 The biggest challenges and learnings from taking parental leave 💡The key to a successful return to work and common pitfalls 💡The journey to being fully immersed into the business after leave 💡How to figure out what’s next for your career? When: 13 March, 10-11am GMT Where: Virtual RSVP: https://lu.ma/clyh9w4z We'll be doing a fireside, before sharing top tips and opening it up to the audience for a Q&A. And to ensure that we can include all mums at every stage of this journey, the event will be entirely virtual so you can tune in from the office or at home. Join us if you are entering (or have already entered) this new phase of life!

Standing on the pavement in the pouring rain, my brain as full as my belly was carrying my third son, I replayed what I had just said to my counsellor as I was leaving my prenatal session.  I’m going to do something about this. This overwhelm, this never-ending feeling of ‘what if’ is avoidable, yet nobody is telling expectant parents or employers. We’re just all in this stupid cycle of just your luck. Screw that. 8 years later and Talent On Leave has been doing something about it (in one form or another) for more than 7 of them. And it’s taken me this long, hundreds of hours delivering coaching and connecting with companies to really understand what ‘doing something about this’ really needs to look like. It needs to bring light. It needs to create connection. It needs to give parental leave its place as a massive opportunity to step into a whole new level of confidence and performance. I couldn’t be more grateful to Susi Sinclair for capturing that purpose when we were catching up last summer. She asked about my nails (all the colours!) and I said I was just feeling so vibrant seeing the shifts the Talent on Leave approach was creating for my clients. I described it as colour and energy. Then she nudged me to visually articulate that colour and energy in the Talent On Leave brand. If you need to create more colour in parental leave in your business, I’m your woman. If you want to make sure your brand reflects your vibe, that’s more Susi’s thing!

There's a brilliant book with literally thousands of data points about how women are statistically "othered" which majorly impacts their health, livelihoods, and even how long they may live for. If you haven't read Caroline Criado Perez's Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men, I highly recommend it's your next book read. This video is the perfect demonstration of one data point - temperatures in offices. The average office is set 5 degrees (assuming Farenheit) colder than the average woman prefers because the industry calculation for large offices in setting the temperature was based on the metabolic rate of the average 40 year old man. This is why many more women than men feel too cold in large offices. Luckily for me I run a little hot, and I genuinely like dressing in layers however I once worked in a office that was brand new whose bathooms had a kind of air lock on the doors. I'm a pretty fit lady. I do yoga every day. And run 3 times a week. However, for 5 years that I worked in those offices I had to hurl myself at the bathroom door like an American linebacker or an Austrlian rugby player on average 5 times a day. (I drink a lot of water.) So that's 5 times 260 working days per year times 5 years (6,500 reminders that I was not working in an office designed for people like me.) So if you work in Facilities, or in a leadership role where you've heard about complaints about office facilities, please take them seriously. These aren't made by people who are annoying or trying to cause trouble. They are made by people who have made every possible effort to survive the system and decided that they can't take it anymore. Help 'em out. #inclusion #facilites #offices #workplace https://lnkd.in/ehP8rn6H

Cheers to the weekend!⁠ ⁠ (Whatever that means these days 😅) ⁠ As a team of women — some moms, nannies, and full-time employees — we may feel the need to work occasional nights and weekends to catch up. Entrepreneur friends, tell us, do you force yourself to take a break, or do you work right on through the nights and weekends? #weekendwarrior #nightsandweekends #entrepreneurlife #workhardplayhard #cheerstotheweekend #socialforgoodco #socialimpactmarketing

Controversial debate: society needs better men, but men don't want to be better. And I believe, women today have the choice to **want** men rather than **need** men. Whereas, men and the economy **need** women and our free labor. Recently, I engaged in a thought-provoking debate in the comment section of Brendan Chaplin. A pivotal highlight of the discussion was Scott Galloway assertion: "If we want better men, we need to be better men." his resonated deeply with me and prompted me to share some hard truths about the evolving dynamics between men and women in American society. I posited that many men seem reluctant to embrace the need for self-improvement, and highlighted a crucial shift: women no longer need men for their survival or success. Instead, it's men and the capitalist system that rely on women's contributions, both in the workforce and at home. Women are now exercising their autonomy, choosing to prioritize themselves. This includes delaying or forgoing marriage and children, investing in real estate, traveling, and nurturing friendships. Essentially, women today have the privilege to want men, rather than needing men. This perspective sparked a lively back-and-forth in the comments, with many men arguing against my points. They suggested I was indoctrinated or misinformed, dismissing the factual evidence I presented. Research consistently shows that single, child-free women are among the happiest, wealthiest, and healthiest demographics, with significant professional advancements. Conversely, married men tend to live longer, accumulate more wealth, receive more promotions, and gain greater respect. So, I pose this question to the LinkedIn community: Do women need men as much as men need women in today's society? I welcome your insights and perspectives on this crucial and timely topic. A primary source that supports my argument. https://lnkd.in/dHPtmsz2 #debate #work #family #women #men #expatlife #travel

We deserve a more nuanced conversation about working moms