How Discrimination Undermines your Small Business

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Are you an Uber/Doordash driver who has been called a racial slur? Do you know a business that caters primarily to people who look like the owners? Have you seen marketing materials that are derogatory? Have you heard something in mixed company that offended you? Have you seen something on a business website that was objectionable? Discrimination is easy to miss, which is why it happens so often.

Discrimination is also something everyone knows happens, but hopes it happens to someone else. For small businesses it is also something that they hope to avoid because they are small. Is being small enough to avoid embarrassment and public shaming? If something does happen, will it hurt the business? Or should the business just plow on and hope it goes away?

The “Small Business Exemption”

Discrimination is one of those issues that only large companies worry about, or at least that is the common assumption. Small businesses believe they can treat a racial incident like they treat an unhappy customer. They can ignore it and move on.

For a small business, much of the customer interaction is one-to-one so if there is an incident, the people impacted remains small. Those that hear of it would likely not affect any others because most customers do not really know each other.

Small businesses also are less likely to have a large online presence. Hence, customers that have been discriminated against would likely not be able to share their experience widely online. If the business is very small, the entire online presence can even be rebuilt from scratch without too much impact.

The surrounding community could also dismiss the issue because it only involved one small business. It is therefore not reflective of the larger community, that is, it does not reflect on them. It certainly is not reflective of the entire community.

Being small is like being anonymous in a crowd, and being a small business is being anonymous in the community. Ironically, this is one of the challenges for small businesses: to be seen. This also seems to be the dominant thought about discrimination and small businesses, but is that enough? Perhaps for an unhappy customer situation, but for discrimination, it may just be that the issue cuts deeper.

Why Discrimination is Different

It would be a mistake to dismiss an incident as just another unhappy customer. Discrimination has a long sordid history in this country. That history is replete with injustices and unspeakable crimes. That kind of damage lives in the memories of those who have suffered from it.

That one incident is linked to a long list of personal experiences in the lives of people who live with discrimination all the time. Those experiences may not have a direct relationship to the incident that occurred, but the experience is linked to it by history. It is also a unifying link, not just in the minds of the people involved in the incident, but it is also linked with others who have been discriminated against. In the community, discrimination runs deep and wide.

We live in a society where incidents of discrimination are a frequent and regular occurrence. This is because this society is bearing the memory of the cruel abduction and enslavement of Africans, the attempted extermination of American Indians, and the persistent suppression of immigrants, from Chinese to Eastern European to Latin American, for hundreds of years. That suppression persists today, so that one small discriminatory incident is inextricably linked to that long history of injustices.

So no, this is not just another unhappy customer.

Turning the tables

Let us consider this from the perspective of a discriminated person. That discrimination is primarily based on appearances that cannot just be turned off or removed. A person that is discriminated against because of how they look cannot simply act differently to fit in.

This is a reality from the moment that person leaves their home in the morning. From the moment they arrive at work, at a shopping mall, at a doctor’s office, at a school or at an event, and also into that small business where the incident occurred. They are always seen as an other. Everywhere they go, they are treated differently solely because of their appearance.

No amount of education, knowledge, skill, or ability will change that initial preconceived notion from everyone around them that they are different. This is largely because the dominant culture of everyone else around them is not well integrated. Over time, this lack of integration prevents difference from being the norm. That new norm could do so much to address the problems between people.

Where I worked previously, someone noted to me that “black people always dress so sharp.” This was part of a long list of similar comments like “I heard they even iron the inside of their pockets” and “their hair is always so well done; I wish my hair did that.” These were all intended as compliments, by the way, but they are based in ignorance.

As a member of the dominant culture, I just ignored the comments. However, those who were the subject of those comments could not just ignore them. These comments become exhausting, a constant reality that they are different, and this feeling builds up into a long list of grievances. These grievances are then linked to that long history of injustices.

This pressure comes in addition to all the little unspoken events during the day. From the clenching of the purses in the elevator to the extra glance from the office manager when they come to get some office supplies. These constant, and quite likely subconscious, little events throughout the day continue to build up and also become linked to that long history.

To illustrate this exhausting reality, let us consider that you own a small dry-cleaning business. At the end of the day when that person comes in to pick up their clothes on their way home, they are worn out from more than a hard day’s work. To your dismay, the young attendant at the counter that you hired last week happens to use an offensive slur when fetching the clothes. This is now no longer an unhappy customer instance, but a discrimination incident, perhaps in front of other customers as well.

That slip-of-the-tongue is now added to an entire day of micro-aggressions. These are also linked to that long history of systemic discrimination. Depending on the words used, the slur could even have its own sordid history tied to it. Mishandling this incident could be the end of your whole dry-cleaning business.

I am sure your first thought is that this would never happen in your business.

“Nicht im Land von Bertolt Brecht”

Historians have long pondered why the German people were not able to resist Hittler’s most distasteful policies prior to World War II. “Not here, in the land of liberal playwright Bertold Brecht,” was the response. As history shows, ignoring discrimination can have disastrous consequences.

Not in my business, is the go-to response from small business owners when a discrimination incident occurs. The expectation is that it is just an isolated incident, and not at all exemplary of the entire business. If the customers can just let this one incident slide, then we will do the same. We all need to move on, right?

How a small business responds is crucial. It can be expensive, with redactions, marketing, and legal processes, but compared to the loss in sales or maybe even the loss of the entire business, it is likely a necessary expense. At this point, this is more than a moral/ethical decision. It has become a fiscal decision.

Unfortunately, we know that small businesses will often opt for not addressing the issue at all, hiding instead behind their Small Business Exemption clause. I suspect that many small business owners reading this will likely disagree here, but there are just too many examples of small businesses doing just that.

Sweeping the Incident Under the Rug

Last year, I came across the complaint of a black employee of a mobile pet grooming service operating in South Orange County and North San Diego. The comments below are from the employee in a post on the Nextdoor website. Now I cannot confirm the events that are described, but if true, they are descriptive of a business ignoring discrimination and attempting to use the Small Business Exemption.

The employee was a trainee and said she was subjected to repeated racialized comments by another senior employee who was training her. As a superior, this behavior is repressive to lower-level employees. Because of her trainer’s position, any political beliefs that are offensive to the employee become abusive. The decision to share them to continue to debate them at length throughout the workday strongly suggests that this is a hostile work environment.

Some of the racial slurs against Asians that were mentioned were particularly objectionable. The employee relates that her trainer said that she “hates Asians because they drive little Asian cars.” Another example is when the trainer says that Asians “have matted, unsocialized dogs because they leave them outside all day since they can’t eat them anymore.” These are wildly offensive stereotypes that no employee, much less one who is in a supervisory position, should utter in a place of work.

The claimed statements that were apparently made about Blacks were no less offensive. She says that her trainer “hates blacks because apparently [they] commit the most crimes in comparison to other races in America.” There is another black employee that is mentioned as well, who apparently has a lighter complexion. She says that her supervisor felt differently about her because “she was light skinned and thus never felt ‘black’ or a ‘threat’ to her.”

Now, one must wonder why the trainer would even say this to a black employee who has a darker complexion. This type of thinking is typical of the colorism that has been used so often to rank blacks according to the shade of their skin. This is a paradigm that has its roots deep in American slavery. Again, coming from someone in a position of authority, this type of ranking of employees, based on the shade of darkness, is incredibly offensive and inappropriate.

The employee says that her trainer’s statements were not only racist, but more widely discriminatory against others such as transgender people. She said that “it’s her American right to freedom of speech to make them uncomfortable because she is uncomfortable with their existence.” Not only is this again deeply objectionable, but it is eerily reminiscent of the type of discriminatory beliefs that have deep historical roots, not the least of which are with Nazi Germany and its programs of ridding society of undesirable people.

There are many more examples that the employee shares in her post on Nextdoor. They are all deeply disturbing and have their roots in racist propaganda that have a long history in our country. It is not even necessary for the discriminated employee to demonstrate a historical link to make her point, the supervisor is doing it for her through these comments.

How the Small Business Responded

It is important to point out that racism is not the same as discrimination. The correct definition of racism is the furthering of discrimination through a position of power. This is an important distinction because it applies to these particular incidents on several levels. If the offensive behavior had been immediately addressed then this would just have been one of discrimination, but what happened here is more serious.

To begin with, the white supervisor was in a position of power over the black employee, so this issue was already one that should be labeled as racist. The employee’s welfare (ability to work, promotion consideration, transfer to another supervisor, etc.) were all subject to the supervisor’s power over her. As such, this was already a racist incident.

The black employee made repeated attempts to address the issues directly with her trainer. This had no effect. She then brought the issue to the trainer’s supervisor, the manager of the franchise. This manager also ignored the complaint and refused to address it with the trainer or to move her to a different trainer. When the black employee finally reached out to the owner of the business, the issue was again not addressed. At every level, she was rebuffed.

It seems clear that the entire organization was refusing to address the issue at all. The black employee is no longer working there, but she has received no communication from her former employer at any level since leaving. As a matter of fact, the trainer who she says mistreated her has been highlighted several times as a model employee on their website.

Because the discrimination is not just isolated to employees that are equal, but involves all levels of management, it is an incident of systemic racism – racism that exists at all levels of the business. Despite the seriousness of the issue and potential risk to that business, they have decided to ignore it entirely.

Why this Business Cannot Claim a Small Business Exemption

Prior to this incident, the business already had a significant online presence, including on Yelp, Facebook, and Twitter. Reading through the comments, there are several unhappy customers who were dissatisfied with the grooming service they received for their pets – some pets actually having been injured and scarred. Several of the complaints also refer to appointment delays and even complete cancellations (ghosting) by the groomers.

It should also be noted that many of these negative comments have received no follow-up. This suggests that the business has a more serious issue with management not addressing complaints. This should already give pause to those customers looking for a reliable groomer for their pet.

To be fair, there are also many positive comments from happy customers. However, it is the negative ones that stand out. As any marketing specialist will concur, those are the ones that new clients will note. This suggests that the business is not especially responsive to its customers.

Yet, these are all issues that are separate from the discrimination.

The employee that was discriminated against has filed a formal complaint with Fair Housing and Employment. This may take some time to have any impact, but if it is found that the complaint has merit, this will become a significant stain on the reputation of the business going forward.

This will become part of the business’ official public record – a record that anyone seeking to do business with them can discover. Super-imposed on the company’s record of service for pet grooming, this now forms a larger record of the business. Since negative issues are far more noticeable, it becomes an overall negative image.

This image is likely to impact the business’ ability to reach new clients. There is undoubtedly competition in the mobile grooming industry, so this company could lose market share in its geographic location. If anything, this racist incident cannot possibly be good for the company.

More importantly, the business’ record could impact its ability to grow. It may be denied capital funding for expansion. It could also inhibit a sale or merger down the line. Overall, even if the business is not directly impacted by the systemic racism, a negative image could have lasting consequences on its ability to expand and could cause the business to stagnate.

Conclusion

While discrimination is certainly something that a small business can chose to ignore and successfully move past, there are lasting consequences to this decision. It is quite possible that most customers will not be as diligent about researching the public record of a business – sometimes they just need to have their pet groomed in a hurry. Even so, the decision to ignore the issue could very well have a more lasting impact on the ability of a business to grow and expand.

No one goes into business thinking that they just want their business to remain small. Growth leads to greater profits and perhaps even financial freedom for the owners. To prevent hobbling the business, it would behoove owners to work diligently to avoid and address discrimination at all levels.

If the business ignores discrimination from its own employees, they are fostering a hostile working environment. This can only be detrimental, even when the product or service has no racial component (like pets). Pet owners do not want to bring their pets into a hostile work environment – the negative reviews are perhaps symptomatic of a larger problem of neglect.

Diversity, especially in positions of management could go a long way to prevent and address any discrimination, and thereby also the issue of customer trust. Obviously, it behooves the owners to foster a safe and diverse work environment. Even if they are not sensitive to the issue of discrimination, it would still be good for their bottom line to implement changes.

Discrimination has a historical component that no owner should want their business to be superimposed on. The very last thing a business wants is to be associated with the stain of racism. No matter how distant that stain, no matter how many times the business changes hands or names, historical stains remain, as companies like Dollar General, Papa John’s, Starbucks and Bayer who have all weathered backlash for not addressing discrimination properly are all too aware of.

You may not see your fledgling small business growing to become a large company like these corporations, but why limit yourself in any way by not addressing discrimination when it happens? Perhaps the mobile pet groomer mentioned above also does not consider itself in that light either, but it could possibly be bought out by Uber looking to expand into the lucrative business of pet grooming… well maybe not this particular mobile pet groomer.

Impact of COVID-19 Confinement on the Brain

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There is an increasing amount of research appearing on the psychological and social impact of COVID-19 confinement. One recent report by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Psychosocial impact of COVID-19 delves into some detail of these issues. There are many others like it. What may be of interest is how all this new research on confinement may suggest similarities with the experiences that new home-based businesses owners have been experiencing when they left an out-of-home job to work entirely in their own homes.

This is a very broad topic and there is a considerable amount of research available already, so it may be of some interest to consider one specific aspect of this: how COVID-19 confinement impacts not just a person’s psychology, but how it may actually be impacting the physiology of the brain.

The psychosomatic relationship

Last month’s article that I wrote, Posture & Pain looked at the physical impact on the body of sitting in front of a screen for prolonged periods of time, especially for children being made to home-school. The conclusion was that small business owners working from home on a computer can experience many of the same physical ailments.

The reason that physical ailments are of interest is that they require different treatments than psychological ones and that they could become physically debilitating. The question we are asking this month is whether there are physically apparent ailments resulting from the psychological impact of confinement.

As it turns out, there are.

Research on Solitary Confinement

Considerable research has been done on inmates, particularly those who have been placed in solitary confinement, sometimes for years. In the very moving article, Understanding the Effects of Solitary Confinement on the Brain Robert King, one of the well-known cases of the “Angola 3” describes how this confinement impacted him:

“My conversation skills are very limited,” he said. “I have some problems with my memory. And my navigational skills have suffered. Places that I know, even where I grew up, I have trouble getting around in, especially at night.”

It is really a heart-wrenching story, but the reality is that over 80,000 people are placed in solitary confinement at any given time. Depending on how long the confinement lasts, their mental capacity is similarly impacted. As such, there is ample evidence that their brains are physically impacted by this experience.

Further down in the article, they describe the effect on laboratory mice who are placed in solitary confinement. In looking at the brains of these mice, they discovered that after just one month of confinement, the neurons in their brains shrunk in size by 20%. After three months, they observed “shrinkage of the cell’s dendrites and axons,” which impacts how brain cells communicate.

There is also a psychosomatic link to stresses of the conditions of the confinement. In one study with rats, they discovered that when they are “under chronic stress as a result of social isolation, [they] possess a smaller hippocampus. This part of the brain is important for memory formation, spatial orientation, and mood regulation.”

There is also evidence that it adversely impacts their circadian rhythms, the body’s internal clock. This in turn “dramatically alters the activity of many genes in the brain… it thinks it’s night when it’s daytime — and those genes are out of sync with one another, affecting the function of eating, feeling, thinking, and interacting.”

The conclusion is quite clear: “the physical and molecular findings in animals are backed up in human behavioral studies,” according to Stephanie Cacioppo, behavioral neuroscientist at the University of Chicago. “In human beings, as social creatures, the stress of seclusion can lead to mood swings and depression, then to cognitive decline in spatial orientation, memory, and attention abilities, and finally, in some cases, to psychosis.”

What is also troubling about the research is that scientists do not know if the effects are reversible. According to the scientists in this article, there is yet not enough data to show that returning a former inmate to a non-confined environment will reverse the cognitive decline. This would prove to be especially disturbing if this is also the case with less severe forms of confinement, such as with COVID-19.

What the neural networks in the brain look like.
Photo courtesy of pixabay.com

What about milder forms of confinement?

The study of solitary confinement (as well as the impact on the brains of laboratory animals) present extreme cases of confinement. What is the current research about COVID-19 confinement? Will this confinement present milder changes, but equally identifiable ones? Perhaps more pertinently, what is the collective impact of confinement on a very large portion of the entire world’s population?

In the May 2020 NIH study cited above, they determined that “lockdowns can produce acute panic, anxiety, obsessive behaviors, hoarding, paranoia, and depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the long run.” Those can be broadly described as socio-psychological effects.

PTSD, in particular, is a recognized long-term effect of one or more traumatic events. It is also recognized as a condition that can physically alter the brain. The Psychology Today article, How PTSD and Trauma Affect Your Brain Functioning, describes that PTSD creates changes in the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex so that they remain in a higher state of tension. This causes lower control over anger and impulsive behaviors. It then also interferes “with the ability to regulate negative emotions and assign more positive meaning to events.” The article concludes that PTSD does alter the brain.

Returning to the NIH article, the authors point out that PTSD is of particular interest and that its symptoms “have been positively associated with the duration of quarantine.” While not everyone will have PTSD, it is definitely a risk.

The mental-physical link

There are also several studies that point out the relationship to illnesses from a sedentary lifestyle. As millions of people are confined to their homes these illnesses are growing exponentially as well. In the article How Social Isolation Affects the Brain, in the journal, The Scientist, epidemiologist Daisy Fancourt points out that: “We are seeing a really growing body of evidence… that is showing how isolation and loneliness are linked in with incidence of different types of disease [and] with premature mortality.” She goes on to say that in addition to obesity and cardiovascular problems, social isolation is linked to cognitive decline and dementia.

While the article also discusses the effects of severe isolation such as with prisoners, it also points out that there are less severe forms of isolation that are less well understood but that have a cumulative effect over time that may be severe.

For example, the elderly and the disabled are subjected to sometimes partial social isolation, but it is the fact that the isolation is long term, sometimes even decades long that leads to cognitive decline, measured by reduced verbal fluency and memory recall.

They also point out from a study of 11,000 subjects that there may be a reciprocal effect as well. The deteriorating brain function also leads to less desire to socialize. This in effect exacerbates the cognitive decline.

Photo courtesy of pixabay.com

Other environmental factors

It is also true that the external environment is likely to play a role. One study focused on an arctic exploration team that was also subjected to temperatures below -50 degrees Celsius as well as drastic changes in light exposure. This also affected their circadian rhythms, which can also influence outcomes as we saw above.

The subjects “showed anatomical changes to the dentate gyrus, a region of the brain that feeds information into the hippocampus and is associated with learning and memory; the crew members’ dentate gyruses had shrunk by an average of around 7 percent.

The crew members also had reduced blood levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a protein involved in stress regulation and memory, and they performed worse on tests of spatial awareness and attention than they had before they left.”

While this is another extreme case, there are some similarities with work-at-home environments that should be pointed out. For example, working in an office outside the home ensures regulated temperatures and schedules, but working from home those environmental factors could be quite different. Likewise, lighting is also less uniformly regulated in a home.

Obviously, those are much less severe environmental factors, but as has been pointed out, it is not just the severity of the factors that impacts the brain, it is also how long those factors were in effect. For business owners making a permanent change in the middle of life to a work-at-home career, there could be many years maybe even decades of impact.

Photo courtesy of Ana Shvets - pexels.com

In a separate study of MRI scans done at UCLA, it was also found that these subjects tended to have smaller gray matter volumes in the hippocampus and amygdala sections of the brain. While the scientists point out that this is not conclusive evidence that isolation causes shrinkage of these portions of the brain, it does suggest some correlation that should be studied further.

The article also mentioned several mice and rat studies not unlike the ones mentioned above. Those experiments corelate the effects with naturally occurring signaling proteins in the brain such as Rac1 and Tac2, which are also linked to memory problems such as Alzheimer’s and other degenerative cognitive conditions. They do point out, however that more research will be needed to arrive at more concrete conclusions.

Also interesting is that there does appear to be a concrete relationship between isolation and inflammation signaling molecules known as interleukin-6. They concluded that “Both isolation and loneliness were linked to inflammation” which can have negative effects on cognitive function as well as other processes throughout the body.

The research is also looking for remedies to these instances for cognitive decline. While the article mentions several pharmacological treatments, there is also an effort to physically boost engagement with inflicted individuals from frequent visits to social outings and online interaction.

It is important to point out however, that those are remedies against further decline. There is yet not enough conclusive evidence that cognitive decline from isolation or confinement is reversible. This is a critical point that the researchers in these articles are quite clear about.

Conclusion

The bottom line is that there is still considerably more research needed to discover the long-term effects of COVID-19 confinement and work-from-home isolation. That said, there is value in looking at extreme confinement such as seen in prisons, research done on lab animals, and the more comprehensive and longitudinal studies of selected groups. The current research in those cases shows that there is measurable cognitive decline that results from confinement, especially when combined with additional external environmental factors such as temperature and light.

The bigger question we cannot yet answer is whether the observed cognitive decline from those studies will also be measurable when confinement it is imposed on a large percentage of the population because of a world-wide pandemic. Yet even in that case, we do know from the research that cognitive decline is directly related to the length of the confinement. More importantly, the cognitive decline then further exacerbates the isolation.

To put it simply, the longer we are confined, the more dramatic the cognitive decline may be. What impact this will have when we also consider the large number of people impacted today, that is still a mystery.

Of course, this pandemic cannot last indefinitely – it will eventually subside. For those who are confined to work from home, there is ample research being done as well as treatments being developed to address those issues. This article is not meant as a source of actionable medical information, but I do hope it is a starting point for a broader discussion about the impact of prolonged isolation on the brain.

Posture and Pain

Bad posture, especially in front of a laptop, impacts children as well as adults. Photo courtesy of pixabay.com

Today I walked in to check on my son’s schoolwork and found him horribly hunched over working at the computer in his room. Before school started just a couple of weeks ago, this was primarily a gaming computer and we limit his gaming time, so I did not really notice it. Our son is also very athletic, so when he wasn’t playing a game, he was outside working out, biking, or running.

Now that school has started, he hardly has time to go outside as much. In addition to spending over six hours a day in school , he also has homework that plants him in front of a screen another 2-3 hours a day. The same is true for our daughter. This can’t be good.

The Science Behind the Concern

In an article titled School at home: How to keep attending virtual classes from being a real pain in the neck, Jennifer Jolly of USA Today explains that this is becoming a very common problem. Her own daughter suffered a herniated disk as a result of bad posture and using less than adequate furniture. Ouch! According to some research she found online, “the American Chiropractic Association, [found that] 92% of chiropractors said patients are reporting more neck, back, or other musculoskeletal issues since the pandemic began. Kids are no exception.”

She inquired more information from Dr. Jared Vagy, physical therapist, author, and USC Clinical Assistant Professor, who said that: “low back pain and neck pain are two of the most common sustained posture injuries from non-ergonomic sitting… Spine hunched and shoulders rounded, that’s the classic middle-school and teenager posture while sitting.”

That is very likely where my own children are headed. I also do not believe that teachers are aware of this. For them, it is one or two lectures back to back at most, and then they can take a break. Many teachers also pre-record their lectures, so the teachers are not even there when the students watch the videos.

For the students, however, they are forced into that sitting position for hours on end. Sure, they are allowed a few short breaks, but these do not address the cumulative effect of hours of computer-time a day. There is P.E., which consists of a few stretches and strength exercises in front of the computer, but again, this is not sufficient to cope with the remaining hours of sitting in that chair.

Another concern I have is for their eyesight. My son just happens to have a larger gaming monitor, so I’m guessing he’s better off than all those kids huddled over a 15” laptop or Chromebook. While our daughter also had a desktop computer with a larger screen (fortunately), it is not as detailed as the one my son uses. I am quite certain that everyone will be needing new glasses by the end of the year

Remote work did not free us from the physical problems of working at a computer all day. Photo courtesy of pixabay.com

Computing for the rest of the family

In our family, we have 1.5 high quality computer chairs. I say that because the second chair is a generic one that we purchased on sale at Office Depot. It is OK, but not ideal. We purchased these chairs when our work started to require longer hours in front of a screen. The chairs are a couple of years old.

That said, these chairs are far from adequate as well. Prior to the pandemic, we frequently attended meetings, workshops, and events so we were out and about quite a bit. I also took time to exercise several times a day before the pandemic – now not so much. We have been cooped up inside much more than what is healthy.

Unlike our children who were still able to spend much of their time outside and on the go, we typically stayed inside and worked. We have adapted our work to comply with the lockdowns and the restrictions, but what will be the long-term ramifications for us? Will we suffer the same problems as our children?

Actually, because we are a bit less active than our children, and because we are older, our problems are likely to be much more severe. My work usually becomes busy towards the end of the month when I need to meet deadlines, and truth-be-told, I have noticed far more muscle and nerve issues lately.

Chairs matter

Our previous chairs, which were very much inadequate are the ones that our children are now using – this is what happens in most households, I am told. The problem is that those older chairs are sagging, springs are worn, and the cushioning is flat. This causes pain in the lower legs after a few hours of use and does not support the back adequately.

When the kids were just sitting in short stints for a quick game of Fortnite, between longer times playing outside, then this wasn’t an issue. This fall, however, schools seem to be trying to make up for whatever academic setbacks were not met last Spring. It seems that students are required to spend far more time in their chairs now.

I think this is a perfect time to invest in quality chairs for our kids, but also to replace that .5 chair that we should also replace. Our old chairs should not be handed down either. That is just kicking the bucket down the street, and this bucket equals pain.

If you do have decent chairs that you use for work (we only have the one), then you could hand those to the kids and then make the new chairs a business expense (possible tax write-off) for yourself. Most small businesses tend to spend more liberally on technology while furniture is often forgotten. This pandemic year, the priority needs to also include chairs.

Other steps to take to improve posture

As it turns out there are many things, we can do to improve our posture when working at the computer. First and foremost: take regular breaks to stretch and do some light exercises. I have a system for doing this myself by frequently changing the music I listen to while I work (I listen to records). This is not something everyone has access to, but maybe you can find your own distraction that forces you to walk away from the screen on a regular basis.

The USA Today article mentioned above, also has a good diagram describing how children and adults should sit in front of a computer:

Proper posture is more important that we think. Click on image above for a more complete description of proper posture.

This does not necessarily require new and expensive equipment, either. Many of the suggestions can be implemented with things we have laying around the house, like using a thick book or two to raise the monitor to the correct height.

In the article, Jennifer Jolly also provides specific recommendations for improving posture. These include purchasing a laptop stand, replacing the chair, the desk, and considering a new keyboard and mouse as well. Obviously, these have a cost, but as mentioned above, you can substitute with items you have paying around.

Conclusion

I will not say that this issue is anywhere near the seriousness of the pandemic, but the pandemic is making this issue more serious for our children and us gig workers. Correct ergonomic equipment is an expense that large businesses and corporations can cover – for them it is less expensive than a lawsuit. For those running small businesses, this becomes a question of balancing this against other financial expenses the business needs to incur.

That said, I do think that this is the year to make an investment in better furniture. You can always tell your tax accountant that you have higher expenses this year because of the pandemic (which is not untrue). So do your research and invest in better chairs for yourself and your children. Just as it is cheaper than a lawsuit for a large corporation, it is also cheaper than long-term medical care for you.

The issue of posture and prolonged screen time for our children as a result of the pandemic will continue to be an important one. I expect that it will reappear in the media throughout the year. No, it is not as serious as the pandemic itself, but it will still be a serious health issue for millions that will have long-term ramifications as well.

Walking for the Health of Your Business

Photo courtesy of Ono Kosuki - pexels.com

In our family, walking is an important part of our lives. Whenever we can, we try to walk the kids to school, my husband walks every morning for exercise, we make it a habit to always park at the end of the parking lot when we go out (also keeps dings & dents to a minimum), and when the weather is warmer we usually take a walk in the evening after dinner.

Our Human Resources manager, Faiza, also recommended walking in the early mornings to strengthen your vision. She had received this advice from her father who said that focusing one’s eyes on the green trees and plants in the early morning helps keep the eyes healthy and keeps vision from deteriorating. We all know that green is an uplifting color, reminding us of the beauty of nature, the permanence of life, the cleaning properties of plants, and of course good health (remember to eat your veggies). It is a deep, vibrant, and powerful color too, and and now we find out it can help improve vision.

Walking Meetings

Of course, I also do my Sunday morning walks with fellow entrepreneurs in our neighborhood to share ideas & tips on building our business. We share our experiences that week on what worked and what didn’t work in our businesses. Granted, it’s also a social affair and we do talk about lots of other things from kids, the news, and the local gossip. I don’t mind this. The business talk is a great ice breaker to start off with, especially in the early morning when we’re not completely awake yet. The important thing is that it adds some fun to the walk and makes the business stuff (which can be pretty dry) easy to talk about.

I never liked “walking meetings” when I worked as a staff person. There was always a sense that we were being led around and forced into a walk we didn’t really have time for. This is why it is important to keep it light. Obviously you can’t jot down notes in a walking meeting, so it should never become a mandatory, critical, or forced part of the work day. It should exist to complement the existing work, to offer a break from a stuffy office environment, and a chance for everyone to breathe a little.

Walking for Health

Walking is good for physical health, but it is also psychologically healthy. This is particularly the case during periods of great stress that many entrepreneurs experience when starting their businesses. For many, this involves long hours hunched over in front of computer screens, lots of low-cost travel and cramped conditions in hotels, tedious trainings, and a lot of time away from loved ones. In this environment it is incredibly easy to just hunker down, keep plugging away, and not take any breaks. This is bad for your health both physically and mentally.

Take a break and go for a walk, even if you just have 15 minutes. Go outside and take a look at the greenery or if you are in a big city, take the time to be around other people just walking the street. Even a very short walk outside every couple of hours is better than not doing this at all. I speak from personal experience writing my dissertation for hours on end that this is so incredibly important.

Working from Home

For those working from home, they typically shut their kids & pets out, turn up music or a loud fan, and try to pretend that they are isolated from the world. I know kids (and pets) can be a distraction, especially when they come home from school, but they are also a wonderful opportunity for a break. You don’t want them planted in front of a screen (or in our case, the Xbox) for hours just to be out of your hair.

So go for a walk together every couple of hours. It will be good for you and them. Starting a business from home is incredibly difficult, but even if you become extremely successful, you don’t want the memories from those first few years to be miserable ones? Well, neither do your kids.

Managing Your Meetings

Entrepreneurs also have lots of indoor meetings with clients, customers, staff, lawyers, suppliers, etc. Most of these people we are meeting with are specialists in their specific area, but as a small business owner you usually aren’t. Your job is typically to be responsible for the bigger picture. Your job is to coordinate the work of these specialists so that you can move your business forward with their help, input, and ideas. This may seem simple, but it is not and it is very common to fall into the habit of focusing too much on those things we can’t possibly become experts at – this is their job.

Taking a walk outside right after the meeting is extremely important. You need is a short break to focus your thoughts on what just occurred in the meeting. If you were in the meeting with an associate, this is the time to talk about the meeting during that walk. Compare impressions, make mental notes of the important things that stood out, and let the discussion converge to how this will help your business.

When you get back to your office, you will likely jump right back on your email, you’ll answer calls that you missed and become distracted by whatever advertisements pop up on your computer screen. Don’t do this – turn it all off. Now that you’ve had your meeting, followed by a short walk to synthesize your thoughts, it’s time to jot down notes and anything else that you need to remember. You’ll be surprised how that short walk after the meeting helps synthesize your thoughts.

Walking between stretches of work just makes sense

Walking, especially outside and away from your office, should become an important part of your work routine. The more you do it, the easier it will become and the better you will be able to determine what was important and what wasn’t. Focus on the green plants and let your mind do what it needs to do to store the information where it needs to. You’ll be surprised how easy this becomes with practice.

In my case, those walks are with my kids and while you might think they distract me from my thoughts about the business, they actually don’t. I always come back to the office refreshed and focused. So go for that walk regularly, talk with your kids about completely unrelated things, it won’t matter because your mind is particularly good at compartmentalizing when it is not stressed. That is ultimately what this is about: reducing stress..

Shifting Your Mentality

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This quick article in TecRepublic gives some new insights into the Gig economy. What is interesting is that they refer to a watershed moment that we believe will have a significant impact on how it is viewed both by employers and by the Gigsters themselves. It involves a shift in mentality about work.

This is essentially a shift from seeing oneself as an employee to becoming a business operator. As a Gigster, your business is yourself: your skills and expertise are what you are selling to those who need them and everything you do is purposeful to your success. All your education and work experience now become critical as you create a business showcasing your expertise.

This shift is often difficult to make because we are psychologically reluctant to make it. For those of us in our 40s and over, we likely started working at a company where we expected steady income growth and benefits that would last until retirement. We would stay at this one job to build up a good living, pay for a house, a car, a growing family, and eventually retirement, all from this one job. These jobs are disspearing as employers look to cut the costs of benefits. Successful Gigsters understand this and price themselves accordingly.

Another factor is that in the old 9-5 jobs, concerns like benefits, the computer network, job assignments, etc. were all handled by other people or departments at the company, so those were not immediate concerns. As a Gigster, those are now very real concerns and require additional work on their own to do. Again, successful Gigsters know how to price these into their fees.

The changes in how Gigsters understand work can be daunting, but here is the key: it is also incredibly empowering. Taking control of all aspects of one’s success becomes not just a necessity, but also something that puts Gigsters in complete control. It gives them control over things they previously had no control over, including clocking in & out, the dreaded employee reviews, demotions, firing, office politics, abusive bosses, and yes, also the common harassment issues based on gender, race, beliefs, etc.

It is a trade-off, but the evidence seems to suggest that now more than ever, people young and old are choosing the Gig option instead, and this includes making this mental shift. Once Gigsters make that shift, they begin to put structures in place to ensure that they are paid what they are worth, they manage their own schedules, and chose work that is more fulfilling to them. In a way, they become the architects of their own success.

Will this be the year that the Gig economy becomes the dominant paradigm? Maybe not yet, but Gigsters, and especially Collegiate Gigsters are becoming more self-aware of their worth and this is incredibly encouraging. We at the Colégas Group fully support this and we want to provide as many ways to assist Gigsters in realizing their own success.

Like Ripples in Water, Professional Growth Happens in Ebbs and Waves

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When I decided to pursue my doctorate degree, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. All I knew was that I loved school and saw it as a way to continue my own personal and professional growth and development. I didn’t pay much attention to how I would grow into an academic over time, but now that I reflect on it, it was definitely not a linear process, but rather occurred in ebbs and waves.

What I was not ready for was how non-linear the process would be. There were significant fits and stops; times where my fingers could not keep up with the thoughts coming to me, and other times when I literally cried because I could not make sense of a basic idea in class. There were times when I spoke like the expert I was becoming, and times when I could not even find the words to explain my thoughts. There were times I felt like my mind was not my own, racing ahead of my comfort zone, and times when it was completely blank.

These waves of activity followed by ebbs of inactivity also affected me physically. One week I would gain weight and then the following week I would lose it again. I’m sure others who have written a thesis can relate to this. During those periods when things stalled for me, it seemed like my entire PhD would come to a screeching halt. Fortunately, I did complete the PhD and life proceeded onward. It was these experiences, these taller waves separating the ebbs, that became so transformational for me. They taught me to anticipate the patterns and to know when and how to act.

Doing a PhD also involves developing important but smaller, transferrable skills such as focus, tenacity, resilience, resourcefulness, agility, adaptability, concise writing, insight, self-knowledge, etc. These formed small building blocks for my professional development As it turns out, these skills also developed in waves and ebbs. They did not come into focus slowly over time, but instead appeared suddenly because I needed them right then & there to achieve a milestone or complete an assignment.

Coming to accept these is an intricate part of my successes over time. I hear the same from colleagues who have experienced this in their own professional development. Perhaps this process hearkens back to our human development, which also tends to come in waves – like that growth spurt when we turned 12. Perhaps our professional development emulates the natural human growth spurts earlier in life. Whatever the reason, I have come to accept these are a normal part of the process.

Interestingly, these waves also occur in our business. When we started with our website, we saw an original surge in interest that quickly reached a plateau. When we started distributing a regular newsletter we noticed another wave of activity not just on our website, but also in people wanting to partner with us. The phones rang more often, our PO box required regular checks, and email boxes filled. When we branched out into Facebook, Google+, Twitter, and LinkedIn, we saw another wave of interest.

It was because of these successive waves that we are now at the top of most Google searches – just type in Collegiate Gigster and we’re right there under the Gigster.com ad (they paid for that, so we’re not worried). With every new milestone of success, we saw the ripple effect across all the ways we interfaced with the public, from our websites to our newsletter to our social media pages.

Most recently we were asked why we don’t teach classes. A silly question, really, especially since this was our original plan for the business. So we dusted off the idea and we are starting our Collegiate Seminars this November. Again, we saw a new wave in interest across all our media. When we go live with Public Academic, we expect to see another wave hitting all our  platforms.

At Colégas we see the importance of embracing these waves as a company. We can’t stress enough the importance of recognizing this process in your own businesses. It has been my experience in life, and especially in my professional life, and it is now what I am seeing in the growth of our business. Like ripples of water on a quiet pond, growth occurs in tall waves followed by wide ebbs in between.

Transferrable Skills for the Over-40 Set

In a previous blog on transferrable skills, it was brought to my attention that the suggestions I made were more appropriate for those just finishing college and entering the workforce for the first time. That is true. That demographic doesn’t have the skills and experience that will help them land their dream job right away. Often, they have never worked and have only “done school”, so they need some coaching to identify what skills they did acquire while completing their education that can translate into skills that will help them succeed in the world of work.

The suggestion was to look at how those who are 40 or older can identify their skills and translate them to fit to the modern work environment. As I was drafting this blog, I came across a post by Jo Weech who spoke about the experiences of interviewing while 40. Her descriptions are at times funny while other times they are soul-crushing. Her recommendations are for the employer to focus on the opportunities, skills, insights, and maturity that “older” employees can bring to an organization.

This blog is about what you can do to shine. I go back to the categories I used in my previous blog and ask you to do some reflection. Look at areas in your resume and work (both paid and unpaid) experience and see how they can be retooled to fit the contemporary work environment:

Management

• Project management

• Time management

• Problem-solving

• Organizing events

• Task-focused

• Managing a budget

Supervising Skills

• Domestic and international team leadership

• Mentoring and coaching peers

• Team-work

• Interpersonal skills

• Skilled in working with diverse groups

• Leading small or large groups

Entrepreneurship Skills:

• Creating or doing something new

• Risk-taking

• Being resilient

• Winning awards and grants

• Networking

• International travel and experience

Communication Skills:

• Writing

• Public speaking

• Multi-lingual abilities

• Training others

• Keeping the important people informed about your progress

• Web, email, content creation and social media

Knowledge & Information Skills:

• Learning (taking classes)

• Critical thinking

• Research & analysis

• Managing data & information

• IT applications & programming languages

• Subject matter expertise

You may never have had to look at your resume and your experiences in these terms. Developing different ways to look at your skills, abilities, and experience gives you the insight to decipher job descriptions to better understand what it being asked by the employer. You need to become more adept at reading between the lines and seeing how to market your skills, abilities, and experience to match what is being asked of in the job description. You need to become a translator, someone who understands the job market and knows how to make your skills fit.

Remember, survival of the fittest has nothing to do with strength, and everything to do with the ability to adapt. Those over 40 experience a different kind of Imposter Syndrome. This sort of imposter isn’t one that knows they will be found out as a fake, but one who doesn’t feel like they belong in the current work environment. With that mindset, we give off a feeling of inadequacy…sometimes this feeling is so strong that we don’t even bother to apply for the jobs in the first place.

I’m not saying that your feelings are wrong. They are not…they are a real response to a real situation. What I am saying is that you have control over your future. You must remember the drive and desire to succeed that got you the work experience you have now. You must not get stuck in the thinking that “at my age, I shouldn’t be doing this!” whatever “this” is. The new economy requires all of us to retool and continue learning, growing, and challenging ourselves.

Demographers are saying that the US population will continue to age well into the 21st century. Birth rates are dropping, and people are living longer. Currently employers don’t know what to do to better integrating a multi-generational workforce. That needs to change in order for industry to remain competitive worldwide. You may be just the person to help in that transition. Businesses must do better in abiding by the EEOC guidelines and consider diversifying their hiring practices to ensure that the best candidate for the job is hired. In the meantime, do the work on yourself, both mentally and physically, to make sure you present your best self to the world. Evolution benefits those who adapt.

Keep it Positive! Seeing speed-bumps rather than road-blocks

As a Collegiate Gigster, I read a lot of cynicism online. It usually comes up in conversations about the economy or politics, but also life in general. Life can be difficult, especially for Gigsters and I’m not saying it isn’t. What I am saying is that our life is full of events, and it is the meaning we give to these events that make them negative or positive, or what I call seeing roadblocks vs. speed-bumps.

As we proceed through our day at work, having negative thoughts does not make the work any easier. Sometimes we really have to search for the good in the things around us. According to Johns Hopkins University medical researchers, having a positive mental outlook benefits our body and mind. From a physiological perspective, when you are positive, you are more relaxed and focused on the present moment. This allows optimal blood flow to your entire brain, but primarily the frontal cortex, to better problem-solve and deal with issues as they come up. If you are in a negative mindset, you are usually under stress. This state concentrates the blood flow in the part of the brain where the fight-or-flight response originates from. It limits your visual focus and you react, instead of responding to situations and events more introspectively.

Remaining positive, even hopeful, is one way to keep your mind and your brain healthy and consequently receptive to the positive resources in the environment. The article also talks of re-framing your assessment of the circumstances around you. Take for instance the example of getting into an accident on the way to work. Yes, this isn’t ideal, but it does happen. How we deal with this circumstance determines whether this is a roadblock or a speed-bump. A roadblock could lead you to fall apart at the side of road, crying and feeling helpless and hopeless. A speed-bump mentality focuses your mind on the foresight of paying your car insurance on-time (and adding roadside assistance to the policy).

Also consider the fact that it was just a fender bender and not a horrible wreck that could have landed you and possibly others in the hospital. Focusing on the positives allows you to not only better deal with the immediate issues, but also helps you move on from them. The simple mental exercise of re-framing can keep you from going down a rabbit hole of despair that limits your ability to help yourself.

Reach out, ask for help, ask questions, stay humble, smile, laugh. Also have faith in your abilities and your capacity to thrive. Your smarts got you this far, so I’m confident that you will continue to transform those roadblocks into speed-bumps. I like to think that Collegiate Gigsters are a little better at this than most, but this advice is good for everyone.