How To Build A Thriving Workplace That Doesn’t Break People
What could work look like if we centered our employees?
How Her First 100K Built An Employee-Centric Workplace
My cramps were so bad I could barely stand up straight, but I went to work because I felt like I had to. I couldn’t just take one or two days off every month when I had cramps, could I? There was no precedent for taking time off for this monthly event, and we certainly didn’t talk about it out loud. Plus, I didn’t have enough sick days to cover it.
So you can imagine that my jaw dropped when I first saw Tori Dunlap, CEO and Founder of Her First 100K (HFK), posting on LinkedIn about giving unlimited menstrual leave to her employees. I don’t think I’d ever said the word “menstrual” at work, much less had leave given to me specifically to help me endure the symptoms.
“Things I do that send men into a coma,” she titled the post, sharing that HFK also is fully-remote, gives unlimited PTO, and takes four full-company quarterly breaks per year (in addition to PTO).
When I read that, I knew I had to speak to the person at HFK responsible for architecting these policies. Karina Patel is the Chief Operating Officer of HFK, and my guest on episode 48 and 49 of the Hard at Work Podcast. She and I got into the nitty-gritty of how HFK built these policies and keeps them fresh, ensuring they are continuing to work as the company grows.
And if you haven’t heard of HFK, or Tori’s book and podcast, both titled Financial Feminist, they’re kind of a bit deal, y’all. As in: very successful and profitable, and helping a community of 5 million + women gain financial freedom.
Here are my biggest takeaways from talking with Karina:
Unlearning is just as important as learning. Karina told me that when she and Tori sat down to create the workplace policies for HFK, she found herself having to unlearn her prior experiences in corporate that prioritized toxic productivity in order to be open to creating better workplace policies at HFK.
The world doesn’t end if you close up shop for a week. Karina and Tori created four quarterly full-company paid leaves, a total of 26 days per year. They find that their team comes back refreshed and working more efficiently, without the backlog of emails that would normally come in while you’re on vacation but the rest of your team isn’t.
The leaders model the behavior they want to see from the team members. Karina shuts off her Slack notifications at 5:00 PM every night. If she or Tori are traveling and they say they’re going to be fully offline, they mean it. This creates a culture where everyone feels they can do the same.
If you’re thinking that this would never work at your company, I’m going to challenge you to think harder on that. Yes, it’s easier to build these flexible policies at a smaller, private company than a large public institution. But that doesn’t mean you can’t learn how others are making healthier workplaces a reality and start the conversation at your workplace.
Even if you start with something small, like not being online after 5:00 PM most nights, it’s a step in the right direction to create workplaces where employees stay and thrive, which is ultimately the best thing you can do for your bottom line.
You can listen to part one of my conversation with Karina here, or anywhere you find your podcasts. And I’d love to hear what small step you’re willing to take to adopt policies for a healthier workplace.
