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Recently, Away Luggage Company CEO Steph Korey stepped down after an investigation by the Verge highlighted the company’s toxic work culture. From Korey reportedly using Slack to publicly critique work and label an employee “brain dead” to sending late-night messages — Away is a case study in how not to communicate in the workplace. Like the Away company, if you have a communication problem in the workplace, chances are: Work is being duplicated (or not done at all). The finished product isn’t what you expected. There is a high turnover rate. There are recurring errors or delays in products or services. Your team is silent in meetings and no one speaks up to offer ideas or share their experiences. While it’s often second nature for managers to blame “lazy” or “incompetent” employees, frequent communication issues are often a symptom of a much deeper problem. A bad system, an outdated process or pattern of behavior from the company’s higher-ups are often the culprits. Here’s how to...
This article was originally published on 05/10/2019 The rising popularity of gaming has attracted onlookers as well as participants – giving way to esports and streaming as a platform. Platforms like Twitch, Mixer and YoutubeGaming allow visitors to watch streamers play through their favorite games. Players balance playing the game with hosting the room’s visitors, talking with them in chats and inviting engagement, follows, or subscriptions. Twitch, the OG on the block, currently boasts 2.2 million streamers on its platform. Why are so many people playing video games for people to watch? Because there’s a market for it. Streamers can earn revenue from viewers watching ads on their channel, through subscriptions and donations. Ninja (the streamer who shot to fame playing Fortnite with Drake, Travis Scott and JuJu Smith-Schuster last spring) reportedly makes up to $500,000 a month from streaming alone. The Fortnite session with Drizzy netted Ninja the record for highest stream views...
Microsoft is now investigating sexual harassment claims after numerous women in the company shared stories of workplace misconduct and discrimination in a 90-page email thread, according to Quartz. “This thread has pulled the scab off a festering wound. The collective anger and frustration is palpable. A wide audience is now listening. And you know what? I’m good with that,” one Microsoft employee in the email chain wrote. The women’s emails told stories of colleagues making sexual advances and requests. One female staffer even talked about how an employee at a partner company threatened to kill her after asking for sexual favors. After bringing it to the attention of her manager and HR representative, she was told to “get over it.” Other female employees in the thread allege that they had been called “bitch” by males on their team. The women in the email chain have been notified by Microsoft’s head of human resources, Kathleen Hogan, that she and her team are looking into the...
Over the past few months, YouTube has come under increased scrutiny regarding its tendency to allow toxic content to flourish on its platform. Now, a report by Bloomberg has revealed YouTube executives ignored the warnings of their own employees. More than 20 former and current YouTube staffers said that employees proposed ways to stop the spread of toxic videos — including those with extremist content and conspiracy theories — but were ignored. Privacy engineer Yonatan Zunger proposed a third tier which would allow videos that were “close to the line” of being removed to remain up. The difference is they would not be recommended. That proposal was rejected by YouTube in 2016. “I can say with a lot of confidence that they were deeply wrong,” Zunger told Bloomberg. Rather than solve content issues, employees told Bloomberg that executives were focused on engagement. The company had an internal goal of 1 billion hours of views a day. A former staffer told Bloomberg that YouTube CEO...
Jigsaw just launched an experimental Chrome extension called Tune that lets users “control the volume” of toxic conversations they see across the internet. Tune uses artificial intelligence to moderate content and comments on social platforms including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube – all of which have made their own individual efforts to curtail hate speech and harassment on their platforms. Tune provides users with volume control. You can turn on “zen mode” and completely tune out all toxic conversations or be exposed to all comments, even the ugly stuff. The volume setting also lets users moderate content with slurs, profanity and hate speech. In July, Facebook released a feature that lets users mute words and phrases from their newsfeeds. Twitter has a similar feature and users can mute a phrase for a specific time. Tune isn’t perfect yet — its developers say that some offensive comments may slip through the cracks and other comments that aren’t deemed as “toxic’ may be removed....
Twitter is a toxic place for women. That’s according to a new report by Amnesty International and Element AI, which analyzed millions of tweets showing women are targeted with hate speech on social platforms. The Troll Patrol Report found that 7.1 percent of tweets sent to women can be considered “problematic” or “abusive.” That’s one every 30 seconds on average or a total of 1.1 million. “We have built the world’s largest crowdsourced dataset about online abuse against women,” Milena Marin, Senior Adviser for Tactical Research at Amnesty International, said in a statement. “We have the data to back up what women have long been telling us—that Twitter is a place where racism, misogyny, and homophobia are allowed to flourish basically unchecked.” Black women are particularly impacted and are 84 percent more likely to be targeted with hate speech online than their white counterparts. Women of color are 34 percent more likely to be targeted in tweets with abusive language. The report...
Many users are abandoning Elon Musk’s X in favor of the emerging social media platform Bluesky. The Guardian reported that over 1 million people have joined Bluesky since the U.S. presidential election — a surge in sign-ups as users seek alternatives to X, formerly Twitter, amid growing concerns about misinformation and extremism. Currently, Bluesky reportedly has about 15 million users. “It feels like a very welcoming, safe space,” Pariss Chandler, organizer of Black Tech Twitter and founder of the recruitment platform Black Tech Pipeline, told NBC News. “I wonder if that’s because they have lots of regulations and safety protections on that platform. They provide something Twitter no longer does.” In 2019, Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s then-CEO, announced plans to fund the development of an “open and decentralized” social media standard, according to The Guardian. Thus began the Bluesky project. Bluesky became an independent company in 2021. The platform offers a familiar social media...
Highlighting bias in artificial intelligence (AI) is essential, but equally important is educating people on ways to prevent it. In 2019, Salesforce established its Trusted AI Principles to address the ethical implications of predictive AI and machine learning. By 2023, with the rapid evolution of generative AI, Salesforce deepened its commitment to responsible AI by participating in the AFROTECH™ Conference, where it discussed strategies for prioritizing ethical and inclusive practices in generative AI. During the session, “ Closing The AI Trust Gap: Battling Bias | Presented by Salesforce,” Jackie Chambers de Freitas, Vice President of Agile Delivery and Coaching at Salesforce, shared how Salesforce’s focus on AI began in 2014, when CEO Marc Benioff declared that the company would become an AI-first company. Watch the session here via AFROTECH™ Labs. View this post on Instagram A post shared by AFROTECH (@afro.tech) “The goal was to transform Salesforce into an intelligent...
2024 is only halfway done, but we’ve already seen many Black creatives go viral thanks to their savvy social media skills. In the winter, TikToker Reesa Teesa had the world on the edge of its seat as she told the story of her tumultuous marriage, ultimately inking her a deal with CAA for future content creation opportunities. Elsewhere, Kai Cenat and fellow members of the AMP collective have been dancing on stage with Nicki Minaj and teasing Jordan sponsorships online. The 22-year-old is the most-followed among the YouTube group, but right behind him is his good friend, Duke Dennis – best known for his gaming videos and entertaining storytimes across numerous channels. Several years older than his frequent collaborator, Dennis was born on Feb. 26th, 1994 in Greenville, South Carolina. One of the former athlete’s brothers, Darius, often appears in Duke’s videos, which millions of people watch across his different accounts. Though he was a talented football player, the 30-year-old and...
Progress is often only seen as positive based on the sustainability measures associated with it, and many organizations have not kept their promises regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). This abandonment informs many (DEI) advocates’ perspectives when explaining the recent rollback of DEI programs at large and small corporations. The removal of equity-focused programming is not new. According to a previous AFROTECH™ report, many companies that made commitments to DEI in 2020 after the murder of George Floyd have dialed back or cut programs. Now, Microsoft is among the big-name companies, specifically in tech, that have decided to eliminate their intentional strategies around DEI. The pervasive question to these cuts is “why?” According to Business Insider, it was due to “changing business needs.” “True systems-change work associated with DEI programs everywhere are no longer business critical or smart as they were in 2020,” a leader of the laid off DEI team wrote in an...
This Philadelphia, PA, native is transforming her e-commerce startup into a new luxury experience. Kadidja Dosso founded the e-commerce shop Dosso Beauty, a clinically tested, hypoallergenic braiding hair company. In an interview with FOX29 Philadelphia, Dosso shared that the company has been a game changer for more than 50,000 women who suffer from allergic reactions from braiding hair due to toxic chemicals. Dosso launched Dosso Beauty in 2018 after experiencing a horrible allergic reaction to braiding hair, along with a history of scalp and skin sensitivity. While Dosso has had six years of success selling Dosso Beauty products on its e-commerce site, Amazon, GoPuff, DoorDash, independent retail stores, and hair salons, she is ready for the next step. In Dosso’s interview with FOX29, she shared her plans to open the company’s first-ever brick-and-mortar store in July 2024 in Philadelphia, PA. She also plans to open a luxury braid salon within the store called The Dosso Beauty...
Not everyone is born to be a full-time content creator , but these days it’s rare to meet someone who isn’t a user on at least one social platform. Twitter’s transition into X caused it to lose millions of users and the fate of TikTok in America is still up in the air, yet still, people around the world rely on apps like Instagram, Facebook and YouTube to get their news, connect with loved ones and express their own feelings. The positives are great – but what about the negative aspects of social media , such as doomscrolling? We have access to more information than ever before at the tips of our fingers, and all day, notifications bring us updates that can send your nervous system on an unpleasant rollercoaster ride. If we’re not careful, we can become addicted to this cycle which is both mentally and physically damaging. Keep reading to better understand doomscrolling, and what you can do to combat the digital disease plaguing us. What Is Doomscrolling? Before you try to break a...
The work and pioneering done by Black Americans has historically gone unrecognized across many areas/fields, including science. Black Americans make up 12% of the US population and have experienced the most disadvantages and setbacks in education than any other group in the country. For this reason, it is believed that there are not many Black scientists or Black people in STEM of note; however, this is not true historically nor in the present day. The work of Black scientists has led to discoveries that have changed our understanding in areas including health, space travel, public safety and more. Many of these Black scientists faced the added challenge of navigating racism, discrimination and segregation, on top of the challenging work they accomplished . These individuals defied all doubt, prejudice and other obstacles in their way to make ground breaking discoveries that help us learn more about the world and prove how vital Black scientists’ contributions in STEM are. Here are...
Job abandonment refers to a situation where an employee, without any notice or communication, fails to report to work for an extended period. It is considered a voluntary resignation, as the employee is essentially abandoning their job responsibilities without formally resigning. There is no law establishing what amount of time is considered job abandonment; every employer must establish it based on their own terms. In most cases, organizations have policies and procedures in place to address instances of job abandonment. These policies may include specific steps that the employer takes to attempt communication with the absent employee, such as sending emails, making phone calls, sending letters and more. If the employee fails to respond or provide a valid explanation for their absence within a specified timeframe, the employer may consider the employee to have voluntarily resigned. Job abandonment can have consequences for the employee, such as losing employment benefits or facing...