Don’t Bring Your Whole Self to Work: Bring Your Best Whole Work Self

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As I look back on my twenty-five-year career in corporate America, I am struck by and struggle with the Diversity & Inclusion (“D&I”) and employee engagement mantra to “bring your whole self to work.” That might surprise you if you know me: I started my career working on D&I, and have worked on D&I inside and outside the workplace ever since. Some may even consider me a champion of D&I. But it is my passion for D&I that brings me to the conclusion that it is time to break the “bring your whole self to work” myth.

The idea behind this mantra is simple: if employees bring their whole selves to work, they will feel better about the workplace, and by extension be happier and more productive employees (and human beings). That sounds good on paper. The problem is this: you shouldn’t bring your whole self to work if that means behaving badly. Or said differently, you should bring your best whole work self to work, not your “whole self.”
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Increasing Gender Diversity Without Quotas

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Diversity and inclusion (D&I) continues to be a priority in the corporate world, especially in the housing ecosystem. To increase opportunities for women, some have advocated legislative action. One example is California’s potential SB 826 bill, a law that would require the state’s largest public companies to have at least one woman on their board by the end of 2019. While such policy action may be perceived as long overdue, enforcing quotas is not an all-encompassing solution to the lack of diversity in companies’ executive positions.

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Nonprofit Counseling: Protecting and Preserving a Vital Service to American Homeowners and the Finance Community

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The past decade has taught us a great deal about housing loss and preservation. Many of us were personally affected, or know someone affected, by the 2007-08 economic downturn period our country experienced.

There have been several lessons learned. Most of all, we learned that too many U.S residents have too much debt and lack the necessary reserves to weather the slightest bump in their financial lives.

History will argue about what went wrong and who to blame. There were lots of mistakes but there were several good lessons. One was the reminder of the value and need for nonprofit housing advocates, educators and counselors.

We learned that homeowners and homebuyers who took advantage of homeownership, credit and financial literacy counseling fared far better during the housing and economic crisis and avoided foreclosure and delinquency more than homeowners who did not. We learned that pre-purchase education, credit and budgeting courses prevented many homebuyers from buying more than they could afford and taught them to avoid the pitfalls of over leveraging their home and excessive debt.
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