People First at ME#3: How Are You Making The Mission Equality Workplace Work For You?

This is the third and final - for now - part of our series on being people first at Mission Equality. We asked the team: How are you tailoring your work experience here to make sure your needs are being met? Here’s what they said:

LoAn: Until the pandemic era in 2020, working remotely and virtually was a new paradigm shift for me.  At ME, being a global organisation with team members all over the map, I’m coming into another growth of doing outreach work online and not in person. Recognizing the long term impact of written communication versus the immediacy of conversationally speaking at live events had been a challenge to assimilate. But because of the way ME does business differently and with people first, I’ve been able to nudge myself forward in this flexibility to allow me to practice the new muscles.  

Another area that I witnessed earlier on at ME was the ease and openness of our team to keep each other informed of our needs to take care of ourselves and families.  This application of ‘people first’ gave me the ease to share openly when I was faced with personal challenges.  Recently, we were asked to list our optimum work hours and days so others know when we would be available.  This is another act of honouring our different rhythm of life and activities we have going on besides being committed to ME in our respective roles.  All of that I shared here is to reiterate that at Mission Equality, we model what we put down in our policy.

AJ: This is still taking shape and no doubt will continue forever! Growing up with  undiagnosed Autism and ADHD I had to constantly justify/explain/apologise for the way I communicate and 'perform'. Working full time (often way over full time) was so incredibly bad for me. Early jobs expected me to always be available and it made me so unwell. Here I work when I want to, on things that I want to, and I prioritise my growth as a person as much as anything else. I keep Wednesdays as strictly non-working days and then work whenever I want for the rest of the time rather than when I think I 'should' be. The result so far is work I feel good about and a mindbody that is rested and more content.

Laura: As a people-first, remote-first company, ME makes it easy to customise my work life to work for me. Neurodivergent family life REQUIRES flexibility, and at ME I can work at whatever time of day fits best with my family needs. Having the option to opt in or out of being on camera, communicate mostly asynchronously, and control my work environment (lighting, sound, etc.) allows me to be comfortable at work and dedicate my energy to the task at hand rather than the distractions and sensory demands of a typical workplace.

Thanks, ME team. Folx, in case you missed them, here are parts one and two of our series.