Seven former employees are suing Twitter – rebranded as X – alleging that the company’s mass layoffs unfairly impacted employees with protected characteristics, including Black employees. The Lawsuits The complaints were filed in federal court in Oakland, California, after claims that Twitter violated America’s Family Medical Leave Act, the Civil Rights Act and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. Omolade Ogunsanya is among the seven suing Twitter. According to the lawsuit seen by Rolling Stone, he alleged that his firing was “the product of unlawful race-based discrimination against Black employees.” Ogunsanya worked
The media industry has lost Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) leaders over the last two weeks with layoffs and resignations at Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, Netflix, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Who Has Gone? After more than six years, Disney’s chief diversity officer Latondra Newton was the first to exit her role. She oversaw the company’s “commitment to producing entertainment that reflects a global audience and sustains a welcoming and inclusive workplace for everyone.” Disney said she was leaving to pursue “other endeavors.” Netflix’s first-ever head of
This article was first published by Ikenwa Chukwunonso on Medium. The job market has been crazy this year with the high inflation rate and high-interest rate to cool off inflation meaning funding from venture capitalists and financial institutions have reduced due to high-interest rates. In January 2023, prices had increased by 6.4 percent compared to January 2022 according to the 12-month percentage of change in the consumer price index. Few companies especially in the tech sector are downsizing and reducing their burn rates which mean cutting jobs to properly navigate
This article was first published by Chuma Okoro on Medium. Many organizations think money is the only incentive that employees value. But evidence-based research suggests that employment security is powerful in increasing commitment and performance. Modern technology companies are known for high salaries, yummy snacks, and beautiful offices. Despite this, according to DevSkiller, these companies still have high turnover. This may be due to the perceived lack of an incentive that evidence-based research (EBR) suggests is powerful in increasing commitment and performance, and employment security. Employment security is a notion
Black-owned startup Equipt is using the power of the community to help tech workers bounce back from layoffs. In 2021, Olajide “Jide” Osan and Hubert Dagbo co-founded Equipt as a talent marketplace using upskilling events to connect job seekers with potential employers. After first meeting at Lehigh University in 2008, Dagbo and Osan found mentors who used their skills and networks to find career opportunities in finance and tech, respectively. The pair reconnected during the Covid-19 pandemic and launched Equipt, using technology to replicate the path they followed years prior.
I longed for a tech career as a stay-at-home mom with three academic degrees, including one from Yale. I attended my first hackathon over a decade ago and was immediately intrigued. Despite my impressive educational background, I found landing a tech role challenging. However, instead of giving up, I leaned into the affirming websites and platforms like POCIT that helped motivate me to pursue my dreams of a tech career. Read on to learn my story of perseverance and determination. How it All Started I gave birth to my daughter
US tech layoffs show little sign of slowing, with 50,000 jobs cuts announced this month alone. Still, experts have said there’s still reason for hope. Competition for tech workers “will remain fierce — even when and if the economy falls into recession around the middle or second half of 2023,” Joe Brusuelas, RSM’s chief economist, told NBC News. 8 in 10 laid-off tech workers found a new job within three months of starting their search; 4 in 10 within one month. – ZipRecruiter Also 59% of all tech jobs exist outside the tech sector.
Despite Big Tech’s promises in the summer of 2020, Black and Brown tech employees are finding themselves hard hit by short-sighted cuts to diversity efforts and layoffs. The Great Reset “The great reset” is what San Jose State University’s Professor Ahmed Banafa calls the current climate of tech layoffs, restructuring, and downsizing. While much of the global economy took a massive hit during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the tech industry thrived. Tech companies made huge profits and hired tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of new staff. Yet, fast forward
Remember the summer of 2020? Tech companies were posting Black squares on Instagram and mass hiring diversity consultants. Fast forward two years, and tech leaders are publicly delighting in the waning of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). We know it is easy to feel discouraged, but that’s where POCIT comes in! On our recruitment platform, you can find a whole gamut of roles for people of color in tech. Whether you’re a developer or business analyst, marketing genius or design boss, here are some of the many companies that want to
San Francisco-based communications company, Twilio, has announced that they will be cutting 11% workforce to help restructure the company after a period of rapid expansion. In a memo to employees, Twilio CEO, Jeff Lawson, clarified that all staff cuts will be made through an “Anti-Racist” and “Anti-Oppression” lens which took many by surprise. Despite right-wing publications such as Daily Caller, describing the move as “race-based,” Lawson’s actions come at a very critical time for POC workers who more times than not, are forced to suffer the brunt of staff layoffs and redundancies.
