I have put together a short facilitator's guide and a template slide deck to allow anyone to quickly set up a session for their own team. Feel free to download and personalise:

If you will find this useful, I hope you will let me know in the comments.

Image by StartupStockPhotos from Pixabay.

L'articolo Personal Maps - A Team Building Exercise sembra essere il primo su Paola Elefante.

(first published on YL 9/2019)
For a long time I believed that fighting for gender equality in science and technology was a matter of access and equal opportunities. In reality, the issue is way deeper and more dramatic. Why is it crucial to have gender balance in STEM?

The first reason links with economic equality. Positions in the field of technology, science, and software development are on the rise and they are prestigious and well-paying jobs. If women will be cut out of these roles, the result will be a spread economic inequality. Financial independence is a necessary step for gender equality. Nowadays in Finland only 29% of STEM professionals are women (EU average is 41% and Finland is placed third to last).

Another important factor is that lack of diversity among creators of technology and science produces dangerous realities. For example, research in medicine focuses especially - sometime exclusively - on male subjects, as female hormones are seen as a complication. The exclusion of women from creating tech exacerbates gender inequality; we are left with vocal assistants (always female) that laugh off sexual or verbal harassment; self-declaring all-inclusive health apps that have no function to track the menstrual cycle; predictive keyboards that show only male emojis when the user types "doctor" or "CEO"; vocal assistants that respond better to male voices; women systematically under attack on social media. Women become second-class users and consumers.

Science and technology have been modelling the world we live in for decades and their influence on our lives will only grow. Women need to have a role in progress or they will be excluded from the future.

Picture by McKaela Lee on Unsplash.

L'articolo Tech & Gender Equality - my column on Yliopisto-Lehti sembra essere il primo su Paola Elefante.

Now, if you have ever read my blog entries, you are very well aware this is not one of my issues. However, I cannot take all credit for it. Truth is, my husband and I made a conscious decision to move from Italy to Finland exactly to pursue our dream life, enjoying the Nordic work-life balance atmosphere. Being a mother is part of my life purpose, but even when I was 20 I was very well aware I had some non-negotiable terms when it came to having a family or not. Coming from a retrograde country in terms of gender equality and in work-life balance, I was attracted to the Nordic working culture. In one of my first working experiences, I was also fortunate enough to end up in an environment that encouraged its employees to take good care of their family. This positive experience, along with the contrast of other people's experiences abroad, left me wondering what concrete elements influenced positively my work-life balance and what advice I can draw for others to recreate this great mojo.

Policies

Finland's great family policies hugely contributed to draw an excellent baseline. I am talking of long parental leave for both mothers and fathers, single parents' support systems, child benefits, right to cut on working hours. On top of that, unions are so powerful that no employer can even dream of making pressure on someone's potential to exercise their rights in this context. No matter their location, single companies can adopt several of these policies and create a favourable environment for their employees. It can seem a scary investment, but one that greatly pays off in terms of attracting and retaining talent. Some examples:

• Paid parental leave, for both mothers and fathers, biological or adopted children.
• Flexitime and possibility to work from home. Here in Finland many employers even pay for the home internet connection, a small contribution yet a clear statement that working from home is acceptable.
• Paid short leaves (2-3 days) if a child is sick and cannot attend school or daycare.

Managers leading by example

Leaders set the example. The company should encourage and create favourable conditions for managers (of both genders) to take parental leaves and holidays. One of the most powerful examples for me was witnessing my supervisor at the time, the company's CTO, taking a long paternity leave and then cutting his working hours to part-time to spend more time with his newborn children. That sets the bar, doesn't it. In the same company, many top-rank managers took long parental leaves. In the same way, they often mentioned their children in conversations, maybe dropped a funny family pic in their presentation slides, rescheduled meetings with the official reason they had a school recital to attend, or delegated tasks because it was affecting family commitments. When I leaded my own team, I was extremely mindful of this. I did the very same. I made sure to rarely reply to emails at unholy hours. I tried to spread the gospel that having a life outside of work was normal, acceptable, due.

Family-friendly office

Making small changes in the office life can send a powerful message. One of my husband's workplaces made a point of extending the invitation to selected office parties to the whole family and even planned children activities for the young guests. Another idea was having a "take your child to work"-day every year. I regularly witnessed colleagues bringing their kids to the office, as daycare was closed or simply because they wanted to have a special day with mommy or daddy. I fondly remember my 5 year old daughter visiting my office. I put her to "work" asking her to copy a page of text on a laptop. She felt so important! Cute.
Do you have a global chat or Workplace? Set up channels to share family news, events, or information. In one my past workplaces, it was customary to announce a birth or adoption in the global channel. We also had a specific flow for family topics, where we would ask advice, exchange tips, sell or lend each other baby items. There are plenty of simple ways to integrate employees' family life into working life.
Would you rather have burnt out employees who live under the awful pressure of hiding a second life, or happy balanced people who feel appreciated, accepted, and whole?

Self-commitment

Last but not least, it's a personal commitment. Despite all the favourable conditions, the impostor sindrome is out there to get me and I regularly find myself struggling to balance the two worlds. We are often guilty of putting pressure on ourselves - men and women alike. I have assessed long ago what my own priorities are, yet it's a beneficial exercise to remind myself on a regular basis. Prioritisation helps me a lot. When I get an invitation to a meeting that overlaps with daycare pick-up, I immediately start questioning what's the best action. I take a deep breath and evaluate if I can reschedule it to a more favourable time. Sometime it's simply not possible, but 95% of the times is. I rarely have encountered shock or reprisal when I took a stand, and when I did I reminded myself that people come with a different set of motivations and expectations. I grew so bold in my conviction that I have started choosing my workplaces based on how their family policies are (a luxury not everyone has, I know).

There is plenty of evidence out there that productivity is boosted by a good work-life balance. Beside being the right thing to do, I strongly believe this is a smart long-term investment for businesses. What do you think about this, and what will you change in your workplace or attitude? Leave me a comment below.

L'articolo Secret Parenting: My Positive Experience And Tips To Improve Work-Life Balance sembra essere il primo su Paola Elefante.

Academia is an ecosystem of its own. Your field is a small community and your reputation is global: if someone powerful puts you in the wrong light, there's no turning back. Academia has a strongly hierarchical structure and mostly "old guard" male management. It ticks all the boxes to be a favourable environment for sexual harassment to flourish.

That being said, it didn't shock me when I spotted this thread on my Twitter feed.

Now, the comments are the interesting part. While men mostly report fun or annoying incidents ("Having to sit in silence in a 'networking' lunch at Oxford because some random guy that no one knew was giving a retirement speech [...] which also ran on so long it cut all the sessions too short" or "Someone spitting taco and cheese all over me because she insists to not stop eating her lunch while talking to me at my poster."), women have a whole lot else to say. The thread is a collection of stories of sexual harassment and even multiple accounts of assault. Men stroll into academic conferences with the fear of being ridiculed at worst, but women walk into them like in a minefield, expecting inappropriate comments at best, traumatic experiences at worst.

A gallery of examples:

Harassment at conferences is a real issue. People behave at their worst when they do not feel the pressure of accountability of their usual habitat. On the other hand, imagine being a victim to something like this while you are on a work trip, far from home and your support network. Not fun. Yet little to no conference organisers even tackle the issue. Having a policy statement and appropriate instructions on the conference website and appointing a contact person to report incidents are seen as useless overhead.

You know what I'd like to see? For researchers of both genders, especially young ones, to take a strong stand.

Quit going to conferences that do not provide tools for gender inclusion.

Write to the organisers that since you cannot find any stand or guidelines on harassment on their website, you decided not to attend. Invite colleagues to do the same. Tweet about it. Conferences need you as attendants and supporters more than you need to sit half-asleep on a chair listening to content that is or soon will be public.

I cannot wait to see the day when most women will comment with fun episodes to a thread like that.

***
Edit. Further readings. Universities have spent 90M pounds in the past 2 years to settle harassment claims.
Edit. 20.5.2019 13.59. Clarification in the final part.

L'articolo This Twitter Thread Shows Why Academia Is Yet Not Safe For Women sembra essere il primo su Paola Elefante.

#1. Low availability

This was the most striking aspect. We live far from Helsinki city center and the company had few babysitters available to serve our area. In practice, this meant we couldn't really count on the service and some times we failed to cancel our work appointments in time because we were waiting for the company's response that came in negative. At some point, it became easier not to rely on the possibility and simply take turns to be home when flu season stroke.

#2. You are leaving your child with a stranger

While most child carers we met seemed thoroughly vetted and very competent, in the end they were nothing short of a stranger. The company sends the name of the babysitter who can come and you are free to refuse, but you don't get a chance to interview or met her beforehand. You don't get references. She shows up in the morning and you leave, that's it. I never felt peace of mind being at work while my child was home with someone I didn't know. And think how horrifying this is from the child's perspective, seeing mom and dad leave like that and have to be with a total stranger for 8 or 9 hours! I am not overstating when I say this taps into a young child's survival mode.
We hired babysitters in the past years, but we interviewed and carefully selected them, had a chance to discuss our parenting values, our kids' needs and personalities, and we introduced them to our children gradually.

#3. A sick child doesn't need to be supervised, she needs to be cared for

A sick child is a vulnerable child. They want, need, a parent, not simply an adult to attend them. I honestly don't know how the pressure of going to work blinded us on this and I regret leaving my daughter many times in her moment of need.

I think overall, my regret is giving in to the pressure of being productive over anything else and forgetting what really mattered in the process. I am very motivated to work, my job is part of my identity, and I am ambitious. But my family does and will always come first. My children matter over any meeting or task. Truth is, I never had much of a conflict there. Being home with my daughter would have meant rescheduling meetings: annoying but doable. Neither I or my husband weren't expected to speak at a UN convention or Nobel Prize award ceremony. It never meant giving up once in a lifetime opportunities: we simply did not have our priorities straight.

I have been reflecting if there could be a better way to use those childcare services. I don't think so. Even if one would select one babysitter and stick with and only her, the following issues would arise:

A. childcare companies have a high turnover. There's little chance she'll work there for long;
B. kids don't get sick frequently enough to develop a relationship with the carer;
C. a full day with someone who is not a parent is simply too long for a sick child.

In other words, I think both employers and employees should reflect very well if this benefit is worth offering. What is the motivation behind it, really?

While on paper this goes to support work-life balance, in truth it undermines it.

Luckily, we didn't mess up our girl. If I could advise my younger self, I would tell her to be clearer on her values and goals, and benefit from what's her given right in Finland to be home and care for her ill children. After all, work-life balance was the top of the list reason why we even moved to Finland.

I don't even remember what those "important" work commitments were, but I have a clear picture of my girl crying or looking at me scared when I left her with a stranger for a full day. Maybe those meetings weren't so meaningful after all.

L'articolo Why The Childcare Benefit Does Not Click With Me sembra essere il primo su Paola Elefante.

Well-being or ability to work?

(originally published on Y / 01 / 19)
When I was 17, I confessed to my doctor: "I have an issue: I cannot help yawning". For days I had yawned two or three times per minute. Not fatal, but quite annoying. The public sector doctor looked after my whole family and knew me since birth, as it's common in Italy. Smiling to himself, he immediately understood the issue was a symptom of stress. He knew me well and he was aware I was naturally anxious and very committed to my studies. He did not prescribe any medication and advised me to take a few day break. I did and my problem disappeared.

Now as an adult, I got involved in the Finnish medical sector. In the public clinics, you hardly meet the same doctor twice, while in the private ones - if you can afford them - you have no idea whom to book an appointment with. Over a year ago, I started feeling pain in my feet. The occupational doctor sent me to a specialist, with all the insurance limitations. I got bounced from one specialist to another, reduced to a pack of notes that often they do not read. No one wondered why the issue even started, the only goal being numbing the symptoms, with heavy anti-inflammatory medications and cortisone shots. They want me to function, not to heal.

My issue is still there. In the past year, it got worse and my workplace, my insurance, and the public medical sector have invested money with no results.

Without lingering on the emotional impact of this experience, I believe this anti-holistic and dehumanising approach by the Finnish system is very inefficient. It would bring better results and well-being if medical doctors would approach a patient as a person, with no rush and with a true intention to listen.

L'articolo Well-being or ability to work? sembra essere il primo su Paola Elefante.

L'articolo An Advent Calendar for Developers: day 19 to 24 sembra essere il primo su Paola Elefante.

L'articolo An Advent Calendar for Developers: day 13 to 18 sembra essere il primo su Paola Elefante.

The New Witch-Hunt

(originally published on Y / 03 /2017)

The new threat to the civil development of the Western society is not capitalism, but radical liberalism, by hand of politically correctness. I am observing a worrying trend especially on social media, by which any opinion that vaguely contradicts the self-calling liberal loud voices, provokes waves of indignation, derision, rudeness, even bullying. Healthy debate is out of trend and the new concept of "respect" does not include discussion. The game is succeeding at polemicise on anything or find two-faced meanings that allow us to fill with indignation.

This is simply the modern version of witch-hunting, with torch and pitchfork held high against who threatens the modern "mono-thinking". Spits and public humiliation, anything is allowed, including strip of humanity and identity layers any virtual stranger. Feeling strong from their ideology, some people feel authorised to scream in the face of those who disagree.

To show an example, few weeks ago the story of a (Caucasian) girl who had slowly poisoned her (Afro-American) college roommate and bragged about it on Instagram went viral. I came across it when the picture of the accused, complete with full name, went viral with the caption "Be a nasty bigot and we will make you famous for it". I found myself wondering which one was the worst example of human nature, the original story or the long series of deplorable comments and threats which followed. A woman with the same name has to temporarily suspend all her social media accounts out of the verbal abuse she had endured.

I believe our ideas never allow us to rejoice of other people's misery, nor to verbally assault or superficially judge others. From those who claim to champion for diversity, I except that they do the same with ideas. I conclude by quoting Evelyn Beatrice Hall's famous words, "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it".

L'articolo The New Witch-Hunt sembra essere il primo su Paola Elefante.

L'articolo An Advent Calendar for Developers: day 7 to 12 sembra essere il primo su Paola Elefante.