Category Archives: Personal Empowerment

Wednesday, 30 March 2022, 5:38 pmPress Release: Kia Haumaru

PhotoCredit Roxy Coervers

After 30 yearsof providing free and accessible empowerment self-defencetraining to girls, women and members of the LGBTTQIA+community across Aotearoa, Kia Haumaru Personal SafetyEducation is launching its firstCrowdfunder!

Recipients of the 2022 GenerosityGenerator mentorship programme run in partnership by TheFunding Network, Givealittle and Chorus; Kia Haumaru isready to dip their toes into the world of onlinecrowdfunding with their campaign launching later thisweek.

Running from April 1 to April 15 2022 KiaHaumaru aims to raise $25,000 - enough funds to equip 1000more girls and women with their custom written, lifechanging safety education.

Formerly known as WomensSelf Defence Network Whine Toa, Kia Haumaru is theonly accredited safety education network in Aotearoaproviding free and accessible safety education in schools,tertiary institutions and community venues nationwide. Theirfocus is on preventing violence; specifically physical,sexual and emotional violence against ktiro, whine andmembers of the LGBTTQIA+ community. Alongside physicalself-defence techniques, the course content address rapeculture, teaches confidence, consent, personal empowermentand ways to respond and get help when violence hasoccurred.

Kia Haumaru Kairahi Roxy Coervers saysAotearoa has a shameful record for family harm, ranking#1 in the OECD for family violence. 1 out of every 3 womenexperience gender based violence in their lifetime, and ifwe include incidents of emotional abuse and coercion/controltactics that statistic rises to 1 in 2 women. These arechallenging figures to witness, and paired with theknowledge that 76% of family violence incidents gounreported, offers a sobering snapshot of the currentreality ktiro and whine in Aotearoa are enduring. Thisis why the early intervention work we do is so important,the need continues to escalate as the rates of gender basedviolence in Aotearoa continue to reach newheights.

The ongoing effects of the pandemic havecreated an even more volatile and dangerous environment forgirls, women and persons of marginalised genders tonavigate, with violence prevention experts dubbing it theshadow pandemic. As a frontline violence preventionservice Kia Haumaru has seen the escalation in incidents ofviolence first hand, through the process of collectingdisclosures of abuse from course participants. The majorityof these disclosures of abuse are first time disclosures, asthe course is often the first opportunity a participant hasin a safe space to talk about their experiences of violencewith an accredited violence prevention expert and accesshelp.

Kia Haumaru as a registered charity NGO isreliant on government funding and private donations toundertake their critical work. This Crowdfunding campaignwill help to empower more participants throughout Aotearoa,allowing the continued challenging of these statisticsthrough changing the attitudes and behaviours around genderbased violence and providing participants with education,resilience and opportunities forhealing.

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30 Years Of Self-defence, Now We Need Your Help - Scoop

TYSONS, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Cvent (Nasdaq: CVT), a market-leading meetings, events, and hospitality technology provider, today announced that it will partner with KindWorks Digital Empowerment Initiative to responsibly rehome and refurbish hundreds of laptops. KindWorks, a non-profit program that collects and refurbishes used computers, will ensure the devices are given to students and families in need.

On April 4th, KindWorks will send volunteers to Cvents Tysons, VA headquarters, where nearly 400 laptops will be refurbished on-site before being distributed to where they are most needed. In addition to providing the laptops, Cvent has committed to supplying space for volunteers to work and reconfigure the devices, as well as tools for the computers refurbishment.

Refurbishing and repurposing these laptops for personal use reflects our longstanding commitment to empowering people to connect through technology, said Cvent Senior Vice President & Chief Information Officer Pradeep Mannakkara. In this digital age, a personal computer can be a vital tool in expanding the opportunity and imagination for individuals and their families. We are thrilled to be able to partner with KindWorks to find a home for these laptops and ensure more people can access the resources and tools they need to accomplish their life goals, both now and in the future.

Cvent is going the extra mile to safely donate digital tools that so many other individuals and organizations just throw out. These kinds of corporate partnerships are critical for KindWorks because they enable us to deliver laptops and other electronics to help so many people in our community live and thrive in the digital age and achieve their dreams, said KindWorks Executive Director, Deb Lang. We hope that Cvent inspires others to consider how to be the best community partner possible, even when it comes to deciding how to dispose of their unused office products.

Findings published by the Pew Research Center highlight that there remains a digital divide between Americans with lower and higher incomes. Data from 2021 reveals that many lower-income adults do not have home broadband services (43%) or a desktop or laptop computer (41%). Among children, this disparity manifests in the so-called homework gap, or the barriers students face when working on homework without a reliable internet source in their own homes. In 2015, 35% of lower-income households with school-aged children did not have access to a broadband internet connection at home.

KindWorks Digital Empowerment Initiative has facilitated donations of refurbished laptops to groups most affected by the digital dividecreating greater equity for underserved populations while also minimizing electronic waste. In 2021, the Digital Empowerment team allocated hundreds of computers to those in need including resettling Afghans, Latino and historically underserved youth, low-income students and families, and several additional community initiatives in the DC-Virginia-Maryland areas. Cvents donation will allow KindWorks to substantially increase the number of computers distributed this year.

About Cvent

Cvent Holding Corp. (Nasdaq: CVT), is a leading meetings, events, and hospitality technology provider with more than 4,300 employees and nearly 21,000 customers worldwide. Founded in 1999, the company delivers a comprehensive event marketing and management platform and offers a global marketplace where event professionals collaborate with venues to create engaging impactful experiences. Cvent is headquartered in Tysons, Virginia, just outside of Washington D.C., and has additional offices around the world to support its growing global customer base. The comprehensive Cvent event marketing and management platform offers software solutions to event organizers and marketers for online event registration, venue selection, event marketing and management, virtual and onsite solutions, and attendee engagement. Cvents suite of products automate and simplify the entire event management process and maximize the impact of in-person, virtual, and hybrid events. Hotels and venues use Cvents supplier and venue solutions to win more group and corporate travel business through Cvents sourcing platforms. Cvent solutions optimize the entire event management value chain and have enabled clients around the world to manage millions of meetings and events. For more information, please visit Cvent.com, or connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.

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Cvent Works to Bridge Digital Divide by Donating Laptops to Communities in Need - Business Wire

Violence against women continues to be a pervasive problem in the United States and all around the world. One in four women in the U.S. have experienced intimate partner violence, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And the Justice Department estimates that one in five women have been sexually assaulted during their college years. Younger and low-income women and some individuals who are members of marginalized groups are particularly vulnerable to such attacks.

To gain control over their personal safety, many women turn to R.A.D. (Rape Aggression Defense), a nationally recognized program that teaches realistic self-defense tactics and techniques. (R.A.D. also offers classes for men and seniors.)

Over the last 30 years, more than 1 million women have taken the courseincluding Deborah Millar, the director of community wellness and engagement for Princeton Health. I said, Oh, this is phenomenal. We have to bring this to the hospital.

So she approached Princetons foundation for initial funding to recruit and train instructors and made it happen. Since it started 15 years ago, more than 1,100 women have been trained through Princeton Health. Millar and 12 others serve as instructors for the course, which is broken down into four sessions, three hours at a time.

For many years, Princeton offered the course four times a year, but in 2018 it started to become more popular, right around the time the #MeToo movement began drawing more attention to violence and sexual assault against women. In the year preceding the COVID-19 pandemic, Millar and the other instructors conducted the trainings 13 times.

For people who have had brushes with potential or actual violence in the past, the classes can help them find empowerment and the strength to find additional supports to heal.

Millar recalls one recent incident: In the final session, participants are able to opt out of the simulated assault practice with their instructors if they prefer not to for any reason, and some do. This time, one young woman asked to speak with Millar afterward. I wanted you to know the reason was that, a few weeks before this class started, I was raped, Millar recalls the woman told her. Thats why Im here.

Classes attract women of all different ages, backgrounds, and ethnicities, Millar says. Mother-daughter pairs show up, too.

Read more at Penn Medicine Service in Action.

Penns Division of Public Safety offers online self-defense courses. A sign-up sheet is available on their website.

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The best defense is an empowered one | Penn Today - Penn Today

Colin Kaepernick, at 34, presides over a multimedia platform for Black and brown peoples empowerment. In 2016, inspired by civil rights heroes, the then-San Francisco 49ers quarterback rocked the NFL by taking a knee during the national anthem to protest police brutality, sparking protests and backlash. That fall, he and his partner Nessa (known by her first name only) established Know Your Rights Camp, a youth-focused organization with principles that echo the Black Panthers Ten-Point Program for communities, along with a downloadable set of educational resources, Colin in Black & White: The Kaepernick Curriculum. He went on to found Kaepernick Publishing, for which he edited a collection of essays by social justice leaders, Abolition for the People: The Movement for a Future Without Policing or Prisons.

Kaepernick Publishing and Scholastic have teamed up to publish Kaepernicks debut picture book (as part of a multibook deal), the autobiographical I Color Myself Different, with illustrations by Eric Wilkerson, an artist known for his high-energy fantasy illustrations. Wilkersons paintings grace the covers of Nic Stones Shuri books and Kwame Mbalias Tristan Strong series, and Kaepernick was familiar with his work; the author and illustrator spoke back and forth to fine-tune the images of a young Colin in I Color Myself Different. Kaepernick corresponded with PW about writing as a form of activism, recognizing the many elements that make up our identities, and finding strength in the history of social justice movements.

What led you to pursue childrens book writing in addition to your activism?

Whether for children or adults, writing is inseparable from my activism. Writing is like a laboratory for testing, shedding, and sharpening ideasfor learning and unlearning what we think we know about ourselves and the world around us. I think Toni Morrison once said something like if theres a book you want to read, but it hasnt been written yet, then you must write it. I Color Myself Different is a book I wish I had encountered as a kid. Thats one of the reasons I wrote it.

I Color Myself Different is rooted in a true story from your childhood. In the books afterword, you even include a candid photo of yourself as a kid. Can you describe the process of turning this memory into a picture book?

I Color Myself Different is based on a real experience I had as a young person. I was given an assignment in kindergarten: draw a picture of yourself and your family. I drew my white adoptive family with a yellow crayon and then picked up a brown crayon to draw myself. This pivotal moment in my life taught me a valuable lesson about embracing my Black identity through the power of self-love, and helped me to understand how my brown skin was connected to my Blackness. Turning this revelation into a picture book was an exciting challenge. It transported me back to being five years old and asking big questions for which I didnt always have satisfying answers. I hope I Color Myself Different helps to fill in some of these gaps for young people today.

I Color Myself Different is about being magnificently brown and magnificently different, as Colins teacher declares. In addition to being a celebration of Black pride, it is also about your adoptive family. Can you talk a bit about how you represent intersections of identity in this personal story?

Identity is a complex thing and so it can be challenging to craft a coherent story around multiple intersecting identities, especially a story thats geared toward children. I spent a lot of time thinking about how best to frame a narrative that can hold Blackness and adoption together in authentic and nuanced ways.

One spread in I Color Myself Different shows you, as a kid, among a group of nine people who inspire, create, lead, and change the world, including Black icons Muhammad Ali, Angela Davis, and Toni Morrison. Can you talk about why you included these historic leaders for young readers today?

What these pages represent is more than the sum of the individual freedom fighters depicted on them. I wanted to pay homage to figures who often used their individual platforms to strengthen the collective. I hope these pages inspire young people to know their historiesto know our histories. Our culture has a legacy, our history has a legacy, our movements have legacies. Understanding these legacies helps to root us in the strength of our past as we work toward building a better future. These are some of my favorite pages from the book, and Eric Wilkerson did an amazing job bringing these illustrations to life.

What drew you to the work of Eric Wilkerson?

Erics tremendous talent as an artist is obvious to anyone who picks up I Color Myself Different. His attention to detail and precision in character development is second to none. He expertly helped to transform a complex story about identity, adoption, and self-love into something visually stunning, into a book that I hope children and their families will find vibrant, accessible and inspiring.

How is Kaepernick Publishing partnering with Scholastic to get this book into readers hands? Will you do any special promotions through your Know Your Rights Camp or other organizations to connect with young people?

Scholastic has been a fantastic partner throughout this process and we at Kaepernick Publishing look forward to continuing to build our relationship with them. Well be working closely with Scholastic over the next several months to donate copies of this book to elementary school libraries around the country. We also plan to distribute I Color Myself Different to all of the youth attendees at our upcoming Know Your Rights Camp.

I Color Myself Different by Colin Kaepernick, illus. by Eric Wilkerson. Scholastic, $18.99 Apr. 5 ISBN 978-1-338-78962-1

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For Colin Kaepernick, Writing Is Another Form of Activism - Publishers Weekly

Somewhere between #MeToo, COVID-19, and the racial and labor reckoning that followed, people soured hard on the idea of the girlboss. The successor to Lean In feminism, a girlboss is a woman in business who purports to lead with empathy rather than traditionally masculine leadership qualities but really just decorates her office with a lot of millennial pink. While the girlboss originally seemed like an inroad to female empowerment, its since revealed itself as just another tool of capitalism and hustle culture: a way for women to be just as toxic and myopic in the workplace as their male counterparts. And while the heyday of girlboss feminism saw TV shows like Netflixs Girlboss, based on Nasty Gal founder Sophia Amorusos memoir and meant to inspire with its protagonists entrepreneurial spirit, todays post-girlboss culture has newly grappled with how to portray ambitious women on TV.

As the pandemic in particular has made many of us wary of productivity-first thinking, and less inclined to view all-consuming drive as inspiring, the stories weve chosen to tell about driven women have changed too and its led to a flurry of negative depictions of female ambition on TV.

It was Amoruso herself who coined the term girlboss in 2014, using it as the title for her memoir #GIRLBOSS about her rise to the top as the entrepreneurial founder of clothing brand Nasty Gal. She describes a girlboss as someone whose success is defined in opposition to the masculine business world in which she swims upstream. But Amorusos own story went on to show the failures of the trope she created and years later, were seeing those same troubled, success-at-all-costs girlboss archetypes all over TV.

Shortly after the publication of her memoir, Amoruso stepped down as Nasty Gals CEO amid allegations that she discriminated against pregnant and chronically ill employees. In 2016, the brand filed for bankruptcy. And Amoruso wasnt the only leader who embraced a girlboss mentality and later faced troubling allegations.

In 2017, the founder of feminist, millennial-friendly period panties company Thinx Miki Agrawal was accused of a pattern of sexual harassment and inappropriate conduct. In 2020, Audrey Gelman, the founder of womens co-working space The Wing, hailed as a feminist respite for women in the patriarchal business world, resigned too when employees of color spoke out about their treatment at the clubs. Those who called themselves girlbosses had at first exuded success: but their failures were sharply at odds with the white feminist catchcry that, if women ran the world, there would be no inequality. When girlbosses succeeded, it didnt result in real change for womens opportunities, but embraced old systems of power elevating a single (usually white) woman at a time, at the expense of the vulnerable. When girlbosses failed, their failure reflected on women everywhere.

As our real-life criticisms of the girlboss grew, our interpretations of ambitious, boss-like women on TV have changed too: fittingly, many of the most ambitious women weve seen on TV in the past year have been criminals, from Shonda Rhimes Inventing Anna to Elizabeth Holmes seriesThe Dropout. These shows, along with HulusDollface, have adopted a darker definition of girlboss feminism at their core, using it as a justification for lying, overstepping boundaries, or doing whatever it takes to get ahead in a world thats stacked against them. The ambition of the women in these shows ranges from misguided to menacing, a sharp change from girlboss-era success stories.

Inventing Anna, Shonda Rhimes much-anticipated Netflix show, took on the true story of Russian-German scammer Anna Delvey (ne Sorokin), who lied to investors and friends alike about being a German heiress, defrauding them out of hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund her lavish lifestyle and career hopes. The show first began to show signs of embracing Anna as a girlboss as multiple characters defended Delveys actions with the explanation that, if a man did it, it would be just another Tuesday. Inventing Anna seems to float a theory that true feminism looks like women behaving as badly as men and getting away with it and thats certainly been an ethos many real-life girlbosses have appeared to embrace.

Then, theres Elizabeth MeriwethersThe Dropout, based on disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, who took millions from investors for a blood-testing technology that had never worked and risked patients health with incorrect test results. Amanda Seyfrieds Elizabeth (and, from what we know, the real Holmes) was relentlessly ambitious, certain her idea and the resulting technology would change the world and its interesting to see that particular story told in our current, girlboss-critical era.

In The Dropout, Seyfrieds Elizabeth struggles with her role as a female boss, which leads to a number of choices about her appearance and presentation over the years. Holmes notably used her appearance to convey a certain seriousness, from her infamous deep voice to her black turtleneck uniform and everpresent (if messy) blonde hair and dark eye make-up. Holmes balanced traditional femininity that appealed to her male colleagues with a Steve Jobs/Mark Zuckerberg-esque uniformity that suggested she didnt really care about her appearance shes not like other girls, shes focused on business.

Seyfrieds Elizabeth is also shown bristling multiple times at the assertion that her success will help women in tech and STEM gain more of a foothold but both on-screen and in real life, Holmes couldnt escape the effect of her trajectory on other womens opportunities: When she failed, she was judged for her failure as a woman CEO and not just a CEO. The girlboss isnt perfect: But The Dropoutsuggests that just trying to be a boss, as a woman, still isnt possible.

Finally, theres the new season of Dollface, an under-the-radar Hulu show about millennial women starring Kat Dennings, Brenda Song, Shay Mitchell, and Esther Povitsky. Jules (Dennings) is a perpetual slacker whos decided this season to turn it around and try to succeed at the parodic womens wellness company, Woom, where she works alongside Izzy (Povitsky). Izzy is trying navigate her working relationship with boss Celeste (Malin Akerman) and separating her work from personal relationships. Madison (Song) has been furloughed, and Stella (Mitchell) has quit after one day of her finance job to start the bar version of The Wing, called the gender-essentialist Gi Spot. This all takes place amid Jules and Madisons looming 30th birthdays, their last years of youth that were lost to the pandemic, and their fear that they havent girlbossed hard enough by that point in their lives.

While each of the characters are at various points in their journey of girlbossness ([Im] like Gloria Steinem and Ruth Bader Ginsburg fighting for womens rights to drink too much ros, Madison announces at one point), the show makes it clear that its not always fueling them in the right direction, making them feel guilty over looming, self-imposed deadlines of success or encouraging them to give more and more of themselves to work when theyre trying to draw boundaries. A rival womens wellness company exuding strong girlboss energy attempts to lure Izzy over to their team this season with admonishments that Celeste treats her like an employee rather than a friend or, indeed, a family member.

Each woman is facing a reckoning with self-worth as it relates to their job success, and the show suggests a more complicated path forward than each woman doggedly pursuing their own empire. Its a nuanced and relatable portrayal of how women can rectify their career ambition within a drastically changed job market something I can certainly relate to after seeing many of my dreams go down the toilet in 2020 and realizing in 2021 that I wasnt actually ready to give up on them.

If we can learn anything from the downfall of the girlboss, its that single- and narrow-minded drive la Anna Sorokin and Elizabeth Holmes is unsustainable. We should be moving towards a mutual success what former Call Your Girlfriend podcast hosts Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman call shine theory. When you succeed, so do your friends more in line with the ethos of Jules and co. on Dollface.But both in TV and real life, weve struggled to divorce goals of being fulfilled by our work from the idea of the girlboss, and its important that we separate the two as we go forward.

Ambition isnt a dirty word, but the idea of the girlboss has made it easy to condemn, and were due for a new reckoning. I worry that the failure of the girlboss will perpetuate the attitude that women in leadership roles was a nice experiment, but we should get back to men running the show. I worry that depictions of scheming, lying women like Elizabeth Holmes and Anna Delvey will only further give ambitious women a bad name, just like the girlboss movement did. But Dollface makes a truer point than ambition is untrustworthy amid its jabs at the girlboss: It argues for real change in how we approach work and self-worth, and a moving away from capitalist ideals without sacrificing a desire for success. In this post-girlboss, pandemic era, its worth fighting for a new vision of female success.

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How Our Disenchantment With the Girlboss Is Playing Out on TV - SheKnows

FOREWORD

A world where every pregnancy is wanted. This aim is a central pillar of our mission at UNFPA.

Every human being has the right to bodily autonomy, and perhaps nothing is more fundamental to the exercise of that right than the ability to choose whether, when and with whom to become pregnant.

The basic human right to determine freely and responsibly the number and the spacing of ones children has been recognized in numerous international human rights agreements over the past five decades. During this same period, the world has seen a vast expansion in the availability of effective, modern contraceptives one of the greatest public health achievements in recent history. Why, then, are nearly half of all pregnancies unintended?

In 1994, the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) recognized that the empowerment, full equality and autonomy of women were essential to social and economic progress. Today, these aims are among the cornerstones for achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It explicitly recognizes the role of sexual and reproductive health and gender equality in unlocking a more prosperous future, and contains specific indicators linked to women and adolescent girls agency in making informed decisions regarding sexual relations, contraceptive use and reproductive health care.

That is why UNFPAs efforts focus on expanding access to the information and services women and girls need to exercise their reproductive rights and choices, which underpin gender equality and enable them to exercise greater power over their lives and realize their full potential.

We know the steep costs associated with unintended pregnancy costs to an individuals health, education and future, costs to whole health systems, workforces and societies. The question is: why has this not inspired more action to secure bodily autonomy for all?

The topic of this report is a challenging one, in part because it is so common. Nearly everyone has an experience to draw upon, whether they have faced an unintended pregnancy themselves or know someone who has. For some, it is a personal crisis; for others, it is a blessing in disguise.

Beyond the personal context, unintended pregnancies have societal roots and global consequences. This, therefore, is not a report about unwanted babies or happy accidents. It is not a report about motherhood. And although abortion cannot be removed from the discussion more than 60 per cent of unintended pregnancies end in abortion this is not a report about abortion either. Instead, this report is about the circumstances that exist before an unintended pregnancy, when a person or a couples agency to decide is critically undermined, and about the many impacts that follow, affecting individuals and societies over generations.

We see, through original research by the authors and in new data from partner organizations, that shame, stigma, fear, poverty, gender inequality and many other factors undermine women and girls ability to exercise choice, to seek and obtain contraceptives, to negotiate condom use with a partner, to speak aloud and pursue their desires and ambitions. Most of all, this report raises provocative and unsettling questions about how much the world values women and girls beyond their reproductive capacities. Because recognizing the full worth of women and girls, and enabling them to contribute fully to their societies, means ensuring they have the tools, information and power to make this fundamental choice for themselves.

It is impossible to fully ascertain, let alone quantify, the overall toll of unintended pregnancies. Yet a growing body of evidence points to massive opportunity costs from correlations tying unintended pregnancy rates to lower human development scores, to billions of dollars in related health-care costs, to persistently high rates of unsafe abortion and related maternal deaths. Unsafe abortion is one of the leading causes of the more than 800 maternal deaths occurring each day. This is a price tag the world simply cannot afford.

We are fast approaching 2030, the deadline for the Sustainable Development Goals and for UNFPAs own transformative goals to end the unmet need for family planning, end preventable maternal deaths and end gender-based violence and harmful practices, including female genital mutilation and child marriage. Now is the time to accelerate, not retreat, to transform the lives of women and girls and reach those furthest behind. Preventing unintended pregnancies is a nonnegotiable first step. When individuals are able to exercise real informed choice over their health, bodies and futures, they can contribute to more prosperous societies and a more sustainable, equitable and just world.

Dr. Natalia KanemExecutive DirectorUnited Nations Population Fund

Excerpt from:

State of World Population 2022: Seeing the Unseen: The case for action in the neglected crisis of unintended pregnancy [EN/AR/RU] - World - ReliefWeb

Watching footage of Jimi Hendrix setting fire to his guitar onstage, 15-year-old Devon schoolboy Matt Bellamy had an epiphany: "I suddenly realised that music didn't have to follow rules but could be full of chaos," Muses frontman recalled. "Essentially, we approach music the same way Monty Python did comedy."

Six consecutive UK number one albums testify to Muses mainstream appeal, but not since Queen has there been a major league British rock band so wholly unfettered by notions of taste and restraint, an attitude wholeheartedly endorsed by Brian May, a long-time fan. "I like the way they let their madness show through," the guitarist once stated. "That's always a good thing in an artist."

Ahead of the release of the trios forthcoming ninth album, Will Of The People, due in August, here are Muses eight studio albums ranked from worst to best.

With famously-disciplined studio veteran Robert Mutt Lange (AC/DC, Def Leppard) hired as co-producer with a mandate to curb Matt Bellamys more outlandish flights of fancy, the advance word on Muses seventh studio album suggested that Drones would represent a back to basics approach for the Devon trio following 2012s dubstep/electronica-influenced The 2nd Law.

Such talk was relative: the ten-minute The Globalist opens with whistling and Ennio Morricone atmospherics, segues into a thundering heavy metal midsection and closes as a grandly ostentatious piano ballad. Good luck pulling that off around a campfire on an acoustic guitar.

The Devon trios first overt concept album, Drones is a none-too-subtle meditation upon authoritarian repression, political manipulation, militaristic aggression and the struggle for personal liberty familiar Bellamy obsessions unlikely to give Noam Chomsky new food for thought. Fortunately, the bombastic, gleefully raucous energy harnessed on the riff-heavy Reapers and The Handler over-rides trite lyrics such as Im just a pawn, and were all expendable.

Elsewhere, on nodding terms with Dire Straits Brothers In Arms and U2s One, Aftermath is the albums twinkling, phones-aloft stadium ballad, while Dead Inside is a feisty opener, with obvious allusions to the break-up of Bellamys marriage to actress Kate Hudson.

Following on from the heavy-handed Drones, Muse allowed a little light and levity into their relentlessly pessimistic world view on Simulation Theory. From its Tron/Stranger Things-inspired artwork through to its emphasis on pulsing synth-rock, the bands eighth album is an unashamed tribute to the 1980s, a sci-fi diorama concerned with the quest for human connection in an increasingly cold digital world.

Featuring retro production from Timbaland and Swedish pop producer Shellback among others, this on-brand Giorgio Morodor-soundtracking-Black Mirror approach is a little too pat, and only fleetingly successful. Bellamys attempts to channel Prince (on Propaganda) and Janelle Monae (on Break It To Me) fall flat, but the slick AOR of Something Human and the snappy Pressure suggest the trio's decision to reset the dials and pivot away from riff-rock isnt wholly without merit.

As Muse commenced the recording of their sixth studio album, Matt Bellamy teased fans by declaring that the trio were intent upon making a Christian gangsta rap jazz odyssey, some ambient rebellious dubstep and face-melting metal flamenco cowboy psychedelia.Truthfully, had they done so, at this point in their career no-one would have batted an eyelid.

Featuring the official song of the 2012 Olympics (the gloriously OTT Survival), two understated songs about quiet man bassist Chris Wolstenholme's new found sobriety (Save Me and Liquid State), Skrillex-style dubstep, slinky U2 knock-off Madness and a sweetly sappy lullaby for Matt Bellamy's new born son Bingham (Follow Me), the self-produced The 2nd Law is, respectfully, all over the place, an uninhibited, Jackson Pollock-esque gush of ideas which would have benefited from more judicious editing and tighter quality control.

Extrapolating upon the doom-laden warnings contained within Black Holes And Revelations' Invincible - key lyric: "During the struggle they will pull us down" - The Resistance comes weighted with exhortations to resist tyranny and repression in all its state-sanctioned forms, and dark prophesies of what "they", bastards known and as-yet-unknown, have in store. "Will they find our hiding place?" Matt Bellamy frets on the title track, seemingly not entirely convinced by his own insistence that love will conquer all.

Offering up a strong candidate for song title of the year, Muse's forthcoming album, Will Of The People, will conclude with a track called We Are Fucking Fucked. To be fair, that's an assessment they'd already reached here, with Bellamy's three-part, 12-minute orchestral masterpiece Exogenesis: Symphony, wherein our bold protagonists decide that our time on earth must, of necessity, come to an end, and we must "breach the outer sphere" in order to start anew.

Which is all very well, except that much of what precedes this epic climax - most notably the irresistible glam stomp of Uprising - serves up rallying calls for heroic stands against our shadowy oppressors. Cowards! Splitters! Traitors! Etc,.

Ludicrous and fabulous in equal measure, then, The Resistance is peak Muse, and an unmitigated joy.

Heavily indebted to Radiohead and Jeff Buckley, and by far the most restrained and 'conventional' album in Muse's catalogue, Showbiz deserves more love than it was afforded upon its release in September 1999. Consciously choosing to play safe by setting aside their more experimental early material for use as single B-sides, Muse ruffled few feathers with their debut album, but the quirky, hooky Muscle Museum, the gorgeous Unintended and the soaring, riffy Cave remain firm fan favourites.

Chosen as the albums second single, Cave found favour with Type O Negative frontman Pete Steele, who told this writer, That chick has a great voice." Informed that said 'chick' was, in fact, male, Steele said, "Woah, there goes my erection" but added "When I listen to his voice I feel like someone is tickling my penis with a feather. Possibly not the impact Muse were hoping to make, but their caution here ensured they laid solid foundations from which to launch skywards with subsequent releases.

Months ahead of the release their third album, Muse described their work in progress as "fat as fuck." Emboldened by the international success of Origin Of Symmetry, the Devon trio embraced the opportunity to indulge their most experimental urges in its creation, recording Dom Howard's drums in a swimming pool, and Bellamy's guitar parts in a field, then ransacking a castle to re-purpose cartwheels and cattle prods as 'instruments'. The result was the darkest, heaviest, boldest album of their early career.

From the apocalyptic groove-rock of Time Is Running Out to the extraordinary art-metal of Stockholm Syndrome, Absolution, the trio's first UK number one album, is the sound of an inspired, fearless, ultra-confident band who knew their time had arrived, and the world was listening.

Well, who saw this coming? For those who had Muse pegged as timid, mannered Radiohead-copyists on the basis on Showbiz, and let's be honest, that was most of us, the band's second coming, heralded by the astonishing alt.prog thunderbolt Plug In Baby and its equally startling follow-up New Born, was nothing short of a revelation.

With the handbrake off, and Matt Bellamy given free rein to indulge his wildest Queen-meets-Rage Against The Machine-meets-King Crimson fantasies, Origin Of Symmetry was an adrenaline spike slammed into the heart of the British music scene. Even better, Bellamy now talked like a proper rock star, telling this writer, Whats big in England is mostly simplistic bollocks." Such was the singer's new-found confidence, that he cheerfully told the band's US label, Madonna's Maverick Records, to get fucked when they demanded he re-record his vocals with less falsetto.

I was pretty aware that this album was difficult to swallow compared to Showbiz and I thought we were taking a bit of a risk," he admitted, "but our success has given me the confidence to push things further.

Muse would never look back.

Having shed any lingering creative inhibitions with 2003's brilliant Absolution, Muse album four had to be one louder, more bombastic, more brazen, more bonkers. And when the release of Black Holes And Revelations was prefaced by Supermassive Black Hole slinky, slamming eroto-funk, like Prince fronting Queens Of The Stone Age any fears that the trio might shirk their responsibilities evaporated. Down the line, Matt Bellamy revealed that his band had actually ditched their first run at new material as "it was too mental, even by our standards." The mind boggles.

Muse's finest hour opens with Take A Bow, a dread-filled, chorus-free, space-rock symphony, all rippling synth arpeggios and multi-tracked vocals, with Bellamy warning You will burn in hell for your sins Following such shock and awe, Starlight is an uncharacteristically straightforward piano-led love song, albeit one where the protagonist is being taken far away from the memories of the people who care if I live or die.

Less conventionally, the deceptively upbeat Exo-Politics muses upon the possibility of an orchestrated Zeta Reticulan invasion created by the New World Order, because thats exactly the kind of subject that keeps Matt Bellamy a man who maintains that The Beatles were a front for a clandestine think tank intent on brainwashing the youth of America awake at night. Invincible, a rather lovely self-empowerment anthem, channels U2 circa The Unforgettable Fire, while featuring a guitar solo that sounds suspiciously like R2D2 completing a wank.

But all this, impressive as it may be, is a mere amuse-bouche for the albums closing track, Muses own Achilles Last Stand. Knights Of Cydonia, the soundtrack to an imaginary sci-fi spaghetti Western, references The Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse, The Tornados chart-topping 1962 instrumental Telstar (on which Bellamys father George played rhythm guitar) and the Doctor Who theme tune, before climaxing with Bellamy repeatedly screaming No-ones going to take me alive! Its histrionic, epic and gloriously daft - quintessential Muse in other words - and the perfect climax to a magnificently realised career-best collection.

Originally posted here:

Every Muse album ranked from worst to best - Louder

Phoebe Pendergast

Courtesy of AAFW

1. Hi Phoebe! How old are you and where are you from?

24 years old and Melbourne.

2. How did you discover your love of fashion?

I have always been fascinated with the transcendent aspect of dressing and how it facilitates the ever-evolving performance of identities in everyday life. Fashion allows us to explore different aspects of our personalities; with the unique ability to inform the way we move, our body language and attitude, to act out a character or fantasy, enabling the wearer to step into another reality. Fashion has always felt like the best medium for my own self expression because I can create my own world around it. Throughout my childhood, I gravitated towards hobbies such as knitting, embroidery and sewing so perhaps my love of textiles originated from there.

You can then imagine 8-year-old Phoebes elation upon discovering the latest instalment of her favourite book series was entitled: Phoebe the Fashion Fairy. It seems my fate had already been decided for me, and I must have considered this a clear sign from above.

When I reached high school, I took the first opportunity I could to enrol in a fashion design class at age 14. Later that year, I remember dragging my parents to the RMIT Open Day because Id heard it was the best place to study fashion design in Australia. I spent many nights scrolling through Youtube for catwalk videos, and became totally infatuated with the fantasy realm of the runway. I loved the sense of theatricality and the intoxicating atmosphere thats like slipping into another universe.

This is when I really knew I wanted to pursue a career in the fashion industry and have remained focused and dedicated to this dream ever since.

3. Tell us about your label. What are your inspirations? Who are you designing for?

Phoebe Pendergast is a Naarm/Melbourne-based womenswear label which is highly influenced by romance and sentimentality. Personal storytelling remains at the core of my practice, with a focus on highlighting the narratives behind what we wear.

It feels most natural to approach the design process as if I were writing a journal. My work is best described as a series of vignettes that breathe life into a plethora of personal experiences and memories. Its almost like creating a map or constellation of all the moments that are most poignant in my life. My latest collection focused on the experience of first love, capturing the innocent, naive spirit of girlhood. The design process behind this collection followed a recuperative nostalgic routine, documenting the lingering aftertaste of a former relationship and translating it into a wearable experience.

I think Im naturally very inspired by the women around me, so when I envision the wearer of my clothes I think about my friends and how they would like to dress, what makes them feel empowered and celebrated.

4. Who are your heroes in the fashion industry?

Its pretty difficult to answer a question such as this without mentioning McQueen, who for me is one of the greatest storytellers in fashion history. The hauntingly beautiful hologram from McQueens Fall 2006 show is an image that will always stay with me. It must have been a hair-raising moment to witness the ghost of Kate Moss, hovering over the stage like a messenger descending from the heavens. When I reflect on what I want to achieve as a designer, I would just hope that one day I can create a fashion experience that is truly moving.

5. What does it mean to you to win Next Gen and show at AAFW 2022?

Winning the 2022 Next Gen award is a truly monumental occasion in my fashion journey to date. I feel incredibly humbled to be recognised by the likes of Next Gen which is such an instrumental support system and platform for emerging designers such as myself.

I hope to utilise this opportunity to kick start the growth of my label whilst upholding responsible fashion practice and uplifting local makers and craftsmanship in my community. My driving purpose in life is to realise my dreams of running my own womenswear label, so being able to present my collection on the runway at AAFW feels like a very special milestone.

Courtesy of AAFW

1. Hi Natasha! How old are you and where are you from?

34 years old and Melbourne.

2. How did you discover your love of fashion?

There wasnt a singular moment whereby I fell in love with fashion, I always had an interest in the creative and my love and appreciation for fashion has developed over a journey. I was fortunate enough to have an incredibly supportive family who nurtured my creative and encouraged me to pursue this passion.

My mother taught me how to sew and came from a creative family, her father a photographer and mother a dressmaker, creativity was encouraged from a young age. My father is from a business background and has grown multiple businesses over his lifetime, establishing my own label where these two worlds meet was always a dream. After 10 years of industry experience in some amazing roles, I felt the time was right to put my creative voice out there.

3. Tell us about your label. What are your inspirations? Who are you designing for?

Clea is a premium womenswear label, distinguished by an appreciation for exceptional quality, cut and finish.

Designed to be cherished, classic silhouettes and wardrobe staples are reimagined with a modern approach. Embracing an aesthetic which proposes a fresh balance of opposing elements masculine and feminine, textural and clean, strength and softness, intricate and minimal.

With meticulous attention to detail and carefully considered creation, each garment is designed with enduring elements and longevity at its core.

We are appealing to a discerning consumer who seeks clothing which can evoke a sense of empowerment and confidence. An appreciation for refined luxury, she is drawn to quality and considered design through all aspects of life.

4.Who are your heroes in the fashion industry ?

I am incredibly inspired by Gabriela Hearst, her forward thinking and responsible vision for Chloe are coupled with a considered design approach which favours a slower creation process and attention to detail. Striving for eco-responsibility and sustainability within Chloe, she is crafting a vision of honest luxury, an ethos which I greatly admire and strive towards with Clea.

5. What does it mean to you to win Next Gen and show at AAFW?

Winning Next Gen and showcasing CLEA on a global stage at AAFW is an incredible honour and very exciting.

Courtesy of AAFW

1. Hi Samantha! How old are you and where are you from?

32 and Melbourne.

2. How did you discover your love of fashion?

Ever since I can remember, Ive had a love for fashion. Growing up I was very shy so fashion for me was a way to express myself to the world without having to speak. I found that even if I was having a bad day, putting on a killer outfit made me feel good, which is what led me to want to design my own and be able to spread the good vibes. Being able to translate my creativity into fashion and have people feel confident and like themselves when wearing my designs is a beautiful thing, and what I strive for with every piece that I produce.

3. Tell us about your label. What are your inspirations? Who are you designing for?

NOT A MANS DREAM is a luxury androgynous streetwear brand that is all about empowering people, especially women. Defying the rules of gender archetypes and implementing diversity and oneness is what the brand ethos is about. I want people to feel confident in my designs and ensure everyone is able to stay authentically themselves, which is why NOT A MANS DREAM pieces are available to humans of all sizes, genders, and cultural backgrounds. As I always say walk to the beat of your own drum baby.

I can be inspired by anything ranging from raw emotions of everyday life, old movies, to all the diverse cultures I have experienced whilst travelling around the world. The elements of Japanese aesthetics such as wabi-sabi, finding the perfect within the imperfect, has also influenced a lot of my designs. My work combines traditional customs with modern innovation, while implementing sustainable creation into high-quality garments that are supportable to the environment, whilst existing as an honest and transparent brand.

4. Who are your heroes in the fashion industry?

There are a lot of designers that I look up to in the industry, there are just so many amazingly talented people out there. My top three would include Alexander McQueen, Chitose Abe and Yoji Yammamato. Ive always admired Alexander McQueens mind, technique and creativity, and the way he translated his imagination into his shows, which I think has been unmatched. I have a love and admiration for Japanese designers such as Chitose Abe who designs for Sacai. Her design, skill and deconstructive techniques have elevated the fashion game. Lastly, Yoji Yammamato is someone else who I absolutely respect and idolize. He revolutionised the industry when he stepped into the scene and he paved the way for up-and-coming designers with an innovative perspective on fashion design.

5. What does it mean to you to win Next Gen and show at AAFW?

Honestly, its a dream come true! I just completed my degree in 2021 so starting out as a new designer in the industry this opportunity is truly a blessing. To be able to showcase my collection during AAFW Fashion Week will allow the world to see my brand and what Im all about as a designer. I cannot begin to explain how truly grateful I am and I cannot wait to see whats in store next and what opportunities being in Next Gen will bring.

Courtesy of AAFW

1. Hi Asia! How old are you and where are you from?

31 and Melbourne.

2. How did you discover your love of fashion?

My love for fashion is something that came to me naturally, I dont think there was ever a time in my early memories where I was not amused by fashion, even when I didnt know what the word fashion meant. I dont have one defining moment because theyve all accumulated into this passion that I have today. As far back as I can remember Ive always been drawn to beautiful fabrics , Ive always been infatuated with structured cuts I just didnt know why? Ive always been captivated by new designs and for as long as Ive known, I knew I wanted to be part of that.

3. Tell us about your label. What are your inspirations? Who are you designing for?

ASIYAM is about solving a very human problem, it is about finding balance in an industry that doesnt welcome everyone. I am designing for the girls that chooses to wear long , loose silhouettes, the girl that chooses to show no skin in the summer.

4. Who are your heroes in the fashion industry?

My fashion heroes are Virgil Abloh and The Zimmerman sisters, Virgil inspires me because he gave me hope as a Black person in the fashion industry, there are not a lot of heroes and Virgil gave me hope to continue to do why you love, even when you are not being welcomed at the table.

5. What does it mean to you to win Next Gen and show at AAFW?

To win the Next Gen and show at the AAFW has been a dream of mine, which I never thought would happen. What this means to me is that Australian fashion industry is opening to diverse designers and giving everyone equal opportunity. If I was a any other Australian designer, I would just be glad to have won, but now I feel as if I have opened a door for so many other marginalised designers.

For everything to know about AAFW 2022, headhereto read our roundup of the top designers and events.

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Meet The Winners Of Afterpay Australian Fashion Week's Next Gen Program - Marie Claire

Finding Our Second Wave Is Key To Maintaining Career Success As We Age

Professional sport provides perhaps the most visceral example of career transitions in modern society, as the athletic potential of performers is usually limited to perhaps a decade, after which their physical strength wanes and they're no longer able to maintain their competitiveness.

There have been numerous examples of athletes struggling to come to terms with this transition, whether due to the changes in routine, changes in their income, or changes in the status and adulation they enjoy. Physical transitions such as these are visible and in your face, but Harvard's Arthur Brooks believes that similar transitions are likely to befall us all during our careers.

In From Strength to Strength, he argues that there are two distinct forms of intelligence within us all. Fluid intelligence, which is perhaps what most of us associate with the word "intelligence", covers our ability to solve problems, think flexibly, and to reason.

The second form of intelligence is crystallized intelligence, which covers our ability to form insights based upon the stock of experiences and knowledge we've built up during our lifetime.

Brooks believes that these two forms of intelligence peak at very different points in our life. For instance, we tend to have the highest levels of fluid intelligence when we're young, with crystallized intelligence then peaking when we're much older.

Indeed, the crystallized intelligence that we so strongly associate with raw smarts tends to peak around our thirties and forties, and so it's quite possible that we all go through a mental transition just as profound as the physical transition that professional athletes go through.

"Too often we make assumptions about people's capabilities as they age, such as that we're not as good at learning new things or grasping new technologies," says Romano Toscano, Founder, MyLifeKit. "The reality is that we're just good at different things, such as connecting dots and creating networks, which are hugely valuable and can allow us to be extremely successful. Giving people access to data on the health and performance is key to self-improvement and personal empowerment.

The problem is that few of us realize that such a transition in our capabilities is taking place, and so we fail to appreciate that what helped us to achieve success in our younger years is unlikely to help us achieve success in later years when our abilities change.

"If you have experienced professional success in the early part of your career, and your job involved new ideas or solving hard problems, you have fluid intelligence to thank for it," Brooks writes.

As this form of intelligence declines, doing what we did when we were young is unlikely to be enough, and Brooks highlights the challenges this can present, especially if, like the professional athlete, we have grown used to success and attached to our way of achieving it. Continuing to strive along those same lines is unlikely to deliver the results we so crave.

Whereas the need to transition is evident from the very beginning of a professional athlete's career, however, Brooks believes that knowledge workers are largely oblivious to this need. He argues that business schools and similar educational establishments instead promote an endless stream of hard work and for our ambitions and intelligence to follow a consistent, linear path. This can create both an ignorance of the importance of our transition to a focus on crystallized intelligence and especially of how we might make the shift.

Finding Our Second Wave Is Key To Maintaining Career Success As We Age

Perhaps the first step in adapting to these changes is to view them in a positive light. It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking that our declining capability is overwhelmingly negative. This can be especially so if we placed great pride in our successes and status during our career. If what got us where we are is no longer enough it can result in a hit to our esteem.

Brooks reminds us, however, that the crystalized intelligence curve can open up a whole host of new avenues to explore. For instance, he cites a number of professions where the ability to join dots together can be hugely valuable, such as historians, teachers, and mentors. Indeed, in 2030: How Today's Biggest Trends Will Collide and Reshape the Future of Everything, Mauro Guillen, dean of the Cambridge Judge Business School underlines the importance of this lateral thinking.

"The main message of the book is that you have to engage in lateral thinking because you have to be able to draw connections between things that may seem completely unrelated," he explains. "Once you dig into them, however, you begin to see how all of the different pieces interact, and you then realize that babies in China are connected to what's happening in shopping malls in the United States."

As a report from the UKs Government Office for Science demonstrates, our societies are getting progressively older and so it's beholden that we get better at aging successfully, both as individuals and as a society.

As the population ages, so will the UK workforce. The productivity and economic success of the UK will be increasingly tied to that of older workers, the authors explain. Enabling people to work for longer will help society to support growing numbers of dependents, while providing individuals with the financial and mental resources needed for increasingly long retirements.

The report highlights how the proportion of the working age population aged between 50 and the state pension age will grow from an already significant 26% in 2012 to 34% by 2050, which represents a growth of some 5.5 million people. As a result, the economic fortunes of the UK will increasingly be dependent upon this older workforce.

For Airbnbs Chip Conley, the key is to lean into the concept of the "modern elder". In his book Wisdom at Work he outlines a number of benefits that older workers can bring to any organization that demonstrates that aging doesn't need to be regarded as a sign of decline.

He suggests that the archetypal modern elder exhibits wisdom in a number of key ways:

Weve seen platforms emerge, such as Your Encore, to enable organizations to tap into the wisdom of older employees, but whilst these platforms operate on a gig economy style model, Conley argues for a more fundamental reassessment of age in the workplace, and the value elders can bring to the way our organizations function. With most western societies experiencing a tremendous demographic transition towards an older, greyer society, its a shift that cannot come soon enough.

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Finding Our Second Wave Is Key To Maintaining Career Success As We Age - Forbes

Genius, goes an old saying, is 99 per cent perspiration and 1 per cent inspiration. Taking the analogy forward, one could possibly say the same thing about the potential of a personwork hard to learn new things and grow. Microsoft certainly believes in something similar, and calls it the growth mindset. The potential of an employee isnt pre-determinedthe person can learn and grow, the company says. Part of the mindset needed for this is accepting what we dont know and being willing to learn and take action to drive meaningful change, says Ira Gupta, Head of Human Resources, Microsoft India.

The firm promotes a culture where employees are free to be curious, to experiment and to share the things they learn. No wonder that Growth and Learning Opportunities is one of the top attributes for Microsoft India in the BT-Taggd Best Companies to Work For in India ranking.

This growth mindset, however, requires constant support, guidance, empathy and resilience from leadership and Microsoftwhich has some 18,000 employees in Indiahas a plan in place. Under its Model-Coach-Care framework, the company trains its leaders and managers to lead through empowerment and accountability. Managers proactively coach team members for success across boundaries and help the team respond to the changing environment and be more thoughtful about understanding individual capabilities and unique circumstances to help them navigate opportunities and challenges. For instance, through its Employee Resource Groups, Microsoft builds a diverse and empowered workforce. Led by Microsoft India leaders, each group taps into a workplace subject and comes together as a self-managed team to drive inclusion around that aspect in the company. When we think about leadership at Microsoft, a few years ago we identified a set of actionable principles personal to Microsoft, aligned with our mission, ambitions and culture. These are our leadership principles of creating clarity, generating energy and delivering success, explains Gupta.

Growth and learning neednt be restricted to within office walls. As the pandemic changed the concepts of work, Microsoft acknowledged that hybrid was the way forward. To empower its people for the world of hybrid work and living, last year the company introduced its first employee experience platform built for the digital era. Called Microsoft Viva, it brings together communications, knowledge, learning, resources and insights into an integrated experience, which, the company says, enables people and teams to be their best from anywhere. Our goal is to ensure every employee has the tools, resources, and solutions to be as productive, creative, and secure as possible, working from any location and on any device. Technology is playing an increasingly important role in enabling a seamless employee experience in a hybrid world, says Gupta.

Microsoft also recognises that there is no single way of working that applies to everyone. Its approach to hybrid work embraces flexibility as a standard for most roles and provides employees with the opportunity to determine how and where they work best while making sure an individuals plan aligns to team agreements set with their manager. Our hybrid workplace is based on a commitment to flexibility that welcomes and enables diverse ways of working, relies on new learning and mindset shifts, considers business and individual needs, and is built on trust and technology, says Gupta.

Other than enabling flexibility, well-being and inclusion are the other key priorities at Microsoft. Weve been on a journey over the last five years to ensure that our benefits not only focus on physical health but also cover emotional and mental well-being, Gupta adds. During the pandemic, the company introduced well-being days, which were five days of additional leave for its employees. It renamed sick leave to Sick and Mental Health Leave, enabling employees to take time out for mental well-being as they would for physical well-being. In addition, it also introduced Caregiver leave for employees in a caregiving role at home.

The company is also focussed on increasing inclusion and representation of talent across identities, abilities, and backgrounds. Our commitment involves a wide-ranging set of initiatives geared to provide skilling, training, mentoring and scholarships to build an equitable workforce for the new world of work, says Gupta. One such initiative is the 16-week-long Springboard Internship Programme with an aim to fostering a more equal workforce. It provides women with an opportunity to gain on-the-job training, mentoring and re-skilling as they transition back to the workforce. Plus, Microsofts Employee Resource Groups also try to elevate the voices of various communitieswomen, LGBTQI+, persons with disabilities and othersto create a diverse support system and provide meaningful resources.

The company believes that when employees are encouraged to connect personal passions and philosophies to Microsofts mission and harness its platforms to pursue them, real and sustainable change happens in the world. Gupta adds that the last two years has made Microsoft more focussed about inclusion. We are committed to empowering our employees with the tools, resources, and sense of community that enables them to thrive in the post-pandemic workplace, she says.

@nidhisingal

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Why Microsoft India Promotes a Culture of Learning - Business Today