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10 Surprises of Remote Work from Security Engineers

By Mary Kate Schmermund

For Cisco engineers working on Duo, having a remote-first workplace has helped them reach life goals, connect with colleagues around the world, and be intentional communicators. We understand that working remotely can be an adjustment — that’s why we’ve compiled the 10 parts of remote work that surprised our team members most and their advice for navigating the nuances. If you’re interested in being part of a remote-first workplace, check out our open positions.

1. More perspectives make a positive impact on the product

Senior Engineering Leader David Rines has worked remotely for the past seven years. He’s found that Cisco’s approach to distributed teams has “enabled us to pick up the right talent, and not necessarily local talent. We are moving towards a global, follow the sun environment,” he said.

One of the aspects Rines appreciates most of this structure is getting “a widely varied set of perspectives and experiences that help build a more reliable, more robust product, which is why we’re here.”

Another benefit to having colleagues across the globe is the sharing of recipes, a perk Senior Site Reliability Engineer Bernard Ting particularly enjoys. Proactively communicating with colleagues virtually “helps you to form bonds with people from other teams. You can always learn something new about cultures elsewhere. I talk to people about food and so I’m always gathering recipes from people from all over the world,” Ting shared.

2. Gathering virtually inspires collaborative problem-solving

While some may fear that working remotely could lead to feelings of isolation and loneliness, a different camaraderie can flourish in the structure of our distributed teams. With colleagues across time zones, “there’s always someone there who you can reach out to help solve your problem,” Rines said.

Collaboration hours are another way Site Reliability Engineering Manager Jaya Sistla has cultivated virtual community and problem-solving. These hours are blocked off for team members to talk about what they’re working on. “The main thing is being able to ask for help so you don’t go into the rabbit hole debugging things,” Sistla said.

Ting points out that working in a distributed model allows you to really engage in virtual events and conversations. Given that the team mainly communicates through online chat, Ting has found that “forces you to see everyone as equally approachable, which has made me more comfortable reaching out to people from anywhere in the world.”

3. Intentional online socializing strengthens teams working remotely

For folks sharing an office, collaboration can happen through casual chats over coffee. When facing a challenge, you can ask your neighbor for support. While ideally virtual communication could have a similar cadence and spontaneity, the logistics of remote and distributed work require intentionality and being proactive in connecting with colleagues as people and as co-workers.

When Ting first started working remotely, he felt that every meeting needed to be formal and have a business objective. By sharing his feelings with his manager, he was reassured that “socializing is a very important part of teamwork, because if you don’t have a good relationship with your colleagues you’re not going to be able to have healthy discussions, healthy conflict or be able to critique each other when the situation arises.”

Since that conversation, Ting has been more proactive about catching up with colleagues, which can include sharing a coffee over video chat. Duo’s “coffee roulette” formalizes the process as every month, employees who opt in can be randomly paired up for a quick half-hour chat focused exclusively on socializing. Ting has found being proactive about socializing virtually helpful. “It’s made me more intentional with my time and really treasure the social experience you can get,” he said.

4. Remote management + training can be effective

Some folks may be concerned that without a manager observing their efforts and work ethic day in and day out, it may be harder to recognize accomplishments and challenges. Ting found that within his team “when you work on projects and in your one-on-ones with your managers, they’re always very intentional about learning what you’ve been doing and seeing what your progress is like on certain projects. I’ve been asked, ‘How do you think you can improve? What are some of the things you’ve been doing outside of the team work?’”

To cultivate cross-team collaboration and education, there are thoughtfully planned virtual lunch and learns. “We schedule training sessions and common meetings at times that are flexible for everyone. If it has to be repeated, we do it so people can comfortably attend rather than stretching themselves and attending at odd hours,” Sistla said.

5. Informal communication = hugely important [bonus points for individualized emojis]

For Software Engineer Nick Aspinall, an important and fun part of working remotely is keeping in touch with virtual messaging. One unique perk has been getting to create and customize emojis with team members including a few of himself in “various ridiculous states,” he said.

Connecting with colleagues on themed channels focused on personal and professional interests from coffee to pets “makes it really cool because you can meet people across different teams and still get some of the feeling of rubbing elbows that you get when you’re in the office,” Aspinall said. Participating in these virtual conversations boosts morale while also providing an endless supply of cute animal pics.

6. Conveying different information requires different formats

Given the multi-faceted nature of our work and the importance of consistent information sharing, having different communication channels and formats to communicate data with varying degrees of complexity is vital. Having information readily accessible, accurate and updated is particularly necessary in a field like cybersecurity.

Senior Software Engineer Mario Lopez finds that the variety of information sources contributes to an easeful remote working experience. For instance, for complex architecture decisions or detailing, Duo’s Wiki is the best source.

Software Engineer Hanna Fernandez has benefited from chat channels dedicated to design and engineering topics to “see what everyone’s up to and what thoughts people have,” she said. Sista pointed out these are great places to ask questions and open up dialogue to solve problems.

7. Video-on culture increases empathy and smiles

Our culture is “video-on,” meaning that it is preferred that during video meetings, as much as possible, attendees have their cameras on. Lopez loves this because “you get a bit of that personal human element.”

“We’re all people behind these screens. You definitely get some of people’s personality through text, but you get it more when you actually see them. It’s infectious when you see someone smiling. You’ve got to smile back,” he shared (while we both smiled).

8. Small talk matters

When Fernandez started at Cisco, she was advised to schedule individual meetings with everyone she would be working with on every team that she joined. That suggestion is one she’s applied even virtually.

“It’s a great strategy because I already know that my team is super talented and very smart, but this way I also get to know them as humans beyond their roles,” Fernandez said. Fernandez also finds it important to check in with co-workers and ask how they’re feeling and how their time off was. “I know a lot of people hate small talk, but it’s not just small talk. I’m genuinely interested in how my co-workers are doing.”

9. Life goals can more easily become reality

One of Ting’s biggest goals was buying his first house in the countryside outside of London. By working remotely, Ting has flexibility in his location which allowed him to achieve his goal of buying a house and settling down with his partner, while giving their dogs the space they need to be dogs.

remote

10. Take time to transition as an engineer working remotely

When transitioning from fully remote to hybrid, it’s important to recognize that there will be some shifts to get accustomed to. As the structures of remote, distributed and hybrid work evolve, it’s important to stay flexible and notice what’s possible through multiple modalities of team building. Many teams have enjoyed in-person gatherings and connecting through virtual lunches and team games when remote.

Fernandez has had multiple roles with multiple structures at Cisco. As an intern, she was fully in person and shared desk space with other interns who collaborated on full stack engineering. While working in finance IT, Fernandez was hybrid and many of her colleagues were distributed among multiple offices. The pandemic began while she was in a DevOps role, forcing her to maintain boundaries around her work time while working fully remotely. In her current role working on Duo, Fernandez is completely remote but advocates for in-person events if possible, because “humans are social creatures who want to see each other’s faces in real life once in a while.”

For Aspinall, “when we did come back to the office, there was a bit of an adjustment period where you were overstimulated from the office.” He also wanted to ensure team members who were 100% remote were fully included. Now he sees that while half his team is fully remote and the other half is hybrid, “that doesn’t stop anyone from doing anything. All of our meetings feel the same. They’re all seamless.”

If you’re interested in joining our team from wherever you are in the world, check out our open roles.

 


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From Austin to Sydney: How to Work From Anywhere

By Mary Kate Schmermund

SaaS Security Marketing Manager Laura O’Melia has always been interested in living and working internationally. After living in Austin, Texas for twenty years, O’Melia was ready for a new adventure and decided to move to Sydney, Australia with the support and encouragement of her manager and Cisco. The pandemic delayed her plans, but now that O’Melia’s settling into life and work in Australia, she shared how she made the move to work from anywhere and how you can, too.

Solving problems on a global scale in a flexible environment

What do you do?

O’Melia: I am on the Security Marketing team and focus on driving demand for our Zero Trust solution in the Asia-Pacific, Japan and China (APJC) region. I work closely with the Sales teams to do activities that will generate pipeline and educate prospects on our security solutions. I spend time finding new leads and trying new ways to engage with our top prospects while having fun along the way.

What do you like most about working at Cisco?

O’Melia: What I love most about working at Cisco is the amount of positive contributions we get to have on the world, from solving some of the world’s biggest problems around cybersecurity to giving money and resources to others in need. I also love the feeling of empowerment to create my own work/life balance as Cisco allows me the opportunity to have a flexible schedule.

What has been your career journey within Cisco?

O’Melia: I started at Duo Security in 2017. While working in Field Marketing, I was able to gain experience across many different teams. For example, I worked closely with a region in the U.S. as well as the Managed Service Provider team, which is a global team with a completely different business model. The needs differ greatly, from how we report and track metrics to the messaging and offers from one team to the next. I am now working in a very different market that is much larger and includes many more languages, so that brings a new level of understanding to how we show up in the market to achieve business goals.

Taking the leap to work anywhere

“Stepping outside of my comfort zone is one of my favorite things to do.”

– Laura O’Melia

What prompted you to relocate from Austin, Texas to Sydney, Australia?

O’Melia: Austin is great and was my home for 20 years, but I still wanted to gain international work experience to learn what it would be like somewhere else and compare it to what I know.

Stepping outside of my comfort zone is one of my favorite things to do, so when I heard Duo was expanding internationally and there was an opportunity in Australia, I was immediately interested. Everyone I know that has visited Australia always has absolutely wonderful things to say, so without ever having visited I agreed to take a long-term international two-year assignment.

How has Cisco supported your relocation?

O’Melia: I worked closely with my manager on the process from start to finish. We had the support of Cisco’s Mobility Services team, a group of Cisco employees that help with relocation services. We worked with immigration to obtain my work          visa. I was planning to relocate in March 2020 but as we know, the borders were closed and visas were not being processed for nearly two years. I was already in-role, so continued to support the APJC team from Austin.

When the time came, Cisco had a team of experts that I worked with to pack and ship my belongings and help get set up with an overseas bank. I also worked with a realtor to help me find a place to live, and the team even assists with my U.S. and Australian tax returns while I am away.

How has your work changed since relocating?

O’Melia: My role has expanded from doing lead-gen events for Duo in Australia and New Zealand to now being responsible for driving demand across the APJC region through digital campaigns and other marketing channels. I still strive to provide qualified leads to Sales and educate the market on our offerings. My goal is to help get Cisco Secure solutions into more doors to ultimately give users a better experience and stop the bad actors from doing harm.

What advice do you have for others who want to work from anywhere?

O’Melia: If you get the opportunity, take it. Everyone has their own path, but if you feel your career could benefit, even slightly, from the experience you will gain moving to another country and figuring things out far from what you know today, why not give it a try? You can learn so much from meeting and working with people that have a very different experience than you might know.

Ready for an adventure? If you want to solve global challenges through cybersecurity with the potential to work anywhere, check out our open roles.


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Cybersecurity Re-Launchers: Pivoting into Cybersecurity as a Mid-Career Professional

By Gergana Karadzhova

It is never too late to start a career in cybersecurity — this may sound cliché, but it holds a lot of truth. If you are passionate about the topic and are ready to put in the work to acquire the skills and knowledge needed, anyone, regardless of educational background, can break into cybersecurity.

At the age of 26, I started a four-year bachelor’s degree in digital forensics. I got introduced to the field by chance after working in data analytics for a few years and taking a college class on criminology. The program that I signed up for was mostly remote, with 80% independent preparation and bi-monthly on-site weekends at the university. I quickly realized that this model of education works great for me — I could read the materials provided by the program at my own pace and use as much external materials to supplement my understanding as needed. While the program was designed for working professionals and classes were spread out over four years, instead of the usual three years for a bachelor’s degree in Germany, it required a lot of discipline to complete the coursework while having a full-time job. Along the way, I learned several things about combining the responsibilities of adult life and achieving the study goals I had set for myself.

Below, I will outline a few recommendations to follow if you would like to break into the security field as an adult learner.

Recommendation No. 1: It is never too late     

  • Depending on the country that you live in, you are facing a retirement age of at least 61 or more. Investing in your education now, regardless of how many more years you must work, is going to pay off in increased employability, greater job satisfaction and in the case of cybersecurity – increased job security.

Recommendation No. 2: Get the important people in your life on board          

  • As an adult, you have plenty of other obligations in addition to navigating your career. You have friends and family who matter to you and often depend on you for financial and moral support. Getting their buy in before you sign up for a bigger study project is essential as it will ensure that you have a long-term support network for your undertaking.
  • Take the time at the beginning of your endeavor to share your motivation and plan around making it all work. Also, clearly communicate the repercussions of your decision, such as having less time for social activities or a tighter budget for a period. This will earn you a powerful ally, and someone to enjoy celebrating successes with.

Use visual support to communicate your goals and timeline to others. This makes it easy for them to understand where you stand and why you might pass on the dinner invitation for next weekend.

Recommendation No. 3: Put skin in the game  

  • The programs that I completed are the ones I paid for. From online classes to on-site lectures, I have found that the best predictor for the completion of any program that I have started in the past ten years is not the instructors, delivery model, length, or language, but the monetary investment I made at the start of it. Based on your current budget, set aside a certain percentage to invest in your professional development and hold yourself responsible for making the most out of it.

Recommendation No. 4: Remind yourself why you started       

  • At some point, the going gets hard and you ask yourself whether it is worth it. It is good if you are prepared to face such a low point. Something that works for me every time is writing down the questions that are bothering me and reading out the answers aloud. For example, when I was preparing for CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional), which was a six-month project for me, I wrote on a sheet of paper “10 reasons why I believe this certification is good use of my time and money” and then read out the answers every time I wanted to give up

Small reminders like the one above can help you stay motivated and focused.

Recommendation No. 5: Meet people from the field early on   

  • If you are pursuing a longer study program while you are still working in another field, you can easily get bogged down by the theory or dryness of the material, especially if you do not have a live instructor or a group of people to exchange with. One way to keep up your enthusiasm is to start attending events, such as meet-ups or smaller conferences, on the topic that you are studying. Even if you are still working on gaining the subject knowledge, connecting with professionals from the field will give you access to other people who share your interest and bring life to the topics that you are studying.
  • Moreover, I was pleasantly surprised by the openness with which more experienced information security professionals at such events answered my questions and shared learning resources that they had used in the past. That is one of my favorite things about the cybersecurity community – its egalitarian spirit and willingness to grow talent.

One of the first events that I attended as a student was an information day by the German research institute Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology (SIT). Public institutions like this one tend to offer more affordable events and discount rates for students.

Recommendation No. 6: Acknowledge that Rome was not built in a day

  • Changing career as an adult is difficult. It is uncomfortable to leave an area where you feel proficient and secure and head in a direction where you feel like you will aways be at a disadvantage because you started later. Yet, you will be surprised how often cybersecurity professionals with a decade of experience suffer from imposter syndrome and question their skills. There is always more to learn and the earlier you get comfortable with this concept, the better. Try to steer away from negative thoughts and invest your energy in actions that bring you closer to your goals.

Appreciate the small steps forward and be gentle to your mental health.


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Know Thyself: 10 Ways to Discover Your Work Environment Needs and What It’s Really Like to Work at Cisco

By Mary Kate Schmermund

Self-awareness goes a long way in determining your next professional steps. While job searching, it’s critical to identify how to leverage your transferable skills and network, while also evaluating what environmental factors of work and work culture matter to you most. Learn what it’s like to work at Cisco and the top 10 ways to suss out a workplace that suits your needs from leaders at Cisco Secure, Cisco Talos and Duo Security.

1. Beyond a ping-pong table: Discerning a company’s culture

First things first. Emily Reid, the newly appointed director of employee experience at Cisco Secure who came from Duo Security, advises, “Do your own research to see how the company and their employees describe the culture publicly — on the company’s website and through other sites, articles and resources. For tech companies specifically I always think, “What else do you have beyond the ping-pong table?”’

The interview process is the next key opportunity to find out what culture is like beyond amenities. To gain multiple perspectives, Reid recommends asking about company culture in every interview you have.

The question at the top of Reid’s list: Do you have programs and resources to support the development and success of your employees? “I want to know how a company will be investing in my career growth and if I will feel welcome and included as part of the team. Seeing what a company chooses to center and highlight when describing their culture is usually very telling,” she said.

Interning at a company is another way to get firsthand knowledge and can lead to full-time employment.  “several former interns are now people leaders managing their own teams — and their own interns — coming full circle,” Reid said.

2. Can you bring your whole self to work?

Knowing that there is safety and support in bringing your whole self to work is vital. What policies, programs and initiatives are in place that demonstrate an organization’s commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging?

Cisco’s ongoing commitments to social justice and pay parity include twelve action steps as part of Cisco’s Social Justice Blueprint. Cultivating a conscious culture includes on-going dialogue, programs and events meant to increase equality. Employee Resource Organizations and mentorship programs provide more opportunities to build community and share knowledge, resources and advocacy.

3. Remote, in person, or hybrid?

What environment allows you to do your best work? Also consider what perks and processes an employer offers to enhance flexibility and adaptability. During the pandemic, Duo and Cisco transitioned  all global events, training and professional development workshops to fully virtual. As in person options resumed following the pandemic, all events are designed to ensure an inclusive experience no matter where you’re joining from.

“We don’t want to go back to a world where people not based in an office feel like they are getting a lesser experience,” Reid said.

Considering how to make programs and information accessible to employees regardless of where they work is also important to Sammi Seaman, team lead of employee experience at Cisco Talos. She’s currently spearheading a new hire program that is “more inclusive of folks whether they’re office based, remote or somewhere across the world.”

4. A work-life balance that works for you

It’s essential to consider how you want your life and work to intersect, particularly as hybrid work becomes more popular. How important is paid time off, flexible work options or a consistent structure?

Cisco Secure offers “Days for Me,” days off for employees to decompress and do something to fill their cups. Monthly “Focus Days” are days without meetings, so employees can prioritize the projects that need attention.

Curran recalls one candidate who, despite multiple offers from competitors, chose Cisco Secure because of the flexible work environment: “This person has a young child and felt that the “Days for Me” and flexibility to work from home in a hybrid situation would work best for his career long-term.”

As Reid’s team helps lead the transition to hybrid work, the book Out of Office: The Big Problem and Bigger Promise of Working From Home by Charlie Warzel and Anne Helen Petersen has been inspiring. The book “does an amazing job of sharing a vision for an inclusive future that empowers employees to be successful and have a ‘work/life balance’ that truly works,” Reid said.

5. Supporting accessibility as the workplace evolves

Currently Cisco Secure offers a hybrid model while many employees still work remotely. In terms of maintaining accessibility through this transition, Marketing Specialist Julie Kramer advocated for more accessibility and saw changes at Cisco as a result.

“Webex pre-COVID didn’t have any closed captioning. So, another deaf person and I reached out and closed captioning and the transcript option got added,” Kramer shared.

Kramer prefers to have high-quality and frequently the same interpreters who “know the terminology for my job, marketing and technology. In business, the security and marketing industry can really talk fast, so you need a high-quality interpreter that can keep up and one that is qualified and certified,” she said.

6. Is a fast-paced environment your speed?

Consider what pace of your specific role and within an industry is needed for you to feel engaged without overwhelmed. While different roles within the same organization and industry may run at different paces, it’s important to tune into what might be expected on your potential new team.

Seaman finds that the fast pace of cybersecurity can be “delightful and challenging. There’s a lot of fast-paced pivoting that happens, which makes for an interesting workplace because two days are never the same,” she said.

7. What structures and opportunities for collaboration motivate you?

Do you prefer a hierarchical structure, or one that is more flat? Are you most effective and fulfilled riding solo, or while consistently connecting with coworkers? Does contributing your ideas make you feel empowered?

At Cisco Secure, there is space to join conversations. “No matter where you sit in the company, you have a voice and can speak up and collaborate and self-organize on a project. It feels like a bunch of really hard working, humble, smart people who are trying to solve problems together,” said Manager of Duo’s Global Knowledge and Communities Team Kelly Davenport.

To enhance communication and knowledge among distributed teams, Seaman started a dialogue series called “The More You Know.” Questions include: What do you do? How do you do it? How can that help other parts of Cisco Talos? The conversations lead to future collaboration and resource sharing.

8. Does teaching and learning energize you?

Do you want to grow professionally and increase your skills and knowledge? A culture of teaching and learning within an organization can help hone and expand your skills and connections.

Lead of Strategic Business Intelligence Ashlee Benge finds the security world “very dynamic. You really can never stop learning. Within Cisco Talos, the people around me are such smart, dedicated people that there’s really a lot that you can gain from just being involved in the group as a whole.”

For Seaman, who didn’t come from a technical background, Cisco Talos offered opportunities to expand her technical knowledge, including from colleagues. “Coming into Cisco Talos, people are like, “Here, let me teach you. You can totally do this. Just because you didn’t know how to do it doesn’t mean you can’t learn. Let’s go,” Seaman shared. Seaman’s colleagues have also learned from her expertise in information and knowledge management given her background as a librarian.

work

More formally, the Learning and Development team recently launched a comprehensive talent development program with enablement resources and support for people leaders. Aspects include: “really thoughtful templates for employees to use with their manager to talk through career goals, development areas, and to define an actionable investment plan. These resources are fueling great career conversations, strong alignment, and thoughtful development plans,” Reid said.

9. Are you driven to evolve through variety and internal mobility?

Do you want to refine your skills within your wheelhouse? Or are you driven to try new tasks and potentially change roles within your next organization?

Benge, whose background is in computational astrophysics, has found her interests shift from technical security research to business strategy and data science. At Cisco Talos, she’s been involved in everything from detection research and threat hunting, to community outreach, conference talks and traveling to support sales engagements. Currently, she’s helping to lead threat hunting in Ukraine.

“My leaders have always made it very clear that if there’s an interest, it’s okay to pursue it and it doesn’t have to necessarily be within the scope of my role. Having that freedom to pursue interests within the industry has been really engaging,” Benge said.

10. Recognize your role in shaping culture

In addition to company values and mission statements, leaders and employees contribute to an organization’s culture every day. If you want to enhance your company’s culture, participate.

“Feedback on what employees want to see is crucial,” Reid said. “The easiest way to contribute to developing culture and a positive employee experience in your workplace is to add to what’s already happening! Culture takes participation and ownership from all employees.”

Reid shared that in performance reviews at Cisco, “‘Team Impact” is equally as important as “Results.” Contributing positively to company culture should contribute to performance reviews and promotion justification,” she said.

Join us

To learn more about Cisco’s company culture and how you can contribute to it, check out our open roles.


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Advocating for Passion, Kindness and Women in STEM

By Mary Kate Schmermund

Over her 25-year-plus career, Saleema Syed has seen the information security industry from a variety of vantage points, all while championing women in technology. Syed worked as director of business systems and data management for Duo Security before rising to vice president of information technology. Later, after Duo was acquired by Cisco, she transitioned to new roles within the larger organization and now heads up operations for Webex Marketing. In this position Syed brings structure across different functions of marketing including brand, events and technology while also serving as chief operating officer for Chief Marketing Officer Aruna Ravichandran.

“I fell in love with the culture, the kindness, the heart of this company,” Syed said.

Recently, she shared her passion for problem solving and inclusion with the Duo Blog, along with the advice she gives mentees navigating their own career paths.

Not Staying Comfortable, But Always Staying Kind

What about your work energizes you?

Saleema Syed: I like chaos and I love putting a method to the madness. With marketing we have to react to the market, react to the business, react internally. What energizes me is there’s never a dull day and there is always this ability to bring some overall end to end process.

I love running towards a burning car and figuring out how to put it out. I love change. I know change is the only constant and rather than running away from it, I thrive in it. I like to look at it and ask, “What can we do to break it down and figure out what we need to do?”

My brain works in terms of boxes and flows and charts and spreadsheets so when I look at something I’m like, “Okay, what is a box? What is a process? How do I untangle it?” I like sitting in the discomfort and understanding what to do to get out of it.

What drives your career decisions in terms of transitioning from different roles and parts of an organization?

Saleema Syed: There are three things I always keep in mind when I look at what I’m doing and where I want to be. One is, at the core of it, does it fill my cup of empathy and allow me to be true to who I am in how I treat people or how I build a team?

The second thing is, will I have the opportunity to influence and impact the people on the team or my family? How do I show myself to my daughter who is growing and seeing how to become who she is as a career person?

The third thing is, is it something new and am I learning something? Continuous learning is a huge part of who I am, so that drives me to get out of my comfort zone constantly.

When I’m changing jobs people usually say, “You’ve set up this team, you’re so comfortable. Now all you have to do is sit back and execute.” And my answer is, “That’s exactly why I am moving.”

If I am comfortable I’m not learning, and I don’t know if I’m adding any more value than I’ve set up. That means it’s time for me to move on and elevate somebody. What I’m doing is sending the elevator down to somebody on the team to grow.

That’s why I’ve had people who work for me for many years follow me through multiple organizations, which as a leader has been my pinnacle of what I call my success. Success is not my role; it is how many people I have impacted and influenced.

How do you determine the types of problems you want to solve and challenges you want to approach professionally?

Saleema Syed: I keep going back to Duo because working at that organization and meeting those people defined me as a human being. One of the strategic pillars of that organization is to be kinder than necessary.

However complicated the work challenges are, those around me must be aligned with what my integral values are and who I am. They have to have empathy and kindness in their heart. If that is not there, no matter how much I love solving challenges and know I can solve them, I’m not going to go for it. I’ve been extremely lucky at Duo, Cisco and Webex that I’ve been around those kinds of people.

If you look at Webex, I love the core of what we are, the journey we are on, the inclusivity. We are not just selling Webex messaging or other products. At the heart of it we are looking at how we are influencing people and things around us by making sure that there is inclusivity in the collaboration tools that we are launching.

Leading Through Inclusivity + Advocating for Women in Technology

What is your leadership style?

Saleema Syed: My leadership style is pretty simple: nobody works for me; people work with me. I lead with making sure that people know this is the problem you’re trying to solve, here is the context of what we are trying to do. Now, let’s figure out how we solve it. That is something that has helped my team be part of the problem solving that I love to do.

When I interview people my first questions are, “What does the job bring to you? How would this job fill your cup?” That throws people off every time. You can teach any technology, you can teach any skill set, but if you don’t have the basic passion, the attitude to be able to do this job, then everything else can just go out the door.

As a leader who is a woman of color, what particular challenges, triumphs or learning have you experienced?

Saleema Syed: I have a very diverse background. I am an Indian by birth and grew up in the Middle East. When I went into engineering, finished my education and started my career, one of the things I realized was that as a woman of color, I always wanted to apply for positions that I was fully qualified for. I wanted to make sure I knew everything about the job because a very big fear was being asked a question in the interview I didn’t know. LinkedIn’s Gender Insights Report found that women apply for 20% fewer jobs than men despite similar job search behaviors. That has been a very challenging mental barrier for me to break.

Trey Boynton, who was at Duo and now she’s leading Cisco in a beautiful journey of diversity as the senior director of inclusion and collaboration strategy always said, “We have to have that bicycle lane on the road, whether it is for females, whether it is for people of color or any LGBTQIA+ community members. That is how we get people to bring that confidence in to learn, grow and then they can merge easily.”

“Passion is a part of who I am and is contributing to my growth.” – Saleema Syed

Whatever I faced as I was growing up, whether it was my dark skin, whether it was my accent, whether it was, “Oh, you’re way too passionate” has been some of the feedback that I’ve gotten. In my career if I’m told I’m way too passionate I turn that around and say, “Passion is a part of who I am and is contributing to my growth.”

How else do you advocate?

Saleema Syed: Within Webex, within Cisco, I try to be part of anything that I can do in terms of giving back to the community. I’m definitely a big proponent of women in technology. In the local Dallas area I run a program by myself and go into schools and advocate for girls in STEM. Cisco is amazing in how it gives us time to volunteer. I love that educating kids is part of my journey of giving back. That’s the generation you can influence.

How do we enable children and women to be more open to technology and being part of the technology field? Let’s look at the percentage of diversity in the technology field and be aware of it. It’s not only about the diversity numbers, but are we bringing in candidates at the leadership level and giving them not just a seat at the table but a voice at the table, too?

You also have to talk about what you do and with passion and energy because if you don’t, people get intimidated. If you can influence one person who comes from an underrepresented community, imagine what you are doing, not just for that person, but for his household, for his family, for his extended community. I have a lot more to do, but as I get into the next decade of my life and my career, that is something that is a huge focus for me.

What advice do you have for people navigating their careers and wanting to enter tech and cybersecurity?

Saleema Syed: First and foremost it’s very important to spend time and understand the business and the products in whatever industry you’re going into. It is key to your growth. Especially if it’s a security industry, take time to understand the products, the technology or the function that you’re trying to get into. Contextual understanding and product understanding are extremely important.

The second piece is to keep learning. Cisco is amazing in trying to help you learn and support you financially to be able to do it. I went back and got my executive MBA four years ago. Give yourself a goal of learning a new something, whether it is a new function, new technology or new leadership skill.

The third piece is to create a spreadsheet of where you want to be in two years. Put that out there and then work back just like you would do a project plan. Work back month by month, quarter by quarter. What are the skill sets you need to learn to get there?

The last part is: Do the job you want versus the job you are in. Of course, you have to do the job you are in, but do the job you want to get to. Don’t wait for a title, don’t wait for a promotion to act. No. What do you want to be? Show that to your leaders and yourself. The title will come, money will come, everything will come, but am I doing the job that I want and enjoy and I want to get to?

Join Us

To learn more about Webex, Cisco and Duo Security and how you can apply your passion, advocacy and problem solving to make a difference in cybersecurity, browse our open roles.


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A Unique Cybersecurity Career Path: From Journalism to Cisco

By Mary Kate Schmermund

Few security career paths are linear. For Stephanie Frankel the journey to Cisco Secure was circuitous. The Ann Arbor, Michigan native studied journalism at the University of Michigan before managing communications for the Washington Capitals and NBC Sports. But after several stints at communications agencies, she charted a new path for herself in cybersecurity. Not only has her diverse background served as a strength in her current role as senior manager for strategy and operations, but it’s also informed her management philosophy.

Road to Cybersecurity

After doing project management and account direction at consulting agencies, Frankel was interested in honing her skills and expertise on the client side. She had heard amazing things about Duo and wanted to stay in Ann Arbor and work for a company with local roots. After interviewing, Frankel realized that “working at Duo was a cool, exciting opportunity with a really awesome group of people.”

Frankel was on the ground running working as a technical project manager in research and development overseeing the Multi-Factor Authentication, applications and mobile engineering teams despite not having worked in information security before.

Duo’s security education allowed Frankel to understand the industry and is something she values for getting more people into the cybersecurity field. At Duo and Cisco Secure, employees come from a variety of backgrounds and some don’t have much (or any) experience with cybersecurity.

Robust educational programs build knowledge about security and specific products which empower new team members to grow and learn. Every team also has a learning and development budget for employees to quench their curiosity and enhance their knowledge through courses, books or other programs Manager of Global Employee Programs Anndrea Boris shared.

“People are open to having conversations and open to ideas and ways to solve those ideas. If you have an idea of how to solve a problem, no matter whether it’s your job or not, people are open and willing to listen to you.” – Stephanie Frankel

Something Frankel also appreciates most is that ideas are valued at Duo and Cisco Secure: “Even in my first job, I would have ideas and go to my boss or our head of engineering and say, ‘Hey, I think this could be a really cool opportunity, and I think it needs this.’ People are open to having conversations and open to ideas and ways to solve those ideas. If you have an idea of how to solve a problem, no matter whether it’s your job or not, people are willing to listen to you.”

After a year, Frankel moved from engineering to marketing to run operations for Duo’s in-house brand team, leading the team through a rebrand. “The team really rallied behind this new brand and it was amazing to see their pride and hard work when sharing it,” she said. With Frankel’s leadership, the team showcased not only the new look and feel of the brand but also the customer research that went into understanding the need for the change.

“Our amazing team knew that for it to catch on internally we needed to help people understand the why. The team put together an amazing training and went around the company to help people understand the security buyer, the industry overall and our differentiators and how we could do all of this within the umbrella of Cisco,” she said.

Recognizing that she most enjoys and feels best suited for a strategic operations role, she had open conversations with her manager. “I told my boss, ‘It’s just not a great fit.’” Her manager was very supportive, and they worked through potential options. “You’ll find a lot of that at Cisco,” she said.

Now as senior manager in the Strategy and Operations Group within Cisco’s Security and Collaboration division, Frankel runs key initiatives for business operations that drive business growth. She is empowered to creatively solve problems and collaborate “with all the stakeholders within each group to move these programs forward, to understand the problems we’re looking to solve, create objectives, a program plan, and continue to track metrics and progress towards those ultimate goals,” she said.

Growing as a Leader at Cisco

A self-described “over communicator,” Frankel believes that as a leader, “the more you communicate and the more transparent you are, the better.” Frankel loves leading people who are experts in their fields and letting them do what they do best.

On the brand team, for example, she trusted her team’s expertise in producing stories, videos and animations to demystify Cisco’s security products.

“All I needed to do was give them the objective and the goals and they were able to come up with the solutions,” Frankel said.

She fondly remembers the boss at one of her first jobs out of college. In that job Frankel wrote press releases and wanted her boss to fully approve the final versions before sending them to the media. Once her boss told her, “Stephanie, if you keep giving it back to me, I will keep finding things to change. I trust you to know when it is ready to go.” That confidence in her so early in her career “gave me so much confidence in myself,” she said.

Frankel emulates his approach to management by recognizing that each employee has different needs in their lives, in their careers, and in how they like to receive feedback. From that boss Frankel first learned that for every piece of negative feedback, you must give four pieces of positive feedback for “someone to actually hear it because that’s how you balance things out in your mind.”

Frankel believes feedback is crucial for growth. “I don’t see how you can improve or grow without it, no matter what level of your career you’re at. Feedback shouldn’t be taken as negative, as much as it is a way for you to improve,” she said.

One of the most helpful things Frankel learned in a Cisco class for managers was the importance of asking a person if they are in a good place to receive critical feedback. “You might not be in the mindset to accept the feedback and to do something constructive with it,” she said. ”If you’re having a bad day or struggling, you could say, ‘You know what, I’m not going to be able to take it today, but let’s talk tomorrow and I’ll be in a better place to receive it.’’’

The Power of Pivot on a Security Career Path

Frankel has spent the last year thriving in a role she never anticipated in an industry her college training in journalism didn’t fully prepare her for. The secret, she says, is keeping an open mind to new possibilities and a willingness to take on new challenges, even if you don’t feel 100% ready.

“A lot of it is getting real world experience and learning your way through it and knowing that there’s a lot of opportunities and a lot of people that are willing to teach you,” she said.

cisco

To pivot professionally Frankel advises not feeling pigeonholed just because you studied a particular topic or have been in a certain industry for a long time. Take what you can from where you started such as storytelling and communications skills in the case of journalism for Frankel. While trying something new may require taking a different level or type of job “sometimes it’s worth it because you have that opportunity to grow and you might find you’re happier somewhere else,” she said.

When discerning professional steps Frankel recommends having open and honest conversations with yourself and others such as mentors.

“Cisco has so many mentorship programs and so many people that are knowledgeable about a lot of things,” she said. ”Just because your current role isn’t a great fit doesn’t mean that there’s not another good fit within the corporation, or it doesn’t mean that you can’t create your own good fit.”

Get started on your career path

Did you know that Cisco offers cybersecurity trainings and certifications? Start developing your cybersecurity skills today! And if you’re ready to jump into an exciting new career in security, check out the open roles at Cisco Secure and Duo Security.


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Period-Tracking and Fertility Apps Can Put Women Seeking Abortions at Risk

By Vittoria Elliott
Apps collect sensitive data that could be subpoenaed by law enforcement or sold by data brokers.

McAfee Teammates Share How They’ll Help #BreakTheBias this International Women’s Day

By McAfee

International Women’s Day serves as an important reminder that each and every one of us plays a role in recognizing and addressing gender bias. Together, we can make a difference in creating a more equitable world for all.

At McAfee, we know that genuine change requires continuous commitment. And while we’re proud of the efforts we’re making as a company – from being the first cybersecurity company to achieve global pay parity (and maintain it), to expanded time off for new parents, to a woman on every hiring panel to help remove bias – we know there is more to do.

This International Women’s Day and beyond, McAfee team members around the globe share how they’ll continue to advance inclusion and gender equality by actively working to #BreakTheBias.

JaffarSadhik

Software Quality Engineer (India)

A gender equal world starts with a change. A change within families, a change with perspectives, a change among society!

 

 

Arathi

Program Manager (Canada)

I am helping to #BreakTheBias by teaching my son that both boys and girls, men and women can do it all.

 

Krupali

Sr Market Research Analyst (USA)

We need to think differently. Women have, are and will always be quintessential architects of society. Together we can #BreakTheBias

 

Ambareen
Software Engineer (UK)

Collectively we can all #BreakTheBias! I am doing my part and learning from my mum and helping the next generation believe in themselves irrespective of gender.

 

Kevin
Real Estate & Workplace Strategy (Ireland)

Equality can only be achieved if diversity, difference and qualities of woman are truly valued. We must work together to acknowledge and #BreakTheBias.

 

Darya
Channel Marketing (Australia) 

Bias against anyone for simply being different, limits our growth and is a significant waste of talent, energy and happiness. I commit to taking an active role in questioning perceptions to do my part to influence change.

 

Natalia
Software Sales (Canada)

I will help #BreakTheBias by raising and supporting a strong independent young adult and setting an example for her. I do so by choosing my career path while leading and growing personally and professionally!

 

Winnie
Talent Acquisition Partner (Australia)

I will #BreakTheBias by addressing and challenging gender stereotypes. 

 

Aisling
Senior People Partner (Ireland)

I will help #BreakTheBias by encouraging conversations around diversity, challenging myself and others to consider where we can make changes that will have a positive impact.

 

 

Join McAfee and millions of others around the world in celebrating International Women’s Day by sharing how you’ll #BreakTheBias.

Interested in building your career at a company that helps women thrive? Search our openings!

The post McAfee Teammates Share How They’ll Help #BreakTheBias this International Women’s Day appeared first on McAfee Blog.

The Mothers of Invention: Women Who Blazed the Trail in Technology

By Judith Bitterli

It’s easy to imagine where we would be without women in technology.

We’d be poorer for it.

With Mother’s Day upon us, I couldn’t help but think once more about the stark employment figures I shared in my International Women’s Day blog just a few weeks ago. Millions of women have involuntarily left the workforce at a much higher rate than men during the pandemic—with roughly one third of women in the U.S. aged 25-44 citing that childcare was the reason for that unemployment.

Reflecting on this further, I thought about the women in technology who’ve left their positions during this past year. It’s a loss of talent and capability that’s set back decades of advances by trailblazing women who not only shine in their field yet also do so in male-dominated realms of study, research, and employment.

So as we look ahead to recovery, we should also look back. By celebrating just a few of the women in technology who shaped our world today, women who truly are “mothers of invention,” perhaps we can remember just how vital women are in our field—and how we should double down on our efforts to welcome them back.

Margaret Hamilton—The software that ran the moon landing

Imagine a time when the term “software engineering” wasn’t recognized, even though it was crucial to us landing on the moon.

Such were the days when Margaret Hamilton began her work at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as a job to support her family while her husband went to law school at Harvard. This was in 1959 and would introduce her to Edward Lorenz, the father of chaos theory, and put her on the path to help humanity set its first footsteps on the moon.

It was her work and her code that developed a software-driven system that warned astronauts of in-flight emergencies, an advance she credits her young daughter for inspiring, as recounted in this interview:

Often in the evening or at weekends I would bring my young daughter, Lauren, into work with me. One day, she was with me when I was doing a simulation of a mission to the moon. She liked to imitate me – playing astronaut. She started hitting keys and all of a sudden, the simulation started. Then she pressed other keys and the simulation crashed … I thought: my God – this could inadvertently happen in a real mission.

I suggested a program change to prevent a prelaunch program being selected during flight. But the higher-ups at MIT and NASA said the astronauts were too well trained to make such a mistake. Midcourse on the very next mission, Apollo 8, one of the astronauts on board accidentally did exactly what Lauren had done. The Lauren bug! It created much havoc and required the mission to be reconfigured. After that, they let me put the program change in, all right.

Karen Spärck Jones—The intelligence behind search

When you search online, you have this woman to thank.

A true pioneer, Karen Spärck Jones worked at Cambridge, during which time she developed the algorithm for deriving a statistic known as “term frequency–inverse document frequency” (TFIDF). In lay terms, TFIDF determines how important a word is relative to the document or collection of terms in which it is found. Sound familiar? It should, as her work forms the basis of practically every search engine today.

Spärck Jones remained outspoken with regards to what she referred to as “professionalism” in technology. This had two layers: the first being the technical efficacy of a solution, the second being the rationale for even doing it in the first place. In her words,

“[T]o be a proper professional you need to think about the context and motivation and justifications of what you’re doing … You don’t need a fundamental philosophical discussion every time you put finger to keyboard, but as computing is spreading so far into people’s lives you need to think about these things.”

Rear Admiral Grace M. Hopper

Her vision for computing and her hands-on work led to development of COBOL, a programming language still in use today. Driving that vision was the belief that human language could be used as the basis for a programming language, making it more accessible, particularly for business use. The result was the FLOW-MATIC programming language, which was later developed into COBOL, a language that is estimated to be used in 95% of ATM card swipes.

During her time as a naval officer, she helped transform centralized Defense Department systems into smaller, distributed networks akin to the internet we now know and use. At her retirement near the age of 80, she went to work in the private sector where she held the role of full-time senior consultant until her passing at age 85. This 1983 profile of her, aired when she was 76, is certainly worth a watch.

Radia Perlman—Internet Hall-of-Famer

Quite plainly, Perlman’s work paved the way for the routing protocols that underpin the modern internet.

Prior to Perlman’s work, as networks grew and accordingly became more complex, data would often flow into loops that prevented them from reaching their intended destination. Enter her creation of the Spanning Tree Protocol (STP), which can handle large clouds of computers and network devices. While its since evolved, the concept of an adaptive network remains squarely in place.

Another advance of hers was introducing computer programming to young children aged 3 to 5 back in the 1970s. While working at MIT’s LOGO Lab, she created TORTIS (Toddler’s Own Recursive Turtle Interpreter System), which used buttons from programming and allowed for experimentation with a robotic turtle that would follow a toddler’s commands. In the abstract for her paper that documented the work, she emphasized what she felt was a vital point, “Most important of all, it should teach that learning is fun.”

Getting Involved

These women have led and inspired, and likewise it’s on all of us in technology to build on the advances they made possible through both our work and the workplace cultures we foster—particularly as we begin our recovery from this pandemic.

One of the many reasons I’m proud to be a part of McAfee is our Women in Security (WISE) community. It’s truly a forward-thinking program, which we introduced to enrich and support women in the tech sector through mentorship programs and professional development conferences. It’s one of the several, tangible ways we actively strive for a vibrant and diverse culture at McAfee.

Another powerful voice for women in tech is AnitaB.org, which supports women in technical fields, as well as the organizations that employ them and the academic institutions training the next generation. A full roster of programs help women grow, learn, and develop their highest potential.

And for looking forward yet further, there’s Girls Who Code, which is building the next generation of female engineers and technologists. Their data shows why this is so vital. They found that 66 percent of girls aged six to 12 show interest in computing, but that drops to 32 percent for girls aged 13 to 17, and then plummets to only 4 percent for college freshmen. Accordingly, they support several programs for school-aged girls from third grade up through senior year of high school, help educators and communities launch clubs, and advocate for women in their field through their work in public policy and research.

And that’s just for starters. For an overview of yet more organizations where you can get involved, check out this list of 16 organizations for women in tech—all of which help us realize a better world with women in technology.

The post The Mothers of Invention: Women Who Blazed the Trail in Technology appeared first on McAfee Blogs.

Supporting the Women Most Affected by the Pandemic

By Judith Bitterli
International Women's Day

Supporting the Women Hit Hardest by the Pandemic

Only 57% of women in the U.S. are working or looking for work right now—the lowest rate since 1988.

That telling data point is just one of several that illustrate a stark contrast in these stark times: of the millions who’ve seen their employment affected by the pandemic, women have been hardest hit.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), some 2.3 million women left the workforce between the start of the pandemic and January 2021. Meanwhile, the BLS statistic for the number of men who left the U.S. workforce in that same period was 1.8 million. With International Women’s Day here, it’s time we ask ourselves how we can stem this inordinately sized tide of hard-working and talented women from leaving the workforce.

Job losses during the pandemic impact women disproportionately greater than men

A broader BLS statistic provides a further perspective: a total of 4,637,000 payroll jobs for women have been lost in total since the pandemic began in the U.S. alone. That ranges from executive roles, jobs in retail, and educators, to work in public service and more. Of those jobs lost, about one third of women aged 25-44 cited that childcare was the reason for that unemployment.

Combine that with the fact that globally women carry out at least two and a half times more unpaid household and care work than men, and a global gender pay gap of 23%, it’s easy to see why millions of women have simply dropped out of the workforce to manage children and home schooling—even in the instances where employment is available.

Not that this should surprise us. For example, just a few years before the pandemic, research showed that few Americans wanted to revert to the traditional roles of women at home and men in the workplace. However, when push came to shove, the Pew Research showed that women most often made compromises when needs at home conflicted with work. And now we’ve seen that sentiment come home to roost. On a massive scale.

Put plainly, when the pandemic pushed, women’s working lives predominantly went over the edge.

Supporting women working remotely during the pandemic

Within these facts and figures, I’d like to focus on the women who are working remotely while caring for their families, whether that’s their children, elders in their lives, or even a mix of both. What can we do, as employers, leaders, and co-workers in our businesses to better support them?

As early as June, Forbes reported that women were reducing their working hours at a rate four to five times greater than men, ostensibly to manage a household where everything from daycare, school, elder care, and work all take place under the same roof. The article went on to cite ripple-effect concerns in the wake of such reductions like the tendency to pursue less-demanding work, greater vulnerability to layoffs, and reduced likelihood for promotion. In fact, one study conducted in the U.S. last summer found that 34% of men with children at home say they’ve received a promotion while working remotely, while only 9% of women with children at home say the same.

In an interview with the BBC, Melinda Gates, the Co-Chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, stated her views on the situation succinctly: “I hope Covid-19 forces us to confront how unsustainable the current arrangement is—and how much we all miss out on when women’s responsibilities at home limit their ability to contribute beyond it. The solutions lie with governments, employers, and families committed to doing things more equitably.” I agree. This is a problem for us to solve together.

How employers and leaders can help

As for the role of employers and leaders in the solution, some thinking presented in The Harvard Business Review caught my eye. The article, “3 Ways Companies Can Retain Working Moms Right Now” focuses on what employers can do to better support the women in their workforce. The three ingredients the authors propose are:

  • Provide certainty and clarity, wherever possible.
  • Right size job expectations.
  • And continue the empathy.

If we think about the stressors we all face, this simple recipe actually reveals some depth. It takes knowing, and engaging with, employees perhaps more greatly than before. One sentence in the conclusion struck me in particular:

“It is no longer an option for managers to pretend that their employees do not have lives outside of their jobs, as these evaporated boundaries between home and work are not going away anytime soon.”

I see this every practically every day when I meet with my team. I’m sure you’ve seen it as well. With our laptop cameras on for sometimes hours a day, we’ve all caught glimpses into our coworker’s lives outside the office, seen that 7am meeting rescheduled for 8am to accommodate a busy breakfast rush with the family, or even kiddos pop into the frame during a call to say “hi.” What we may not see is just how much of a struggle that could be for some in the long haul.

Enter again those notions of providing certainty and clarity, rightsizing job expectations, and showing empathy. While not the end-all-be-all answers, they provide a starting point. As employers and leaders, if we can minimize the x-factors, adapt the workloads, and show compassion as we navigate the road to recovery, we can retain employees—and at least mitigate some of the stressors that are pushing women out of their jobs and careers during this pandemic. Exceptional employers and leaders have always done this. And now, in exceptional times, I believe it must become the norm.

How you as a friend and co-worker can help

Likewise, for co-workers, it’s absolutely okay to check in with people on your team, your vendors, your clients, and other people in your network and simply ask how they’re doing. I’ve had many meetings where we informally go around the horn and talk about what’s going on outside of work. The shared experience of working remotely has a way of creating new norms, and perhaps starting a meeting with an informal check-in way on occasion is one of them.

This is an opportunity to listen, simply so someone can feel better by being heard, and so that we can pinpoint places where we can come in and offer some support.

Some challenges women are facing are beyond our capacity to help firsthand, yet we can identify them when we see them. If you or someone you know is struggling, here are a few resources in the U.S. that can help:

Mental health resources for women

The Office on Women’s Health, part of the U.S. Department of Health & Human services, offers a wealth of resources on its website, along with a help line that can provide further resources as well.

The National Institute of Mental Health has an extended list of articles, resources, and links to services that can provide immediate help for people who are struggling to cope or who are in crisis.

Legal resources for women

A Better Balance is a nonprofit legal advocacy group that “uses the power of the law to advance justice for workers, so they can care for themselves and their loved ones without jeopardizing their economic security.” They offer a confidential help line that can provide people with information about their workplace rights.

The National Women’s Law Center offers complementary legal consultations and with questions about accessing paid sick leave and paid leave to care for a child whose school or childcare provider is closed because of COVID-19.

Stemming the tide together

As women leave the workforce worldwide, we’ve seen organizations lose precious talent, and we’ve seen women sacrifice their livelihoods and career paths. As such, the pandemic has exacted hard and human costs, ones that have fallen on women in outsized ways.

A problem of this scope is one for us to solve collectively. Apart from the bigger, broader solutions that may be forthcoming, as the employers and co-workers of women, there’s something we can do right now: reach out, listen, and act. These days call for more empathy and adaptation than ever before, particularly for the hard-working women who are doing it all—and then some.

Stay Updated 

To stay updated on all things McAfee and on top of the latest consumer and mobile security threats, follow @McAfee_Home  on Twitter, subscribe to our email, listen to our podcast Hackable?, and ‘Like’ us on Facebook.

 

The post Supporting the Women Most Affected by the Pandemic appeared first on McAfee Blogs.

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