"Companies should allow for a more flexible and transparent working environment to help employees change their work habits as needed to accommodate challenges as they arise."
Brigitte Kimichik Tweet
Born and raised in Germany, Brigitte Kimichik, author of The Sandbox Series, earned her Abitur in December 1980 from the Gymnasium Osdorf, in Hamburg, Germany, and came to the US thereafter to study. She received her BBA with Honors from UT Austin’s McCombs School of Business in the summer of 1983 and her JD from SMU Law School in 1986.
She retired as a real estate finance partner from Andrews Kurth LLP after 30 years of practice of law in 2015 to join her husband in retirement and to pursue new passions, including to help charity organizations that serve abused women and children, to learn how to play Mahjongg and Golf, to travel with her husband, and to write about important subject matters, including sexual harassment in the workplace, and hazing, bullying and sexual assault on college campuses. Brigitte and her husband live in Dallas, Texas, and have two daughters.
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Table of Contents
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Brigitte Kimichik: When I retired as a commercial real estate finance partner from Andrews Kurth LLP in Dallas after 30 years of practice of law in 2015, I decided to write a book with a former client and friend about our experiences working in a male dominated environment and what helped us succeed in our respective careers. We were in the middle of writing our book when the #MeToo movement exploded. What was supposed to be one chapter in our book became the subject matter of the entire book—how to deal with sexual harassment in the workplace.
Our book was published in May 2019: Play Nice – Playground Rules for Respect in the Workplace by Brigitte Gawenda and JR Tomlinson. Our mission for Play Nice is to help men and women as victims and bystanders help identify and deal with bad behavior on the spot in and outside of the workplace with gentle communication and a little humor, using simple tools and rules we all learned at a young age on the playground.
2020 and 2021 threw a lot of curve balls into business on a global scale. Based on the experience gleaned in the past couple years, how can businesses thrive in 2022? What lessons have you learned?
Brigitte Kimichik: Now more than ever, it is critical to take the time and assess how your workforce has been forced to adapt as a result of covid shutdowns, working remotely, and re-integrating back to the office (in full or in part). How have these changes impacted home life, including child and self care? How have these changes impacted pay and career progression, particularly for women who statistically bear more of the child and home care responsiblities?
Our research indicates that working remotely has triggered a sharp increase in discrimination and sexual harassment. Any company policies against bad behavior should be applied equally to the remote environment. We believe transparent enforcement and open communication with your workforce will likely have a positive impact on employee morale and bottom line profitability.
The pandemic seems to keep on disrupting the economy, what should businesses focus on in 2022? What advice would you share?
Brigitte Kimichik: Companies should allow for a more flexible and transparent working environment to help employees change their work habits as needed to accommodate challenges as they arise.
How has the pandemic changed your industry and how have you adapted?
Brigitte Kimichik: With respect to the topic of our book, we believe sexual harassment in the workplace has become more important than ever, especially in the remote working environment. Sexual harassment is more frequent and is more difficult to combat. Many of our blogs (published during the height of the pandemic) focus on how to identify bad behavior and what the employer can do to help address such behavior. Check out our blogs at www.thesandboxseries.com
What advice do you wish you received when the pandemic started and what do you intend on improving in 2022?
Brigitte Kimichik: For many employers, the pandemic changed how employees are working now and will work in the future. Working remotely is here to stay—at least for some percentage of the workforce. Going forward, my plans to write future books and blogs will include more on-line/remote collaboration. Doing so is much more efficient.
Online business surged higher than ever, B2B, B2C, online shopping, virtual meetings, remote work, Zoom medical consultations, what are your expectations for 2022?
Brigitte Kimichik: This trend will definitely continue and employers should rework their company environments and re-tool their employees to accomodate.
How many hours a day do you spend in front of a screen?
Brigitte Kimichik: When I am in writing mode, 4 to 6 hours a day.
The majority of executives use stories to persuade and communicate in the workplace. Can you share with our readers examples of how you implement that in your business to communicate effectively with your team?
Brigitte Kimichik: When I was practicing law, sharing transactional experiences with colleagues and clients was important in lending credibility to my abilities, successes and accomplishments, and critical to attracting new business from existing and potential clients. We did the same in our book Play Nice to make it inescapably clear what behavior is and what isn’t ok and how to treat others with respect. Actual real examples make communications believable and transparent.
Business is all about overcoming obstacles and creating opportunities for growth. What do you see as the real challenge right now?
Brigitte Kimichik: Depending on your industry, the challenge of creating a work environment that is healthy and balanced either full time or part remote.
In 2022, what are you most interested in learning about? Crypto, NFTs, online marketing, or any other skill sets? Please share your motivations.
Brigitte Kimichik: Online marketing and social media promotion to help book sales.
A record 4.4 million Americans left their jobs in September in 2021, accelerating a trend that has become known as the Great Resignation. 47% of people plan to leave their job during 2022. Most are leaving because of their boss or their company culture. 82% of people feel unheard, undervalued and misunderstood in the workplace. Do you think leaders see the data and think “that’s not me – I’m not that boss they don’t want to work for? What changes do you think need to happen?
Brigitte Kimichik: Absolutely, I believe that many leaders think “that’s not me.” We have had many discussions with business leaders who say they do not have a sexual harassment or discrimination problem. After we raise scenarios and examples, they realize, it must happen all of the time. In several cases, we encouraged leaders to have sit down sessions with employees to discuss the issue only to find out, they should have addressed the topic sooner.
One single sexual harassment claim could ruin a company’s reputation and financial bottom line. We hear about new stories in the news almost every single day. Frequent communications regarding zero tolerance are important and transparency with open and fair enforcement and empathy and respect for the victim is key to changing the culture and eliminating sexual harassment and discrimination in the workplace.
On a lighter note, if you had the ability to pick any business superpower, what would it be and how would you put it into practice?
Brigitte Kimichik: Complete transparency in communicating and enforcing company policies with respect to bad behavior from the top down. This would require implementing proper training for every leader and employee and holding every leader accountable for failing to comply with company policies.
What does “success” in 2022 mean to you? It could be on a personal or business level, please share your vision.
Brigitte Kimichik: Success would include the ability to share our book Play Nice to a bigger audience. Companies are not focused on the long-term financial impact of sexual harassment and discrimination. Tolerating a culture of bad behavior perpetuates a hostile working environment and generally causes a decline in the company’s reputation.
Other likely consequences include, deteriorating morale, health, and productivity, loss of talented employees, clients, and customers, increases in litigation and insurance expenses, and loss of investors—all of which are likely to affect a company’s financial health and potentially risk the company’s future. Play Nice provides realistic tools to help victims and bystanders in the workplace deal with sexual harassment on the spot and employers with guidance for transparency.
Jed Morley, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Brigitte Kimichik for taking the time to do this interview and share her knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Brigitte Kimichik or her company, you can do it through her – Linkedin Page
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