Inclusion Crusade 8 – Developing Skills and Overcoming Obstacles in your Career

Inclusion Crusade 8 – Developing Skills and Overcoming Obstacles in your Career

Host: Sarah Morgan

Guest: Mercedes Johnson

Welcome to the Inclusion Crusade, where I am on a mission to create workplaces where employees feel safe, seen and supported. One episode at a time. Today, I have the wonderful privilege of speaking with Mercedes Johnson, a Talent Acquisition Professional who recently hit the spotlight after a viral incident online. She now has the opportunity to tell her story, and talk about what she has learned, as a part of this series that I’m doing about protecting black women.

Connect with Mercedes on

• Facebook https://www.facebook.com/mercedes.s.johnson.37
• Twitter https://twitter.com/speakmercedesj?lang=en
• LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/%E2%9C%A8mercedes-johnson%E2%9C%A8-3b40a6110/

Thank you for listening!

Transcript follows:

Sarah Morgan 0:00
Hello, and welcome to the HR Happy Hour Network. This is the Inclusion Crusade with me, your host, Sarah Morgan. I am on a mission to create workplaces where employees feel safe, seen and support it one episode at a time. And so in today’s episode, I have the wonderful privilege of speaking with Mercedes Johnson. Mercedes is a Talent Acquisition Professional who recently hit the spotlight after a viral incident online. And so I want to give her the opportunity to tell her story, and talk about what she has learned next, as a part of this series that I’m doing about protecting black women. And so, Mercedes, welcome to the show.

Mercedes Johnson 0:58
Thank you. Thank you for having me.

Sarah Morgan 1:00
Thank you for agreeing to be here. I know that you have had so much going on in recent weeks, because this incident is still fresh. And so we’re gonna dive into all of that. But first, I want to ask that key questions. You know, here at the Inclusion Crusade, we are on a mission to make workplaces more inclusive, and equitable, one episode at a time. What do you feel like is your mission? What’s your career crusade?

Mercedes Johnson 1:29
I would say that my mission is to empower people to understand how the process works in talent acquisition, and to grab a hold of that process and really take ownership of their interview process to navigate themselves in the way that they would like for their career. Also, a really big heart of mine has been to make sure there’s employment for all I’ve worked in every scale of job as far as like white collar, blue collar, and I’ve loved every part of it. Just seeing everybody get a job, whatever stage they’re at.

Sarah Morgan 2:10
Yeah, yeah. Well, that is awesome. And so that people understand more about how you arrived at this is as your mission. Tell us about yourself and just about your career journey.

Mercedes Johnson 2:27
Yes. So I actually tried college, many of times, my parents got me. My parents got me all set up the summer after my I graduated high school, they took me on the tours and everything, they got me set up for my first day, I had a full ride scholarship for music. And I didn’t go, why. I know I missed out on the scholarship. And it was horrible. And I tried college after that probably three or four times. And I realized that it just wasn’t for me, like I just couldn’t get myself to do it. And I didn’t want to waste my parents time and my money. So I really was on a mission of how can I live the life that I want without having to have all of that extra stuff that, you know, people say that you’re supposed to have. And so I really just started working my way up. I mean, I did customer service for probably two solid years, until I was in customer service management. And when I got to customer service management, I was doing a lot of like hiring and HR work and everything in staffing. And my manager was just like, Have you ever thought about doing recruiting? And I was like, No, I’m good. You know, that was back when rent was like $5. And I’m making, you know, $18 an hour. So I’m like, I’m fine. And then I realized, you know, like, what’s my next step? And so I actually got a job. My first job in talent acquisition was as a sourcer, and I was. So basically what a sourcer is, is when you actually go and find the candidate, whether that be looking on LinkedIn, whether that be well, you will have to do whatever you can do to like find the candidates for these roles. Right. So that’s kind of how I got my start, because once I did sourcing, I was moved up to recruiting, recruiting to recruiting manager and I just loved every process of it, because I’ve kind of sat in every process of it.

Sarah Morgan 4:40
Here’s where I’m interested, you’re talking about your exit from college because we put so much emphasis on college education in order for you to achieve success in what we can do consider tradition. White Collar careers. And yet, the skills that you need in order to be successful aren’t necessarily things that you are going to learn in college. And also, you can, like you can figure out what you want to do and then do college later. Like I’m sure for you. If if you reached a point in your career where there was some sort of degree that you needed in order to be able to move forward, like in a, you know, specific sort of way, then certainly, yeah, let’s do it. But to assume that everybody needs to be in college is definitely, definitely something that I think we need to, to reevaluate. And I love that that is a part of your story that you were like, Listen, I have a full scholarship, like I have a full ride to be able to go and yet, I still don’t feel like this is the path for me where this is the time for me to do this. And so I’m going to make the decision to walk away from this and to find a different path of what success means for me, and there are a lot of people who wouldn’t have done that, who would have just suffered through cleanses, and whatever, because I can’t waste the scholarship, I can’t waste this opportunity the ancestors are watching, or you know, all the things that we tell ourselves, but you made the decision. And I’m sure you know, was not easy to to take a different path.

Sarah Morgan 6:37
Okay. So listening to you talk about being a sourcer. And the work, being now in the great resignation, sourcing is a huge important thing for people in talent acquisition to be able to do, and I am learning this kind of trial by fire, as I’ve taken on a new role. And while I am hiring someone to do recruiting and sourcing on my team, I’m having to take on a lot of that myself and having to you know, reflect some skills, work some muscles that I have not had to touch on in a while. What is kind of the secret? What would be the advice that you would give to employers right now in this moment, having to fill their jobs and reach out to candidates in a insourcing that may not have you know, once upon a time, you could post the job, you will get 100 people, now you post the job, you might get five. So what would be you know, what’s the advice that you give to employers and to talent acquisition professionals who haven’t had the source before about how to do that and be successful?

Mercedes Johnson 7:56
I’m so happy you asked me this question. Because people don’t ever ask this stuff. And it is so important. Talent Acquisition isn’t what it used to be, you know, we can, as recruiters, we could go to work every day and have 20 and 30 people in our pipeline, and just be able to work off of that, and it was totally fine. Now, people genuinely don’t want to work. Or I feel like as we go along, which is kind of why I made the post that I made originally, as we go along the understanding of how to get a job, the working process, and the interview process is getting lost in the sauce. And I feel like in order to be a great recruiter, which I think people don’t understand is you have to be a networker, a salesperson, a people person, and on the phone person, customer service. Like you have to have that. And I feel like the key to being to doing great sourcing is building a great network like I’ve spent you years building it like for right now somebody I have people that will call me and say hey, I have to nurse positions open Well, I take my time on LinkedIn to just add people or if I see a post and a lot of people on there, I’ll just go on there and just start inviting people or posting or Facebook groups are huge. A lot of people don’t understand but there’s whole face book groups for every city that say want a job Nashville or need a job Atlanta. And if you’ve literally just post your jobs in there, people will attack you with here’s my resume, you know, I feel like as a recruiter, you have to make recruiting your life. It’s important for people to know that you do it. And it’s important for you to take ownership of it because really it’s like your own business. And so that’s that’s what I would say about that like in recruiting it just you have to have recruiters that become it.

Sarah Morgan 10:00
And I’ve always said that as well that like recruiting is it either gets into your blood or under your skin. Like it’s one of those things that you either love it and you’re all about it or you’re just like, I hate that I have, you know, this is a part of what I have to do. But it’s not my reason for existing. So I agree wholeheartedly that there are two, definitely two types of people in the talent acquisition world. For sure. One of the things that you mentioned, you know, in your process of sourcing and what you’ve been finding, you know, during the pandemic, is this idea of like people not wanting to work. Tell me more about what you mean, when you say that, is it really that people don’t want to work at all? Is it just that they are being more selective about their opportunities? Is it that they are not, you know, only wanting to work remote? Like, what is what does that mean?

Mercedes Johnson 10:57
So, I think that the idea of going to a nine to five is kind of like lost in this day and age. Now, for sure, I found a lot of different creative ways to make a living and provide for themselves, and I’m not mad at it, you know, we’ve got people working from home, doing their own job and making more money that they would make working for a company. And that’s probably not how it used to be. I mean, I wasn’t alive back in the day, but entrepreneur, entrepreneurship wasn’t as huge as it is right now. And so that’s the reason why I feel like companies have to get more creative with how they offer positions and what they offer to their to candidates, because I believe we’re going into a day and age where entrepreneurship is going to explode. And or as you know, there is always that little percentage of people that know how to take advantage to get what they need, you know what I mean? But I think it’s going to explode.

Sarah Morgan 11:59
Yeah, I agree with you. Like, I think about my grandparents generation. And like they, you know, being in the early 1900s, I can remember, by the time I was born, my grip, both of my grandparents were near retirement, but they both also always had side hustles. My grandfather was an electrician. And so he would, you know, people do work for the church work for people in the church work for people in the neighborhood. He would, you know, before Uber was a thing, he was giving rides to people for money and stuff like that, you know, yeah, like my, my grandmother had her own, you know, side hustle where she worked on sewing, and she made hats and stuff for the church, like they had their, you know, skills and trades and things that they can do separate and apart from, my grandmother was a dietician, that was her job, she worked at the hospital, creating menus for the patients who had, you know, special dietary needs. And my grandfather was a supervisor at the Ford plant, the first black supervisor at his Ford plant, and but they took those skills, and the talents that they had, and they put that to work, in addition to, you know, the nine to five jobs that they had, I think, with the generation that followed in a lot within the boomer generation, and then to follow in the early parts of genetics, we kind of abandon that, for that more corporate lifestyle that I’m with you, you know, that we we see where you just people just want to work and come home and you know, collect the 401 K retirement or a pension or, you know, whatever the case may be, and we’re not really seeing that, you know, entrepreneurial spirit a now so I feel like it’s kind of a renaissance now, to see that start to come back up where people realize, hey, we can’t just rely on this nine to five job to pay me and sustain me, especially now the pandemic really blew the roof off of it because people went through layoffs and furloughs and reduced work schedules and stuff like that. And it’s like, dang, I can’t eat I’ve been here for x number of years and I can’t even count on you to look out for me when times get hard. I really gotta get on my hustle.

Sarah Morgan 14:34
So yeah, I agree with you wholeheartedly in that and I love how you broke that down so that we can get past this idea of like, it’s not that people don’t want to work is that people don’t want to work. In this foolishness, like, you know what I’m saying? Like there’s the other half of that sentence like people don’t want to work like they did before. Like there’s more than half to that sentence and it’s really easy to just write people off because like, you know, we’re lazy humans and we don’t want anything. No, it’s actually that we want more. And we want different than what has been offered to us before.

Mercedes Johnson 15:10
And can I just say something about that point, I actually have a friend whose mom was a baby boomer. And now we were kind of having a discussion. And he was saying, well, his mom kind of worked her 20 years at her job. And now she’s at a point in her life where she doesn’t know herself, doesn’t know what to do with herself. And I feel like you know, they always talk about us this new generation of how we’re crazy. And we’re out the box. And you know, we’re against the grain. But I feel like we know who we are.

Sarah Morgan 15:41
Yeah, that’s a excellent point. So I want to dive into the incident that happened to you online and the subsequent fallout that you’re still living through as a result of that. So tell us walk us through what happened? And what and then what has been the impact of that on you?

Mercedes Johnson 16:07
Yes. So it was just a normal day in the life Friday, you know. And actually, I post things about the talent acquisition process, and job and salary all the time on my Facebook. So I didn’t think that this post would kind of take any different tone. But I was on my lunch break, and I posted the post about the salary negotiation and the conversation that I had with the woman and I went back to work, and I got off work. And I was viral.

Sarah Morgan 16:40
Yeah. And for those who may not know, what the post said, was that the candidate had asked for $180,000. But the position actually had a salary max of like $130,000. And that, as the Talent Acquisition Professional, like you with everything you got going on, you didn’t have time to walk the candidate through what the negotiation process is. And so you, and I believe you hashtag that with like, always negotiate always be confident or something along those lines. And then that whole thing went, went viral. What were what was the immediate response? What was what was it that people were saying to you in those initial moments.

Mercedes Johnson 17:30
So right off the bat, I got that I was low balling the candidate, some people even said that the candidate was black, and I hate black woman, like, I never said in the post what the candidates race was, um, there was a lot of people saying that I was a horrible recruiter, like it just went off the handle for that post.

Sarah Morgan 17:51
And then I remembered, so that happened on a Friday. I remember, it first hit me, sometimes Saturday, when someone tagged me in a post and was like, Hey, I would love to get your, you know, comments on, you know, how you feel about this whole situation. And I remember reading the post. And I remember saying, to my sense of myself, and I know, I’ve said it in the comment, and in several subsequent comment sections, I’ve been there. But what struck me about this, and the reason why, and shortly after that, I reached out to you and was like, look, like, we’ve all been there, I’m not going to vilify you, you know, in this moment, the way that a lot of people were like, I was fascinated by the story of it. But there were some moments to where I got mad, because I have been there, and moments in my career, where the candidate may have asked for the lower end of the range, the candidate may have not even been in the range, you know, in terms of what it was that they wanted, but I wasn’t approved to give them more than what it was that they asked for. And I didn’t have an option on what it was, you know, that I could do. So I knew what that felt like, you know, to be in that sort of situation. And to assume that that you had no dissonance that you automatically hate people that you had no, you know, feelings about it at all. Nobody knew that like we added so much context and, and, um, extra sauce to the whole situation when we really didn’t know and then I ended up somehow on Instagram. And that was when I saw you in one of the comments sections and we interacted briefly and then when I went to your page and saw people were commenting on posts, calling you all out of your name, calling you all kinds of words, wishing harm upon you and your family, like I couldn’t even believe how out of control it became.

Sarah Morgan 20:20
And I’m thinking to myself, like, hey, let’s we disagree, you know, disagree with what you posted and how you handled the situation like we could have intellectual discourse about how that could have been handled differently, or better, we can do that all day. And all of us needs to be coachable in that way, that’s totally fine. But to suddenly, like, get this holier than thou, attitude and to wish harm upon a person, over something like that, to me was just like, whoa, like, I can’t even believe that we’re acting like this. And then where I really fell deep into like, a LinkedIn argument was about, you know, someone saying, you know, shame on this person, they shouldn’t even be in talent acquisition, they shouldn’t have anything to do with HR at all. And I was like, no shame on the systems that made this necessary. Shame on the society that does not believe that equal pay for equal work, shame on a company. I don’t even know, I found out later where he was working. But I don’t even I’m like, why are we at the point where we asking the candidates what they want to make versus telling them what we go and pay you? Why are we still doing that, because that’s, that’s a problem. Like, it shouldn’t even matter what she was making before this job at our company pays 120,000. So she, she couldn’t make a thought I was an hour before, it doesn’t matter. What she makes here, what her skill is, she has the skills and abilities to be able to do this job at this company. This is what we pay for that we’re not worried about what you were making before. So you know, shame on the all of that, not shame on the person. Because you can only do what you have the authority to do within the role in the constrictions that you’ve been given. So all of that just just really, really struck me. And so I’m curious to know, how did this play out with you with your employer, because there were lots of people who tagged your employer and were like, and I don’t know if you’re even able to tell me because, again, just letting the listeners know, like, this is still fresh. But how did that if you’re allowed to say, how did that play out?

Mercedes Johnson 22:47
So it was really unfortunate, because the company that everybody was tagging and talking about wasn’t even the company that the situation happened that I was working. I know, I was working full time for a company, but I also do freelance work for some people around Atlanta. Okay. And so I was doing, I was actually on a project. And that’s where this situation happened, not at the company that everybody was tagging. And as a result of that, I actually lost my job. And so it was a little unfortunate, because I love that company. I love all the companies that I’ve worked for, and I get it, you know, people don’t understand that when you become a recruiter, they train you to do exactly what they want you to do. And you’ve got five to 10 minutes to talk to somebody before you have to move on to somebody else, you know. And that was what I was trying to convey is if you allow a company, if that is the system, and I would say it’s unfortunate now that companies are asking you, you know, what do you want to be paid in the next than paying you that. But if you allow a company to tell you your worth, your worth will only be how much they have to give you. But if you come in there knowing where you want to grow to and what you want, then if the company can offer you that then move on, you know, there will always be a company that has the pay that you want. But yeah, it was extremely unfortunate for the job thing.

Sarah Morgan 24:18
So, now you’re doing your contract, you’re continuing to do your contract stuff. On the side. Do you feel like you will? Do you even want to reenter a traditional corporate space having gone through this experience?

Mercedes Johnson 24:36
Absolutely. Because I feel like you can’t be a change if you step out of something. This I know people tried to break me and I know you know, I even saw a guy put my address on Twitter, which by the way, I want to make note that that is Daxing and I can file charges over that. I know that People tried to break me and I know people tried to tear me down. And but I still I believe that the posts no matter how I could have reworded it or whatever did 100% of what I wanted it to do, because now people will go in the interview process and think differently about the things that they do and how they sell themselves. And, um, but you know, I’m not going to step away from it. I believe that it was unfortunate the situation, but I believe everything happens for a reason.

Sarah Morgan 25:29
Yeah. You mentioned the incident on Twitter, with, with you being doxxed. And I know that that, like I said, I saw the things that were were posted towards you on Instagram. And I know, and I saw a lot of the conversation on LinkedIn. Do you feel like these online platforms were appropriately supportive of you in when this incident occurred? Absolutely. You do? I’m so glad to hear that. Tell me more? Oh, you do? Not? Absolutely not. Okay. All right.

Mercedes Johnson 26:11
This is this is the reality of it. I can post something against I can, you know, by happenstance, post something against the President, can you hear me? Oh, happenstance, somebody can post something against the president or somebody can post something against, you know, a person and their posts to be taken down. You But literally, I’ve been told on my posts, that I should die. And there was a whole campaign created against me a GoFundMe created against me to get revenge on me. And I, like, cannot believe how these platforms are allowing these posts to stay on there. I mean, on my website, I got 1000s of hate mail, you know, and I just believe it’s unfortunate, because it goes back to the culture we’re in today. I feel like, if somebody is keeping the buzzer up, it’s okay. Because these platforms, no, okay, if they’re on here, that means that we’re getting the views and we’re getting a lot, you know what I mean? And honestly, I want to also make another comment is shame on on some of these news, or these news platforms that take stories and just switch them for so that they can get popularity? I mean, where has the world went?

Sarah Morgan 27:42
Yeah. What have you had any communication with them? Like in reporting the posts or anything like that to, you know, let them know how unprotected you know, they’ve left you like, you mentioned the GoFundMe, like they have you reported those things? And what is the response has been to that?

Mercedes Johnson 28:05
No, I didn’t report anything, because I feel like like myself, there’s so many others that have went through this process. And I felt like, I didn’t want to shut all of my things down, because there was some good supportive comments and stories that were in there. And I wanted people that didn’t support to kind of be able to reflect on another opinion, besides their own. Yeah. And so you know, social media will always be social media. And no matter if I continue to report my posts, social media will just always be social media. And so I feel like, the best thing to do is just to bring awareness to it to change the person and not really the platform.

Sarah Morgan 28:54
Yeah. It’s tough because I hear we hear so much online chatter, you know, and I just finished the inner an interview with another guest, Dr. Kimya Nuru Dennis, who experienced something similar a couple of years ago, when she said, you know, these, the curriculum in schools is not you know, teaching sufficiently you know, the full history of our nation and you know, we should just burn those books and start again and so they’re like, Oh, you have a favorite burning books and you know, it all just went from them. And um, but she said, you know, these platforms really are not made for us. And so they take this idea you know, because you in they turn it into the hashtag, you know, protect black women listen to black women on Sue. Something like this happens and then the protections simply are not there. I like the ad did that, that there was like, a hit fund out there on GoFundMe for you, because you made a post about not negotiating in favor of a candidate, as though you don’t deserve the opportunity to learn from your mistake to grow from your mistake and to continue living life period. Like that, that somehow this single mistake, it should end your career and your existence, and you’re like, how sad and small? Do you have to be to treat human beings that way? And to think that that? That kind of thing is okay, um, what would you like to see these platforms do differently? For for the next person? What could you know, if there is someone who’s taking up this this cause? If there was something that you would want to share with someone who’s experiencing this, what would you want these platforms to do differently in, in these types of incidents?

Mercedes Johnson 31:16
And this is a tough question, because I’m not even sure what they could do differently. Because in the, on the other hand, there’s so much positivity on that, on these platforms, and there are true people out here using them positively. You know, yeah, but I agree with ya, with every thing that you do, there’s always going to be some type of perversion, you know, where somebody goes in and pervert say, and I just was kind of blown away that my post was kind of dragged, because, you know, we see things on television, that, that even influence our kids to like, you know, do harm to other people. I mean, it’s just so many other things that people can drag and attack, you know, but as far as the platform’s I’m just not. I’m just not sure. I think, like I said, I felt like, it has to be an us thing, because more people just need to use it for for what they for positive.

Sarah Morgan 32:19
Yeah, yeah, you got, it’s like you have to drown out, drown out the darkness with light, I totally get that. And you’re right about the fact that there’s positivity that can come out of that, because you and I wouldn’t be talking right now. If, if, if we hadn’t stumbled, you know, into a comment section together and then slid in DM’s and hydration and went from there, like the none of that would have happened. So they’re definitely in there are lots of people that this show, quite frankly, is, is a result of that, you know, the original creators of HR Happy Hour, the current producers of HR Happy Hour are people that I met through Twitter, and we, you know, we connected became friends. And then when the opportunity presented it so for for us to create, within the platform, a show specifically with the with a lens on inclusion. You know, they came to me and said, What do you think? And here we are. So, yeah, you’re right, you know, there is a lot of opportunity out there to do good from these incidents. And so you just have to find ways to drown that noise out. So I guess my question becomes, how are you now? And how are you? What, you know, how are you feeling and getting the support that you need to kind of recover, and move forward and stay like, in peace, with all of this still happening around you?

Mercedes Johnson 33:54
So I’m going to be honest, it was challenging. I mean, going from living a quiet life to in a couple of hours being like, everybody’s talking point, was very challenging. And I’ve never been faced with so much hate, you know, from that. And so, it was challenging the first week or so. But one thing that I did realize is that these the people who were commenting, they don’t know me, you know, there’s nothing in the comments that there’s nothing in that post that says anything about who I am, who I am as a person, you know, and so I’ve just learned from what it is that happened and learn that I need to curate my, the way that I word things better. And I’ve really learned from the situation as I do, as I do try to learn from every situation. And so right now I’m just pulling myself back together and getting back in the workforce with my the job with talent acquisition, and just trying to find a way that I can be more of a voice to this situation, but really just getting back to purpose. I mean, I just felt like everybody needs a chance to just move forward.

Sarah Morgan 35:14
Yeah, for sure. So what can our listening audience do to support you and your work as you go forward?

Mercedes Johnson 35:27
I would just say, to support me, I would just say continue to fight for yourself in your life. And in your career, you know, you know, what you’ve put in, put into your life and you know, your work ethic, and you know, what your goals are. And I think my only goal was to make sure that everybody knows that they can hit their goals whenever they want, and they can create their own strides. So I think it helps me to know that other people are doing that for themselves, and that the things that I went through weren’t in vain.

Sarah Morgan 36:06
That is beautiful. Thank you, thank you so much, Mercedes, for sharing your story. And for sure. And for continuing to just share your, your positive light you you, that radiates like, it really, really does. Oh, for you, despite, you know, what I know has got to be incredibly difficult to navigate, you have remained like very graceful through it all. And that I know, could not have been an cannot be an easy thing to do. And now like that’s required of you because as you know, the one thing that I advocate for is like, let people feel their feelings, whatever that looks like. But I do, do think that it’s commendable. The way that you’ve been able to really kind of hold, hold it together and to stay positive on people and experience throughout what has gone on. So if people do are you still online? If people do want to connect with you on the socials? What is the best way for them to do that?

Mercedes Johnson 37:14
Absolutely. Everything is still open, they can still come to my Instagram, my Facebook. They can go to my website and even make a comment, you know, talk to me, I’m on there. I didn’t close anything, because I’m not a coward. I want people to be able to express themselves. Even on my YouTube, I think I’m going to be posting a little bit more videos, I haven’t had videos up, but I had to take them down because some of those videos did kind of share a little bit about like, where I live and what side of town and I didn’t want, you know, yeah, so but there’ll be more, I’m not gonna let this get me down.

Sarah Morgan 37:58
Absolutely. Well, I am glad to be connected and glad to provide whatever support that I can. And I thank you again just for taking this time to to talk with me and I look forward to seeing you rise like a phoenix. Throughout all of this. Thank you to the listening audience. I hope that you gained a lot from this episode. And I hope that you will think about this the next time that you see something online posted by someone that’s controversial and that you may dislike or disagree with. Still remember that there is a human on the other side who may just need a little more grace, a little more peace, a little bit of an opportunity to live learn, rebound make it right. And like Mercedes said get back to their purpose.

Sarah Morgan 39:00
So once again, I just want to thank you for listening to the HR Happy Hour Network Inclusion Crusade. We are still on a mission to make workplaces more inclusive one episode at a time, and we’ll see you next time.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai