Mandatory Anti-Racist Training
05/16/22
Hi Intellis,
At Intelligentsia, we try hard to build a workplace that supports our employees and empowers them to do their best work. I take this responsibility very seriously and am committed to ensuring a healthy and inclusive workplace culture. Periodically, it’s essential to revisit our commitments to being an anti-racist company and educate you on the foundational concepts related to anti-racism, including privilege, power, oppression, microaggressions, and bias, with particular emphasis on racist behavior and the structures of racism themselves, and then addressing and dismantling them. If our position has never been made clear to you, let’s do that right now.
No Tolerance for Racism, Harassment, and Discrimination
Intelligentsia is committed to providing a workplace free of racism, discrimination, retaliation, and harassment. As an anti-racist company, we purposefully identify, discuss, and challenge issues of equity, diversity, inclusion, and racism and their effects on employees, the organization, internal and external stakeholders, and the greater community. We will respond to every example or incident to educate and rehabilitate. We are committed to fighting and opposing racism wherever and whenever it is found. We want to create a strong sense of belonging for all. This requires applying inclusive behaviors and norms to make it clear to each person that their differences, contributions, and opinions matter.
To give us the best chance to work together to advance our mission of making extraordinary coffee an agent of change, we will host a mandatory anti-racist training this month. The Anti-Racism Training will be hosted by The Kinswomen, Yseult Polfliet Mukantabana, and Hannah Summerhill on Monday, May 23, 2022, 3:00 - 5:00 PM CDT.
The interactive web-based course educates participants on the foundational concepts related to anti-racism, including privilege, power, oppression, microaggressions, and bias; How racial bias and discrimination affect individuals and communities; The creation and entrenchment of systemic barriers related to race; and ways to implement anti-racist practices in our living, learning, and working environments. The course is approximately 90-minutes, mandatory for all employees, and can be accessed from any computer, phone, or tablet connected to the internet. It is required that participants turn on their video to facilitate engagement.
Retail employees: To ensure that we focus on the importance of this training, the coffeebars will close at 2:59 pm CDT on Monday, May 23rd. Our Los Angeles coffeebars will reopen when the training is finished, and our Central and East Coast coffeebars will remain closed. After completing the training, the team will clean up and finish all closing duties. If you are not scheduled to work, you can attend the training remotely and be paid for the time worked.
Production employees: Work shifts will be modified for Chicago employees. Please check with your manager/shift leader on revised start times for Monday, May 23rd. After the training is completed, you will complete all end-of-shift activities before ending your shift.
Let me know if you have any questions or concerns. I appreciate each of your commitments to creating a better workplace.
Cheers,
Andrew