Ben and Jerry's CEO fired, the rise of reverse discrimination lawsuits, and Severance.

When people bring their full selves to work, you don't just get better collaboration—you build the kind of resilient relationships that weather workplace challenges. It might feel more challenging to celebrate cultural differences in a hostile, anti-equity climate. Here are a few basic activities that create authentic moments for your team to connect through their cultural identities.

Virtual Blockbuster - Create a collaborative digital presentation where each team member contributes one slide featuring their favorite movie and why. During a video call, everyone takes a minute to share their slide's significance, allowing for others to understand each other and get a ton of good movie recommendations, too.

Ricebreaker - Have each participants in a group meeting quickly share how they eat rice. Is it a breakfast or dinner food? Served hot or cold? What is it served with? How is it cooked? Who taught them how? This simple exercises shows the cultural and contextual differences of our lives, and offers an easy way to share our differences without shame.

"Three Objects" Share - Have each team member bring or describe three objects that represent aspects of their cultural identity. This activity creates space for personal storytelling while keeping conversations focused on tangible items that have cultural significance.

Cultural Idiom Exchange - Team members share sayings or expressions from their cultural backgrounds and explain their meanings. This lighthearted activity highlights the uniqueness of language while revealing shared wisdom across different cultures.

"Culture Shuffle" Micro-Mentoring - Create a digital matching system that randomly pairs employees for 15-minute cultural exchange sessions each month. Participants receive a thought-provoking prompt about heritage or traditions beforehand, creating an ongoing cross-cultural dialogue that builds relationships through regular, meaningful interactions outside of typical work responsibilities.

What’s your favorite way to boost cultural connections at work? Reply to this email and let us know.

Rupture and Repair in the Workplace

Monday, March 24 | 3-5pm EST

This two-hour intensive session focuses on navigating moments of tension and conflict as they arise in professional settings. Participants will learn practical, real-time strategies for de-escalating situations, intervening effectively, and rebuilding trust after moments of rupture.

Through hands-on practice and scenario work, we’ll develop a personalized toolkit for addressing workplace tensions while maintaining cultural awareness and psychological safety.

Ben & Jerry’s says CEO was fired by Unilever over social activism. In a court filing, the ice cream maker said Unilever removed David Stever as CEO without approval from its independent board. The ice cream maker alleged the CPG giant has “repeatedly threatened” the company’s personnel if they failed to “silence” their outspokenness. This highlights how even socially progressive brands like Ben & Jerry’s are struggling in this hostile workplace climate. HR Dive >

A white university worker was allegedly forced out for a Black replacement. Now, they may take their case to a jury. Majority-group plaintiffs may soon have a lower bar to meet in order to bring employment discrimination claims under Title VII in some jurisdictions. HR Dive >

Half of employees feel lost at work. Layoffs are making it worse. Just under half of U.S. employees who participated in a Gallup survey in November “strongly agreed” that they know what is expected of them at work, which is one of the factors the polling firm uses to measure employee engagement. In January 2020, the figure stood at 56%. Fortune >

A new survey shows how poor communication is holding the workforce back. The research, focused on women’s experience at work, “provides a blueprint for leaders to adapt these insights” for the entire workforce. HR Dive >

Layoffs are more expensive for companies than you think. When companies cull staff, they don’t just have to pay severance, but face other expenses that haven’t been fully calculated—until now. Bloomberg >

RTO mandates are bringing out some bad blood. Return-to-office (RTO) mandates are gaining steam, but new data found a side effect to the strategy: Workers whose employers enacted a return-to-office mandate were significantly more likely to report encountering uncivil acts in their workplace. SHRM >

Trump has companies in Europe and Asia walking a DEI tightrope. Global firms with a US presence don’t want to aggravate the Trump administration. But complying with international diversity regulations is non-negotiable. Bloomberg >

Google agreed to pay $28M in racial bias lawsuit. Google has agreed to pay $28 million to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging that it favored white and Asian employees over other racial and ethnic groups by offering them higher salaries and placing them on faster career tracks. Reuters >

They named their companies Lumon. Then ‘Severance’ aired. Brands that share their names with the dystopian employer of Apple TV+’s show are figuring out whether to ignore or embrace the attention—and ‘Praise Kier’ jokes. Wall STreet Journal >

L’Oréal USA sells Carol’s Daughter back to its founder, Lisa Price. LOréal USA has announced the sale of Carol’s Daughter to its founder and new President Lisa Price and finance veteran Joe Wong, initially only referred to by L’Oréal as an unnamed independent beauty entrepreneur. POCIT >