The decision to give Chimers a day off to vote
Four years ago, on election day, all Chime employees were given the day off to vote. Our CEO, Chris Britt, felt like it was a no brainer. He believed it was crucial for every Chimer to have the time to exercise their right to vote.
Four years later, we’ve decided to do it again: on Tuesday, November 3, 2020, Chime is taking the day off to vote, volunteer, and generally participate in the election day process however they need (don’t worry, our members will still have access to Chime and all of our support channels!).
The way our Vice President of People & Talent, Beth Steinberg, sees it, “Living our company values should not end when we close our computers. Our ethos also has to live in delivering those values in our communities as well. Giving Chimers time to exercise their right to vote, and supporting them during this time, helps us give life to the idea that Chime’s values don’t exist in a vacuum. They are a direct example of how our employee experience directly impacts our member experience and a choice like giving Chimers the day to vote directly expands our ability to build better products and services for our members.”
What’s more, a day off to vote is aligned with another one of our values: Be Human. “Managing work schedules, family responsibilities, and home life is a constant juggling act,” Beth explains. “By giving people the day off to vote, we eliminate Chimers’ choice between work duties and their civic duty — and recognize that Chimers are human beings and dealing with a finite number of hours in the day.”
Time off to vote — and take care of ourselves
One thing that’s become clear over the course of this year is that 2020 is challenging us — all of us — in many ways. A lot of Chimers are working parents who are juggling working from home and school schedules. Others are figuring out how to stay healthy and prioritize self-care. So early on in 2020, we started giving Chimers company-wide days off, which we called Take Care of Yourself Days.
“Perhaps one of the biggest personal hardships of 2020 is knowing when to pull yourself away. We’ve all experienced the feeling of wondering where the day has gone.” The idea behind Take Care of Yourself Days is to make sure Chimers can take time off without worrying about missing something or coming back to a wall of work — as can often happen after taking a few days to ourselves. “With company-wide days off, Chimers know they aren’t missing anything, and the whole company gets to come back a little refreshed. Our day off to vote is kind of like a Take Care of Yourself Day — it removes the choice Chimers might otherwise have to make to vote while juggling their other priorities.”
Understanding the diversity of voter experiences
Giving Chimers the day off to vote is an important step towards empowering every team member to take the time they need to vote. But there’s also a lot of preparation and education that goes into voting, so we’ve put some time and effort toward that, too.
Our Chimer Resource Groups (CRGs) have spent several weeks sharing their diverse experiences around voting. Our CRGs, in partnership with our Government Relations team, made time to discuss the issues most important to them. Including, the history of voter suppression, the importance of voting and its impact at varying levels of government, and what it’s like not to be able to vote (in the case of our Chimmigrants CRG).
“Our voter education sessions were essentially interactive civics courses to provide Chimers an open dialogue and the space to discuss topics that are important to them when it comes to voting,” Beth says.
Supporting Chimers before and after the election
The time leading up to an election can make people anxious — there’s a lot of education, preparation, and emotional readying for outcomes. But the reality is, emotions are equally stirred after an election, too, so we felt we should offer several sessions for Chimers to meet with Modern Health, our emotional and behavioral health provider. During the sessions, they’ll share tips and tricks for handling election anxiety and processing the results. In addition to Modern Health support, each of our CRGs will partner with an educator and psychologist, Dr. Carole Langos, to hold open and safe spaces to create a space of discussion, listen, and talk about how they’re feeling post-election.
“We know that regardless of each Chimer’s affiliation of beliefs, elections have tangible consequences for all people,” Beth explains. “We want to create a safe environment with an ongoing, inclusive dialogue for all Chimers. Rather than telling Chimers to come to work and be ‘normal’ before and after the election, we’re taking into account the real emotional toll elections can take on people.”
Finally, we partnered with Time to Vote, a nonpartisan movement that works to shift our culture and increase voter participation in our country’s elections. As a Time to Vote partner, our goal is to work with other companies and our community to provide election resources and support so that employees of Chime and many other companies can take the time to vote.
After all, what makes Chime a special place is that we strive to create an environment where every Chimer can bring their whole self to work — with or without all their voting feels.
Exercising our right to vote — and be our full selves at work — for a better America and a better Chime
“The more that Chimers can be themselves, the better they are at their jobs,” Beth says. “They’re more creative and innovative, and we see better outcomes for our members. Voting is a huge responsibility and a crucial way for Chimers to express themselves, so we want to support that. We believe that doing so makes Chime a better place to work and helps us provide better products and services for our members, too.”
