Wellness Wednesday Issue #191

🔍 Lost website traffic recently? Google’s latest updates may be why.

💬 Debra Roberts’ 3-tier communication framework for handling any workplace conversation well.

⚡ The truth about performance that most leaders still haven’t accepted.

📝 Journaling’s mental health benefits are more science-backed than you’d expect.

The year was 1974. That’s when a woman could finally open a credit card or take out a loan without a husband co-signing. Your mother was alive for that. Depending on when you were born, so were you.

Women’s Equality Day lands every August 26, and the useful part is the timeline:

1920: The 19th Amendment passes, though Black, Native, and Asian American women stay locked out of the ballot box for decades after.

1963: The Equal Pay Act makes it illegal to pay women less for the same job.

1974: Credit and loans without a husband’s signature.

1978: Pregnancy discrimination becomes federally prohibited.

1993: Marital rape becomes a crime in all 50 states, and FMLA guarantees unpaid leave.

Before all that, married women lived under coverture, the legal doctrine that folded a wife’s identity into her husband’s. She couldn’t own property. Her wages were his. Staying home wasn’t a choice, it was the only door open.

Which is why the choice itself is the whole point. Run a household and bake bread from scratch, or take the corner office. Both are real lives, and being able to pick is what everyone was fighting for.

Progress is real. So is the math.

The pay gap widened in 2026. Women earn $0.82 for every dollar men earn, down from $0.83. It compounds as you climb: women over 45 earn $0.71, and female executives earn $0.69. Over a 40-year career that’s roughly $1 million.

Meanwhile 57% of Gen Z men say we have pushed equality so far that we now discriminate against men. Same study: 32% of them call themselves feminists. Both are true at once.

What good actually looks like

Nine companies including Adobe, American Express, Citigroup, and Merck cleared JUST Capital’s five benchmarks: 12+ weeks paid parental leave, subsidized dependent care, flexible hours, and pay data they actually publish. Workday goes further with paid bereavement leave for pregnancy loss. TheSkimm’s parental leave database and Rhia Ventures’ reproductive benefits tool let you check where your own employer lands before your next review.

Every right you have, somebody asked for first. So keep asking. Negotiate the salary, request the accommodation, and name the difference out loud when you see it.

One in three Gen Z employees has been personally targeted by workplace harassment. Twelve percent of Baby Boomers say the same.

The people most at risk are the least likely to sit through a slide deck, and you’re the one reporting completion numbers either way.

Traliant’s Preventing Workplace Harassment course runs as cinematic, TV-style episodes that hold attention long enough to land. Employees learn to recognize harassment and speak up. Managers learn how to respond.

• Attorney-authored and built to satisfy federal and state requirements, including California, New York, Illinois, and Chicago
• Assignments adjust by role and location automatically, so you stop chasing who owes what
• A new course every year at no extra cost, so nobody sits through last year’s episodes twice

14,000 organizations and more than five million learners have run it, rated 4.5 out of 5 on G2.

👉 Start a free trial and watch the first episode yourself.

In eleven months, I lost my dad, my mom, and my grandma. My dad passed in April 2019, my mom that November, my grandma the following February. My mom was my best friend, and I’d already spent years before that as my parents’ caretaker, on top of raising toddlers and teaching full-time. By the time I actually needed to grieve, I didn’t know how to fit it in.

I’m not going to pretend I handled it well. I cried in my car in the school parking lot more mornings than I can count, then walked in and taught a full day like nothing had happened. I kept the happy face on for my kids at home and my students at school, because that’s what felt required of me at the time.

The person who saw through that front, every single time, was my principal. She was, hands down, the most empathetic manager I’ve ever had. She never made me explain myself or prove I was struggling before she’d help. She’d take one look at me in the hallway and just say, go home. No paperwork, no justification needed, just permission to fall apart on my own time. That kind of support is why I got through it at all.

August 30 is National Grief Awareness Day, and it’s a good prompt to ask what your own workplace actually does for people going through this. Most companies have a bereavement policy.

Fewer have a culture that makes it safe to use it, or to keep needing support long after the standard three days run out. A few things that would have helped me. Some are policy, some are just what one person can do for another, and you don’t need a title for those.

1. Extend bereavement leave past the standard days. Grief doesn’t run on that clock. If your policy caps out fast, build in a path to extend it, whether that’s unused PTO, an unpaid extension without penalty, or a manager’s discretion to make an exception.

2. Train managers to notice before anyone asks. Not everyone will ask for help directly. Some will show up anyway and try to push through, the way I did. Give managers the language and the permission to say “go home” before someone has to.

3. Offer flexibility that outlasts the leave. A lighter workload, remote days, or a smaller meeting schedule for a few weeks can matter more than the time off did, especially once someone’s back at their desk and still not okay.

4. Point people to your EAP, out loud. Grief counseling shouldn’t be a buried line in a benefits packet. Mention it directly when someone on your team experiences a loss.

5. Check in after the funeral, not just before it. The support people need in month four or month ten looks nothing like what they need in week one. Put a reminder on the calendar for the anniversary, the holidays, the days that get harder without warning.

6. Count grief that doesn’t come with a funeral. Caretaking, miscarriage, pet loss, and anticipatory grief while someone is still sick are all real, and treating only certain losses as “legitimate” leaves people carrying a lot alone.

I still think about my principal sending me home. She didn’t have a policy for exactly what I was going through. She just paid attention, and she acted on it. That’s really the whole ask.

Kristel (TA Marketing Ops)

Three bags of trail mix and a shrinking pile of Kind Bars. That’s what the snack drawer says about how much the team matters. You want it to say something else, but sourcing anything better means a big-box run you don’t have time for.

Simpalo Snacks delivers curated boxes of better-for-you, name-brand snacks straight to your office or your team’s homes. No store run, no contract.

You pick what goes in, or let your team choose their own favorites. Boxes ship within one business day, and gluten-free, vegan, and nut-free options mean nobody’s stuck with the same tired bag twice. Add a handwritten note or your branding, and the box reads as real appreciation.

Over 5,137 companies have switched.

👉 Build your first snack box (and score up to $200 in Amazon Gift Cards).

👉 NEXT MONTH: Hear Scott Galloway and AI leaders share how to get ROI from your AI investments.

👩🏻‍💻 If your inbox needs a work bestie, Girlboss Daily delivers career intel with a side of pop culture M-F.

📧 Get the day’s biggest stories without the information overload.

🧴 Thin, sensitive under-eye skin finally gets its own peptide treatment. DISCLAIMER: Explore the claims at oneskin.co/claims

 Upcoming Events

• Thurs 8/27 @ 9AM PT: The AI Workflow Map: Find the Repetitive Work AI Can Handle and Get 5+ Hours Back Every Week

• Thurs 9/3 @ 9AM PT: Resilience Workshop with NextArrow

* Smart Girl Society is our private community for women who want deeper conversations, accountability, and tools that actually make life easier. Join the waitlist to get in the next round.

👩‍🍳 Recipe of the Week: Tahini Date Shakes (thanks to TA reader, Rita, for sharing!).

😋 Have a recipe you love? Share it here.

 Browse our job board here.

Have more feedback? 💌 Reply to this email and tell us.

✨ P.S. Want more inspiration and positivity to kick off your week? Sign up for our Motivational Monday texts (U.S. only).