Boss Betty✊ newsletter: Gov. Cuomo defines harassment 🤔 – Pokémon or gender symbols? – Apple dismisses ‘misogynistic’ exec

Did WeWork’s CEO just call us lazy? 👋😤

It’s true that we’ve had a bit of a bone to pick with the co-working company ever since its failed IPO filing revealed that it had zero women board directors. But WeWork has since rectified that issue and we were willing to give them another look (even if their old IPO filing did read “like a novel written by someone who was shrooming“). Until today.

“Those who are least engaged are very comfortable working from home,” declared WeWork CEO Sandeep Mathrani, speaking at a WSJ event on Wednesday. Obviously, Mathrani has business reasons for putting that sentiment out into the world but come on. The reaction on social media (and over here!) was swift, with many noting that remote work adds needed flexibility for parents and helps to grow the talent pool, resulting in more diversity in hiring, among other positives.

What’s your take on the remote work sitch? Love it? Hate it? Let us know at info@bossbetty.com! ❤️

News to note 📝

A definition of workplace harassment from New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo? Uh… The “scandal-ridden” Cuomo, who has denied numerous allegations of sexual misconduct, offered up his own definition of sexual harassment at a press conference Thursday. Clean up on aisle Governor… [Business Insider]

Apple dismisses “misogynistic” new executive hire after employees demand an investigation. Staffers at the tech behemoth circulated a petition saying they were “profoundly distraught” by the hiring of Antonio García Martínez, formerly of Facebook, who they say has a “history of publishing overtly racist and sexist remarks.” [Verge]

Is France ready to say “au revoir” to non-gender inclusive language? The short answer: Non. The increasing use of gender-neutral nouns in France hit a roadblock this week when the government banned its usage in schools. A deputy education minister said the new usages “sound the death knell for the use of French in the world.” [AP]

That time a professional development trainer confused Pokémon symbols for gender symbols. (This is definitely one of those 😂/😭moments.) A company meeting devoted to LGBTQ+ issues went awry when the trainer displayed a chart from the Pokémon franchise rather than symbols denoting various gender identities and sexual orientations — and a TikToker took note. [Newsweek]

The cryptocurrency startup Coinbase is banning salary negotiations to eliminate bias in compensation. The company underpaid women and Black employees at far higher rates than the already terrible norm for the tech industry, according to an analysis in December, and is attempting to even the playing field by offering identical salaries to employees in the same positions and locations. [Protocol]

Global investment firm The Carlyle Group will tie CEO pay to diversity and inclusion goals. The company joins Starbucks, Wells Fargo, McDonald’s and other big corporations in using compensation to incentivize executives to hire more women and members of underrepresented groups and to build more inclusive cultures. [Bloomberg]

Numbers to know 🔢

 17%   Percentage of U.S. Black women running or starting a business. For comparison, 10% of white women and 15% of white men are entrepreneurs. However, just 3% of Black women run mature companies, which researchers attribute partly to issues of access to capital and other resources.

 7   Number of 2021 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees who are women🤘. Yes, Tina Turner 🙌 is among them. The organization, which has a history of excluding women, said this year’s class is its most diverse ever.

 0   Number of women who have led the Washington Post until now. Associated Press executive editor Sally Buzbee will replace Marty Baron, who retired in February, atop the Post’s masthead.

And, in closing, a quote to think on

“Cancel the people who deserve to be canceled. Don’t cancel a woman because someone has hurt feelings over something that a man would never be judged for.”