Below is a modified version of the email that went out to our list yesterday.  In it, we share some of our thinking about one small thing we’re doing to ensure our own promotions don’t take up space this week that should be occupied by other voices.  Please know this isn’t the polished, thoughtful statement we’d like to make, but we’ve been focused on helping our clients during this time rather than on making perfect statements, and on saying something today rather than something better down the road.  Because we know that waiting to speak hasn’t helped.

What are we doing?

With the events of the last week and such major issues finally coming to the forefront, particularly in our city of Chicago, we have been focused on what we can do to learn and serve.  More immediately within our business, we were conflicted about whether our free five day Career Rebound Challenge should go forward next week. Initially, as you may have seen in the video we recorded Monday, we felt that with so many people needing new jobs, it was important we go forward.  At the same time, we committed ourselves to doing substantially more to provide pro bono services to nonprofits serving underserved communities. 

But with more time to reflect, we've concluded that we don't want the Career Rebound Challenge and promoting it to take up attention and energy that should be occupied by messages that have been drowned out for far too long.

So why are we telling you this? Because we want to be very clear that we believe Black Lives Matter and we are doing our best to speak up, as well as amplify others' voices when that's the better option.

That's why, after much consideration, we decided that charging ahead is far worse than a delay, so we've moved the Career Rebound Challenge back one week to June 15-19. We hope you understand that we truly want to ensure we're supporting and serving you, but don't want it to be in a way that detracts from these critical societal issues.

This wouldn't have been a hard decision, but for the fact that we don’t want the challenge participants to lose momentum. That's why we have added two completely free gatherings to help challenge participants get started on your career rebound now, without having to wait until June 15.

To receive invitations to virtual lunches this Friday at noon (discussing anything on your mind — whether current events or career issues) and next Wednesday at noon (answering career questions you have, giving you a sneak peek into the challenge, and walking through a LinkedIn profile live on the spot), please be sure to register for the Challenge by Thursday night or Tuesday night, respectively.

We hope it’s clear that we are doing our best to help rather than hinder the important changes that need to take place, at the same time we are committed to helping you begin your career rebound.

We appreciate your support and hope to see you at lunch Friday.

We hadn't planned to include any links in this message, but realize if we don't, you don't know how to register. So if you've been meaning to register for the Career Rebound Challenge, you can find the link for that here.