In this pandemic, the days are blurring together as we work and study from home, sport Lululemon uniforms and cook endless rounds of meals.
I am grateful daily that I love my work, supporting products that aim to eliminate identity fraud at a time when it’s at its worst. I am equally grateful that my passion takes my mind off of the fact that my kid lost her first season of varsity fastpitch and my Memorial Day will not be marked by a big BBQ.
But that passion (and a lack of commute) also makes me lose track of what time it is—working for 10 -12 hours straight and blowing through a normal dinner hour. It’s a Gordon Ramsey-quality recipe for burnout among even the most dedicated of our ranks.
This is why our CEO Tom Thimot has called for a mandatory day off next Friday, May 25, leading into Memorial Day Weekend. You read that right– mandatory. Tom delivered the news in a company-wide email that tells the story of a workplace that knows when it’s time to recharge.
Tom wrote,
“Everyone has been working really hard on behalf of Socure in a work-from-home environment that has now stretched for two full months. During that time, we have signed new customers, expanded existing ones, enhanced our service offerings, raised significant capital, won praise from Gartner and Inc., and moved one step closer to eliminating identity fraud.
We have also seen the lines between family/home-life and Socure/work-life become blurred, making it hard to tell where the workday ends and the personal day begins.
So, to provide everyone a black-and-white break to recharge their batteries, Friday May 22 is a mandatory PTO day for all employees. To ensure compliance, we are requiring all employees to turn off their Socure laptops no later than Friday, May 22 at 12:01am EDT and not turn them back on again until the end of the (holiday) weekend. The only exception would be for unexpected downtime or a client emergency (we all have mobile phones for these unlikely exceptions). Please do your best to NOT shift your work activity to your phone. Take the break… focus only on family and come back to work recharged. We are providing advance notice so that everyone can plan for a complete company shutdown during this period.
Thank you for complying with this request.”
We expect to return from this much-needed break not only recharged, but re-impassioned to eliminate identity fraud, and take on whatever this pandemic has to throw at us next. And, for me at least, maybe with a new Lululemon “uniform” on order.
Rivka Gewirtz Little is a financial crime and payments solution expert with nearly two decades of fintech market experience. Before re-joining Socure as the Chief of Staff to the CEO, she led Global Fraud Strategy in the treasury of Goldman Sachs. Prior, she served as the SVP of Marketing for Socure during the largest growth phase in company history. Earlier, Rivka was an industry analyst responsible for the Global Payment Strategies practice at IDC Financial Insights. There, she focused on the intersection of payments modernization, fraud and identity. Rivka's technology coverage has been cited in publications, including The New York Times, USA Today, CNET, Vox, The Verge and a number of technology trade journals.
Socure is the leading platform for digital identity verification and trust.
Its predictive analytics platform applies artificial intelligence and machine learning technology with trusted online/offline data intelligence from email, phone address, IP, device, velocity, and the broader internet to verify identities in real time.
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