As someone who leads a company headquartered in Charleston, South Carolina, I can occasionally get stuck in my own bubble. I have my favorite restaurants, my church, places my family likes to go on the weekend, and so on. And, last Saturday, we were doing just that: living our lives. Until someone walked into a grocery store in Buffalo, NY and began shooting.
Floyd Lee Locums isn’t just a Charleston company, or a South Carolina company even—it’s a national business with a workforce across the country. For some of my employees waking up Sunday morning in Buffalo, New York, there was intense anguish, sadness and grief at what occurred the day before.
While investigation is still underway, it appears that the bloodshed was a product of racism, with some very difficult and disturbing details about the shooter’s intentions and access to guns and equipment.
My heart aches for my colleagues, my country, and all those in Buffalo in the midst of unbearable pain.
Some of the calls and conversations I’ve had this week with team members in the area continue to rattle me. Even from afar, I can tell many of my employees are wondering what they can do to help and support both their colleagues in the area and the Buffalo community at large.
My answers to them at this point are messy at best. They’re imperfect. And they’re reactionary. In so many ways, I’m advising them to be #BuffaloStrong even if they have no link to that region at all. I wish it weren’t true, but the discussions and guidance I’m giving is so similar to the 2020 George Floyd murder in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
This moment has me reflecting on that horrendous time in our national history. But it also brings up what was born out of that tragedy: a commitment to change.
From there, Floyd Lee Locums began a DEI Council. We now have more readily available diversity training opportunities for team members—and regular skills trainings on how sustainable DEI can enliven our company culture and local communities. I’m trying to find commitments we can make today based on the greatest challenges in front of us.
The path to healing is long—and our journey is only just starting. We are committed at Floyd Lee to being part of the change.
Natasha Lee