Celebrating Pride Across the Americas

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Across offices globally, Xero takes pride in celebrating all employees with diverse backgrounds and cultures by ensuring the inclusion of all groups. At Xero, inclusion means all employees have a sense of belonging and fairness, feel valued and respected, and can play their part in creating business success.

This past month, the Xero team marched in Pride Parades across the Americas to support the LGBTQ2+ communities. At the parade, Xeros had the chance to showcase their Xero Proud tees and rainbow swag alongside the Xero mini. In line with the value that Xero places on inclusion, we asked a few Xeros about their experiences and what Pride means to them.

Alex Duba, People & Talent Experience Coordinator – Denver, CO

“The Pride Parade with Xero was festive, fun and full of energy. It was my first time attending a Pride parade. I had a chance to get to know some of my coworkers while promoting our brand, giving out free swag and blowing bubbles. Some of my friends even joined in and thought it was super cool that the company I work for had its own float (Mini Cooper, with DJ Luis spinning the beats).”

Caitlin White-Parsons, Sales Coordinator – Toronto, ON

“Being a member of the LBGTQ2+ community, I was really excited to finally attend a Pride Parade. The way my colleagues came out and supported the community so loudly and with such energy really meant a lot to me. The attendees, both marching and watching were from all walks of life, and it was really cool to see how everyone was celebrating this diversity.”

Mary Buckley, Head of Financial Partnerships – San Francisco, CA

“I grew up in the Bay Area and Pride Week has always been a special time of the year for me for several reasons – San Francisco always goes all out during the week, love is everywhere, and my first week as a Xero was during Pride 2016! Before joining Xero, my participation in the parade had been as a spectator, which is always fun because you see thousands of marchers from all sorts of groups, but one thing is the same – everyone is happy, dancing, singing, and hugging everybody along the way. Last year at Pride, I marched with close friends and my Xero family, showing our love for each other and also sprinkling some love (and goodies) to everyone watching along the parade route. I’m so proud to work for a company embraces us for who we are.”

Clover Tang, Senior Support Representative – Toronto, ON

“We rendezvoused with the Xero Mini around the corner of Bloor and Yonge Street, all of us started cheering at the Xero car. Sure, we were one of the smaller floats in the parade (it is a Mini, after all) but our cheers were powerful and we were full of heart. Since all the goodies we were giving out were still in the back of the trunk, we hastily grabbed what we could and passed different items among each other. I distinctly remembered trying to fit all the pride flags into my hands while looking at my fellow colleagues for help.

Most of us were utterly confused at figuring out how to untie the jumbled up whistles, unwinding the sticker rolls, or becoming makeshift coat racks for all the items we had on hand at the time. How much swag is too much swag anyway? We all confusingly looked at each other trying to figure out how not to screw up or making a fool of ourselves while being at the center of the crowd. Needless to say, we were a bit disorganized at the beginning, and many shoes were stepped on out of pure clumsiness (sorry again for any shoes harmed in the process), but it didn’t make us any less proud of representing Xero and showing our support.”

Donavan Prark, Partner Development Representative – Denver, CO

“Xero’s participation at Denver Pride is more than an event focused on expanding brand awareness with the public. It’s an event focused on creating an inclusive culture for its employees. The great thing is that Xero is also participating in San Francisco Pride and Toronto Pride, extending its inclusive culture to even more locations.

In Denver, watchers were curious to learn about Xero. I witnessed many watchers ask “what is Xero?” with an excited response of “We LOVE Accounting!”

To me this shows that Xero is more than just an accounting software, but a company that is connecting with the public on a more personal level. Even if watchers don’t know what Xero is, they were happy to see us embrace the LGBTQ+ community.

To me, that is exactly what Pride means to me. It’s about embracing not only others, but most importantly, it’s about embracing yourself for exactly who you are meant to be. Pride is about coming together as a community to just CELEBRATE.”

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