"Things companies have done to fight the burnout epidemic: Expand mental health benefits. No-meeting Fridays. Shut down for a week. Train employees in meditation...

Here’s what companies haven’t done: Expand headcount without expanding projects."

isabelleroughol.com/the-burnout-cr… "Self-help solutions focused on the suffering individual can provide short-term relief, but they displace responsibility for what is fundamentally a systemic issue."

THIS ARTICLE IS SO GOOD.

my husband is going out of town without me for the first time in forever.

can't wait for all the weird little meals i will make in his absence. dinner for two: a nice protein, some veggies, thoughtful seasoning, maybe a salad! ooh, i'll make a vinaigrette!

dinner for one: idk here's some old rice and a leftover sweet potato and a wedge of brie??? sure ok

I've talked to a lot of folks recently feeling guilt for operating at less than their best at work lately.

First off, I don't know if *anyone* feels like they're operating at their best right now.

But even more importantly...

What if you don't OWE "your best" to your company? Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying quality doesn't matter, or that we should all half-ass everything. It's lovely to take pride in your work!

But.

A job is an exchange of labor for resources.

"Managers can get so focused on showing up for their teams—lightening loads, advocating for resources, being the 'shit umbrella'—that they turn themselves into martyrs, throwing everything they have into keeping their teams afloat, while quietly sinking."

mailchi.mp/f3a91faaaf7d/n… I'm seeing a LOT of manager-martyrdom happening rn—with my coaching clients, in workshops, everywhere. In tough times, it's tempting to throw ourselves into serving others. It feels kind, helpful.

But it's ALSO often an avoidance tool so we don't have to process our own shit.

Now THIS is an email I have been waiting for. @epenzeymoog's book from @abookapart is open for pre-orders, and you 10000% wanna reserve that copy.

When I met Eva a couple years ago, I was blown away by her work on tech-enabled domestic abuse and how we can to design against it. I've learned so much by watching her talks and reading her work, and I am so excited that it's becoming a book.

Something I really took away: even if you don't think the products you work on could be used by an abuser to inflict harm, they very well might be.

I just gave a talk at an internal event on this topic of organizational resilience—as well as pandemic burnout, trauma, processing feelings, and healing.

And based on the response, let me tell you: your company NEEDS to be talking about this way more right now.

https://twitter.com/sara_ann_marie/status/1402716636549951488

People are attempting to navigate some massive, overwhelming feelings right now. Stress is through the roof. And most of us learned to shut off our feelings at work. So we're actually really, really bad at even identifying them, much less acknowledging them.

Hi who wants to talk about pay equity?

So @justkelly_ok's story this week has me thinking about a pattern I have seen over and over since I started coaching newer leaders in tech and design 1:1—most of them women—at a wide range of organizations. I call it...

ROOM TO GROW 🌱 What happens: a woman gets hired into the bottom of the salary band for a level. She’s told it's for her own good:

“We want to give you lots of room to grow.”
“This way, your comp ceiling is really high!”
“You’ll start at the bottom of the band so you can really prove yourself!”

you can take the side part and cry-laugh emoji from my cold dead elder millennial hands I just read an article that referred to side parts as "the relics of an unhealthy youthful diet of cringey emo swoops and side bangs" and I WILL HAVE YOU KNOW I was into early aughts indie rock not emo thank u.

My mom talked to me recently about how uncomfortable she was with "defund the police." The wording made her anxious. What would that mean for her safety?

Let me tell you what happened in that conversation, and why I think using uncomfortable language matters here. I told her that I did in fact mean it literally, and then explained what it means to me: divesting from the concept of policing as we know it, and asking instead, what does the community need? What skills are required to deliver that? What structure is needed to deliver that?

Hosted our first remote @collectivestrng event last night! It's a monthly event series that we usually host for about 50-100 womxn and nb people on a weekday evening with snacks and drinks.

Here's a thread about how it went over Zoom. We use Meetup for event listings/RSVPs. So we used Meetup to email guests the Zoom link day-of. This was an issue; not everyone got the email. Meetup wasn't designed to handle this, so there's no way to easily just give people joining info after they RSVP. (@Meetup pls fix this!)