My initial career in HR was borne out of wanting to be able to better support people at work, underlying this at the time was the impact that I saw poor workplace environments had on people’s mental health. I do not feel that if you’re in a horrid working environment with a poor workplace culture and no support mechanisms that it is possible to simply switch off at the end of the day and ‘get over it’. Your own physical and mental health is more important than that.
I went on a slight career segue for a few years, after my campaign to get a job at Deloitte moved me from HR into digital and marketing. After spending a lot of time selling things to people they don’t need, it was my lived experience of mental illness, and ultimately a diagnosis of bipolar type 2 that made me reconsider my role and career again.
This led me to give up the corporate life — with all the perks of pay, travel and more skin care products than you could use in a lifetime — to move to a role in a mental health organisation.
The perks are different, however they have been far more rewarding.
This year I have been able to write about the things I am passionate about, to work to improve mental health literacy in Australia, and to work to produce a campaign that shares the life changing and important work that we do. Day to day, I get paid to write and read and talk about mental health which in turn has had a significant positive impact on my own health.
I took a contract role, which in the past I would have never done because of the perceived lack of security. It was one of the best career decisions I’ve made.
Now, I’ve made another decision — a life and work decision and that’s to move to the Surf Coast.
As of February I will be potentially unemployed. The last time I faced this, it was with the buffer of a redundancy payout. This time, I won’t have that, and it’s surprising to me that I’m not too freaked out about that (well, a little).
Now, I get to start searching for a job yet again, this time in Geelong. I’m not necessarily as idealistic as I was when I was looking for The Job. However, there is one thing that I’m far more clear on, and that’s who I am and what I want.
I want to work in mental health, I want to do work that feels valuable to me, and I want to work in a place where other people share that vision.
Because contrary to the popular idiom, life isn’t short. It’s the longest thing you’ll ever do. Why not spend it doing the things that you care about?
Do you have a job you think is right for me? Send me a message and let’s chat.
