A week’s break
I have had a week off — sorry for not checking in!
Don’t be too jealous — it was a staycation. I spent it catching up on life admin, doing some painting, and meeting friends — although admittedly, that was a great balance of activities to me. Especially after seeing some very tired-looking parents dealing with it being half-term for their children!
I also managed to do some more DEI alignment work, continuing to listen to the Fearless Futures podcast, and taking a few notes to take back to my volunteer team. I’ve also been reading the excellent ‘Better Allies’ by Karen Catlin, which is an extremely practical and straightforward approach to inclusion in the workplace.
What is fascinating is how the political, personal, and professional are almost inseparable when doing equity work. This is what makes it so difficult — people find their feelings hurt, their long-held beliefs challenged, and the system they may benefit from questioned all at once. It feels like the most ‘professional’ environments might be the most toxic of all: capitalist, old-boys’ clubs, where deals are done on the golf course and in the bar, and women are constantly overlooked (to say nothing of other marginalised groups). I’m very lucky to be shielded from a lot of this by working in the charity sector, and not having complete knowledge of how bad it can be.
This week off has been part of a large chunk of annual leave I’ve had to take before April this year, because I didn’t take it last year. Although I find it hard to assess myself, I think I can safely say I was extremely burnt out by the end of last year. I found 2022 more difficult than the years we spent with pandemic lockdowns and limited social gatherings, because combining these two diverging paths was very difficult. I had a lot of anxiety around covid and still wear a mask regularly — and although I haven’t had covid recently, I was very ill at the beginning of the year, I believe as a result of not taking care of myself throughout 2022.
My take-home message from the past week is — take time off, regularly, and you will find you get a lot out of it, whether you make time to pursue personal interests, or get stuck into some more personal development.
