AMA: How do you find a mentally healthy workplace?

Plus a prelude on navigating the end of democracy

Hi, Readers. I hope you are all taking care of yourselves and one another as our democracy in the US slides off the cliff and so many careers and research program’s futures, let alone families and lives, are thrown into uncertainty. It’s time for another Ask Me Anything, but before I get to that, I want to flag a few things that may resonate if you have read some of my other posts:

1. Remember, DEI is fundamentally about respect and fairness. Replace “respect and fairness” with “DEI” when there is talk about walking back from organizational commitments or snitching on those working to enact them, and folks will be telling on themselves very quickly. Granted, calling a spade a spade does not alone resist these efforts to dismantle DEI respect and fairness, but as a former academic and a career researcher, I do believe that we have to see problems and issues clearly in order to appropriately address them. And that work, at the end of the day, will continue to look quite ordinary even as it is necessary and “radical” —addressing the root of the challenges we face.

2. Trauma and our professional lives intersect in many ways, and the work of caring for ourselves and the institutions we hold sacred is paramount. We do this best collectively, but we also by managing our own burnout as best as we can; use resources like your PTO when you first feel a yearning for them, not after you’ve already collapsed.

3. To that end, I’ve also paused all payments for subscriptions to this newsletter. I don’t need the money, or the headache of reporting earnings come tax time, and I do need even more flexibility in this era of chaos and disruption. Please consider paying for a subscription to someone like Heather Cox Richardson instead. Like my newsletter, all of her content is free, but I began voluntarily paying to subscribe to hers a few months ago, as some of you do did for mine, and it’s money well spent. (To be clear, I’ll still be writing and publishing! I just don’t want to accept any kind of payments at this time.) My warmest thanks do go out to those of you who have paid for my work so far. You can still “pay” me in likes, comments, questions, etc.!

OK —here is this month’s Ask Me Anything:

“How do you find a mentally healthy workplace? You’ve spoken a lot about how your current position checks the boxes. Some places seem great, then when you get a year + in you see through the cracks.”

I’m so glad this person asked this question, because this newsletter explores the intersections of DEI, contemporary workplaces, and leaving academia —all of which are in some ways centered around one’s health and well-being. At the same time, I’m not here to stump for leaving academia if that’s where one is happy, or to pretend that all industry jobs are roses. I’ve certainly written at times about how my first corporate job, while filled to a person with smart, caring, hardworking badass human beings, ultimately became a toxic stew that ultimately had many of us jumping ship and most everyone miserable most of the time, even as much as we cared sincerely about the work and one another.

At my last job, several of us would regularly send each other a screaming gif meme when things got maddening (Photo by Usman Yousaf on Unsplash)

What did I do in that circumstance? The same thing I did when my unhappiness and distrust took root at my former university: I scooped up my credentials and experience and began testing the waters for something better. I reminded myself that during the interview process, I was evaluating them just as much as they were evaluating me, and had a few “tell me about a time when” questions ready for when it was my turn to meet with peers in the interview process. And I just worked at it until I found what seemed like a better job.

Granted, this month’s question isn’t asking about that, exactly. The question is more about how you know that you won’t be leaving one unhealthy institution, no matter the industry, for something either as bad or worse. And I’m sorry to say that you don’t.

But even if you make such a jump, and a year later you do see those cracks, a few things have happened:

1. You’ll have grown and likely diversified your experience. It’s always a good idea to keep track of your activities and accomplishments: I have a standing biweekly 30 minutes on my work calendar (during a day that is designated for heads-down work and development) to take any needed notes about things during the past two weeks that might be useful for a future resume. I’ve thankfully almost never wanted to use that evergreen resume, but it’s a useful reflection exercise, all the same.

2. You’ll have grown your network, both internally at your new organization as well as, in many cases, a bit beyond, as you work with vendors, clients, and other kinds of partners.

3. You’ll have learned more about yourself —where you may be the common denominator (gulp, but hey, no one is perfect) and where/how you find yourself most precisely unhappy. This can help you be even more clear-eyed, whether it’s when looking in the mirror or when asking about, or sussing out the vibes at, your next organization.

4. You’ll also have strengthened your resolve. Listen, I hesitate to even say that, because workplace trauma and abuse is real, as is burnout and its very real impact on our bodies and souls. But clarity even about what sucks and what it looks like to tough it out can also bring us into awareness about other areas of our lives and grow our equanimity —a useful skill for facing all of life’s many challenges. No mud, no lotus.

5. Related, it also can serve as an important political awakening that our work is often not a calling, but rather labor that deserves to be respected and fairly compensated. It’s food for our capacity to organize with one another.

In the end, no workplace, including my own, is perfect. I happen to be going through an unusually brutal time with workplace demands and burnout right now, though thankfully with caring and respectful leadership and 2.5 years of experience with this team and work to know that this is truly an anomaly. That makes it easier to bear down and just get through it. I still have no desire to leave, but were this to aggregate and continue, I’d be back to square one as well, doing what I’ve done twice before: slowly and steadily assembling a few core resumes, looking for alternatives, and trying my best to discern whether any potential new workplace would be healthier than the one I’d be leaving behind.

Rinse and repeat.

As always, I want to hear from readers: what would you add? How have you made moves like these, and how could you tell you were upgrading your quality of life rather than jumping from the pot into the frying pan? Please add your perspectives here: