Happy Friday!

I will be “out-of-office” for the week between Christmas and New Years. As businesses send their employees home early today, so am I. Well. I am my only employee. So. I’m telling myself to take the rest of the day off, go hang out with my friend, watch a movie, like that. I have worked for people with no empathy as to the needs of their employees—that their families might be home awaiting their arrival, that there is last-minute shopping to be done (particularly in those days before Amazon existed), that maybe it would be nice to simply go home. I was not that manager; when I worked for the monolith(s), I made sure the members of my team(s) put their lives first. That they dealt with their health. That they were there for their children. That they were not distracted while at their desks with all the things they needed to do. That was my personal approach to professional morale: that my employees understood I valued them. I wanted a happy staff. And I got that. Because they knew that while I needed their work to get done, I wasn’t going to throw a hissy fit when they needed to leave at 3 during Christmas week to deal with their lives. The work would get done. It always did; there was a paycheck involved. But mindfulness? Being thoughtful? That was more involved. I got that. And I made sure my team knew it. So. I’m giving myself leave. I’m going to get a much need refresh. And I’ll be back, on January 2, BARBing it up. Hope to see you then!

Also buy Ruby Karp’s book, Earth Hates Me. If you do, take a photo of yourself with the book and tag #EarthHatesMe on Instagram, we’ll re-post it on the EarthHatesMe Insta account!