May 10, 2021

Hello and Happy May, I hope that everyone has had a chance to start Catherine's pick for this month The Likability Trap. We are not meeting tomorrow so keep a lookout for an event invite from her for later this month. BOSLady is not meeting in June and will resume in July, hosted by Alexandra. The Weekly Three 1. Something about self determination and remote work (it's not what you immediately think): "There's a perfect number of days to work from home, and it's two". In her The Atlantic article, Amanda Mill suggests a middle ground for "employers [who] are trying to figure out what they can get away with down the line, and workers [who] are trying to figure out what they can demand". Her solution: give employees choice. This past year has given us all plenty of time and space to figure out how we work best and researchers have known for some time that autonomy is one of the best indicators of job satisfaction. If we can determine our schedules for ourselves to some degree, that's a move in the right direction. Mill gives us comprehensive consideration to factors that might influence individual preferences: Maybe you're one of the "early career workers, who need opportunities to learn from older colleagues, network with people in their industry, and figure out the internal politics of their workplace". As Catherine pointed out earlier in the pandemic, you can't effectively do this over Zoom. As noted by Daniel Coyle in The Culture Code, vulnerability and safety are important parts of building successful teams. It's very difficult to do this remotely and is crucial when integrating new team members. Maybe you're a parent whose "experience of the past year is not at all a good barometer of what your remote-work future could be, especially if you’ve had kids at home all day who would otherwise be at school". Maybe you know that "even a couple of days a week at home will let people with substantial commutes, for instance, win back a few hours of their time". Or, maybe you've been unable to find and furnish an adequate work from home space and want to get back into the company provided office. Needing more space is one contributing factor to the mass exodus during the pandemic from cities to suburbs. Did she miss anything? Have any thoughts about this piece? I'd love to hear them! 2. Something about overthinking: “Overthinking isn’t a personality trait. It’s the sneakiest form of fear". If you know me, you know I'm an over thinker. An enthusiastic planner with all of the contingency plans. When my mind goes into overdrive and I can't seem to control it, I try meditation and breathing exercises to eradicate the problem. In Soundtracks, Jon Acuff provides an alternate solution. Check out the first chapter for free here. 3. Something from Allison Bechdel: Allison Bechdel is an American queer cartoonist, author and creator of The Bechdel Test (mentioned here before when recommending the delightful Bechdel Cast podcast). Bechdel has just published her book The Secret to Superhuman Strength that Outside magazine reviewed here. This quote from the article sums it up well: "Bechdel establishes her place in a long line of progressive thinkers who have sought spiritual growth via physical activity. Bechdel bounces between her own biography and those of other prominent writers whose passion for exercise and the outdoors informed their creative lives: the Romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who took weeklong, solo walking tours, abandoning his wife and children to do so; Margaret Fuller, the Transcendentalist who often escaped the hustle of Cambridge, Massachusetts, to stroll in nature; and Beat writer Jack Keroac who, in his semi-autobiographical novel The Dharma Bums, finds Buddhism while climbing Matterhorn Peak (named for its sort-of resemblance to the Matterhorn in the Alps) in California’s Sierra Nevada".

Thank you for taking the time to read,

Amber