v1.i2

Professional Human

Humans are professionals.

Professionals are humans.

Welcome to the Newsletter...

... for humans who worry about how much of their authentic selves is safe to reveal in so called "professional spaces"

I'm Jess And I'm a Professional Human. Who's too often grappled with just how much of my authentic self is "appropriate" in professional spaces...

...And I'm just really tired of feeling resigned to hiding myself, to toning it down, and to endlessly attempting to acclimate to an outdated professional ideal - aren't you?

Each edition of the newsletter contains the following sections:

• On Being Human
• On Being Professional
• In Hindsight
• Professional Human Strategy
• (Coming Soon!) Spotlights

Today we talk about taking sick time, and managing communication & expectations around it

On Being Human

🤒 😷 😭

I know it's not just me.

It's the first month back to school,

And germs are lurking everywhere.

Even if you don't have your own little humans mainlining the germs right from the classroom to your home,

When they're not in class they're out in the world.

They touch door handles and surfaces

They take merchandise off shelves

they're then told to put back.

No one is safe from the back to school cold and flu season ⚠️

It got me this week.

Calling in sick to a j-o-b is pretty much a no brainer.

As an employee,

We have an agreement with our employers.

They will pay us money 💵 for our time ⏰

That's it.

As the workforce shifts towards a predominantly millenials/gen z demographic,

the idea that we should sacrifice our health (or other important parts of ourselves like our family)

for our jobs is being called into question.

But what about when you run your own business?

How often do you let yourself call out sick?

On Being Professional

Calling out sick when we work for ourselves is different.

We are not trading out time for money in our businesses,

We are building something. And it's ours.

There is no one to call in to cover us when we can't show up in our own businesses.

When I started my business, I had long covid.

And if I'm honest

I reflect on that period with rose coloured glasses... 🌹 👓 🙄

I seem to think that because I don't remember struggling especially hard to show up consistently in the beginning, in spite of having long covid,

I can "get through anything" now

I worked for like 3 months straight without taking a single day completely off.

That's not healthy.

I'm not trading my time for a paycheque anymore

My business is completely a labour of love 💕

😍 I love what I do

😍 I love the brands I work with

😍 I love my community of copywriters and creative business owners

🚧 I am building a thing that I feel proud of 🥹

A thing that helps people,

That creates a positive ripple effect.

Why wouldn't I want to show up and do that every damn day?!

In Hindsight

Even working inside my business

that I love and feels good and helps people,

Working 3 months straight without a single day completely off

is a recipe for disaster 💣

💥 My soul suffered.

💥 My relationships suffered.

💥 The quality of my work suffered.

And for what? What was I trying to prove? And to who?

In hindsight 👀

Pushing myself to keep showing up even when my body needed to rest and heal,

Resulted in a lesser quality of work being delivered,

Led to an increase in miscommunication

and mismanagement of expectations

And break downs in trust and confidence related to them.

Professional Human Strategy

Trust yourself.

You know when you need to take a break.

You know when you have just a little bit more in you.

Don't talk yourself out of it

When you feel a pull towards rest and recovery.

It's YOUR business.

No one is ever going to work as hard for it as you are.

The part that trips us up is worrying what it looks like on the outside,

What will our clients think of us if we cancel that meeting? Push that deadline?

Will they think we're less committed? Less trustworthy?

Push through!! 😩

Sleep when you're dead!! ☠️

⬆️ no one is thinking those things

Writing an email to clients about needing to take a day or two,

when I'm at the height of feeling sick and terrible,

Doesn't really work for me

I feel stressed and obsessive

and I make a ⛰️ out of a mole

I think I've finally learned:

Much like we have those vacation notices and out of the office auto responders,

I need to have a pre-fab piece of communication ready to send out

BEFORE I'm at reduced capacity.

So let's write it now:

Uh oh! (is that too casual? or does it work because my audience expects me to be authentic and sort of cute)

Something strange, startling or unexpected has happened,

Be it illness, injury or family emergency

And I've had to step away for a little bit.

I value your patience and understanding and will update you ASAP

-Jess

What do you think?

Too simple? Too casual? Just right?

Do you have an auto responder when you're sick?

How often do you let yourself take a sick day?

Let me know what you think! 💭 🤔 🧐

TL;DR?

• Take the time to rest and heal when you're sick, even if you love your business and what you do
• Have an auto-responder, similar to the one you use when you go on vacay, ready to go BEFORE you feel sick and need to use it