Carolyn Birsky
How To Take Care Of Yourself Post-Layoff

If you’ve been reading the news or your LinkedIn feed, you’ve likely seen the layoffs happening across the tech industry. Maybe you yourself have been impacted. Whether this is your first layoff or you’ve been a part of one before, the experience can be quite disheartening.

You go from having a full work day to hours on hours of open time. You had a group of colleagues you worked with daily and suddenly you’re no longer interacting with those folks on a regular basis. There are moments when your new found freedom feels amazing - and others when it’s absolutely brutal.

So how do you support yourself through it?

Below are some ways in which I’ve been taking care of myself throughout my own layoff journey. Hope you find them helpful too!

How To Take Care Of Yourself Post-Layoff
Carolyn Birsky
Start, Stop, Continue, + Support

In business, there is an exercise called Stop, Start, Continue. The purpose of the exercise is to enable teams to give feedback, clarify priorities, and create agreed upon next steps. By putting all of these ideas out in the open, it’s easier to get everyone on the same page about what action needs to be taken. It’s often used at the end of project sprints or the end of a quarter to help teams self-evaluate and improve upon processes for the next project or quarter ahead.

It can also be a helpful exercise for your own self-reflection.

Start, Stop, Continue, + Support
Carolyn Birsky
How To Support Your Grieving Team

We’re all experiencing grief right now. It might look and feel a bit different from what normally comes to mind when we think of “grief”, but ultimately that’s what it is.

We’re grieving the loss of life - both the actual loss of life of those who have died of COVID-19, as well as the sudden loss of our “normal” lives. It feels like overnight the world we knew changed and we’re mourning what we once took for granted like meeting friends for dinner, going to the gym, or even shaking hands with someone we just met. Many of us are grieving the loss of stable income and aren’t sure when we’ll be able to find jobs again.

We’re also grieving the loss of the futures we had in mind for ourselves - whether it’s postponing a wedding or graduation, changes to who is allowed in the delivery room when giving birth, the move we were supposed to make, or the new job we were supposed to start. We had plans and dreams that suddenly seemed to have vanished or have drastically changed on us.

Nothing feels certain - other than the fact that we’re experiencing grief.

As we deal with our own grief, it’s important to remember that in many ways this is a collective grief. Every single one of us is affected by this pandemic in our own way.

This is particularly important to remember when it comes to work.

How To Support Your Grieving Team
Carolyn Birsky
What I'm Loving Lately: Quarantine Edition

How are you holding up, friend?

I hope you’ve been finding ways to have fun and appreciate the good things in life amidst all of this uncertainty. To help you feel inspired and hopefully discover some new things to keep you occupied in quarantine, I’ve pulled together a list of things I’ve been loving lately.

Each item on the list is something I’ve personally been using for inspiration, stress management, or just for fun.

What I'm Loving Lately: Quarantine Edition
Carolyn Birsky
The Do's And Don'ts Of Working From Home

Over the past week, several friends and clients have mentioned the difficulty they’re having adjusting to working from home. Maybe you’re feeling that way too?

As someone who has spent a few years working from home and on distributed teams, I thought it might be helpful to share my best do’s and don’ts of working from home to help make your adjustment easier.

Here’s what I’ve found to work well.

The Do's And Don'ts Of Working From Home

career

How To Take Care Of Yourself Post-Layoff

How To Take Care Of Yourself Post-Layoff

If you’ve been reading the news or your LinkedIn feed, you’ve likely seen the layoffs happening across the tech industry. Maybe you yourself have been impacted. Whether this is your first layoff or you’ve been a part of one before, the experience can be quite disheartening.

You go from having a full work day to hours on hours of open time. You had a group of colleagues you worked with daily and suddenly you’re no longer interacting with those folks on a regular basis. There are moments when your new found freedom feels amazing - and others when it’s absolutely brutal.

So how do you support yourself through it?

Below are some ways in which I’ve been taking care of myself throughout my own layoff journey. Hope you find them helpful too!

Two Years Of Compass Maven

Two Years Of Compass Maven

It’s hard to believe, but Compass Maven is officially 2!

Time is a funny thing - it can feel fast and slow all at the same time. In some ways, it feels like setting this website “live” and sending out my first newsletter happened even more than 2 years ago. In other ways, it feels like yesterday.

One Idea Away Podcast Interview

One Idea Away Podcast Interview

A few weeks ago I had the honor of being a panelist for an episode of the One Idea Away livecast + podcast, a community and podcast created by iPEC (the coaching program I attended). I'd never been part of a panel podcast episode before and it was a super cool experience! 

It was so much fun connecting with a couple of other iPEC coaches and talking all about what happens when you realize that the thing you thought you wanted in life isn't in fact what you want. We share our own stories and experiences, as well as advice for helping you pivot and figure out what you actually want to be doing instead.

4 Things No One Tells You About The First 5 Years Of Your Career

4 Things No One Tells You About The First 5 Years Of Your Career

When we enter the working world for the first time, we show up with a lot of assumptions about (but little understanding of) how the corporate world works. Sometimes these expectations are met, but a lot of the time they aren’t – leaving us confused and wishing someone had told us what to really expect before we even started.

Well, as a former sales rep turned career coach, I’ve learned that there are several things no one tells you about the first 5 years of your career. After spending much of those years really confused (maybe how you’re feeling now) and constantly soul-searching, below are 4 things I wish someone had given me a heads up about when I was starting my career:

What I'm Loving Lately: Summer Kickoff Edition

What I'm Loving Lately: Summer Kickoff Edition

Happy Summer friends!

Okay, maybe it's not technically summer yet, but Memorial Day Weekend always feels like the official kickoff to me. Parades, pools opening, warmer weather, frosé all day - you know, the signs that summer is coming!

In an effort to help you make this the best. summer. ever. for your personal and professional development, I've put together a list of the things that I'm LOVING right now!

WELL-Rounded Podcast Interview

WELL-Rounded Podcast Interview

Hey friends!

I'm a big advocate of my clients taking time to celebrate when they reach their goals (rather than just moving onto the next), so I thought I'd take my own advice today and celebrate reaching a goal of mine!

At the beginning of the year, I made a goal to be on at least 5 podcasts in 2018 (hence why it may seem like I've been on the podcast circuit as of late). As an avid listener and some one who enjoys connecting with new people, I absolutely LOVE recording podcast episodes! They're a fun way to have really interesting conversations with awesome people! 

Who Did Your Younger Self Want You To Be?

Who Did Your Younger Self Want You To Be?

On our quest to find a fulfilling career, our younger selves can serve as amazing guides.

When we were young, the world was our oyster. We had likes and dislikes, and images of our adult selves that we came up with before the world told us how we "should" be.

We had this little internal compass that pointed us towards things that felt good to us on a soul-level - even though we didn't necessarily know the term "soul-level" at the time. We just did what felt natural, what felt right for us. We didn't worry about whether or not that would turn into an "acceptable" career path one day.

My Interview On The Millennial Revolution Podcast

My Interview On The Millennial Revolution Podcast

This week I'm very excited to share my conversation with Kelly Goldhorn of the Millennial Revolution Podcast!

Kelly and I met via Instagram and I loved her idea for the Millennial Revolution Podcast! Kelly was feeling burnt out at her 9-to-5 and wanted to start talking to people who had created a different, more autonomous way of living their lives and making money. So she set out to create a podcast interviewing millennials about their career stories and how they became their own bosses or followed their dreams.

My Interview On The Permission To Grow Podcast

My Interview On The Permission To Grow Podcast

I'm super excited to share my recent interview with Kelsie Brunick of the Permission To Grow podcast!

Kelsie and I met via Instagram. We'd been following each other for a while, doing the whole "social media friend" thing (commenting on each other's posts, quick responses back to each other, etc.) and then just like that, we were recording a podcast episode together!

8 Books To Help You Crush It In 2018

8 Books To Help You Crush It In 2018

I love books. Better yet, I love books about self-improvement. Hazard of the job I guess.

I frequently have about 3-5 books at going at once. I write in them and bend the corners - marking pages to come back to when I need guidance, inspiration or insight. They're a major source of conversation in my life, as I'm always curious to hear what other people are reading and love recommending books that I've fallen head over heels for. 

During a recent coaching session, a client told me I should really write a book roundup since I’m always talking about new books to read. I’d been toying with the idea, but her suggestion convinced me to actually do it.