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

work life

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!

How To Support Your Grieving Team

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.

Setting Boundaries At Work

Setting Boundaries At Work

Today I want to talk about something that I’ve noticed a lot of people struggling with lately: boundary setting at work.

With emails, texts, and tools like Slack, we’re in constant communication with our coworkers. This can be a huge benefit when you’re trying to meet deadlines or have a team working from various locations. In these moments, technology is amazing!

At the same time, it can be hard to disconnect after hours or even focus during the day with lots of different apps constantly pinging you. If we’re not careful, this constant connection can inadvertently lead to a culture of working too many hours, pressure to respond immediately to messages, and a feeling of overwhelm.

Guest Post On Biz & Bubbly: 3 Ways To Stay Sane As A New Solopreneur

Guest Post On Biz & Bubbly: 3 Ways To Stay Sane As A New Solopreneur

Hey there! This week, I'm super excited to share with you a guest post I wrote for Biz & Bubbly last Friday! 

Biz & Bubbly is an amazing community for female entrepreneurs, run by Morgan Anderson (who is a total gem)! Morgan believes in bringing together women to share their knowledge and support each other in business. She writes her own blog posts and also provides an opportunity for other women to contribute their knowledge to the blog as well.

As an avid connector and believer that knowledge is power, I'm all about this model and am extremely grateful for the opportunity to contribute to the Biz & Bubbly blog! I don't talk a ton about entrepreneurship on my own blog (except for sharing stories from time to time with you), so this was a fun change of pace.

My Interview On Fitvista.com

My Interview On Fitvista.com

This week's blog post is a little different...

I'm very excited to share that I was recently interviewed by my super amazing friend, Michelle Cady, for her blog on Fitvista.com!

Michelle is a fantastic health coach based in NYC. She's a fellow Middlebury grad (although we didn't know each other in college) and took the leap to go to nutrition school and start her own coaching business after facing some major burnout in her finance career.

As her former-client-turned-friend, Michelle is someone whose work and vision I value immensely, so needless to say, I'm extremely grateful to be featured on her blog!

For the interview, Michelle asked me all sorts of questions about millennials, stress at work, and how to prioritize self-care even when things are a bit nuts at the office. Plus we got into some fun questions around health and fitness too! You won't want to miss it!

3 Ways To Avoid The Summer Slump At Work

3 Ways To Avoid The Summer Slump At Work

Work and summer. Two words we really wish we didn’t have to say in the same sentence.

I mean, what happened to the days of actual summer? Like when we were growing up and summer felt like a break from our normal daily lives. None of this being a working adult all year round business. Just thinking about it sounds relaxing, doesn't it?

Failing vs Failure

Failing vs Failure

The recent opening of the Museum of Failure in Sweden inspired me to pick up the subject of failure, how we perceive it and why it's actually important. The head curator of the museum is quoted in the New York Times saying, "The purpose of the museum is to show that innovation requires failure. If you are afraid of failure, then we can't innovate."

9 Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me In My Early 20s

9 Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me In My Early 20s

Want to hear a crazy fact? One that I can’t quite seem to really wrap my head around yet?

I’m turning 29 next week.

I know what you’re thinking: you’re not THAT old... Lot’s of people have turned 29 and continue to do so every day.

Yes, that’s totally true. And honestly, it’s not even that I think I’m super old. What I’m most perplexed by is how quickly my 20s seem to have gone.

Do You Get The Sunday Scaries?

Do You Get The Sunday Scaries?

It's Sunday morning.

You wake up after a fun night out with friends. You snuggle a bit deeper under your covers thinking you might drift back to sleep. Then all of a sudden your eyes pop open... Effffff it's Sunday!

Before you know it you are overcome with anxiety about the work week ahead of you. At the time, Friday night and Saturday seemed like they would last forever. But here you are on Sunday morning with less than 24 hours between you and your desk.

What is a girl to do?