10.28.22 Tabs
Do you participate in agenda theatre at work? Turns out, long COVID affects already marginalized groups at higher rates than non-marginalized. Breaking up with a partner when you're still in love...
Hi there! Once again I’m delayed in sending this. So, apologies there, but I think this is a really interesting collection of stuff I found in the last week+ so hope you enjoy! As always, would love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
📰 If you work a job where you’re on a computer and have a lot of meetings, do you always make agendas for those meetings? Turns out that there’s this thing called agenda theatre: ie. where you end up spending too much time creating/curating/editing a meeting agenda, that it ends up being more for show than actually efficient. My agendas look something like this:
What we want to discuss:
-Topic 1
-Topic 2
-Topic 3
ie. I put in virtually no thought and just throw it into the calendar invite LOL but I found this article interesting because I know there are other jobs where hyper-specific and detailed agendas are required. What do you think? The idea of not having an agenda at all really stresses me out but I also totally believe the agenda theatre thing too…📰 Rates of long COVID are higher amongst people who are women, trans, Hispanic, and/or without a high school degree. Which essentially means that some of the groups who are already facing health and economic disparities will see those exacerbated by long COVID ugh. Also- if I’m reading that graph correctly, it looks like 15% of all Americans who have had COVID are dealing with long COVID which is a huge number given that you really are hard-pressed to find info about long COVID in the media….
🎧 (TW: prison torture) This episode (“What if you were tortured in an Iranian prison? ”) from the Wondery podcast This is Actually Happening is just…wow. This wholy podcast broadly (not just this ep) is really different than anything I’ve ever heard, because it’s entirely one narrator, but it’s edited so the stories never drag, and they always feel incredibly intimate. This episode focuses on one woman’s story of how she was imprisoned and tortured during the Iranian revolution. I was listening to this absolutely rapt; it’s such an intimate look into what being inside that prison, and that mindset, can feel like.
👩💻 I saw a TikTok this week that I can’t stop thinking about: it’s about a couple that spent their last weekend together before they had their planned break up. They still love each other deeply, and are both really sad that they are breaking up, but know that in order for them to pursue their dreams (which for them means living in different countries indefinitely…lol can you tell I deep dived?) they needed to end their relationship. I found this to be the exact definition of bittersweet and just so profound and mature. I imagine not everyone has the capacity to do something like this (I have no idea if I do), but it just feels like an ending that we rarely, if ever, see. And it feels REAL. Where sometimes there isn’t a clean break, you just get to a fork where two people want different things and you can’t find a compromise. OOOOOOF. I of course did a full deep dive of the vids, so if you want more from them: this is another short and sweet one.
📰 Why do/did so many of us aspire to be the “cool mom?” I know when I was younger I used to say things like, “I want to be the cool young mom that can hang,” and now I’m like… wait why? What happens if you’re *not* the cool mom? I really liked this part from the article:
"I wonder if strangers on the street can tell that I’m a mom and too often I hope that they can’t. I want to know if I carry myself in a way that automatically conveys that I spent 20 minutes this morning cutting grapes into halves and cleaning dried spaghetti off the dining-room floor. If you didn’t know me, would you know that when I read Where the Wild Things Are at bedtime, I do scary voices for every monster and make up funny names for them too? Why am I so quick to want to hide those parts of myself from other people? Why do I want to put a more exciting word in front of mom that will deny or at least hide the tenderness, earnestness, and vulnerability that makes up so much of this experience?”I have been thinking a lot recently about “introversion” in the workplace, and how much (at least in the US and the Western World) we prioritize/favor extroversion: those louder chatty people (although, can’t be *too* chatty, by the same token) who always seem to have all the ideas because well.. they talk more. I’m noticing it in my current team at work, where certain personalities are more “memorable,” because they speak more often. I know I am someone who talks in meetings, who asks a lot of questions etc. because that is how I process things. But I am trying really hard to fight the implicit bias I (we?) have to see people like me as automatically better workers who participate more, when really we are just…louder. As that TikTok I linked shows, it is often the quieter, more pensive and introverted people on your team who are the most innovative, astute, and thoughtful workers because they are observing dynamics, not just participating in them, if that makes sense. So anyway, would highly encourage you to think about how this might manifest in your own workplace, and if you are a manager yourself, how you may or may not be perpetuating bias towards extroversion on your team.
And finally, check out my podcast playlist from the last two weeks
One more note: I am very interested in starting up advertisements, or partnerships, either in this newsletter and/or on my TikTok. Do you have a new podcast? Do you have a newsletter or article you want me to plug? I’ve never done anything like this before, but I do think I’m sitting on an audience of very engaged people (like yourselves!) who like and trust the things I recommend. SO- if you are interested in paying for a blurb, or a write-up, a TikTok video, or a series of deep dive TikTok videos, please email me! I’m really flexible, just want to dip my toes in this partnership game, so would love to collab. (This feels vulnerable af…)
Thank you!
Realized I didn't post the TikTok for number 6 (I edited the post immediately after I sent it off but not sure who is gonna see what), so anyway, check out the TikTok about introversion in the workplace here: https://www.tiktok.com/@chrristen/video/7157041223910329646?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1&lang=en