Hello EA pros. I’ve been in my new role for 6 months and lived in Canada for 4 months. Let me tell you, I’m exhausted. Most of my spare time is focused on self-care because that’s all I have energy for. In this post, I’ll share some personal history since moving to Canada as well as my decision to shift the focus of this site in a new direction.
My teams
Are comprised of software development engineers and technical program managers. The teams are spread across the globe, from Germany to India. As you might guess, scheduling takes up most of my time, juggling existing meetings to squeeze in global time-zone friendly meetings.
In addition to learning to work with new leaders and teams, we’ve moved to a new country where we don’t know anyone. The move happened so fast that we didn’t have time to donate disused household goods before we left Seattle. In our place at New West, we are sort of settled in, but still have a long way to go.
Mental bandwidth
All of which is to say my lack of posting is directly a result of my not wanting to come up with fresh new ideas on how to be a great EA – check out the Resources page. Every spare moment I have is spent on self-care: journaling, coloring, crafting, photography. Taking a quiet moment to have a nice cup of tea. Reading classical literature.
That’s when it dawned on me: my super power right now is self-care.
EAs NEED self-care
EAs hold knowledge known to few others in the company; we know secrets we can never tell.
We work with all levels of an organization, all types of people. More and more, we work with global teams, adding cultural and linguistic complexities. We work with a wide range of leaders, some great, some not so much.
Sometimes we’re treated badly, experiencing everything from disparaging comments, bullying, harassment. Those of us who excel in our role treat everyone politely and professionally (at least most of the time), whether we personally like someone or not.
It’s tiring and difficult to explain it to people who are not in this profession. That leaves us with finding like-minded peers to commiserate with, but griping about the day’s b.s. doesn’t solve the problem long-term.
That’s where self-care comes in. While I believe everyone benefits from self-care, I feel EAs need it most. We’re so busy helping others that we may not take as much time to care for ourselves.
We need to put our own oxygen mask on first in order to be effective at work.