It was a good mix of rest, number one and time of family and friends. She says her calendar was not blocking enough time for rest. The second time was more recently.
Andi Mack: I had a really good weekend. It was a good mix of rest, number one and time of family and friends. She says her calendar was not blocking enough time for rest. Mack: If you need a rest reminder for your week, look at your calendar.
So here's my reminder to you to look for some rest in your week. Because we talk about life loss and layoffs. My daughter and I were listening to Wicked in the background and playing with Play doh and I felt my nervous system just calm down.
I've been laid off twice in my career. The first time was during my maternity leave. The second time was more recently. I find that when people diminish or minimize the experience of a layoff, I'm really sensitive to it.
Hey, Cadre. I'm in a new setup today. Oh. So far, it's not going very well. Sorry. Let me adjust this. Hello, friends. Hey, Cadre. Okay, I think that works. Happy Monday. I'm so happy to be here with you all. I hope you all had a good weekend. I had a good weekend. I actually had a really good weekend. It was a good mix of rest, number one and time of family and friends. Hey, Andi Mack. Good morning. Happy Monday. It was just a good mix of that. I started it off by meeting up with a few neighborhood friends, and that's something that I've been trying to lean into a little bit more because my husband and I, with her daughter.
Now, she was not born when we moved into this house, but we lived in this house for four years. And we. The hardest decision we had when we left our old house was the neighbors. We had the best neighbors and the best neighborhood and the best community with that neighborhood. I speak wonder and really struggled making that decision to replicate that. And what I found with my new neighbors in this moment is they're just as incredible. Definitely different, but different vibe, of course, but, like, just incredible.
So I started the weekend off by having a gathering with my neighbors, which was lovely. And then Saturday was really a day of rest. And then my husband and I went to a comedy show. My husband's really into comedy. We went with a few friends also. There was four of us there, and I was the person that's, like, least into comedy, but was pleasantly surprised by some of the comedians performing and just reminded, like, oh, it's so I'm definitely a person that, like, if I had to choose between, like, going to a comedian or going to, like, a theatrical show about something that was, like, innovative or creative or, like, dramatic, like, I would choose the theatrical show, and it was a good reminder to me that, like, I can just go and watch a comedian and laugh for two and a half hours.
Like, that is also an option. And it's not an option I typically choose, but it's a good reminder that maybe I should choose it sometimes. And then Sunday was really a day of true rest and just sort of like, outdoor chores getting colder in Minnesota. So we kind of put all of our outdoor stuff away and did some laundry. And my daughter's really been into play DOH lately. So we played play DOH many, many times this weekend. And it was a good weekend. It was a really good weekend. And I have to tell you that I am, I think, in this moment of just trying to prioritize Rest.
And it's not something that I'm good at, and it's something that I work really hard at, and it's something that I'm learning to do better. And I looked at my calendar across the next few weeks, and I realized that it was not blocking enough time for rest. And so I had to look at my calendar and say, okay, where are some spaces, things that I can move, even, you know, a week or two out? Or what's the priority of the next two weeks? Where can I sneak in? Not even sneak in, but, like, put on my calendar and then have it be prioritized that I take a rest if I need it or if I go for a walk or if I have just a little time for myself to honestly just, like, watch a movie for an hour or something.
Like, I just. I need those pockets in my week. Or I find that I'm really drained come the weekend. And that's not fun either, because then I am drained when I'm spending time with my family. So I'm just calling that out to say that rest is a journey, and rest reminders are important. So if you're watching this and you need a rest reminder for your week, look at your calendar. Where can you add some rest? Rest looks different for everybody. As I was early in my recovery from my brain aneurysm, rupture and brain surgery, rest for me only meant being in a dark room with my eye mask on with nothing.
That's the only thing that I could do to rest, truly rest in this moment. It's more like I can read or watch a movie or, yes, just go for a walk around the block. That's rest as well. So here's my reminder to you to look for some rest in your week. Something that has come up that I really want to talk to you all about today. Because we talk about life loss and layoffs. Is the layoffs piece of that? Because I'm in Minnesota and there are layoffs looming, and I want to spend some time talking about that, but also just talking about the things that I would do differently if I could go back and navigate my own layoff in a different way.
So here's a reminder for you. Oh, yes, sorry. Speak wonder. Plato is therapeutic. You know what? It was so relaxing. My daughter and I were listening to Wicked in the background and playing with Play doh and I felt my nervous system just calm down. Actually, I should just play with Play DOH today if I need to, like, get out some anxiety or something, because it was. It was Truly relaxing. Do something with your hands and, like, know just playing with the shapes and rolling the play. D'oh. It felt similar to cooking, which I guess, you know, it's like similar motions, but that's.
That's a good call out. Thanks for that. Okay, come back to layoffs. So I've been laid off twice in my career. The first time I was laid off, I was working at a really small company, 20 people or less, and I was notified, like, on a Thursday, and I was basically done the next day. Like, I didn't have, like, a longer Runway. When you're at a smaller agency or a firm and when you're client facing. If you get a lot of clients, usually the firm is growing, and if you lose clients, then the firm has to decrease.
And so that's what happened. We lost a client, and it was an account that I was on. And so I was kind of inevitable. I wasn't surprised by it, but I didn't know anything. I didn't know. I, like, was so embarrassed about it. And I honestly, at that point, I didn't know anybody who had been laid off. Maybe, like, one other person who told me in that moment. And then as time went on, I learned about many more, but it was very, very, very secretive. You know, I would try to, like, fib about it when I was interviewing because I didn't feel like I could openly say, like, I was laid off.
There was a reduction in force. We lost a client, and so they had to downsize their team, which is an absolute. I mean, that's the truth and also a very normal thing to say, I think. But I just really struggled with that, knowing how to navigate it. The second time I was laid off was more recently, and I was working at a corporate organization, and I got laid off over my maternity leave, and my daughter was 40 days old. So I was 40 days postpartum and found out that my role alongside a few hundred of my peers were eliminated.
And I felt like I knew more. I felt like I like, why I've kind of been on this mission to, like, talk about it is I felt like, wow, this was, you know, six years later. And so I'm just gonna own it because I'm not going to rush back into something because I'm on my leave and I want to rest, and I want to enjoy this time with my daughter. And so the narrative that I'm going to tell is simply the truth, which is, I got laid out for my maternity leave. I'm taking time to rest and spend time with Her I'm jumping back in.
I want to jump back in. Like that's the goal to the, to the work and to the career that I've been building. But you know, I'm not going to lie about like the space in between my gigs, my jobs, energy for me that I don't need to give. And if, in my viewpoint, if you're an organization that is going to penalize me before you attack to me for being a part of a large reduction in force, I'm not sure that this is a good match organization for me to even consider being at. Like, I've really truly believed that about myself and many others as well.
I think that's to be true across the board. But I really tried to lean into that. So why I'm bringing this up is because when I got laid off from a big corporate company, I was frustrated by the number of people that I worked with that I considered work colleagues and friends and what have you that didn't recognize how hard it was to be one of the people that was laid off. Meaning it's a. It took a big toll on my mental health. Took a big toll. My confidence took a big toll. My livelihood was impacted.
Those things are all really stressful. And so I find that when people diminish or minimize the experience of a layoff, I'm really sensitive to it because I've been there and I know that it, I. I've been on both sides of it. Listen, I've been laid off and I've also had to lay people off. And both of them are hard. Both of them are, do not feel good. But when you're the person that, whose life has been interrupted and something I didn't choose like any, I think it deserves the space to just sit with it and recognize, like, this is hard.
This does not feel good. My choice would be to be employed. Those things are okay to feel. And I wish that I, looking back, I wish that I would have been a little bit more honest about the struggle of that and just how hard it was. Because I think sometimes people want to find the good quickly. Like you, you hear something that's hard and then people want to flip into like, wow, it's okay. Because at least you can. It might not be that bad. And the truth in that moment was I would say, well, I've been laid off.
And people would say, oh, but you get to spend more time with your baby. I was like, well, I do, but I have to now be on LinkedIn in between feeding her because I need to find a job so I get some flexible time with her. But if you've ever done a. A job hunt, which I assume most people have, or at least have applied for jobs or what have you, it's a grind. It can be a grind when you're. When you're not expecting to be looking for. For work. So I just am calling this out to say, if you're in a season where you've been laid off, I also believe that a layoff takes a long time to, number one, recover, recover from.
But number two, like getting your confidence back and stepping into new opportunities can be hard because the trust that you had with your. Your prior company has been severed. And so when you enter into a new organization, you might feel like you're not as open or trusting, and it takes some time to kind of peel back the layers of the onion with that. And that's hard. Not something you asked for, but something you're reacting to. And if you're someone who finds yourself in a season of layoff over the next few weeks, then I hope that you create space for yourself to grieve it.
Because it's a loss. It is a loss, and it can be a loss of identity alongside the loss of financial stability. Be loss of confidence that you had and the career you were building can be loss of self, maybe, and purpose. If you really connected your purpose to your work. I'm also here to tell you that it can be transformation. And that won't make any sense, maybe right away, but I have talked to so many people who've navigated layoffs, and I personally hate when people say. And myself. Right, But I personally hate when people say, aren't you.
Isn't the layoff the best thing that ever happened to you? No, it is not. It's not the best thing because I still would never choose it. I would never choose to be interrupted from my work and have the financial stress of, like, is my daughter gonna have insurance? Is my newborn gonna have insurance? Is she gonna have coverage? How do we have mortgage? Like, I would never wish that on anybody. And I don't. So I don't wish that for myself. So I don't think giving gratitude for that is the first thing that I go to.
Am I grateful for the learnings that I had that I worked really hard to.
