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Welcome to the bringing the 
human Back To Human Resources, 

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podcast, the podcast, all about 
the delicate balance between 

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people and business. 
And quite literally reconnecting

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the tube. 
My name is Tracy Ruben and I've 

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spent nearly my entire 
professional career in a jar, 

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join me as I share stories, 
opinions and words of advice 

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with you each week. 
Hi everyone. 

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Welcome back to bringing the 
human Back To Human Resources 

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podcast. 
This is your host Tracy Ruben. 

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I hope you all. 
Had a really nice start to the 

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holiday season and it's 
officially December 1st. 

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So, welcome to December. 
It's the last month of 2020. 

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So here goes nothing. 
I thought we could take time 

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this week to talk about 
maintaining a work-life balance.

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I'm sure I'm not. 
The only one who has had 

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challenges. 
Challenges with this, especially

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this year with everything going 
on with covid and if you're 

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working remotely, like I have 
been. 

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And I think it's really 
important because we're 

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approaching the holiday season, 
it doesn't necessarily feel the 

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same. 
You know, we have been locked 

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inside our houses for the better
part of a year and although over

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the summer at least in the US 
things were a little bit more 

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normal than they were at the 
start of the year. 

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We are proud. 
Probably approaching a second 

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lockdown. 
I mean it's the writing is 

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pretty much on the wall at this 
point and if there's anything 

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that I have noticed, it's that 
it's really hard to maintain a 

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work-life balance when working 
remotely some things that I have

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done to set aside, time to 
create a difference between work

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and personal life. 
Are things that I'll go through 

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during this podcast, but I 
pretty much have always had a 

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good work-life balance. 
Since I went through grad school

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while working full-time, I've 
done extracurricular, things, 

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outside of work, I have hobbies,
and so, to be able to do all of 

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those things, you have to have a
work-life balance. 

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However, I graduated from grad 
school in May, and it was kind 

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of like a blessing in disguise 
that we had, you know, just 

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started our lockdown and in 
pretty much in March, I've been 

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working remotely since March and
I was able to finish my 

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Capstone. 
Jacked for my last semester of 

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grad school, while working 
remotely. 

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And so it forced me to really 
put an end to the work day and 

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start my school day basically, 
which is what I had always done 

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throughout my few years of grad 
school because I did go 

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part-time in order to be able to
work full time. 

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And I pretty much have been 
working remotely since I think, 

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March, 12, March 10th and it was
a scary unknown. 

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Time, like, we were working 
every weekend because we needed 

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to figure out what are the 
states going to do? 

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What are the countries going to 
do? 

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Because I do oversee, the u.s. 
and Canada and there was so much

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unknown. 
So, every day was a mystery, 

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which I mean, to be really 
honest, it was kind of exciting 

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to have such a new and 
unprecedented Challenge and to 

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know that every single person 
was kind of in this same space 

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and time. 
We're like no one knew what the 

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right thing to. 
Do one was no one knew what was 

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going to happen. 
And so we kind of had to figure 

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it out along the way and that to
me was kind of exciting because 

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it was kind of like, writing a 
book and, you know, taking a 

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blank page and putting words on 
it. 

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However, once we started to 
realize the gravity of the 

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situation, you know, now it's 
like the end of March going into

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April, which was all be a 
probably one of the deadliest 

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months not to get too heavy but 
one of the deadliest months, I 

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think for the u.s. and, you 
know, our Doors were closed and 

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everything was kind of just like
a waiting game to see what would

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happen when we reopen. 
So created a lot of work and a 

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lot of spillover into, you know,
work and personal life kind of 

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blending together. 
So my point on this blessing in 

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disguise, is that there was 
nowhere to go, there was nothing

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to do so to go from having a 
very healthy and active social 

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life to having nothing and being
able to do nothing. 

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It was really a blessing. 
I was able to carve out Lot more

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time for work, of course. 
And a lot more time for my 

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schoolwork, as well typically 
before the the pandemic. 

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And before the lockdown, I would
get on the train from New 

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Jersey, to go into the City and 
it was like, I guess an hour 

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train ride and I would take that
our to study or do work or read 

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whatever. 
I had to do for school and then 

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I get to work work from pretty 
much like nine. 

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Two six, nine two six thirty 
sometimes a little earlier. 

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Sometimes a little later and 
then I'd get on the train home 

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and that was my additional 
school time. 

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And so, it was very easy to 
maintain that work-life balance.

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Once the lockdown started, I had
to basically create that 

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commute. 
So that I knew I had time to do 

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my school work on top of all of 
the work. 

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And now all of the added work 
that I had, so it was kind of 

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easy to make that happen. 
However, once I Waited from grad

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school in May and it was great. 
I mean I was like so happy to be

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done even though I love school 
and I always have I filled that 

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commuting time with work. 
So instead of doing school work,

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I was doing more work work and 
it was pretty much necessary in 

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May. 
That's when we kind of started 

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to open things back up, our 
stores were reopening we were 

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planning our process for 
recalling are furloughed 

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employees. 
And we We were like, okay well 

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maybe this is maybe this is it. 
This is a light at the end of 

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the tunnel for the pandemic. 
Right. 

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Well not exactly because 
obviously now it's December and 

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we still are in this state of 
unknown, Toronto has entered 

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their second lockdown. 
I think that the u.s. is 

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probably not far behind Canada. 
At least Toronto in this case. 

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And you know, in May and June 
July. 

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Those were some seriously heavy 
workload months because of all 

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of these again, Rented moments 
and time. 

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So I've created some tips and 
tricks that I actually, as of 

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December first, I'm going to 
follow because I've spent these 

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last, like, six months just 
working myself into the ground 

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because there's just not enough 
time and I think everyone 

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probably has their own story of 
how they've given up a lot of 

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their personal time to make 
space for work because there's 

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just not enough time. 
I'm for work these days and at 

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least in my career as an HR 
person. 

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I I've said this on multiple 
episodes at this point, there 

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are people human beings relying 
on us to make sure that we allow

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them to return when it's safe 
for them to return to work. 

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That we close the stores for 
cleaning when it's necessary to 

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close the surfer cleaning. 
Like, there's so much riding on 

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individuals at this point that 
wasn't necessarily the case, 

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prior to the pandemic. 
I never got involved with 

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employees being out sick. 
And managing their time out and 

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making sure, you know, that we 
understand their their test 

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results and that it's safe for 
them to return that they're no 

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longer symptomatic and things 
like that. 

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I've never had to deal with 
that. 

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But this is a totally new Rome 
where we are literally tracking 

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every individuals, absence 
related to an illness, and it's 

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an incredible amount of work and
my family and my fiance, they 

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often say like you need to take 
a break, you need to, you know, 

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take time off but And I did that
like I took time off for this 

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Thanksgiving holiday, but I 
could not stop thinking about my

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employees about work. 
I checked my email for the first

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three days that I was off during
the week. 

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So like just before 
Thanksgiving, I tried to 

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maintain my email checking for 
later at night, when I knew that

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it was kind of like my own time 
and I could carve out like an 

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hour to two hours to just kind 
of dig into things that needed 

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my attention. 
So that was good and normally 

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when I take time off, I unplug, 
but during 2020 that just 

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doesn't exist or hasn't existed 
for me. 

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And so, for so many others, 
including my, my peers, and then

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Thanksgiving and Black Friday, 
everyone at the corporate office

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at least is off, but our field 
teams are not off. 

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Obviously Black Friday is one of
the biggest shopping days of the

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year of if not the biggest 
shopping day of the year and Our

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stores are open. 
So in the back of my mind it's 

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Thanksgiving dinner. 
And even though this 

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Thanksgiving is was super 
different than it normally is 

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and we weren't able to see 
family the way that we normally 

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do. 
It still sat on my mind that oh 

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man I need to check my email, I 
need to see what's going on 

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because there could be someone 
who tested positive. 

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There could be someone who had 
Direct contact and we need to 

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manage their absences. 
And I'm very fortunate to be 

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part of a team so that we all 
kind of bear this burden 

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together, But everyone wants to 
enjoy Thanksgiving. 

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And so at what point do you all 
just end up checking in? 

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So it was nice to have time off,
but I realized that I can't just

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rely on a few days off to create
or remind myself of the beauty 

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of a work-life balance. 
And working remotely has so many

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challenges and I think the 
biggest challenge is the 

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work/life balance. 
And I've actually had a lot of 

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Outreach from people across all 
the the social platforms that 

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I'm on that ask like how do we 
engage our staff? 

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How do we you know how do we 
keep people motivated? 

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I think the best way to keep 
people motivated at this point 

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is to make sure that they are 
unplugging at some point. 

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Whatever people, prioritize as 
their time to unplug. 

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They need to prioritize it and 
for myself and my colleagues who

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are managing all of this covid 
related stuff for our team's, we

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are working through the weekend.
We are King later at night, I 

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have like 9:00 for me. 
I'm eastern time is 6:00 for my 

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West Coast team and it's even 
earlier for our team in Hawaii. 

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So, I think about all that, 
that's my soft story of a 

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work-life balance at this point.
And it's not a complaint because

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actually, when you love what you
do, it's really hard to complain

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about the things that you're 
spending your time on, however, 

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it's exhausting. 
And there's definitely burn out,

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So starting December first, I am
going to create for myself, a 

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very specific set of rules to 
ensure that I have a better 

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work-life balance. 
And I hope that you guys do this

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with me and I'm going to post 
more on Instagram about this so 

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that we can remind ourselves and
hold ourselves accountable to 

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these tips. 
So the first thing is to set a 

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routine and I feel like if you 
Google this and you look up how 

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to add maintain a work-life 
balance during Work from home 

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covid. 
Lala, you're going to find these

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tips, but I'm going to break 
them down so that we can 

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actually execute them and action
them and they're not just words 

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of advice, but they're actually 
actionable pieces of 

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information. 
So create a routine. 

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I talk to you just a bit earlier
in this episode about how I had 

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a commute before working from 
home and I use that commute to 

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be productive if I were 
commuting. 

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Now, I would probably be reading
for leisure because I love to 

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read but since I don't have 
that, I don't have that commute 

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anymore, I'm going to create a 
commute for myself. 

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So I've always been an early 
riser. 

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I typically wake up between 6:00
and 6:30 but since working 

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remotely, I have been so much 
more exhausted because of the 

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workload that I've been sleeping
later. 

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And so later for me is around 7 
a.m. sometimes I'm scrolling on 

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Tick-Tock, which is really Not 
so good. 

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Like I should probably stop the 
scroll but I scroll until like 

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7:30. 
And then I wake up and I'm 

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exhausted and some mornings I 
use it for for Peloton other 

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mornings. 
I just do nothing and that's 

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actually more exhausting to me. 
Like I now realize I need to use

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that time that I would normally 
commute to actually do that. 

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So I'm going to start waking up 
again at 5 a.m. 

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I hope I don't regret making 
this commitment. 

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I'm like staring off into To 
space while saying this, okay, 

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I'm doing it. 
I'm going to wake up at 5:00 

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a.m. 
I'm going to work out because I 

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have a wedding to shed for which
you don't have to, but I want to

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maybe some mornings all podcast,
you know. 

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Now while I'm working remotely, 
I kind of sign on between 8:00 

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and 8:30, but I'm not going to 
do that. 

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I'm going to sign on between 
8:30 and 9:00 like I normally 

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would when I would be commuting 
to the office and so I'm going 

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to take back that half hour 
between 8:00 and 8:30. 

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And do something for myself 
outside of working out on the 

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podcast, whether it's reading, 
whether it's going for a walk. 

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Maybe it's literally just 
scrolling on Tick-Tock from 8:00

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to 8:30, whatever it is. 
I'm going to do that and then I 

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will start my day at 8:30. 
So now I don't think it's 

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realistic to have an end-of-day 
commute where I'm ending work at

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six and I'm, you know, doing 
something again for myself. 

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I don't know that, that's 
totally realistic. 

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However, what I'll do is Is 
commit to having an end time 

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between six and seven and I will
make dinner. 

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Maybe I can even make dinner 
during the morning when I'm 

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doing something for myself. 
I don't know, we'll see how it 

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goes, but I'm creating a commute
for myself. 

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So after work I'm going to then 
make sure I am continuing on 

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with my personal life so 
creating the end of day commute.

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So I feel good about committing 
to that, I hope that you guys 

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are inspired by creating routine
and that you also Create a 

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commute for yourself so that's 
the first thing. 

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So second, I'm going to bring 
back. 

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My hobbies podcasting has become
one of my biggest Hobbies at 

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this point. 
I really really, really enjoy 

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it. 
And so I'm going to make sure I 

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do it more often and I used to 
read where like I could either 

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read multiple books at once or I
would start a book finish it. 

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Start a book finish. 
It started with and it was like 

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back to back and I need to get 
back to that because there's 

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something so enjoyable for me 
about reading. 

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Doing. 
And I really kind of like give 

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myself such a mental break when 
I read because it's one of the 

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only things I find that actually
stops my mind. 

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Like, I when I read, I don't 
think about other things. 

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I just think about the 
characters or what I'm reading 

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or the information. 
And I kind of miss that I miss 

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having that mental break. 
So I need to do that again. 

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And one of the hobbies that I'm 
hoping to create is actually a 

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Tick-Tock, I got it. 
A great recommendation, from a 

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friend, to start a tick, tock 
around this podcast. 

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And so I have to figure out what
that looks like, but it actually

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would probably be really fun for
me because I actually one of the

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things that I love about 
Tick-Tock is the professional 

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space. 
So, I've ended up on like 

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Dermatology Tick. 
Tock, I've ended on real estate 

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Tick-Tock. 
Like I've gotten on so many 

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sections of tick-tock like The 
Tick-Tock universe, and I'm sure

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there's an HR Tick-Tock out 
there but I I could be 

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interesting, so I don't know. 
We'll see how it goes. 

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I might chicken out and not do 
it because I just, I don't know.

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I'm not as much a millennial as 
I probably should be but getting

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back to Hobbies. 
So we covered two points already

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the third and this is something 
that I've actually always done 

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since the start of working 
remotely in March and that is 

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creating a workspace and a home 
space. 

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So I do have a desk and I have 
whole setup for my computer's 

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and my screens and everything. 
However One thing that I do 

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that, I highly recommend 
everyone is getting a lamp for 

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your office space or wherever 
you work. 

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If you work in a studio 
apartment, that's fine, get a 

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lamp. 
Get a blanket gets something 

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that symbolizes work and turn it
off or put it away when work 

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ends. 
So, for me, I have a lamp at the

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corner of my L-shaped desk and 
it's to my right and it's on 

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during the workday and I turn it
off. 

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At the end of the work day. 
And so sometimes the lamp does 

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stay on until 10:00 at night, 
but when it turns off, that's 

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when work turns off. 
So I really recommend taking 

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that that idea and implementing 
it, it's helped me a lot. 

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And before I had the lamp, I 
would, you know, I would close 

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the computer. 
I would do something that 

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symbolized, okay, the work, the 
office is closed for business 

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like we're done. 
It is time for personal time and

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It helps just to kind of 
compartmentalize where you are 

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in your day. 
And so, I think that's what the 

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commute will help with. 
If you do this, let me know what

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your let's say, your office 
sign. 

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What's your office? 
Sign, my office sign is the 

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lamp. 
Maybe it's a matter of using a 

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different cup, or a mug, or you 
go from your couch to your bed, 

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or something like that. 
That's your office sign. 

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So when your office is open, 
your sign is X. 

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And when your office is closed, 
the sine is y. 

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00:17:53,700 --> 00:17:56,200
So let Me know what your office 
sign is. 

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And then my last tip for this 
week is to know when you need to

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take a break. 
And for me, I go and I go and I 

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go and I go and I go until I 
literally can't move. 

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Pretty much. 
That's just how I've been in my 

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entire life. 
I feel very fortunate to have a 

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00:18:16,300 --> 00:18:20,100
really strong work ethic. 
I grew up not having any other 

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00:18:20,100 --> 00:18:22,600
option. 
Like it was that you worked hard

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00:18:22,800 --> 00:18:25,500
and you played hard but as you 
especially We worked hard, and 

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if you worked hard, you got what
you wanted and you would be 

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00:18:28,400 --> 00:18:31,400
successful. 
Even if like, you know, 

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00:18:31,400 --> 00:18:34,500
something didn't go right, or I 
wasn't good at something. 

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I had to work hard through it 
and it's taught me a lot of 

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00:18:37,400 --> 00:18:41,100
really great life lessons. 
However, I didn't always know 

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when to take a break. 
The only time I knew when to 

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00:18:43,500 --> 00:18:47,400
take a break was when I 
literally burnt out and could 

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00:18:47,400 --> 00:18:50,900
not like physically do anymore, 
and I would have to like, veg 

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00:18:50,900 --> 00:18:55,100
out on the couch for like 24 or 
48 hours do Nothing. 

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00:18:55,600 --> 00:18:59,300
And then I was reinvigorated but
that's really not healthy. 

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00:18:59,300 --> 00:19:04,400
It's not actually a sustainable 
approach, but it's really it's 

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00:19:04,400 --> 00:19:06,500
not healthy. 
Like, you know, you burn out and

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00:19:06,500 --> 00:19:10,400
then what and for me like it 
takes a, it takes a lot for me 

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00:19:10,400 --> 00:19:13,700
to get to that place of being 
stressed, and burnt out. 

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And I got there a couple weeks 
ago, right before my time off. 

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I got there, I hit a wall. 
I started bouncing around on my 

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stability. 
Ball, like around my dad. 

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00:19:24,700 --> 00:19:29,200
Skin. 
I was clearly losing my mind and

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00:19:29,200 --> 00:19:32,900
thankfully, I had scheduled some
time off, but actually, I 

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00:19:32,900 --> 00:19:36,100
probably would not have taken 
that time off. 

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00:19:36,100 --> 00:19:39,500
Had my fiance not been off. 
And so then what what would I 

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00:19:39,500 --> 00:19:42,600
have done? 
I burned out two weeks ago, had 

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00:19:43,000 --> 00:19:45,200
not gonna say mental breakdown, 
because I really didn't, but I 

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00:19:45,200 --> 00:19:48,900
had a, I had a moment where I 
was like, everything was just 

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00:19:48,900 --> 00:19:51,300
too much. 
And to the point where I 

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00:19:51,300 --> 00:19:55,000
literally, like, in the middle 
of the day, I needed to move a 

340
00:19:55,000 --> 00:19:58,400
meeting so that I could actually
have time to just breathe 

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00:19:58,400 --> 00:20:04,500
because I was totally done. 
And okay, fine, took me what? 

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00:20:04,500 --> 00:20:07,900
Eight months to get there, but 
like, we had like, we do, we all

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00:20:07,900 --> 00:20:11,600
had little mini breakdown 
staring the quarantine, but 

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00:20:11,600 --> 00:20:13,000
that's like, really, it's not 
good. 

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00:20:13,000 --> 00:20:15,200
So, what would I have done if I 
didn't have that time off? 

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00:20:15,900 --> 00:20:19,100
At that point, I would have 
needed to say to my boss. 

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00:20:19,400 --> 00:20:22,600
Hey, I'm going to need some some
time off as this. 

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00:20:22,600 --> 00:20:26,700
Okay? 
So, I'll say is that, if you 

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00:20:26,700 --> 00:20:30,500
think that you can keep going 
and you don't need time off, you

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00:20:30,500 --> 00:20:35,000
actually should at least plan 
one day when you feel, you don't

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00:20:35,000 --> 00:20:37,300
need it because it might be the 
day that you need it. 

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00:20:37,300 --> 00:20:41,900
Most and so knowing when you 
need to take a break before you 

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00:20:41,900 --> 00:20:45,900
need a break is one of the best 
things that you can learn over 

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00:20:45,900 --> 00:20:49,600
the course of your career 
because we all need a break if 

355
00:20:49,600 --> 00:20:52,500
we keep going and going and 
going, we're eventually going to

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00:20:52,500 --> 00:20:56,700
stop and so preventing That 
burnout is something that we all

357
00:20:56,700 --> 00:21:00,700
can do individually, but that we
also should be thinking of for 

358
00:21:00,700 --> 00:21:03,700
even our employees. 
So, when this episode launches, 

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00:21:03,700 --> 00:21:07,100
it's the start of December, we 
have an opportunity to get ahead

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00:21:07,100 --> 00:21:12,900
of our New Year's resolutions to
end this crazy year with 

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00:21:12,900 --> 00:21:16,500
something for ourselves, 
something good, and positive, 

362
00:21:16,600 --> 00:21:22,200
and healthy. 
And so I encourage all of you to

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00:21:22,400 --> 00:21:27,700
schedule a break in the Sure, 
schedule time whether it's for 

364
00:21:27,700 --> 00:21:30,400
the holiday season. 
Even though this holiday season 

365
00:21:30,400 --> 00:21:33,000
is going to look a little 
different, I think everyone 

366
00:21:33,000 --> 00:21:35,900
should still take that time off 
the way they normally. 

367
00:21:35,900 --> 00:21:41,400
Would, I mean in retail, like we
our teams and the stores can't 

368
00:21:41,400 --> 00:21:45,900
take off until January, if we 
had vacation time during our 

369
00:21:45,900 --> 00:21:48,400
busiest season, we would not 
have enough employees in the 

370
00:21:48,400 --> 00:21:50,200
stores. 
And that's just this is retail. 

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00:21:50,200 --> 00:21:53,200
Like if you don't want to work 
holidays nights and weekends and

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00:21:53,200 --> 00:21:57,400
you should not be in retail. 
My thinking for our team's is 

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that in January, we need 
everyone to put in vacation 

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00:22:01,000 --> 00:22:03,500
time. 
It came back after being 

375
00:22:03,500 --> 00:22:07,000
furloughed and locked down. 
And, you know, everyone had some

376
00:22:07,000 --> 00:22:12,300
sort of physical emotional 
financial burden from covid. 

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00:22:12,300 --> 00:22:17,000
And hopefully, most of us didn't
lose or having a family member 

378
00:22:17,000 --> 00:22:21,700
impacted but many of us have. 
And so we're going to need to 

379
00:22:21,700 --> 00:22:24,300
have time to actually just sit 
down. 

380
00:22:25,000 --> 00:22:30,700
And relax with either ourselves,
our loved ones, our spouses or 

381
00:22:30,700 --> 00:22:33,900
Partners whomever. 
And so, for our teams that are 

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00:22:33,900 --> 00:22:37,200
not taking vacations, during 
this holiday season, they should

383
00:22:37,200 --> 00:22:41,700
be taking that time off at the 
start of the year in 2021. 

384
00:22:41,700 --> 00:22:45,200
If you're a manager and you 
know, that your teams have not 

385
00:22:45,200 --> 00:22:48,700
taken time off, pretty much at 
all through 2020, which I don't 

386
00:22:48,700 --> 00:22:52,700
really know anyone that's taken 
any substantial vacation time. 

387
00:22:52,700 --> 00:22:56,000
And it's probably because we 
can't travel or travel is 

388
00:22:56,000 --> 00:22:59,700
restricted and so like why waste
my PG H if I can't go anywhere 

389
00:22:59,700 --> 00:23:04,200
and I get that but if you're a 
manager or if you're an employee

390
00:23:04,200 --> 00:23:07,900
who is like yeah hashtag 
relatable take time. 

391
00:23:07,900 --> 00:23:11,700
Staycation is just as nice and 
you can do things that are 

392
00:23:11,700 --> 00:23:15,700
local, you can do things that 
are just as fun and safe, but 

393
00:23:15,700 --> 00:23:19,400
that still give you that time 
off, that you deserve, and 

394
00:23:19,400 --> 00:23:23,800
probably really need with that 
said, I am really going to 

395
00:23:23,800 --> 00:23:28,700
commit to The things that I have
committed to on this podcast and

396
00:23:28,700 --> 00:23:32,100
it's going to start with that 
routine and I'm really looking 

397
00:23:32,100 --> 00:23:33,800
forward to it. 
I'm actually really excited to 

398
00:23:33,800 --> 00:23:37,800
go to sleep early and wake up at
five in the morning and just 

399
00:23:37,800 --> 00:23:41,600
have time for myself. 
And yeah, I'm just really 

400
00:23:41,600 --> 00:23:45,600
looking forward to time for just
myself because my work is 

401
00:23:45,800 --> 00:23:50,700
focused on everyone else. 
There's nothing more to my job 

402
00:23:50,700 --> 00:23:53,500
than to make sure that everybody
else is taken care of. 

403
00:23:53,500 --> 00:23:55,200
And so who's taking care? 
Care of me. 

404
00:23:55,200 --> 00:23:57,100
Well I'm gonna have to do that 
too. 

405
00:23:57,600 --> 00:24:01,700
So this routine. 
This reinvigoration of my 

406
00:24:01,700 --> 00:24:05,700
hobbies and reminding myself 
that I can have a commute while 

407
00:24:05,700 --> 00:24:08,800
working remotely. 
I'm really excited for it so 

408
00:24:09,000 --> 00:24:12,000
I'll let you know how it goes on
the next episode and and through

409
00:24:12,000 --> 00:24:14,500
my socials. 
So I hope you go into this 

410
00:24:14,500 --> 00:24:19,200
December looking forward to 
2021, I cannot wait for 2021, 

411
00:24:19,200 --> 00:24:22,900
it's the year I'm getting 
married which actually I'm going

412
00:24:22,900 --> 00:24:24,400
to need to take some of those 
hours. 

413
00:24:24,600 --> 00:24:29,400
Before I start my work day to 
get back to planning the wedding

414
00:24:29,400 --> 00:24:31,600
because I got all the big stuff 
done. 

415
00:24:31,600 --> 00:24:35,500
Like I we have the venue, we 
have the florist and we have the

416
00:24:35,500 --> 00:24:38,300
band and all those things but 
like there are so many other 

417
00:24:38,300 --> 00:24:41,000
things, there's so much more 
that needs my attention. 

418
00:24:41,200 --> 00:24:45,700
I'm looking forward to taking 
time, back to, you know, invest 

419
00:24:45,700 --> 00:24:49,900
in myself and my relationship, 
and hopefully have a lot more 

420
00:24:50,100 --> 00:24:54,000
stability and work-life balance.
It's all about work-life 

421
00:24:54,000 --> 00:24:55,900
balance. 
Since that's all it is. 

422
00:24:56,600 --> 00:24:59,500
Yeah. 
So I look forward to hearing all

423
00:24:59,500 --> 00:25:01,700
of your thoughts and opinions on
this episode. 

424
00:25:02,000 --> 00:25:05,500
I think I'm going to make like a
little template that talks about

425
00:25:05,500 --> 00:25:09,100
how we're going to use our new 
time and I'll post that on 

426
00:25:09,100 --> 00:25:13,200
Instagram and you guys should 
use it and share it and fill it 

427
00:25:13,200 --> 00:25:16,100
in. 
So on that note I wish you all 

428
00:25:16,100 --> 00:25:19,800
an incredible month of December.
I will of course see you next 

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00:25:19,800 --> 00:25:23,100
week and as always, please 
remember to rate review And 

430
00:25:23,100 --> 00:25:26,000
subscribe wherever your 
Listening to this podcast. 

431
00:25:26,100 --> 00:25:28,100
You can follow me on Instagram 
at HR. 

432
00:25:28,100 --> 00:25:30,500
Tracy, that's HRT. 
Raci. 

433
00:25:30,700 --> 00:25:33,000
You can also connect with me on 
LinkedIn, just search for my 

434
00:25:33,000 --> 00:25:36,500
name Tracy Ruben. 
Thank you so much, see you next

