In this direct message to listeners, Sharon checks in about the current crisis and shares her thoughts on how we can approach our work during this time as we navigate such rapid and unpredictable change.

00:00 Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom:Greetings. I’m your host, Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom. I just wanted to jump in hereto give you a little bit of explanation. Today is… [chuckle] It’s hard tokeep track of the days. Today is April 8th, 2020, and if you are listening tothis in real time, you know what’s going on. There’s a worldwide pandemiccrisis, and we’re right in the middle of it. If you’re listening to this in thefuture, this is a strange form of time travel, back to a time that might behard to imagine. I wanted to come on and speak to you directly a little bitbecause, in our last few episodes I haven’t mentioned the crisis that’s goingon at all. And that was for a couple of reasons. First and foremost theepisodes that were broadcast during March were recorded early. And aspre-recorded broadcasts, all the conversation happened before we had any ideathat this was coming. So we were talking about normal things that we wouldalways say to each other like, “Oh I’m gonna go to this basketballgame” or just talking about our lives day-to-day as if nothing was incrisis.

01:16 ST: I apologize if listeningto those in real time created any distress or dissonance for you. I hope thatyou understood that like many podcasters things are pre-recorded or batched andthat was coming out from what seems like although not long ago, it seems likeforever ago. So that’s what the explanation is for why I was not referencingthe current crisis in those March episodes and why we were talking about thingsseemingly in real time that seems like they shouldn’t have been able to happenbecause of everything that’s going on. I had considered trying to jump in andedit those episodes or add a statement before those episodes, but I wasactually away from my podcasting studio and it would have been very difficultfor me to do so, and I was hoping that there was nothing that would be toooff-putting in those episodes.

02:16 ST: In fact, if you listenedto our last episode with Gina Marie Byars, I actually think that even though wehad no idea what was coming, She offered some really great insights about whatto do when you’re adjusting to great changes in your life. She was talkingabout the changes in her family life, but a lot of it still applies, and forthat matter in today’s crisis, a lot of us are adjusting to great changes inour family life brought on by everything that’s happening. So I would recommendthat episode. I think it’s actually profoundly relevant right now.

02:53 ST: Moving forward I’m notexactly sure what I’m going to do, whether I’m going to bring you new episodesin the same format or whether I might be doing some solo shows obviously, likemost people I am at home right now, but the great thing is that I have podcastequipment at home, and I can broadcast from home. It just makes it a littlemore difficult for me to interview other people. So I would welcome anysuggestions you have about what you would like to hear from this show, if thereare stories that you think would be great to listen to during this time,whether those are stories with past guests about how the current crisis isaffecting them or whether we stick to stories about helping and doing good,that may or may not actually relate to the current situation. If you’ve gotsuggestions you can contact me at [email protected], you can also followthe Facebook page, Facebook.com/dogoodbegoodshow and offer your ideas there. Iwould be happy to take suggestions for guests or suggestions for stories thatyou would like to hear.

04:07 ST: On a personal note, at themoment as of April 8th I am well and safe at home and grateful to be so. Myhusband is an essential worker he’s out working as an electrician so he’s stillleaving the house, but as of yet, he is still also healthy and our immediatefamily are all healthy and well as of this date. So I hope that as this messagereaches you, you are staying safe and well as best you can in your situation,and I hope that you can lean on those who are closest to you and find comfortand friends, family, beauty, nature.

04:54 ST: In addition to hostingthis show, I also run a business by the same name: Do Good Be Good. And myclient work has, of course, slowed or be been postponed at the moment, for themost part, but I am also thinking about what it means to work during this time.There are some people like my husband who are essential workers. There’s thosewho you would think about, of course, like the health care workers who are soincredibly important and are helping so many people and doing very difficultwork and doing so in extremely difficult conditions, and I wanna give them ahuge round of thanks and gratefulness from myself and from all of us. There’salso a lot of other people who are still working who are working inrestaurants, grocery stores, for utility companies, for local government inareas like picking up our trash, postal workers, there’s a lot of people outthere who are going out everyday in much more difficult conditions and at riskof their personal safety. And I just think about them every day.

06:12 ST: And thank you for theimportant work that you’re doing, I really appreciate it. A lot of the people Iwork with in my business, they work in the type of jobs where they’re beingasked to work from home right now, whether that’s working for a highereducation institution or for parts of local government that are more on themanagement and administration side or who are working at non-profits that arein the arts, lots of people I work with on a regular basis are trying to workfrom home but also finding that very difficult to figure out what they canstill expect of their work, what they can do and be productive at, how muchbandwidth mentally and emotionally they have to be able to give themselves intotheir work. And what does it mean if you feel like you can’t work right now?

07:09 ST: Like technically, youcould work if you’re capable of doing your work from home, and yet it doesn’tfeel appropriate or you just can’t wrap your mind around your work because somuch else has changed in your life and in the world. And I just wanted to sharethat I think that the more we can give each other space, to step back from whatwe were expecting to do right now, in our work, in our lives, it’s hard to makesuch an incredible shift from your expectations of everything that you might’vehad on your calendar, in your planner for several weeks, maybe even a fewmonths or more, but things are different now and I think that the more we cangive each other that space, give ourselves the grace to re-adjust and takewhatever it is we need during this time, whether that’s more time sitting inthe sun on a porch or a patio just breathing. Whether that’s more time withyour kids, to just try to find some positive connection with them while they’respending so much time at home, whether that’s time in a bubble bath away fromyour kids or away from anyone else who’s asking so much of you right now.

08:42 ST: I just hope that we canrecognize that it’s different. These are unprecedented times, we are livingthrough something that hopefully we won’t have to live through again in ourlifetimes. And it’s not kind to expect the same level of productivity fromthose workers whose work can be postponed right now. There’s so many people whoare doing such critical work to manage the crisis or to respond as firstresponders whether that’s in healthcare or in public safety, they need oursupport, they need us to also do what we need to do to stay home and stayhealthy and stay safe and not need any more from those systems. So if you workin an area where you could postpone your work, I offer that as something Ithink would be beneficial and a real sign of leadership for all of us inindustries where, although we could still get things done from home, we couldtry to push on with all of the things on our task list, all the objectives wehad hoped to accomplish in the next quarter that maybe you don’t, and but thatthat’s okay, and that that might be actually the kindest thing to do, for oneanother and for yourself and for your family. I know a lot of people right nowwho are feeling pressure from their employer to still be held accountable toexpectations that were set before the world completely changed.

10:44 ST: I would submit that weneed to completely re-adjust expectations during this time period. One otherpiece of this that I’ve been thinking about a lot is that in my work, I helppeople manage change in organizations and I often talk about helping peoplenavigate change usually in a work setting and how much similarity there is alot of times in big transitions, whether it’s personal or work that some of thesame things apply. And I remember studying the five stages of grief: Denial,Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance in a sociology class, and howduring monumental change, any kind of big change in our life, our response toit can often take the form of those stages of grief.

11:49 ST: So even if we’re notdirectly grieving a loved one, we may be grieving the fact that everything thatwe thought was gonna happen in the next few months is not gonna happen. We’remaybe letting go of something. I know people have had to cancel or postponeweddings and events. There’s people who were about to start jobs who have nowlost those jobs. There’s all kinds of different forms of loss and of changethat we are each dealing with, whether that’s something that seems small, inthe bigger picture or whether you are grieving a loved one. I just want to givevoice to the fact that that is a process and it takes mental and emotionalenergy to process those big changes. So if you feel like you don’t have as muchmental or emotional energy, left to form coherent sentences, or to rememberwhat day it is or to do any of the things that people are asking of you that’sa real thing. Even if your life hasn’t been directly affected as much, justknowing the level of uncertainty in the world at large, it takes something outof us.

13:18 ST: So if no one’s said thatyet, just let me be the one to say that it is normal to feel different everydayjust like in the grieving process, it’s normal to have a day where you feelangry, part of the day, maybe a morning where you feel depressed, and anafternoon where you’re in denial and you’re just getting everything done as ifnothing’s happening. Those are all natural, normal ways of trying to deal withsuch monumental changes that we are all going through. So that’s part of why Iwanna reinforce this idea that if you’re in a world of work right now, whereyou have the option to postpone your work… And I’m not saying that thatdoesn’t… That that has any bearing on how important the work is, I know thatmakes it really hard for some people ’cause you worry that if you say, youknow, “Let’s just not work on this for the next three months that someonemight question if that work is important.

14:26 ST: If it’s still a priority.It is. And at the same time, we are living through an unprecedented crisis,that calls for a shift in where we put our energy and focus right now. So ifyou’re in a position of leadership and you have the ability to give employeesmore mental and emotional space to just deal with everything please do that.People need time to process how they’re going through this, they need time tocheck in on their loved ones. They need time to step up for their neighbors,and for their communities. I hope to keep coming back with some form of a newepisode of Do good Be good, every other week. The format might change theproduction schedule might change, like I said, these are unprecedented times.So let’s just all take it day by day. And if there’s a story that I can offerto you or a way that I can bring something to you with this format that wouldbe helpful right now, please let me know. If nothing else, know that I’mthinking about you. And I’m wishing you all peace and health and safety. Andwherever you are, whatever field you work in, I know that you’re doing the bestyou can right now and it’s important and it’s enough and we really appreciateit. So thank you all, and I hope to speak to you again soon. With that, this isSharon Tewksbury-Bloom, signing off.

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