It’s probably not healthy to merge your dating life and your professional life. Most Human Resources professionals and people with jobs would strongly discourage it for very good reasons, especially if/when either area of your life is not healthy. But, as they say, “If the metaphor fits…” (in this case, yes, I am the “they”).
Let’s be real. All relationships take work and trying to find someone who can meet you where you need to be met in order to heal and grow while spending so many of our waking hours at work forces us to navigate all kinds of relationships.
Interpersonal relationships can be rife with harm, toxicity, trauma, inequities, and oppressive power dynamics, but working relationships can also be a tremendous source of care, support, security, community, and belonging. In a relationship that works, a healthy relationship, we can heal, transform, and learn to love ourselves and each other even better.
By changing our relationships, we could really change the world. (←Not a metaphor. Let’s literally change the world.)
By now, we should all know the personal is the political. But did you also know the professional is personal, which means the professional is political?!? One might also suggest there is philosophicalsignificance behind all of it (in this case, yes, I am the “one”).
Call me a hopeless romantic or trained feminist philosopher or DEI professional or social justice advocate or someone who strives for liberation now and in the future and you won’t be very wrong in any direction.
I’m a single, never been married, dating app elder and values-driven millennial who gratefully participated in the so-called “Great Resignation” when I walked away from an administrative job in the realm of diversity, equity, and inclusion back in August 2021. Since then, I’ve been consulting with organizations and speaking with various groups as job postings continue to balloon with DEI roles intended to move organizations and their structures, policies, practices, and cultures to become more equitable, more inclusive, even antiracist!
Given the above, I’ve unexpectedly met and interacted with a lot of new people for it being pandemic times. We all know it’s been a couple years of intense change and upheaval to our “normal” ways of doing things - zoom meetings and video calls and disconnection and burnout and high-turnover rates and people who desperately want things to be different but often don’t know what to do or how to do it. Not to mention everything going on in our workplaces! ;)
I’m big on intimacy, vulnerability, authenticity, and meaningful, honest connections and I get more radical with age because I continue to think critically, feel deeply, care a whole lot, and learn something new every day. I also do my best to practice how to love like it’s the only thing that could possibly turn the cultural tides of our late-capitalism demise around. Probably a lot like you, I’m just trying to figure out more ways for us all to live and love and make a living doing what we love in the meantime, so long as we must continue working to live.
Ultimately, though, I desire a future where we can all fully embody love in every single one of our healthy, working relationships. After 15+ years of working on issues related to diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice while dating a whole lot of different people, I’ve seen some things about people and workplace dynamics and who we are, our vulnerabilities, what we need, our opportunities to deepen our capacities for joy, connection, and pleasure, and where we can learn and grow to be better together. Surprise, surprise. It’s all related. Our issues are interconnected.
I’m not a therapist, but I firmly believe we could all really benefit from some decent therapy. This newsletter is my attempt to share really real things about what I think, see, and believe about working relationships as I try to make meaning out of everything. Thank you for joining me on this journey.
Each decision we make creates a new world - and ends a world that could have been. A fork in the path - on an infinite path with unlimited cross roads. Enjoy the journey and maybe find someone to share it with. Don't worry about what could have been but rather making the world that should be - and accepting that perfection is a false concept. I think this newsletter could aid in the journey. WCG
Each decision we make creates a new world - and ends a world that could have been. A fork in the path - on an infinite path with unlimited cross roads. Enjoy the journey and maybe find someone to share it with. Don't worry about what could have been but rather making the world that should be - and accepting that perfection is a false concept. I think this newsletter could aid in the journey. WCG