Some things even Google can't answer (153/365)

[white_hart]

Just so you know, if you ever try googling "I have had 8 meetings today and my brain no longer works" you will get a mixture of (a) pages about the medical causes of brain fog, concussion, ageing etc and (b) articles about burnout and how to beat it by doing radical things like eating vegetables! and exercising! and so on. What you will not get is any actual advice on what to do if you have had 8 meetings and your brain no longer works.

Anyway. I have had 8 meetings today and my brain no longer works, so I am not going to be able to come up with an interesting post of any kind.

(Tomorrow I also have 8 meetings, or possibly 11 depending on whether you count three interviews and a pre-meeting as four meetings or just one.)

Comments

[caulkhead]

Come up with an interesting post? Frankly, I'm surprised you can still work a keyboard.

That's hideous, all the sympathy.

[white_hart]

Thank you. And today was probably even worse.

[lexin]

Oh, that sounds rough.

[white_hart]

It's not being a good week.

[nineveh_uk]

11 meetings. Interviews definitely count in full.

Ah yes, eating veg and exercising. I do like that line in Vorkosiverse where Cordelia finally gets the doctor who prescribes rest. Do contemplate it if you can - if the Feputy HoD can have a week because he needs it, you should be facilitated too. Alas, I know this is totally impossible to get across to people because the culture will always be we're doing great, stagger on :(

[white_hart]

I took a 4-day weekend, but I'm not sure rest is what I need so much as to stop having so many meetings!

[legionseagle]

Try Googling "non-insane automatism" instead. It'll be useful for when you off whoever's in charge of your diary with an axe.

[white_hart]

Sadly I am the person in charge of my diary, at least so far as anyone is in charge of it rather than it just being a self-perpetuating entity which appears to generate meetings rather like rabbits breed.

[legionseagle]

Is it possible to say, "Enough! I shall soldier no more"?

(I mean on the meetings front not the total job front.)

[white_hart]

Not really. (Well, I could have turned down the invitation to help with another department's recruitment, but I didn't know when I said yes to that that things would be quite this bad by the time we got to shortlisting and interview.) A lot of the meetings are regular catch-ups and team meetings , because the biggest downside of working remotely is having to schedule in replacements for all the informal interactions which normally happen in teams.

[serriadh]

I think rest, very limited screens and no people is the best prescription. Hope you managed a restful evening at least.

[white_hart]

I had Zoom knitting group (more videoconferencing, but at least not work!), followed by Sewing Bee, which was about as good as the evening could have been.

[danieldwilliam]

I always wonder when I see a post of yours about work - what is it that you get out of your job that makes up for this sort of day?

[white_hart]

Enough money to pay the mortgage? Also, I work with interesting and generally nice people, I have lots of autonomy, the job is varied enough that I still haven't got bored after 6 years and I am working for an organisation that is generally working to make the world a better place. And I have had lots of jobs which were much, much worse for my mental health than this, and don't want to end up somewhere like that again.

Also, before the pandemic it was challenging but doable, and I am clinging to the hope that maybe one day it'll stop being completely impossible and go back to that.

[anna_wing]

Eating vegetables and exercising is actually not a bad thing to do in your situation. Though cheese and crackers, an apple and a few squares of dark chocolate also work for me.

[white_hart]

Well, I do eat vegetables and exercise, but that doesn't do much to solve the problem of meeting overload!

[anna_wing]

No, it just helps to make handling it less hard.

[crinolinerobot]

That sounds absolutely awful, and honestly, all you can do is rest it off, which I know is easier said than done. I'm the same after long deadline days.

(My favourite mental health advice - by favourite, I mean 'still makes me laugh at the awfulness of it' was my workplace's suggestion for mental health week - "Walking is good for stress, so if your mental health's not good, why not replace your regular meetings with walking meetings like the CEO has?")

[white_hart]

I do like walking meetings (they make a change from more bloody videocalls, at least), but I don't think they help with stress much! And there aren't many cases where it's actually convenient.