5 Things I'm Grateful for About Work

A little (strongly recommended) holiday reflecting and appreciating.

As the end of 2024 and the holiday season draws near, I find myself more exhausted than I’ve been in quite a while. Some combination of the state of the world and the state of my interior world has left me craving a long, restorative holiday.

In the depths of that exhaustion, I have also found that it’s been easier to lose sight of what I cherish and value about having a job—specifically, the things I cherish about having my job. Accordingly, I’m spending the week taking time to step away from calendar invites and approval flows to steep in the things I’m grateful for about work.

My challenge to all of you lovely people who read this newsletter is to take a moment this week to do the same. I’ll go first.

1. Remote work

As someone who hasn’t worked from home since the pandemic, I was anxious and hesitant about moving across the country to work my New York job from the mountains in Nevada. My pandemic experience, like many peoples’, didn’t exactly lend itself to a healthy work-life experience.

However, since my fiancé and I moved in August of this year, I have been amazed by how remote work has touched the different parts of my life, and I am immensely grateful for the ability to do it. Being able to show up for loved ones, spend time with the aging members of my family, and support my immediate family without having to fly out of JFK has been a life-changing experience. It has given me peace, relieved me of guilt, and helped me find more connection in my personal life than I’d experienced in years by giving me the ability to fully participate in my family’s life, not just my own.

But equally importantly, remote work (and especially working East Coast hours from the West Coast) rocks. From being able to make three home-cooked meals a day, to listening to all-hands meetings on hikes instead of glued to a chair, to finding myself with hours of extra focus time once my DMs go silent at 3 pm each day, working from my home in the forest instead of my shoebox in the West Village has changed the quality of my whole life. Especially when so many people are no longer able to work remotely, my new work-from-home flexibility has made me feel tremendously thankful.

2. "Come as you are" workplaces

While offices with lax dress codes and professionalism policies have been a norm in tech for a while, I try never to forget how special it is to work somewhere that lets you show up as yourself. Especially as a woman, I relish the ability to fly to New York and go straight to the office from the airport without having to change into a stuffy outfit in the airport bathroom awkwardly. The ability to wear leggings, eat during meetings, communicate like a person instead of a robot, and “take what I need” has never felt as sacred to me as it did this past month.

In a year when many women are grappling with the fear of losing privileges and normalcies in the future, I have never been more grateful for the ability to show up to my workplace in a sweatshirt or even in tears as the working world continues to evolve and challenge what it means to be “professional.”

3. The trust of others

It’s easy to overlook how much implicit and explicit trust we are afforded at work on a daily basis. Every decision, every time you’re left alone to do something without someone monitoring you, and every opportunity you’re afforded is a gesture of trust from someone, and this year, I’m trying to hold thankfulness for the sum total of it all.

In particular, so many people in the world have alarmingly minimal control over what happens at work, and as someone with a fair amount of decision rights, I am deeply grateful for the ability to make decisions about my own experience at work and to make choices that dictate the experiences that others have. It is such a deeply touching feeling to remember that people are willing to surrender control over small parts of their universe to you, and to everyone, I work with who reads this newsletter, know that I never take that for granted. The vote of confidence motivates me to do my best every day.

4. Great early-stage employees

In the past twelve months, I’ve had the opportunity to hire several people in the early stages of their careers. While you could not pay me personally to return to being two years into my career, I am constantly amazed and excited by how fun it is to work with young employees who are climbing an exponential learning curve.

From watching people do things for the first time to sitting back and admiring the energy new employees have for their projects, the ability to work with eager young professionals has been an increasingly luminous bright spot in my career and a reminder to strive to be a little braver.

5. Loving what I do instead of doing the thing I love

A small bit of backstory for those who don’t know me well: before I was a private sector gal, I spent the beginning of my career coaching college and high school debate. Debate was the thing I cared about most. It was the this I’d given my whole life to from ages fourteen to twenty-four, and it was where every relationship, accomplishment, trace of self-worth, and meaningful memory in my life had been formed.

And coaching it professionally was killing me.

For those who have never tried combining their passions with their salary, I don’t recommend it. Making a living out of something that’s wrapped up in care and emotion requires an inordinate amount of emotional management, and for me, it left me riddled with feelings of guilt, inadequacy, and exhaustion most of the time.

However, when I was trying to figure out what else I could do with my life outside of debate, all I encountered were stories from people who hated their jobs. There’s also nothing like living in New York to expose you to people who really hate their jobs.

This year, I’m reminding myself to be grateful for the fact that I am not one of those people. There are plenty of bad days at work, but for the most part, I love my job. Most crucially, I love that it brings me enjoyment and fun challenges without emotionally tormenting me in the process. Finding that elusive balance has been one of the greatest blessings in my work life.

Your turn.
What kept you going this year? What felt special, joyful, or rare?

Let me know, or don’t. Either way, wishing you a happy long weekend of being grateful.

Thanks—always—for reading. Talk soon.