Time for Reflection, Compassion and Action
I've had a few phone calls in my life, as we all have, where the caller has to share the news that someone has passed away. It’s like time stands still. You're on the phone but everything around you goes kind of numb or abstract for a bit while your brain gets hyper-focused on the person and the message on the other end of the phone. You were busy and distracted by all of life's things, but all the noise and those priorities are erased immediately while you stop to listen to terrible news.
I had one call last year when a dear friend’s wife called with the news that he had taken his own life. I got a text message this week from a friend with a similar sad note. A colleague of ours had taken his life. Depression and anxiety had overwhelmed him. Working in an industry with massive layoffs has taken a toll on thousands of people. It’s an abstract headline in the press until it strikes close to home.?
Many of us have come through a lot since 2019.?
Pandemic, post pandemic, boom and bust all in a short period of time; Prices spiked in real estate, groceries and consumer goods. Some salaries have spiked during the boom while others have gone static.? People moved houses/condos/apartments, moved to larger apartments and then mortgage rates and rent climbed up putting people in a tighter spot, or worse. For many industries our company works closely with, the bottom dropped out in late 2022 or sometime in 2023. Layoffs riddled gaming, vfx, animation, emerging technology, impacting thousands of people around the world.?
The biggest challenge has been massive unemployment across several interconnected industries at the same time. Usually, if one vertical went cold, people could shift to a related one for a while waiting for their niche to heat up again. This time, there have been few options. Many have been unemployed for months on end and have burnt through their savings. Engineers who have always been in high demand are now facing unemployment for the first time in their careers. Specialized workers in high demand have been unemployed for months.
Things are turning around again but very slowly. Too slowly for many who are used to having work or only being unemployed between contracts temporarily.
We are fortunate to live in a time where mental health issues are much more in the forefront of conversations versus 25+ years ago when it still had a greater stigma attached.
Depression, anxiety, and a whole host of other challenges are spoken about much more today than in my parents' and grandparents' generations.
I remember one of my HR Director roles where an HR Manager on our team would drive to an employee's house some days. He had called in sick. She knew he was suffering from depression. She would make him take his medications and drive him to work. She did it quietly with no fanfare. She was determined that he get up, shower and get to work, take his pills, be around other people for the day, etc. She did not want him to spiral lower and helped him get to work occasionally when he had called in sick. She was a quiet unsung hero.
I know an executive who has done something similar. She and a few employees pile into her car and drive over to take a struggling employee out for lunch to help reconnect. They know the old bonds have been broken by Zoom and Teams and people need social contact.
Let's take stock.
We all need to realize how wild the past few years have been. We have not come through a stable time. There have been twists and turns followed by more twists and turns. I've been quarantined before (SARS) so Covid-19 wasn't my first rodeo, but Covid was a much bigger affair, impacting billions of people around the world. Not many people were prepared and it clearly lasted so much longer than anyone expected. It's still blowing around but isn't as big a concern as it was the first time around.
Many people are working remote or hybrid now and for some people this has been a plus but not for everyone. Or it's a mix of pros and cons.
Work From Home
For some people, work from home was and is still awesome. But now, some folks feel isolated. The old social bonds or working together in one spot are fractured. Some of us spend way too much time inside our homes/apartments.
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If you’ve read this far I’d like to issue you a challenge:
Write down a list of 30 people you have not seen in-person for more than a month. Now make a plan to see 1 of them per week for the next 30 weeks. Go for coffee together, a lunch, dinner, a sporting event, a concert, skating, walking, cycling… Whatever. It doesn’t have to break the bank. 30 walks, 30 talks.? If it’s cold, do it inside a mall.?Catch up with people. Check in on them and let them check in on you.
30 walks, 30 talks.?
If all 30 know each other, host a party and get them all together. Potluck, BYOB, or whatever works.? If 30 is too big, do 10, 10, 10 and host 3 socials. But aim to get out of the house and get them out of theirs also. We all need some fresh air and more social contact.?
And if you’re local to Toronto/Ontario area and need some help or you suspect someone else that needs help,?here are some helpful links a colleague shared with me this week:
Suicide help:
Dial 9-8-8 or 9-1-1
Resources for grief:
Resources for mental health:
Animation, POST & VFX Production. Production Manager, Assistant Production Manager, Sr. Production Coordinator, Post Production Coordinator
1 年Well said Lance.
Looking for work as 3D Generalist (senior Modelling and Surfacing artist), Graphic designer, and content creator
1 年thank you so much for this Lance, I have shared it with many people, and have started doing 30 walks and 30 talks. As our morale in the industry is at an all time low we need this.
Human Resources Executive Highly Skilled with 15+ Years' Experience in HR Management Functions Driving Transformation, Efficiency, Compliance, and Employee Engagement
1 年Great post, Lance! And so relevant!!! I've started working on my list of 30...
Surfacing and Fur Artist
1 年Great post Lance
Freelance Animation Professional
1 年Lance, you’re a fine gentleman!