This memo was received on a Friday.

My close friend Beth had been working 12-hour shifts as a hospital screener during COVID-19’s early days.

Beth was exhausted. Between her demanding job, energetic two-year-old, strains at home and global pandemic pandemic outbreak – she felt completely depleted of strength.

“Her schedule was full to capacity: days were fuelled by coffee and evenings by wine. She would trudge through life with anxiety in tow; exercising seemed impossible.

Beth was once an active runner and rock climber; but now it was as though she had aged over ten years in just months.

Beth arrived home, turned off her car, and breathed deeply.

As she struggled to muster the energy to emerge from her car, she reached for her phone and, without realizing it, checked her email on auto-pilot.

There it was: an unsolicited memo from her employer offering self-care strategies to their stressed out staff. The memo concluded as follows:

Use your time at home to RELAX and RECHARGE.

Beth dropped her phone onto the seat next to her and collapsed forward, her head slumped over towards the steering wheel as tears streamed down her cheeks.

“Relax and recharge?” she laughed when telling me later about this idea.

“My “off” time consists of taking care of my child, cooking, cleaning, taking the cat to the vet, and managing all kinds of household tasks – I am lucky if I get more than three hours of sleep each night – home is not where I recharge; it’s Job #2.”

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