My husband is 53 today; I will soon join him in the same age. We have been married for 21 years. It is a hot day so we...
Stress and Burnout
Re-filling the tank
I’m on count down. Annual leave minus 10 days. If all goes to plan (no local lockdown!) I’ll be going away; an escape...
Recognising the need for help
David was my GP trainer, my course organiser, my mentor and my partner. I met him in 1998, was trained by him, and...
Reviewing: Through a glass darkly
They were talking. I knew that because I could see their mouths moving. Their heads, their faces animated. My eyes told me information that my ears and my brain were not able to take in. How could they talk, continue to communicate, carry on as if the world had not...
Recognising the last straw
The last straw. What was your last straw? What made you finally snap after years of tolerating abuse, manipulation and deceit? I knew I was being unfairly treated, managed, and used, but I told myself time and again that I could cope with it, that it wasn’t all bad,...
Re evaluating what we do: ignore the critics
That Autumn had been the wettest since forever. Not that we knew that then, the statistics come out months after the lived experience, but I remember every day resulted in a drenching. Having to hang up the raincoat and the pram cover over the bath and dry the wheels...
Restating the case for anger
“There’s the door. Be my guest!” He had been winding me up all day, muttering and glowering and asking pointless questions. But when he put his course folder on his head and announced that the activity he and his colleagues had been asked to do was straight out of...
Remembering examples of humility
Many years ago when I was new to working with doctors, I met a professor of cardiac surgery. He was approaching retirement, white hair, half moon spectacles, and was the most gentle, enquiring, curious participant on the courses we were running about Supervision. So...
Respecting the self
“One runs away to find oneself, and finds no one at home.” Joan Didion. Stress, burnout, moral injury. These are words that occupy time and space in much of what we read at the moment. Whilst there appears to be an epidemic of workplace distress in every...
Revitalisation – squeezing the juice.
What do you do after a magical day? I am like a little squirrel with a nut, cocooning myself away from reality and holding tight to my nut, polishing it and guarding it, treasuring the memories, reliving them. If anticipation is half the journey, then reflecting back...
Re-building: the bridge out of the swamp
In a recent twitter exchange two professors discussed ways of dealing with negative workplace attitudes. Professor Alison Leary said: “I…have learned to walk away….from disrespect… tokenism… aggression… wasting energy and time.” Professor Trish Greenhalgh referred to...
Revisiting: the burnout debate
In the furthest corner of the darkest café I could find, I holed up. Put my hands round my cup, pretending it was me and they would shield me from the outside, keep me warm for as long as it would take before I could get up the courage to leave here and head home....