In the ninth instalment of The Book Club hosted by Zone and Campaign, in partnership with Penguin Business, Edward Craig, head of Content Labs at Campaign sat down with Cate Sevilla, author of How to Work Without Losing Your Mind.
Detailing what Sevilla calls the “infuriating” work situations she’s found herself in throughout her career, from her time at Google as head of editorial of arts & culture to her editorship of The Pool, she couples candid accounts of her own experience with expert commentary from “excellent people managers”, psychologists and more to identify the challenges of work and how to navigate them.
Whether it’s surviving “the manager from hell”, avoiding burnout or ditching comparison culture, Sevilla cuts through the noise to provide well-researched, no-nonsense advice for managers and employees alike.
Of her time at Google, she told Craig: “I was made to feel so ashamed when I shouldn't have been made to feel that way in so many instances. And I found that the emotional, mental work that I had to do and the physical symptoms that I then experienced from that while I was there, was so, so difficult.”
The experience, though, helped her recognise that she could only, as she puts it, throw herself against the same brick wall so many times.
“You can only have so many conversations, you can only try to be honest and get to the root of something so many times until you feel the gaslit, basically, and I had to kind of get to that point where I was like, oh, there's really nothing I can do here,” she explains. But while turbulent, through her time at Google and years of therapy she’s established new boundaries and a fresh perspective on what employers ask for and, crucially, what she’s willing to give.
At the heart of much of her advice is the need to get comfortable with honest, open conversations with managers. “Ultimately, it comes down to you,” she says. “But that's not to say that your employer doesn't have anything to do with it. It’s definitely a two way street.
“This is what I say in the book a lot of times: are we actually asking for what we need? A lot of times you get managers who are just like a bit crap, they're pretty harmless. They don't mean to be not the best but maybe they haven't had all the training that they need. [And] they're not mind readers.”
Sevilla concedes that we’re often our own worst enemies, but outlines how even the smallest actions can make a great difference. For example, she tells Craig, “the easiest thing that you can do is just to start simple, and just look at your diary. Remind yourself that like your time is actually yours”
Sure, you’re getting paid for your time, but you know how you work best, she says, recommending for example blocking off time for a lunch break (which you actually take) and deciding carefully which meetings you actually need to attend.
“A basic addressing of your time, making sure that your bodily functions are met, that you're eating, that you're taking time for yourself to work effectively is super important. And I think that that's something that everyone can address today, this afternoon, looking at their own diaries,” she says.
To dive even deeper into the messy workplace issues of today and how to expertly navigate them, order How to Work Without Losing Your Mind here, and to hear more from Cate Sevilla catch up on the full Book Club discussion here.
Zone, a Cognizant Digital Business, created its Book Club series to champion innovation, diversity and creativity in the technology industry, with a specific aim to inspire, educate and inform.
