Mark Opauszky
Mark Opauszky shares his story of unbelievable resilience in his fight against necrotizing fasciitis.
More Than Our Story
Nicholas Whitaker
Nicholas shares his story. After his own layoff, he co-founded the Changing Work Collective, become a life and career coach and devoted himself to improving workplaces, leaders and work culture from the inside out.
Highlights
I left the tech space about a year ago after a mass layoff. And in that period in time I did a little bit of soul searching and trying to figure out, exactly I want to do with this time and this opportunity that's been given to me. And what came to mind for me was trying to help heal and correct some of the systemic issues that are happening within organizations and within leadership where it exacerbates mental health struggles and challenges that so many people have within these spaces.
We created this community to help folks like ourselves who are interested in doing the work of changing work from the inside out and helping them find community, find information and knowledge. Peer to peer as well as through service providers or other experts that we bring into the into the community, and then also find ways to collaborate because we can't do this work alone.
Oftentimes what they run into is bullying within the workplace. They run into leadership that is not aware of mental health struggles or doesn't know how to manage somebody who has a mental health concern or even beyond mental health concerns, just neurodiversity more broadly. There's a lack of education, a lack of awareness around these issues. So a lot of times how that manifests with burnout, depression and anxiety, you know, lack of confidence in their abilities.
It's so much about creating environments where there is psychological safety, there's a decent amount of well-being within an organization and that fosters environments where innovation and creativity can occur.
First of all, take care of yourself first. It's always about putting your own oxygen mask on first.
Some organizations will provide what they call EAP services or employee assistance programs. Essentially, therapists. Typically speaking, EAP services are very low. Attendant people don't tend to trust the EAP services because they're provided by the company.
I'm a vocal and outspoken person myself, probably has something to do with some of the struggles that I've had in some of the workplaces I worked at. But I felt it was incredibly important to what I would call hold truth to power and to speak into the harms that are being done by unconscious leaders or by toxic teams and to create support networks so people don't feel so alone.
A lot of people that I talk to, they tend to feel that their experience is an isolated one. They feel that they're the only one that's really struggling in this way. And I think there's a lot of power in coming together in community and sharing stories, much like what you're doing here with more than our story, to let people know that you're not alone, that there are solutions out there, and that there are other people that are willing to share their stories to help you find the language and find the ways of understanding what's happening in your environment.
At some point you need to be able to say, okay, this is harming me, this is causing poorer outcomes for myself. I need to make the decision that I need to make to take care of myself and move on.
Personally, I took a three and a half month mental health leave. It was short term medical leave. I got it paid for through my company. I thought I was completely justified in doing that because so much of the anxiety and stress that I was experiencing was because of the organization that I was in and that three months allowed me to settle my nervous system, settle my limbic system, get myself to a place where I was able to figure out what I wanted to do in the world.
It's like, well, you need improvement... or does the system that I'm in need improvement? Or maybe I need different coaching, maybe I need different support structures.
The idea is to try to uncover best practices and to de-stigmatize the struggle of mental health first and foremost, to let people know that they're not alone in this experience.
Nicholas Whitaker
I’m a coach for mid-life corporate professionals who are done with feeling stuck, overworked, undermined and under-appreciated. Through coaching and mentoring, you’ll discover the confidence that was there all along.
Services: Life Coaching, Career Coaching, Podcasting
Needs Improvement Podcast
Welcome to the Needs Improvement Podcast, your regular deep dive into reimagining mental health and wellbeing in the workplace.
ChangingWork.org
Welcome to the place where organizations and solo entrepreneurs come together to change work from the inside out.
Daniel
Daniel is an extremely curious person, a wealth of random knowledge and facts. Extremely passionate about a vast array of interests ranging from health to history, science to athletics, everything culinary and the list goes on. Trust us, you would want to be on his team for Trivial Pursuit.
Daniel is also years into his battle with brain cancer. He experienced a seizure while on a Zoom call at work in late 2020 and quite literally, his life changed within minutes. After his operation he started to talk about his story but had always known it was more than just him. From then, More Than Our Story became a PROJECT that has evolved into the starting point it is today.
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After his layoff, Nicholas Whitaker co-founded the Changing Work Collective, become a life and career coach and devoted himself to improving workplaces, leaders and work culture.
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The inaugural profile is none other than Daniel Hight, founder of More Than Our Story.
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Needs Improvement Podcast: Daniel Hight
Our founder Daniel Hight joins Nicholas Whitaker on his Needs Improvement podcast to share his thoughts on the impact of physical health on mental wellbeing.
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