End of Year Message 2023

** End of the Year Message 2023 **

As I sit here at my computer, in the quiet that happens in my house after the dishes have been loaded in the dishwasher, the dog let out one last time, and after my teen son heads to bed, I’m thinking of you. Actually, I’m worrying about you a little bit. The more I read this year online, the more I realize that while I actually thought caregiver burnout was at its height in the middle of the pandemic, senior living Activity Professionals are burning out now, nearly 4 years after the start of COVID.

I’m wondering how you are, really. I wish I could invite you into my home, pour you a cup of coffee, and make you banana bread. I wish I could look in your eyes and see if signs of fatigue are behind that twinkle you put on for the residents. I wish I could ask the right questions so you could tell me what’s making you cry on the way home from work, and what’s making things dark right now.

What would I tell you? Well, between sips of coffee, I’d share the thing I’ve learned from living in the heart of the Midwest, where the sun sets at 4:30 pm in the winter and the cold winds shake the windows and blow snow under the door frame: the light is coming. When everything feels dark and cold, you hunker down, focus on what you can control, and you wait for the light.

So this year, at the end of this year when we’re supposed to be navigating a post-pandemic world that is – well, weird – if you’re facing burnout, I want to encourage you to hunker down, focus on what you can control, and wait for the light.

Hunkering down might look like readjusting your focus to the things that you love about your job, like spending time with residents or planning your next themed event. It might be choosing to delegate some tasks so that you can find breathing room, even if it is just a few minutes of quiet at your desk. It might be remembering what brings you joy and what makes you feel like you can conquer the world. (Picture me dancing in my kitchen to a soundtrack made up of Foo Fighters, Taylor Swift, and Hozier.)

Perhaps you need to focus on what you can control and let go of what you can’t. New administrator wanting you to make sweeping changes to your activity program? Ok. Take it one step at a time, choosing to control your approach. Are staffing changes making you do double the work in the same amount of time? Ok. Prioritize and control how you feel about yourself and your efforts. Know that you’re doing your best. Have vacation days that are still sitting in your bank? Take them.

Maybe you’re hanging on, hunkering down, and already focusing on what you can control, but things are still hard. I see you. I’ve been there. And let me tell you from the other side that light is coming. Soon, you’ll find that there are more laughs in your care plan meetings, that there are more thank-you emails from family members in your inbox, and that there are more times when you feel like you are living out your purpose. More thriving, less surviving.

No one said that senior care was easy, and I certainly won’t be the first. It’s challenging, exhausting, and can leave you feeling wrung out by the time you punch out to go home for the day. But in those dark seasons, when everything is hard or impossible, light is surely coming.

So tonight, in the darkness of my house, when it’s been pitch black out my windows since 4:45 pm this afternoon, I am lighting a candle for you. I am turning up Foo Fighters and hoping you are dancing too, wherever you are in the world.

Because you deserve all the kitchen dance parties, all the candles, all the twinkle lights. You are the light for the residents you serve and you deserve to feel the sunshine on your face again soon.

Whether you’re in the dark or in the light, I’m on your team. I’m cheering you on, putting on the coffee and slicing the banana bread for you, because I know what you’re doing for those around you.

Sending all the love and light as we close out 2023 and move to 2024.