Author: Christina Bruni

Christina Bruni is the author of the new book Working Assets: A Career Guide for Peers. She contributed a chapter "Recovery is Within Reach" to Benessere Psicologico: Contemporary Thought on Italian American Mental Health.

The Dignity of an Honest Job

I wanted to write about the dignity of working at an honest job.

Two opposite myths exist:

One–that people with schizophrenia and other mental illnesses can’t hold “competitive” employment.

Two–that there’s a shame attached to a person when they don’t hold “competitive” employment.

These are bold-faced lies not just myths.

In an earlier incarnation of my first blog I gave kudos to Rite Aid cashiers.

Most of them have been staffing the cash register for years and they do it with a smile.

Anyone who is rude to a cashier in a store or thinks that a cashier is below them should be set straight.

My Working Assets blog has celebrated it’s one-year anniversary this January 2021.

My work on the job of keeping this blog has only just begun.

Moving forward into the coming year and beyond I will expand the scope of jobs and careers in here.

I will also take on lifestyle issues for people living in recovery.

In the next blog entry I will talk about what constitutes a “career.”

What a person does for love is as equally valid as an occupation as what a person does for money.

One-Year Anniversary of Pandemic

It’s coming up on the one-year anniversary of New York City shutting down because of the coronavirus. March 14 is Remembrance Day in NYC. It reminds me of the 1980s Jim Carroll song about “All the People Who Died.”

The first 3 months of lockdown March through June were a kind of halcyon time for me. I started writing a novel and was blogging every week.

Coming up on one year it’s different. The prolonged lack of social contact can do a number on a person’s mental health. Add to that any other hardship and wham–a double shot of depress-o feelings and emotional wonkiness.

What is the remedy at this one-year milestone?

The spring is coming–so it might be easier to act: to take showers; dress in day clothes; attend Zoom events; cook your own dinners.

I’ve found that exercising every week as often I can has been the self-care that impacted my mood the most. Second up is writing entries in my grateful journal. Where I write 5 things I’m grateful for and 5 things that make me happy.

Listen: we will pull through this pandemic.

In the coming blog entries I’m going to write about what constitutes a career. This has been given new meaning in the time of the pandemic.

My aim is to empower readers to define for yourself what you “job” is in this life.

Not all of us will become a CEO, and that’s OK. Let’s hear it for the industrious janitors!

Finding Balance

Like Laurie Ruettimann advised in her book I advocate for committing to doing what makes you happy every week.

There’s a stigma attached to isolating in your bedroom when you have a mental illness. Besides that it’s not healthy to self-isolate. Isolation can breed illness and cause paranoia.

The difference is that when you’re in recovery and have a job or are otherwise active it can make sense to consciously choose to take a break from the demands outside your doorstep.

To preserve your sanity it’s imperative [and it’s possible] to achieve a work-life balance. You can have an “outdoor-indoor” equilibrium.

For some time now I’ve been engaged in the Italian practice of dolce far niente that is “the sweetness of doing nothing.”

For the most part I’m devoting time to my job and to publishing Working Assets the book. It’s akin to going into the woodshed by taking time to be alone in a room to practice and perfect the musical piece you’re playing.

After the challenges everyone of us has faced in 2020 it’s true that going into the woodshed can be an act of ameliorating our health. People who are in a plateau or in the woodshed can go on to recover and achieve things.

Trying to do herculean feats right now might not be possible for most of us. I recommend practicing the art of doing nothing when on some days you need to rest and recharge your batteries.

Rest and recreation can boost a person’s mood. This can give you the confidence to restart a major life activity refreshed and ready to go.

Giving ourselves the gift of chilling out is not a luxury–it’s an act of self-preservation. You will be a better parent or better friend to yourself or better partner after this time off.

The Compass and the Radar

In the above book Paolo Gallo gives up-to-date tactics for finding a job on your terms.

He is Italian–which is inspiring to me as my heritage is Italian too.

The prime benefit of reading this book is knowing what questions to ask on a job interview. Gallo like Laurie Ruettiman in her book I reviewed too thinks you don’t have to wind up in a truly atrocious work environment.

By grilling the interviewer with poise you’ll be better able to uncover the true relationship dynamics on a future job.

I’ll end here with this quick and easy tip: Google “interview questions to ask employer.” You’ll find loads of probing questions to ask so that you can arm yourself with vital information.

The 1990s are gone. Heck we won’t see the early 2000s again either.

Today searching for a job and going on interviews is a different game. To level the playing field so you can achieve a “work-life balance” I’ll offer ideas in the coming blog entries.

Peace and Harmony

To enjoy peace and harmony on the job and in your life setting boundaries is a must.

In my life I preserve my energy for the essential tasks outside of my job. On the job I think you should prioritize your functions too. Why spend 5 hours on a task that will result in minimal benefit for your supervisor or business? This might rightly require only a half hour or one hour tops.

Doing the right job is more vital than doing the job right.

In the 1990s there was this slogan: “GIGO.” It was shorthand for “Garbage in, garbage out.”

Finding the job where you feel like you’re making a difference is the key. If you can’t see how your work improves your customer’s lives or makes society better in some way: I say all hope is not lost.

In the next blog entry I’ll review a book I read two weeks ago: The Compass and the Radar by Paolo Gallo. He’s on to something when he talks in the guide about building a rewarding career while remaining true to yourself.

Whatever you do on your job it’s imperative to enjoy life outside of your job. That is the best way to live in peace and harmony.

In coming blog entries I’ll talk about the old-age myth of finding a work-life balance. It isn’t a myth. This can be done.

Betting on Ourselves

Read the book above. You can check it out of the library should you not be able to buy it.

I recommend the book because long before I read it last week I’d been doing the things the author told readers to do.

One controversial thing that Ruettimann tells workers to do is to be Slackers on the job. How so? Not to break your back at work where you’ll wind up stressed.

Does any of us really want to be popping pills and slurping Frappuccinos to get by every day?

This is where it pays to research yourself and explore careers that are in sync with your personality.

My goal is to publish the book Working Assets: A Career Guide for Peers this summer 2021. It has competitive information for finding and succeeding at a job when you live in recovery.

The trick to being happy and healthy is to have a balanced life. I call this living “a full and robust life.” In your after-hours and on the weekend that’s when it’s imperative that you do what you love.

If you ask me no one should be doing more than a half hour of overtime every day at our jobs. Finding the job that doesn’t require overtime is the golden key to unlocking the ideal balance.

Most workers in corporate offices won’t get more than a 3 percent raise every year. Or 2 percent like milk. While the CEOs earn millions.

How to fight this injustice? Show up to your job on your own terms. Live that full and robust life outside of your day job.

Read Betting on You to find out how you can win the battle of the bulge–of your overstuffed briefcase and ballooning midsection.

There’s a better way than passively accepting the status quo on a job.

Long before I read this Laurie Ruettimann book I too had become a Slacker to preserve my sanity.

In the coming blog entry I’ll talk about my own strategies for achieving peace and harmony.

WFH Revisited

Setting up office space in your home is one thing. Showing up to your desk or dining table is another.

As hard as it can be I think you should make the effort to dress up. Wearing pajamas all day can put you in a depressed mood.

The question is: What comes first? Do you remain in your night clothes because you’re depressed? Or does wearing p.j.s flatten your mood?

Either way acting kinder to yourself is the way to go. Set 9:00 a.m. as the cut-off time. By this time in the morning try to be dressed in day clothes. Go easy on yourself on the days it takes you longer to get going.

I recommend writing entries in a grateful journal to record things you’re grateful for. Alternate these entries with writing 5 things that make you happy. A study reveals that keeping this kind of journal can boost a person’s mood.

OK–so you might not want to wear a suit to your home “office.” That’s OK. I recommend splurging on the Dressing Well Virtual Styling service. It costs you, yet the consultant can send you links to clothing items you can buy online for this “new normal” WFH scenario.

In the coming blog entry I’m going to talk about a cutting-edge book I read last week. Reading this book can infuse those of us stuck in dreary jobs with optimism and give us a clear path to freedom.

Wonky Work Email Situations

I wanted to talk about sending and receiving work emails. For people who want to get a job and haven’t worked before in an office.

One thing you’re going to come across is that people won’t respond to your emails. Most coworkers will respond. Others will repeatedly fail to respond when you send them a message.

How I operate with email: It is a permanent electronic record. My take is that I would send an email when I wanted to document something to have proof of what is going on.

Anything you say or do on a job that you don’t want to be a matter of public record should not be sent via email.

What can you do with people who don’t respond to your emails?

Sometimes it turns out that sending an email is not the most effective communication tool.

Getting up off your chair and walking to the coworker’s desk to talk might be the better option in this case.

One other situation is that obsessively checking your email can be a time-waster.

At one job I refrained from checking emails first thing in the morning. This was the policy. We were supposed to get right to the work for that day.

I would say that it could be good to check your email during your down time when you have a lull in energy.

Often you will use email to request information from a coworker who is working with you on a project. This is one use of work email.

In a coming blog entry I’m going to talk in more detail about working from home / WFH.

The Facts of [Working] Life

I wanted to write about the facts of [working] life. This is because you’re going to interact with multiple personalities in the workplace.

Your job is to do your job well. Not just to do your job.

As you buckle down with your shoes on the ground and your fingers flashing across the keyboard:

You’ll soon discover that a coworker or two are slacking off. Not doing the work required of them. Or doing the bare minimum.

Or that a coworker seems to have it in for you and is rude and hostile.

Too you might be called in to redo the work a coworker has screwed-up.

Your boss might think this person is a model employee. Ratting out your coworker isn’t the way to go.

Not all jobs are created equal. Even a union job can attract slackers who get by just punching the time clock and going home. With a union job an employee who shirks their responsibility won’t get fired.

Going to bat to your supervisor against this coworker might be a mistake. From firsthand experience I can tell you that rude and hostile coworkers–as well as staff members with garden-variety laziness–are often given red-carpet treatment.

What is the remedy?

Continue to focus on your own work and improving your performance. Be friendly. Lowering your voice is an old trick that allegedly gets the other person to lower their voice. Getting loud in response will only escalate the tension.

Remain calm and cool as best you can. Whether intentionally or not they want to get a rise out of you. When you fail to take the bait they’ll be upset. Soon they’ll realize it’s not work their while to upset you.

It’s double trouble when a rude coworker is also a lazy coworker.

I’ll end here with this maxim:

Do your level best to turn in next-level work at your job.

Be known as the person who gets things done.

I might add: do only your work. Refrain from getting roped into doing a coworker’s job or into fixing the mistakes that another coworker makes.

The person who screwed up often gets the promotion.

That’s a sad fact of [working] life too.

Feck Perfuction

The author of this brilliant guide to making who you are what you do is James Victore.

He failed at one art school and was kicked out of another. His work hung in the Museum of Modern Art. He taught at the School of Visual Arts for 20 years. He bought an apartment in SoHo and a house in the country.

What is the morale of this story?

There is no one right way to do something. There is no right time to take action.

The only way is to act true to yourself. The time is now to do this.

James Victore reeled me in. For the first time I could see that everything I do that is unusual is what I’m supposed to be doing.

I recommend you buy a copy of Feck Perfuction to have on hand. Victore is right:

Forget trying to make art that caters to the masses. Dare to have your own opinion that you express in your own voice. The world doesn’t need another copycat churning out bland blanc mange.

See how far you can take yourself by being you.

I bet there’s an outer galaxy in the farthest reaches of your potential waiting to be explored and named.

Claim your greatness.

Live the life you want to live not the one others tell you to.

Come on now:

Today is the day for each of us to make magic being ourselves.

Feck perfuction.

It’s the only way to live.