#psychologicalsafety — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #psychologicalsafety, aggregated by home.social.
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We are delighted to welcome Noor Alteneiji as the guest facilitator for the next 'Unscripted' session.
Join Noor as she leads the conversation on '𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗣𝗼𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗣𝘀𝘆𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗦𝗮𝗳𝗲𝘁𝘆', exploring how we navigate influence, trust, communication, and safety in the workplace.
Register now to join the discussion 👉 bit.ly/4uHYKDq
📆 Thursday, May 28
⏰ 15:00 (Dublin) | 10:00 (NYC) | 16:00 (Berlin/Paris) | 18:00 (Dubai) | 19:30 (Delhi) -
We are delighted to welcome Noor Alteneiji as the guest facilitator for the next 'Unscripted' session.
Join Noor as she leads the conversation on '𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗣𝗼𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗣𝘀𝘆𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗦𝗮𝗳𝗲𝘁𝘆', exploring how we navigate influence, trust, communication, and safety in the workplace.
Register now to join the discussion 👉 bit.ly/4uHYKDq
📆 Thursday, May 28
⏰ 15:00 (Dublin) | 10:00 (NYC) | 16:00 (Berlin/Paris) | 18:00 (Dubai) | 19:30 (Delhi) -
What I’ve been reading this week ending 19 April 2026 https://jchyip.medium.com/what-ive-been-reading-this-week-ending-19-april-2026-dee3a9d414b0 #economics #ai #PsychologicalSafety #cybersecurity #SafetyCulture
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We can navigate our relationships at work authentically & compassionately with mindsets & practices from Creative Empathy for Leadership.
This is the basis for the Beyond Design round table session that just wrapped up at Hike One, hosted by Sanne and facilitated by yours truly 😃
We discussed how the most crucial of our work relationships are with ourself, our team, and our stakeholders.
We talked about how regulating the nervous system is the quickest & simplest way to navigate the relationship with ourselves. And we practiced some conscious breathing techniques to stimulate our parasympathetic nervous system via the vagus nerve.
We shared thoughts about how creating psychological space allows us to bring #empathy into the relationship with our team. And we swapped stories of how nonviolent communication shifts our relationships with stakeholders from heavy to human.
As preparation for the session, I wrote a blog post outlining the specific mindsets and practical techniques involved. So here it is.
Enjoy!
Thanks for your hospitality, Sanne! And thanks to everyone in the session for your engagement, vulnerability, and courage.
May all your relationships be happy, peaceful, free, and unconditionally loving 🙏🏼
#CreativeEmpathy #Leadership #PsychologicalSafety #NonViolentCommunication #Teamwork #BeyondDesign
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We can navigate our relationships at work authentically & compassionately with mindsets & practices from Creative Empathy for Leadership.
This is the basis for the Beyond Design round table session that just wrapped up at Hike One, hosted by Sanne and facilitated by yours truly 😃
We discussed how the most crucial of our work relationships are with ourself, our team, and our stakeholders.
We talked about how regulating the nervous system is the quickest & simplest way to navigate the relationship with ourselves. And we practiced some conscious breathing techniques to stimulate our parasympathetic nervous system via the vagus nerve.
We shared thoughts about how creating psychological space allows us to bring #empathy into the relationship with our team. And we swapped stories of how nonviolent communication shifts our relationships with stakeholders from heavy to human.
As preparation for the session, I wrote a blog post outlining the specific mindsets and practical techniques involved. So here it is.
Enjoy!
Thanks for your hospitality, Sanne! And thanks to everyone in the session for your engagement, vulnerability, and courage.
May all your relationships be happy, peaceful, free, and unconditionally loving 🙏🏼
#CreativeEmpathy #Leadership #PsychologicalSafety #NonViolentCommunication #Teamwork #BeyondDesign
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We can navigate our relationships at work authentically & compassionately with mindsets & practices from Creative Empathy for Leadership.
This is the basis for the Beyond Design round table session that just wrapped up at Hike One, hosted by Sanne and facilitated by yours truly 😃
We discussed how the most crucial of our work relationships are with ourself, our team, and our stakeholders.
We talked about how regulating the nervous system is the quickest & simplest way to navigate the relationship with ourselves. And we practiced some conscious breathing techniques to stimulate our parasympathetic nervous system via the vagus nerve.
We shared thoughts about how creating psychological space allows us to bring #empathy into the relationship with our team. And we swapped stories of how nonviolent communication shifts our relationships with stakeholders from heavy to human.
As preparation for the session, I wrote a blog post outlining the specific mindsets and practical techniques involved. So here it is.
Enjoy!
Thanks for your hospitality, Sanne! And thanks to everyone in the session for your engagement, vulnerability, and courage.
May all your relationships be happy, peaceful, free, and unconditionally loving 🙏🏼
#CreativeEmpathy #Leadership #PsychologicalSafety #NonViolentCommunication #Teamwork #BeyondDesign
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Three that work:
1) Normalize questions.
"Great question" isn't fluff. It's a signal.2) Model your own mistakes.
"I missed that" gives everyone permission to be human.3) Reward early flags.
When someone says "I'm worried about this," treat it like leadership. Not disruption.Safety isn't only about comfort. It's about being able to tell the truth without getting punished.
What's one behavior you've seen that made it easier to speak up?
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@catsalad, Feel free to leverage this space for any unconventional inquiries as we foster a culture of continuous learning and radical transparency. 🚀 #GrowthMindset #PsychologicalSafety #NoBadQuestions
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Collective adaptive goes virtuous circle:
- sharing information,
- creating opportunities for people to share the "messy details" of their experience,
- inquiring into team member’s ways "to expand what goes well",
- drawing from the capacity across the work collective.https://www.infoq.com/articles/adapt-surprises-software-reliant-businesses/
#collectives #teamWork #workCulture #facilitation #management #IT #DevOps #resilience #engineering #fallBack #recovery #psychologicalSafety #personalSafety #safety #feedback #joy #curiosity
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Collective adaptive goes virtuous circle:
- sharing information,
- creating opportunities for people to share the "messy details" of their experience,
- inquiring into team member’s ways "to expand what goes well",
- drawing from the capacity across the work collective.https://www.infoq.com/articles/adapt-surprises-software-reliant-businesses/
#collectives #teamWork #workCulture #facilitation #management #IT #DevOps #resilience #engineering #fallBack #recovery #psychologicalSafety #personalSafety #safety #feedback #joy #curiosity
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Collective adaptive goes virtuous circle:
- sharing information,
- creating opportunities for people to share the "messy details" of their experience,
- inquiring into team member’s ways "to expand what goes well",
- drawing from the capacity across the work collective.https://www.infoq.com/articles/adapt-surprises-software-reliant-businesses/
#collectives #teamWork #workCulture #facilitation #management #IT #DevOps #resilience #engineering #fallBack #recovery #psychologicalSafety #personalSafety #safety #feedback #joy #curiosity
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Collective adaptive goes virtuous circle:
- sharing information,
- creating opportunities for people to share the "messy details" of their experience,
- inquiring into team member’s ways "to expand what goes well",
- drawing from the capacity across the work collective.https://www.infoq.com/articles/adapt-surprises-software-reliant-businesses/
#collectives #teamWork #workCulture #facilitation #management #IT #DevOps #resilience #engineering #fallBack #recovery #psychologicalSafety #personalSafety #safety #feedback #joy #curiosity
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Collective adaptive goes virtuous circle:
- sharing information,
- creating opportunities for people to share the "messy details" of their experience,
- inquiring into team member’s ways "to expand what goes well",
- drawing from the capacity across the work collective.https://www.infoq.com/articles/adapt-surprises-software-reliant-businesses/
#collectives #teamWork #workCulture #facilitation #management #IT #DevOps #resilience #engineering #fallBack #recovery #psychologicalSafety #personalSafety #safety #feedback #joy #curiosity
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@tom_geraghty You have to see this, especially the last part about the company culture.
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In the pursuit of High-Performing Engineering Teams, we often focus on code commits & metrics.
But what if the most important signals live in the relationships between teammates?
In this #InfoQ talk, Lizzie Matusov explores how trust and psychological safety are critical indicators of team success.
🎥 Watch the video 👉 https://bit.ly/4iE0Vlk
📄 #transcript included
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Perception feels like reality until someone else’s reality contradicts yours.
So what happens when everyone is right and wrong at the same time?
Today’s blog dives into the gap between what we mean, what others hear, and what it takes to finally get on the same page.
Spoiler: It starts with trust.
#LeadershipDevelopment #TrustAtWork #PerceptionVsReality #CommunicationMatters #EmotionalIntelligence #HRInsights #WorkplaceCulture #PsychologicalSafety #LeadBoldly… -
We all have a workplace survival story — a season of chaos we had to navigate, a job search that shook us, or a moment we had to be stronger than we felt.
But here’s the truth: resiliency isn’t the victory. Trust is.
Because without trust, resiliency becomes a survival emotion, not a path to growth.
If you’re tired, searching, or simply holding on — this one’s for you.
Read the full blog. 💛
#Leadership #Resilience #WorkplaceWellbeing #PsychologicalSafety #TrustAtWork… -
Think Leaders Don’t Need #PsychologicalSafety? Think Again https://cruciallearning.com/blog/think-people-in-power-dont-need-psychological-safety-think-again/
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Employment lawyer reveals the four text messages you should never send to a coworker
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We keep telling leaders to “hold people accountable,” but no one asks the real question: Did we make them capable first?
Organizations don’t rise on pressure — they rise on clarity, skills, and support.
If you want better performance, start building capability, not fear.
#LeadershipDevelopment #WorkplaceCulture #PeopleAndCulture #LearningAndDevelopment #HRInsights #ModernLeadership #CoachingCulture #CapabilityBuilding #PsychologicalSafety #LeadBoldly #ManagerTips…http://leadboldly1.blog/2026/01/06/stop-holding-people-accountable-start-making-them-capable/
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Daily stand-ups: Are they truly effective? This research highlights they significantly boost psychological safety, leading to improved team performance and satisfaction. It's not just about updates, but creating an environment where speaking up is safe. Crucial insights for any agile leader! https://rdel.substack.com/p/rdel-122-how-do-daily-stand-ups-boost #AgileTeams #PsychologicalSafety
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Teams rarely break down because of big blowups — they break down because of the silent spaces where trust used to live. The missing steps. The unspoken hesitations. The moments we avoid instead of repair.
If your team feels “off,” look at the architecture beneath your staircase. Trust isn’t visible… until it collapses.
#LeadershipDevelopment #TrustInTeams #PsychologicalSafety #TeamCulture #HumanCenteredLeadership #OrganizationalDevelopment #LeadBoldly #CultureMatters…http://leadboldly1.blog/2025/12/24/the-trust-gap-why-teams-break-down-even-when-no-one-meant-to/
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Most companies think training equals transformation, but information alone doesn’t change people. Behavior does.
This post breaks down the real science behind why learning sticks, why it fails, and what it takes to turn skills into habits that actually shift culture.
If you want more than check-the-box training… start here.
#LearningAndDevelopment #LeadershipDevelopment #BehaviorChange #CorporateTraining #PsychologicalSafety #HumanCenteredLeadership #TalentDevelopment… -
Teams don’t fail to collaborate because they don’t care — they fail because the workplace rewards the opposite behaviors.
Here’s the truth leaders avoid:
People don’t do what you say. People do what you reward.
If you want real collaboration, you must build a culture that actually supports it.#Leadership #WorkplaceCulture #TeamCollaboration #PsychologicalSafety #HumanCenteredLeadership #OrganizationalHealth #LeadBoldly #CultureMatters #ModernLeadership…
http://leadboldly1.blog/2025/12/22/why-teams-dont-collaborate-even-when-they-say-they-do/
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Humans aren’t widgets — and the companies that still treat people like interchangeable parts are already losing talent, trust, and innovation.
The future belongs to workplaces designed for humans, not just output.
Here’s why human-centered cultures always win.#HumanCenteredWork #LeadershipDevelopment #PeopleFirst #WorkplaceCulture #FutureOfWork #HRCommunity #LeadBoldly #OrganizationalDevelopment #EmployeeEngagement #PsychologicalSafety #ModernLeadership
http://leadboldly1.blog/2025/12/19/why-humans-arent-widgets-the-case-for-human-centered-workplaces/
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Building an inclusive culture isn’t magic — it’s mastery of the C’s: Curiosity, Cultural Intelligence, Collaboration, Commitment, Courage, and Cognizance.
If leaders modeled these daily, workplace culture would transform overnight.
#InclusiveLeadership #WorkplaceCulture #PsychologicalSafety #DEI #LeadBoldly #ModernLeadershiphttp://leadboldly1.blog/2025/12/12/inclusive-cultures-the-cs-that-hold-it-all-together/
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Feeling tired, wired, and unsure who’s steering at work? You’re not alone.
Today’s AI-driven workplaces demand human hearts and machine-level output — and it’s created a fog leaders and employees are stumbling through daily.This post breaks down why the fog exists and how to find your clarity again without burning out in the process.
A quick read. A deep exhale.#LeadershipFog #PsychologicalSafety #ModernLeadership #BurnoutRecovery #FutureOfWork…
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We don’t fear tough conversations—we fear the space where truth goes unspoken.
When you stop avoiding the conversation, you stop feeding the monster.
Clarity is courage in action.
Let’s build workplaces where honesty isn’t “hard”… it’s normal.#LeadershipDevelopment #ConflictResolution #ToughConversations #EmotionalIntelligence #WorkplaceCulture #LeadBoldly #CommunicationSkills #PsychologicalSafety #ProfessionalGrowth #RealTalkLeadership
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Creating Moments of Psychological Safety During Crisis: What the Neuroscience Says— In a crisis, the brain shifts into survival mode—unless leaders create small moments of psychological safety that bring us back to clarity, calm, and connection. These micro-interventions aren’t soft; they’re neuroscience.
#NeuroLeadership #PsychologicalSafety #BrainScience #LeadershipDevelopment #WellBeingAtWork #TraumaInformedLeadership #HumanCenteredLeadership -
Creating Moments of Psychological Safety During Crisis: What the Neuroscience Says— In a crisis, the brain shifts into survival mode—unless leaders create small moments of psychological safety that bring us back to clarity, calm, and connection. These micro-interventions aren’t soft; they’re neuroscience.
#NeuroLeadership #PsychologicalSafety #BrainScience #LeadershipDevelopment #WellBeingAtWork #TraumaInformedLeadership #HumanCenteredLeadership -
Creating Moments of Psychological Safety During Crisis: What the Neuroscience Says— In a crisis, the brain shifts into survival mode—unless leaders create small moments of psychological safety that bring us back to clarity, calm, and connection. These micro-interventions aren’t soft; they’re neuroscience.
#NeuroLeadership #PsychologicalSafety #BrainScience #LeadershipDevelopment #WellBeingAtWork #TraumaInformedLeadership #HumanCenteredLeadership -
Creating Moments of Psychological Safety During Crisis: What the Neuroscience Says— In a crisis, the brain shifts into survival mode—unless leaders create small moments of psychological safety that bring us back to clarity, calm, and connection. These micro-interventions aren’t soft; they’re neuroscience.
#NeuroLeadership #PsychologicalSafety #BrainScience #LeadershipDevelopment #WellBeingAtWork #TraumaInformedLeadership #HumanCenteredLeadership -
Creating Moments of Psychological Safety During Crisis: What the Neuroscience Says— In a crisis, the brain shifts into survival mode—unless leaders create small moments of psychological safety that bring us back to clarity, calm, and connection. These micro-interventions aren’t soft; they’re neuroscience.
#NeuroLeadership #PsychologicalSafety #BrainScience #LeadershipDevelopment #WellBeingAtWork #TraumaInformedLeadership #HumanCenteredLeadership -
Empathy isn’t agreement — and somewhere along the way, we forgot that.
Great leaders know how to understand someone’s perspective without surrendering their own.
Here’s your guide to connecting with humans and keeping your boundaries intact.#LeadershipDevelopment #EmotionalIntelligence #ModernLeadership #WorkplaceWellbeing #PsychologicalSafety #EmpathyAtWork #LeadBoldly #CoachingCulture #HumanCenteredLeadership #PeopleFirstLeadership
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#medsky #psychsky #chronichealth #livedexperience #wellbeing #healthcare #longtermcondition #trauma #traumainformed #psychology #medicine #nursing #hospital #advocacy #empowerment #neuroaffirmative #psychologicalsafety #polyvagal #resilience #burnout #compassion #compassionfatigue #vicarioustrauma
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:uyil74czwatqpayo3v3ud2sq/post/3m6x7qfkaoo2x -
Leaders go first with vulnerability:
"I don't know"
is more powerful than pretending to have all the answers.
Psychological safety starts with leaders admitting their own learning edges.
If you want to foster a culture of openness, consider the importance of vulnerability in your own leadership.
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Leadership doesn’t sink because of icebergs — it sinks because of ego.
If you’re steering the ship with pride instead of awareness, don’t be surprised when the crew starts looking for lifeboats.
Read the full truth bomb: “Ego at the Helm: The Titanic Lessons of Modern Leadership.”
#LeadBoldly #LeadershipTruths #EgoKillsCulture #ModernLeadership #PsychologicalSafety #RealTalkLeadershiphttp://leadboldly1.blog/2025/11/19/ego-at-the-helm-the-titanic-lessons-of-modern-leadership/
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“Be honest… would you follow you? 👀
Most leaders never ask the question, because the mirror doesn’t lie.
If you want trust, loyalty, and a team that actually thrives — it starts with the reflection staring back at you.”#LeadershipDevelopment #LeadBoldly #EmotionalIntelligence #SelfAwareness #ModernLeadership #PsychologicalSafety #LeadershipGrowth #WorkplaceCulture #LeadershipTips #LeadersWhoInspire
http://leadboldly1.blog/2025/11/18/the-mirror-test-are-you-the-leader-youd-follow/
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Ethics isn’t a slideshow—it’s your Tuesday.
If your trainings say one thing but your Tuesdays say another, Tuesday wins.
Here’s a leader playbook to make sure people catch the right culture.
#Leadership #Ethics #Culture #PsychologicalSafety #LeadBoldly -
Psychological safety is critical for a team to feel they can offer thoughts, opinions, and advice for brainstorming problems, make mistakes and learn from them, and ask fornl help when needed. #psychologicalsafety #advice #team #thoughts
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We’ve glamorized “hero” leaders for too long — the ones who fix everything, never rest, and call burnout “commitment.” But maybe leadership isn’t about saving the day. Maybe it’s about being human enough to say, “I can’t save the whole building, but I can be honest in this room.” 🌿
#Leadership #EmotionalIntelligence #HumanCenteredLeadership #WorkplaceCulture #PsychologicalSafety #AuthenticLeadership #LeadBoldly #TrustAtWork #EmpathyInAction #ModernLeadership
http://leadboldly1.blog/2025/11/07/we-dont-need-more-heroes-we-need-humans/
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The 7 Types of Rest Librarians Actually Need and How to Get Them
I know many of us are struggling right now. Things are rough out there for libraries and for us as people living in the world. When we think about self-care or rest, most of us default to the physical, things like getting enough sleep, maybe squeezing in a workout, or taking a vacation day. And those things matter. But if you’re someone who sleeps eight hours a night, takes your lunch away from your desk, and still feels depleted? You’re not doing self-care wrong. You might be missing the other six types of rest your body and mind need.
There are seven distinct types of rest that we all need to function well. The problem is that we tend to focus on one or two while completely neglecting the others. Sometimes it is because we forget that there is more than one way to rest, sometimes it is because we don’t have a choice.
You know, when I talk about the research around healthy work environments and well-being at work that so many of the conditions that lead to rest deficits aren’t individual problems; they’re organizational ones. This isn’t about librarians needing to be better at self-care. It’s about library workplaces creating conditions where rest is possible.
Let’s look at the seven types and what they look like specifically in library work.
1. Physical Rest: Beyond Sleep and Exercise
Physical rest includes both passive rest (sleep, napping) and active rest (restorative movement like stretching, yoga, or massage). Most of us understand this type of rest, even if we don’t always get enough of it.
What it looks like in libraries: Standing at service desks for hours without breaks. Shelving carts of books. Sitting through back-to-back meetings in uncomfortable chairs. Working split shifts with long commutes. Being expected to come in when you’re sick because there’s no coverage.
What helps: Adequate sleep and vacation time, yes. But also, ergonomic workstations, permission to take actual breaks, and gentle movement during the day.
The institutional piece: Here’s where organizational responsibility comes in. Libraries need staffing levels that allow people to take breaks without guilt. They need to plan for absences during cold and flu season instead of expecting people to work through illness. They need to provide ergonomic equipment without making staff jump through hoops to get it.
The personal piece: I’m someone who prioritizes sleep. Because I’ve struggle with sleep for years, I have good sleep hygiene. But I have had to learned that physical rest also means listening to my body during the day. Sometimes that means doing gentle stretches between video calls. It means using my lunch break to move my body instead of eating at my desk while answering emails. And sometimes it means admitting I need to take a sick day instead of pushing through because I think I should be able to handle it. The older I get, the more I realize that ignoring what my body is telling me just leads to longer recovery times.
2. Mental Rest: When Your Brain Won’t Turn Off
Mental rest is about giving your mind a break from constant decision-making, problem-solving, and information processing. You know you need mental rest when you can’t stop thinking about work, when your brain feels foggy, or when you’re making unusual mistakes.
What it looks like in libraries: Fielding complex reference questions back-to-back. Troubleshooting technology problems all day. Managing competing priorities with inadequate time. Keeping track of multiple projects while being constantly interrupted. Making decisions about collection development, programming, and budgets, often with limited resources and high stakes.
What helps: Short breaks during the workday. Time to think without interruption. Journaling to offload racing thoughts. Mindfulness practices. Even just five minutes of sitting quietly between tasks.
The institutional piece: Libraries need to build in transition time between programs and meetings. They need to create spaces, physical and temporal, where staff can work without interruption. They need to reduce the expectation that everyone should be immediately available at all times. Stop scheduling meetings back-to-back. Stop treating “busy” as a badge of honor.
The personal piece: You know you need mental rest when you’re lying in bed mentally drafting emails or replaying difficult conversations. Journaling before bed can help, not pretty journaling, just brain dumping everything onto paper so it’s not rattling around in your head all night. Try building in a transition time between different types of work. Schedule meetings for 45 minutes or 30 instead of 1 hour. Start meetings a quarter after or 30 minutes passed the hour to help build in breaks for attendees. After a complex project, do something mindless for ten minutes before jumping into the next thing. Your brain needs that reset, even if it feels inefficient in the moment.
3. Sensory Rest: Relief from Overstimulation
We live in a world of constant stimulation, and libraries are no exception. Sensory rest means reducing the input your senses are constantly processing, the screens, the noise, the fluorescent lights, the visual clutter.
What it looks like in libraries: Multiple computer monitors. Fluorescent lighting. Background noise from patrons, phones, printers, and HVAC systems. Too much time on a service desk with no access to a quiet space to decompress. Open floor plans where there’s no escape from stimulation. Being on Zoom calls all day, where you’re constantly watching yourself on screen.
What helps: Stepping away from screens periodically. Close your eyes for a few minutes. Spending time in quiet spaces. Dimming lights when possible. Using noise-canceling headphones in open workspaces (if your role allows).
The institutional piece: Libraries should provide break spaces that aren’t just repurposed storage closets with a microwave, with furniture that was deemed too gross or old for patrons. Create quiet spaces where staff can decompress. Consider lighting options beyond harsh fluorescents. Acknowledge that open office plans, while cost-effective, create sensory overload for many people. And please, stop scheduling full-day video conferences without adequate breaks.
The personal piece: You might not realize how much sensory overload is affecting you until you have a contrast. Many librarians discovered this during the pandemic when working from home. The difference between an open office environment and a quieter home space can be stark. Even when you’re working, be more intentional about reducing sensory input. Close unnecessary browser tabs. Turn off Outlook notifications during focus time. Take your glasses off and close your eyes for a few minutes when you feel that overstimulated buzzing in your head. Take your lunch away from your desk. Get out of the building and experience nature, look up at the sky, even for a few minutes. Look out a window. These seem like small things, but they make a real difference in how depleted you feel at the end of the day.
4. Emotional Rest: Permission to Be Real
Emotional rest is about having the space to express your authentic feelings instead of performing emotional labor constantly. It’s the freedom to say “I’m struggling” without immediately having to reassure everyone that you’re fine.
What it looks like in libraries: Maintaining a pleasant demeanor with difficult patrons. Absorbing community distress, about book challenges, about access to resources, about homelessness, about technology barriers. Managing up when you disagree with administrative decisions. Suppressing frustration when policies don’t serve patrons’ needs or when local, state, or national politics interfere with intellectual freedom or other professional values and ethics. Performing “niceness” even when you’re dealing with harassment or unreasonable demands. All of these involve emotional labor and often invisible labor.
What helps: Having people you can be honest with about how you’re really feeling. Setting boundaries with emotionally draining situations. Processing difficult interactions instead of stuffing them down.
The institutional piece: This is huge. Libraries need to move beyond the veneer of niceness that makes it impossible to address real problems. They need psychological safety, environments where staff can voice concerns without fear of being labeled “negative” or “not a team player.” They need clear protocols for handling abusive patron behavior instead of expecting staff to just absorb it. They need to acknowledge that emotional labor is real work and stop treating it as an expected personality trait, especially for women and people of color. It is important to ensure staff have downtime away from patrons and coworkers in a private space to allow staff to process emotions without masking. Make sure tasks that involve emotional labor are not piled on to one person or a small group. Look at policies and practices to help distribute invisible labor equally.
The personal piece: This is the type of rest many of us struggle with most, especially those of us who are “fixers”; we see problems and want to solve them, or we see something that needs to be done and we do it. But that means we often don’t give ourselves space to feel frustrated or sad or angry about workplace challenges. You don’t have to immediately move to problem-solving mode. Sometimes things just suck, and you need to acknowledge that before you can move forward. Be selective about who you process difficult situations with; some people help you feel heard, while others inadvertently make you feel like you need to manage their reactions to your feelings.
5. Social Rest: Recharging Your Social Battery
Social rest isn’t about being anti-social; it’s about balancing draining social interactions with restorative ones. It’s the difference between being “on” all the time and having a real connection.
What it looks like in libraries: Being in public-facing roles all day. Attending committee meetings. Making small talk at community events. Navigating workplace relationships and politics. Dealing with interpersonal conflicts. For introverts, neurodiverse people, and people in minority groups, even positive social interactions can be depleting without adequate recovery time.
What helps: Time alone to recharge. Saying no to optional social events when you need to. Spending time with people who energize rather than drain you. Having control over when and how you engage socially.
The institutional piece: Stop making attendance at social events outside of work hours feel mandatory. Respect that different people have different social needs. There are many reasons people may not work to socialize outside of work, that does not mean they are antisocial or unfriendly. They just need different conditions to thrive. And it might mean they have healthier boundaries. Reduce the number of meetings that could be emails. Create roles that balance public interaction with behind-the-scenes work. And please, stop using “culture fit” as code for “people who want to hang out together outside of work.” This leads to favoritism and bias.
The personal piece: Librarians work in a profession that requires significant social engagement. For years, you might have thought something was wrong with you because you felt exhausted after days that other people found energizing. Understanding that social rest is a real need can be liberating. It doesn’t matter if you’re an introvert or extrovert, neurodiverse or neurotypical. Be honest about your capacity. Don’t attend every optional event. Build in alone time after intense social periods. And stop feeling guilty about it, this isn’t antisocial behavior; it’s self-awareness about what you need to show up as your best self.
6. Creative Rest: Replenishing Your Capacity for Innovation
Creative rest is about appreciating beauty and inspiration without the pressure to produce something. It’s what we need when we’re experiencing creative fatigue, when every brainstorming session feels like pulling teeth, when we can’t think of one more way to make storytime engaging.
What it looks like in libraries: Constantly developing new programs. Creating displays. Solving problems with limited resources. Being expected to “innovate” without the time, space, or resources to actually be creative. Sitting through another meeting where you’re asked to “think outside the box” while still operating inside very rigid constraints.
What helps: Engaging with art, music, or nature without having to do anything with it. Reading for pleasure instead of professional development. Visiting museums. Taking a walk and actually looking at things. Giving yourself permission to consume creativity instead of always producing it.
The institutional piece: Libraries need to stop treating creativity as something you can turn on and off like a faucet. Innovation requires space, literal time, and mental bandwidth to explore ideas without immediate pressure to implement them. Professional development budgets shouldn’t just cover conferences; they should cover museum memberships, art supplies, and subscriptions to creative magazines. And please, stop asking staff to be creative while simultaneously micromanaging every detail of their work.
The personal piece: Some library roles feel like they require constant creativity and problem-solving, and there are times when you’ll feel completely tapped out. What helps is separating consumption from production. Read fiction without thinking about programming ideas. Visit art museums without photographing everything for social media. Cook without documenting it. You need to fill the creative well before you can draw from it, and that means sometimes just appreciating beauty or creativity without turning it into work. Be present in what you’re doing.
7. Spiritual Rest: Connecting to Something Bigger
Spiritual rest, whether through religion, meditation, purpose, or community, is about feeling connected to something beyond yourself. It’s not necessarily religious; it’s about meaning and belonging.
What it looks like in libraries: Experiencing a disconnect between your values and institutional policies. Being asked to enforce rules you don’t believe serve your community. Feeling like your work doesn’t matter or isn’t valued. Losing sight of why you became a librarian in the first place, because you’re drowning in bureaucracy or fighting book challenges.
What helps: Connecting with your library’s mission in tangible ways. Volunteering for causes you care about. Meditation or prayer if that’s meaningful to you. Spending time in communities where you feel you belong. Reconnecting with the “why” of your work.
The institutional piece: This is where value alignment becomes critical. When libraries require staff to enforce policies that contradict core professional values and ethics, whether around intellectual freedom, privacy, or equitable access, they create spiritual distress. When librarians are forced to compromise their beliefs about serving their community, when good work goes unrecognized, when mission statements ring hollow because actions don’t match words, that’s a recipe for moral injury, not just burnout.
The personal piece: Spiritual rest can come from connecting with why you do this work in the first place. When you’re feeling burned out or cynical, create opportunities to reconnect with libraries’ impact on people’s lives, read thank-you notes from patrons, talk with colleagues about meaningful interactions they’ve had, or volunteer in ways that remind you of the difference this profession makes. Find spiritual rest in nature, in faith or spiritual communities if that’s meaningful to you, or in groups where you can show up as your whole self, not just the professional version. Those connections remind you that you’re part of something bigger than any single frustration or challenge.
Moving Beyond Individual Self-Care
Here’s what I want you to take away from this: if you’re experiencing exhaustion despite taking care of yourself physically, you’re not failing at self-care. You are probably neglecting one or more of the other types of rest, and often because your workplace makes it nearly impossible to get them.
I’ve attended too many conference sessions and workshops or seen online courses that tell library workers how to individually prevent burnout through better self-care. But burnout isn’t an individual problem; it’s an organizational one. All seven types of rest require not just personal choices but institutional support.
So yes, look at where you might be neglecting certain types of rest. Build time for mental quiet, emotional authenticity, social recharging, creative play, and spiritual connection. But also? Advocate for workplaces that make rest possible. Push back on policies and cultures that deplete you faster than you can recover.
Because the truth is, we can’t yoga and meditate our way out of systemic workplace problems. Real rest requires real change, at the organizational level, not just the individual one.
#7TypesOfRest #burnout #health #healthyWorkplace #mentalHealth #psychologicalSafety #selfCare #sevenTypesOfRest #wellness #workplaceWellbeing
-
The 7 Types of Rest Librarians Actually Need and How to Get Them
I know many of us are struggling right now. Things are rough out there for libraries and for us as people living in the world. When we think about self-care or rest, most of us default to the physical, things like getting enough sleep, maybe squeezing in a workout, or taking a vacation day. And those things matter. But if you’re someone who sleeps eight hours a night, takes your lunch away from your desk, and still feels depleted? You’re not doing self-care wrong. You might be missing the other six types of rest your body and mind need.
There are seven distinct types of rest that we all need to function well. The problem is that we tend to focus on one or two while completely neglecting the others. Sometimes it is because we forget that there is more than one way to rest, sometimes it is because we don’t have a choice.
You know, when I talk about the research around healthy work environments and well-being at work that so many of the conditions that lead to rest deficits aren’t individual problems; they’re organizational ones. This isn’t about librarians needing to be better at self-care. It’s about library workplaces creating conditions where rest is possible.
Let’s look at the seven types and what they look like specifically in library work.
1. Physical Rest: Beyond Sleep and Exercise
Physical rest includes both passive rest (sleep, napping) and active rest (restorative movement like stretching, yoga, or massage). Most of us understand this type of rest, even if we don’t always get enough of it.
What it looks like in libraries: Standing at service desks for hours without breaks. Shelving carts of books. Sitting through back-to-back meetings in uncomfortable chairs. Working split shifts with long commutes. Being expected to come in when you’re sick because there’s no coverage.
What helps: Adequate sleep and vacation time, yes. But also, ergonomic workstations, permission to take actual breaks, and gentle movement during the day.
The institutional piece: Here’s where organizational responsibility comes in. Libraries need staffing levels that allow people to take breaks without guilt. They need to plan for absences during cold and flu season instead of expecting people to work through illness. They need to provide ergonomic equipment without making staff jump through hoops to get it.
The personal piece: I’m someone who prioritizes sleep. Because I’ve struggle with sleep for years, I have good sleep hygiene. But I have had to learned that physical rest also means listening to my body during the day. Sometimes that means doing gentle stretches between video calls. It means using my lunch break to move my body instead of eating at my desk while answering emails. And sometimes it means admitting I need to take a sick day instead of pushing through because I think I should be able to handle it. The older I get, the more I realize that ignoring what my body is telling me just leads to longer recovery times.
2. Mental Rest: When Your Brain Won’t Turn Off
Mental rest is about giving your mind a break from constant decision-making, problem-solving, and information processing. You know you need mental rest when you can’t stop thinking about work, when your brain feels foggy, or when you’re making unusual mistakes.
What it looks like in libraries: Fielding complex reference questions back-to-back. Troubleshooting technology problems all day. Managing competing priorities with inadequate time. Keeping track of multiple projects while being constantly interrupted. Making decisions about collection development, programming, and budgets, often with limited resources and high stakes.
What helps: Short breaks during the workday. Time to think without interruption. Journaling to offload racing thoughts. Mindfulness practices. Even just five minutes of sitting quietly between tasks.
The institutional piece: Libraries need to build in transition time between programs and meetings. They need to create spaces, physical and temporal, where staff can work without interruption. They need to reduce the expectation that everyone should be immediately available at all times. Stop scheduling meetings back-to-back. Stop treating “busy” as a badge of honor.
The personal piece: You know you need mental rest when you’re lying in bed mentally drafting emails or replaying difficult conversations. Journaling before bed can help, not pretty journaling, just brain dumping everything onto paper so it’s not rattling around in your head all night. Try building in a transition time between different types of work. Schedule meetings for 45 minutes or 30 instead of 1 hour. Start meetings a quarter after or 30 minutes passed the hour to help build in breaks for attendees. After a complex project, do something mindless for ten minutes before jumping into the next thing. Your brain needs that reset, even if it feels inefficient in the moment.
3. Sensory Rest: Relief from Overstimulation
We live in a world of constant stimulation, and libraries are no exception. Sensory rest means reducing the input your senses are constantly processing, the screens, the noise, the fluorescent lights, the visual clutter.
What it looks like in libraries: Multiple computer monitors. Fluorescent lighting. Background noise from patrons, phones, printers, and HVAC systems. Too much time on a service desk with no access to a quiet space to decompress. Open floor plans where there’s no escape from stimulation. Being on Zoom calls all day, where you’re constantly watching yourself on screen.
What helps: Stepping away from screens periodically. Close your eyes for a few minutes. Spending time in quiet spaces. Dimming lights when possible. Using noise-canceling headphones in open workspaces (if your role allows).
The institutional piece: Libraries should provide break spaces that aren’t just repurposed storage closets with a microwave, with furniture that was deemed too gross or old for patrons. Create quiet spaces where staff can decompress. Consider lighting options beyond harsh fluorescents. Acknowledge that open office plans, while cost-effective, create sensory overload for many people. And please, stop scheduling full-day video conferences without adequate breaks.
The personal piece: You might not realize how much sensory overload is affecting you until you have a contrast. Many librarians discovered this during the pandemic when working from home. The difference between an open office environment and a quieter home space can be stark. Even when you’re working, be more intentional about reducing sensory input. Close unnecessary browser tabs. Turn off Outlook notifications during focus time. Take your glasses off and close your eyes for a few minutes when you feel that overstimulated buzzing in your head. Take your lunch away from your desk. Get out of the building and experience nature, look up at the sky, even for a few minutes. Look out a window. These seem like small things, but they make a real difference in how depleted you feel at the end of the day.
4. Emotional Rest: Permission to Be Real
Emotional rest is about having the space to express your authentic feelings instead of performing emotional labor constantly. It’s the freedom to say “I’m struggling” without immediately having to reassure everyone that you’re fine.
What it looks like in libraries: Maintaining a pleasant demeanor with difficult patrons. Absorbing community distress, about book challenges, about access to resources, about homelessness, about technology barriers. Managing up when you disagree with administrative decisions. Suppressing frustration when policies don’t serve patrons’ needs or when local, state, or national politics interfere with intellectual freedom or other professional values and ethics. Performing “niceness” even when you’re dealing with harassment or unreasonable demands. All of these involve emotional labor and often invisible labor.
What helps: Having people you can be honest with about how you’re really feeling. Setting boundaries with emotionally draining situations. Processing difficult interactions instead of stuffing them down.
The institutional piece: This is huge. Libraries need to move beyond the veneer of niceness that makes it impossible to address real problems. They need psychological safety, environments where staff can voice concerns without fear of being labeled “negative” or “not a team player.” They need clear protocols for handling abusive patron behavior instead of expecting staff to just absorb it. They need to acknowledge that emotional labor is real work and stop treating it as an expected personality trait, especially for women and people of color. It is important to ensure staff have downtime away from patrons and coworkers in a private space to allow staff to process emotions without masking. Make sure tasks that involve emotional labor are not piled on to one person or a small group. Look at policies and practices to help distribute invisible labor equally.
The personal piece: This is the type of rest many of us struggle with most, especially those of us who are “fixers”; we see problems and want to solve them, or we see something that needs to be done and we do it. But that means we often don’t give ourselves space to feel frustrated or sad or angry about workplace challenges. You don’t have to immediately move to problem-solving mode. Sometimes things just suck, and you need to acknowledge that before you can move forward. Be selective about who you process difficult situations with; some people help you feel heard, while others inadvertently make you feel like you need to manage their reactions to your feelings.
5. Social Rest: Recharging Your Social Battery
Social rest isn’t about being anti-social; it’s about balancing draining social interactions with restorative ones. It’s the difference between being “on” all the time and having a real connection.
What it looks like in libraries: Being in public-facing roles all day. Attending committee meetings. Making small talk at community events. Navigating workplace relationships and politics. Dealing with interpersonal conflicts. For introverts, neurodiverse people, and people in minority groups, even positive social interactions can be depleting without adequate recovery time.
What helps: Time alone to recharge. Saying no to optional social events when you need to. Spending time with people who energize rather than drain you. Having control over when and how you engage socially.
The institutional piece: Stop making attendance at social events outside of work hours feel mandatory. Respect that different people have different social needs. There are many reasons people may not work to socialize outside of work, that does not mean they are antisocial or unfriendly. They just need different conditions to thrive. And it might mean they have healthier boundaries. Reduce the number of meetings that could be emails. Create roles that balance public interaction with behind-the-scenes work. And please, stop using “culture fit” as code for “people who want to hang out together outside of work.” This leads to favoritism and bias.
The personal piece: Librarians work in a profession that requires significant social engagement. For years, you might have thought something was wrong with you because you felt exhausted after days that other people found energizing. Understanding that social rest is a real need can be liberating. It doesn’t matter if you’re an introvert or extrovert, neurodiverse or neurotypical. Be honest about your capacity. Don’t attend every optional event. Build in alone time after intense social periods. And stop feeling guilty about it, this isn’t antisocial behavior; it’s self-awareness about what you need to show up as your best self.
6. Creative Rest: Replenishing Your Capacity for Innovation
Creative rest is about appreciating beauty and inspiration without the pressure to produce something. It’s what we need when we’re experiencing creative fatigue, when every brainstorming session feels like pulling teeth, when we can’t think of one more way to make storytime engaging.
What it looks like in libraries: Constantly developing new programs. Creating displays. Solving problems with limited resources. Being expected to “innovate” without the time, space, or resources to actually be creative. Sitting through another meeting where you’re asked to “think outside the box” while still operating inside very rigid constraints.
What helps: Engaging with art, music, or nature without having to do anything with it. Reading for pleasure instead of professional development. Visiting museums. Taking a walk and actually looking at things. Giving yourself permission to consume creativity instead of always producing it.
The institutional piece: Libraries need to stop treating creativity as something you can turn on and off like a faucet. Innovation requires space, literal time, and mental bandwidth to explore ideas without immediate pressure to implement them. Professional development budgets shouldn’t just cover conferences; they should cover museum memberships, art supplies, and subscriptions to creative magazines. And please, stop asking staff to be creative while simultaneously micromanaging every detail of their work.
The personal piece: Some library roles feel like they require constant creativity and problem-solving, and there are times when you’ll feel completely tapped out. What helps is separating consumption from production. Read fiction without thinking about programming ideas. Visit art museums without photographing everything for social media. Cook without documenting it. You need to fill the creative well before you can draw from it, and that means sometimes just appreciating beauty or creativity without turning it into work. Be present in what you’re doing.
7. Spiritual Rest: Connecting to Something Bigger
Spiritual rest, whether through religion, meditation, purpose, or community, is about feeling connected to something beyond yourself. It’s not necessarily religious; it’s about meaning and belonging.
What it looks like in libraries: Experiencing a disconnect between your values and institutional policies. Being asked to enforce rules you don’t believe serve your community. Feeling like your work doesn’t matter or isn’t valued. Losing sight of why you became a librarian in the first place, because you’re drowning in bureaucracy or fighting book challenges.
What helps: Connecting with your library’s mission in tangible ways. Volunteering for causes you care about. Meditation or prayer if that’s meaningful to you. Spending time in communities where you feel you belong. Reconnecting with the “why” of your work.
The institutional piece: This is where value alignment becomes critical. When libraries require staff to enforce policies that contradict core professional values and ethics, whether around intellectual freedom, privacy, or equitable access, they create spiritual distress. When librarians are forced to compromise their beliefs about serving their community, when good work goes unrecognized, when mission statements ring hollow because actions don’t match words, that’s a recipe for moral injury, not just burnout.
The personal piece: Spiritual rest can come from connecting with why you do this work in the first place. When you’re feeling burned out or cynical, create opportunities to reconnect with libraries’ impact on people’s lives, read thank-you notes from patrons, talk with colleagues about meaningful interactions they’ve had, or volunteer in ways that remind you of the difference this profession makes. Find spiritual rest in nature, in faith or spiritual communities if that’s meaningful to you, or in groups where you can show up as your whole self, not just the professional version. Those connections remind you that you’re part of something bigger than any single frustration or challenge.
Moving Beyond Individual Self-Care
Here’s what I want you to take away from this: if you’re experiencing exhaustion despite taking care of yourself physically, you’re not failing at self-care. You are probably neglecting one or more of the other types of rest, and often because your workplace makes it nearly impossible to get them.
I’ve attended too many conference sessions and workshops or seen online courses that tell library workers how to individually prevent burnout through better self-care. But burnout isn’t an individual problem; it’s an organizational one. All seven types of rest require not just personal choices but institutional support.
So yes, look at where you might be neglecting certain types of rest. Build time for mental quiet, emotional authenticity, social recharging, creative play, and spiritual connection. But also? Advocate for workplaces that make rest possible. Push back on policies and cultures that deplete you faster than you can recover.
Because the truth is, we can’t yoga and meditate our way out of systemic workplace problems. Real rest requires real change, at the organizational level, not just the individual one.
#7TypesOfRest #burnout #health #healthyWorkplace #mentalHealth #psychologicalSafety #selfCare #sevenTypesOfRest #wellness #workplaceWellbeing
-
The 7 Types of Rest Librarians Actually Need and How to Get Them
I know many of us are struggling right now. Things are rough out there for libraries and for us as people living in the world. When we think about self-care or rest, most of us default to the physical, things like getting enough sleep, maybe squeezing in a workout, or taking a vacation day. And those things matter. But if you’re someone who sleeps eight hours a night, takes your lunch away from your desk, and still feels depleted? You’re not doing self-care wrong. You might be missing the other six types of rest your body and mind need.
There are seven distinct types of rest that we all need to function well. The problem is that we tend to focus on one or two while completely neglecting the others. Sometimes it is because we forget that there is more than one way to rest, sometimes it is because we don’t have a choice.
You know, when I talk about the research around healthy work environments and well-being at work that so many of the conditions that lead to rest deficits aren’t individual problems; they’re organizational ones. This isn’t about librarians needing to be better at self-care. It’s about library workplaces creating conditions where rest is possible.
Let’s look at the seven types and what they look like specifically in library work.
1. Physical Rest: Beyond Sleep and Exercise
Physical rest includes both passive rest (sleep, napping) and active rest (restorative movement like stretching, yoga, or massage). Most of us understand this type of rest, even if we don’t always get enough of it.
What it looks like in libraries: Standing at service desks for hours without breaks. Shelving carts of books. Sitting through back-to-back meetings in uncomfortable chairs. Working split shifts with long commutes. Being expected to come in when you’re sick because there’s no coverage.
What helps: Adequate sleep and vacation time, yes. But also, ergonomic workstations, permission to take actual breaks, and gentle movement during the day.
The institutional piece: Here’s where organizational responsibility comes in. Libraries need staffing levels that allow people to take breaks without guilt. They need to plan for absences during cold and flu season instead of expecting people to work through illness. They need to provide ergonomic equipment without making staff jump through hoops to get it.
The personal piece: I’m someone who prioritizes sleep. Because I’ve struggle with sleep for years, I have good sleep hygiene. But I have had to learned that physical rest also means listening to my body during the day. Sometimes that means doing gentle stretches between video calls. It means using my lunch break to move my body instead of eating at my desk while answering emails. And sometimes it means admitting I need to take a sick day instead of pushing through because I think I should be able to handle it. The older I get, the more I realize that ignoring what my body is telling me just leads to longer recovery times.
2. Mental Rest: When Your Brain Won’t Turn Off
Mental rest is about giving your mind a break from constant decision-making, problem-solving, and information processing. You know you need mental rest when you can’t stop thinking about work, when your brain feels foggy, or when you’re making unusual mistakes.
What it looks like in libraries: Fielding complex reference questions back-to-back. Troubleshooting technology problems all day. Managing competing priorities with inadequate time. Keeping track of multiple projects while being constantly interrupted. Making decisions about collection development, programming, and budgets, often with limited resources and high stakes.
What helps: Short breaks during the workday. Time to think without interruption. Journaling to offload racing thoughts. Mindfulness practices. Even just five minutes of sitting quietly between tasks.
The institutional piece: Libraries need to build in transition time between programs and meetings. They need to create spaces, physical and temporal, where staff can work without interruption. They need to reduce the expectation that everyone should be immediately available at all times. Stop scheduling meetings back-to-back. Stop treating “busy” as a badge of honor.
The personal piece: You know you need mental rest when you’re lying in bed mentally drafting emails or replaying difficult conversations. Journaling before bed can help, not pretty journaling, just brain dumping everything onto paper so it’s not rattling around in your head all night. Try building in a transition time between different types of work. Schedule meetings for 45 minutes or 30 instead of 1 hour. Start meetings a quarter after or 30 minutes passed the hour to help build in breaks for attendees. After a complex project, do something mindless for ten minutes before jumping into the next thing. Your brain needs that reset, even if it feels inefficient in the moment.
3. Sensory Rest: Relief from Overstimulation
We live in a world of constant stimulation, and libraries are no exception. Sensory rest means reducing the input your senses are constantly processing, the screens, the noise, the fluorescent lights, the visual clutter.
What it looks like in libraries: Multiple computer monitors. Fluorescent lighting. Background noise from patrons, phones, printers, and HVAC systems. Too much time on a service desk with no access to a quiet space to decompress. Open floor plans where there’s no escape from stimulation. Being on Zoom calls all day, where you’re constantly watching yourself on screen.
What helps: Stepping away from screens periodically. Close your eyes for a few minutes. Spending time in quiet spaces. Dimming lights when possible. Using noise-canceling headphones in open workspaces (if your role allows).
The institutional piece: Libraries should provide break spaces that aren’t just repurposed storage closets with a microwave, with furniture that was deemed too gross or old for patrons. Create quiet spaces where staff can decompress. Consider lighting options beyond harsh fluorescents. Acknowledge that open office plans, while cost-effective, create sensory overload for many people. And please, stop scheduling full-day video conferences without adequate breaks.
The personal piece: You might not realize how much sensory overload is affecting you until you have a contrast. Many librarians discovered this during the pandemic when working from home. The difference between an open office environment and a quieter home space can be stark. Even when you’re working, be more intentional about reducing sensory input. Close unnecessary browser tabs. Turn off Outlook notifications during focus time. Take your glasses off and close your eyes for a few minutes when you feel that overstimulated buzzing in your head. Take your lunch away from your desk. Get out of the building and experience nature, look up at the sky, even for a few minutes. Look out a window. These seem like small things, but they make a real difference in how depleted you feel at the end of the day.
4. Emotional Rest: Permission to Be Real
Emotional rest is about having the space to express your authentic feelings instead of performing emotional labor constantly. It’s the freedom to say “I’m struggling” without immediately having to reassure everyone that you’re fine.
What it looks like in libraries: Maintaining a pleasant demeanor with difficult patrons. Absorbing community distress, about book challenges, about access to resources, about homelessness, about technology barriers. Managing up when you disagree with administrative decisions. Suppressing frustration when policies don’t serve patrons’ needs or when local, state, or national politics interfere with intellectual freedom or other professional values and ethics. Performing “niceness” even when you’re dealing with harassment or unreasonable demands. All of these involve emotional labor and often invisible labor.
What helps: Having people you can be honest with about how you’re really feeling. Setting boundaries with emotionally draining situations. Processing difficult interactions instead of stuffing them down.
The institutional piece: This is huge. Libraries need to move beyond the veneer of niceness that makes it impossible to address real problems. They need psychological safety, environments where staff can voice concerns without fear of being labeled “negative” or “not a team player.” They need clear protocols for handling abusive patron behavior instead of expecting staff to just absorb it. They need to acknowledge that emotional labor is real work and stop treating it as an expected personality trait, especially for women and people of color. It is important to ensure staff have downtime away from patrons and coworkers in a private space to allow staff to process emotions without masking. Make sure tasks that involve emotional labor are not piled on to one person or a small group. Look at policies and practices to help distribute invisible labor equally.
The personal piece: This is the type of rest many of us struggle with most, especially those of us who are “fixers”; we see problems and want to solve them, or we see something that needs to be done and we do it. But that means we often don’t give ourselves space to feel frustrated or sad or angry about workplace challenges. You don’t have to immediately move to problem-solving mode. Sometimes things just suck, and you need to acknowledge that before you can move forward. Be selective about who you process difficult situations with; some people help you feel heard, while others inadvertently make you feel like you need to manage their reactions to your feelings.
5. Social Rest: Recharging Your Social Battery
Social rest isn’t about being anti-social; it’s about balancing draining social interactions with restorative ones. It’s the difference between being “on” all the time and having a real connection.
What it looks like in libraries: Being in public-facing roles all day. Attending committee meetings. Making small talk at community events. Navigating workplace relationships and politics. Dealing with interpersonal conflicts. For introverts, neurodiverse people, and people in minority groups, even positive social interactions can be depleting without adequate recovery time.
What helps: Time alone to recharge. Saying no to optional social events when you need to. Spending time with people who energize rather than drain you. Having control over when and how you engage socially.
The institutional piece: Stop making attendance at social events outside of work hours feel mandatory. Respect that different people have different social needs. There are many reasons people may not work to socialize outside of work, that does not mean they are antisocial or unfriendly. They just need different conditions to thrive. And it might mean they have healthier boundaries. Reduce the number of meetings that could be emails. Create roles that balance public interaction with behind-the-scenes work. And please, stop using “culture fit” as code for “people who want to hang out together outside of work.” This leads to favoritism and bias.
The personal piece: Librarians work in a profession that requires significant social engagement. For years, you might have thought something was wrong with you because you felt exhausted after days that other people found energizing. Understanding that social rest is a real need can be liberating. It doesn’t matter if you’re an introvert or extrovert, neurodiverse or neurotypical. Be honest about your capacity. Don’t attend every optional event. Build in alone time after intense social periods. And stop feeling guilty about it, this isn’t antisocial behavior; it’s self-awareness about what you need to show up as your best self.
6. Creative Rest: Replenishing Your Capacity for Innovation
Creative rest is about appreciating beauty and inspiration without the pressure to produce something. It’s what we need when we’re experiencing creative fatigue, when every brainstorming session feels like pulling teeth, when we can’t think of one more way to make storytime engaging.
What it looks like in libraries: Constantly developing new programs. Creating displays. Solving problems with limited resources. Being expected to “innovate” without the time, space, or resources to actually be creative. Sitting through another meeting where you’re asked to “think outside the box” while still operating inside very rigid constraints.
What helps: Engaging with art, music, or nature without having to do anything with it. Reading for pleasure instead of professional development. Visiting museums. Taking a walk and actually looking at things. Giving yourself permission to consume creativity instead of always producing it.
The institutional piece: Libraries need to stop treating creativity as something you can turn on and off like a faucet. Innovation requires space, literal time, and mental bandwidth to explore ideas without immediate pressure to implement them. Professional development budgets shouldn’t just cover conferences; they should cover museum memberships, art supplies, and subscriptions to creative magazines. And please, stop asking staff to be creative while simultaneously micromanaging every detail of their work.
The personal piece: Some library roles feel like they require constant creativity and problem-solving, and there are times when you’ll feel completely tapped out. What helps is separating consumption from production. Read fiction without thinking about programming ideas. Visit art museums without photographing everything for social media. Cook without documenting it. You need to fill the creative well before you can draw from it, and that means sometimes just appreciating beauty or creativity without turning it into work. Be present in what you’re doing.
7. Spiritual Rest: Connecting to Something Bigger
Spiritual rest, whether through religion, meditation, purpose, or community, is about feeling connected to something beyond yourself. It’s not necessarily religious; it’s about meaning and belonging.
What it looks like in libraries: Experiencing a disconnect between your values and institutional policies. Being asked to enforce rules you don’t believe serve your community. Feeling like your work doesn’t matter or isn’t valued. Losing sight of why you became a librarian in the first place, because you’re drowning in bureaucracy or fighting book challenges.
What helps: Connecting with your library’s mission in tangible ways. Volunteering for causes you care about. Meditation or prayer if that’s meaningful to you. Spending time in communities where you feel you belong. Reconnecting with the “why” of your work.
The institutional piece: This is where value alignment becomes critical. When libraries require staff to enforce policies that contradict core professional values and ethics, whether around intellectual freedom, privacy, or equitable access, they create spiritual distress. When librarians are forced to compromise their beliefs about serving their community, when good work goes unrecognized, when mission statements ring hollow because actions don’t match words, that’s a recipe for moral injury, not just burnout.
The personal piece: Spiritual rest can come from connecting with why you do this work in the first place. When you’re feeling burned out or cynical, create opportunities to reconnect with libraries’ impact on people’s lives, read thank-you notes from patrons, talk with colleagues about meaningful interactions they’ve had, or volunteer in ways that remind you of the difference this profession makes. Find spiritual rest in nature, in faith or spiritual communities if that’s meaningful to you, or in groups where you can show up as your whole self, not just the professional version. Those connections remind you that you’re part of something bigger than any single frustration or challenge.
Moving Beyond Individual Self-Care
Here’s what I want you to take away from this: if you’re experiencing exhaustion despite taking care of yourself physically, you’re not failing at self-care. You are probably neglecting one or more of the other types of rest, and often because your workplace makes it nearly impossible to get them.
I’ve attended too many conference sessions and workshops or seen online courses that tell library workers how to individually prevent burnout through better self-care. But burnout isn’t an individual problem; it’s an organizational one. All seven types of rest require not just personal choices but institutional support.
So yes, look at where you might be neglecting certain types of rest. Build time for mental quiet, emotional authenticity, social recharging, creative play, and spiritual connection. But also? Advocate for workplaces that make rest possible. Push back on policies and cultures that deplete you faster than you can recover.
Because the truth is, we can’t yoga and meditate our way out of systemic workplace problems. Real rest requires real change, at the organizational level, not just the individual one.
#7TypesOfRest #burnout #health #healthyWorkplace #mentalHealth #psychologicalSafety #selfCare #sevenTypesOfRest #wellness #workplaceWellbeing
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The 7 Types of Rest Librarians Actually Need and How to Get Them
I know many of us are struggling right now. Things are rough out there for libraries and for us as people living in the world. When we think about self-care or rest, most of us default to the physical, things like getting enough sleep, maybe squeezing in a workout, or taking a vacation day. And those things matter. But if you’re someone who sleeps eight hours a night, takes your lunch away from your desk, and still feels depleted? You’re not doing self-care wrong. You might be missing the other six types of rest your body and mind need.
There are seven distinct types of rest that we all need to function well. The problem is that we tend to focus on one or two while completely neglecting the others. Sometimes it is because we forget that there is more than one way to rest, sometimes it is because we don’t have a choice.
You know, when I talk about the research around healthy work environments and well-being at work that so many of the conditions that lead to rest deficits aren’t individual problems; they’re organizational ones. This isn’t about librarians needing to be better at self-care. It’s about library workplaces creating conditions where rest is possible.
Let’s look at the seven types and what they look like specifically in library work.
1. Physical Rest: Beyond Sleep and Exercise
Physical rest includes both passive rest (sleep, napping) and active rest (restorative movement like stretching, yoga, or massage). Most of us understand this type of rest, even if we don’t always get enough of it.
What it looks like in libraries: Standing at service desks for hours without breaks. Shelving carts of books. Sitting through back-to-back meetings in uncomfortable chairs. Working split shifts with long commutes. Being expected to come in when you’re sick because there’s no coverage.
What helps: Adequate sleep and vacation time, yes. But also, ergonomic workstations, permission to take actual breaks, and gentle movement during the day.
The institutional piece: Here’s where organizational responsibility comes in. Libraries need staffing levels that allow people to take breaks without guilt. They need to plan for absences during cold and flu season instead of expecting people to work through illness. They need to provide ergonomic equipment without making staff jump through hoops to get it.
The personal piece: I’m someone who prioritizes sleep. Because I’ve struggle with sleep for years, I have good sleep hygiene. But I have had to learned that physical rest also means listening to my body during the day. Sometimes that means doing gentle stretches between video calls. It means using my lunch break to move my body instead of eating at my desk while answering emails. And sometimes it means admitting I need to take a sick day instead of pushing through because I think I should be able to handle it. The older I get, the more I realize that ignoring what my body is telling me just leads to longer recovery times.
2. Mental Rest: When Your Brain Won’t Turn Off
Mental rest is about giving your mind a break from constant decision-making, problem-solving, and information processing. You know you need mental rest when you can’t stop thinking about work, when your brain feels foggy, or when you’re making unusual mistakes.
What it looks like in libraries: Fielding complex reference questions back-to-back. Troubleshooting technology problems all day. Managing competing priorities with inadequate time. Keeping track of multiple projects while being constantly interrupted. Making decisions about collection development, programming, and budgets, often with limited resources and high stakes.
What helps: Short breaks during the workday. Time to think without interruption. Journaling to offload racing thoughts. Mindfulness practices. Even just five minutes of sitting quietly between tasks.
The institutional piece: Libraries need to build in transition time between programs and meetings. They need to create spaces, physical and temporal, where staff can work without interruption. They need to reduce the expectation that everyone should be immediately available at all times. Stop scheduling meetings back-to-back. Stop treating “busy” as a badge of honor.
The personal piece: You know you need mental rest when you’re lying in bed mentally drafting emails or replaying difficult conversations. Journaling before bed can help, not pretty journaling, just brain dumping everything onto paper so it’s not rattling around in your head all night. Try building in a transition time between different types of work. Schedule meetings for 45 minutes or 30 instead of 1 hour. Start meetings a quarter after or 30 minutes passed the hour to help build in breaks for attendees. After a complex project, do something mindless for ten minutes before jumping into the next thing. Your brain needs that reset, even if it feels inefficient in the moment.
3. Sensory Rest: Relief from Overstimulation
We live in a world of constant stimulation, and libraries are no exception. Sensory rest means reducing the input your senses are constantly processing, the screens, the noise, the fluorescent lights, the visual clutter.
What it looks like in libraries: Multiple computer monitors. Fluorescent lighting. Background noise from patrons, phones, printers, and HVAC systems. Too much time on a service desk with no access to a quiet space to decompress. Open floor plans where there’s no escape from stimulation. Being on Zoom calls all day, where you’re constantly watching yourself on screen.
What helps: Stepping away from screens periodically. Close your eyes for a few minutes. Spending time in quiet spaces. Dimming lights when possible. Using noise-canceling headphones in open workspaces (if your role allows).
The institutional piece: Libraries should provide break spaces that aren’t just repurposed storage closets with a microwave, with furniture that was deemed too gross or old for patrons. Create quiet spaces where staff can decompress. Consider lighting options beyond harsh fluorescents. Acknowledge that open office plans, while cost-effective, create sensory overload for many people. And please, stop scheduling full-day video conferences without adequate breaks.
The personal piece: You might not realize how much sensory overload is affecting you until you have a contrast. Many librarians discovered this during the pandemic when working from home. The difference between an open office environment and a quieter home space can be stark. Even when you’re working, be more intentional about reducing sensory input. Close unnecessary browser tabs. Turn off Outlook notifications during focus time. Take your glasses off and close your eyes for a few minutes when you feel that overstimulated buzzing in your head. Take your lunch away from your desk. Get out of the building and experience nature, look up at the sky, even for a few minutes. Look out a window. These seem like small things, but they make a real difference in how depleted you feel at the end of the day.
4. Emotional Rest: Permission to Be Real
Emotional rest is about having the space to express your authentic feelings instead of performing emotional labor constantly. It’s the freedom to say “I’m struggling” without immediately having to reassure everyone that you’re fine.
What it looks like in libraries: Maintaining a pleasant demeanor with difficult patrons. Absorbing community distress, about book challenges, about access to resources, about homelessness, about technology barriers. Managing up when you disagree with administrative decisions. Suppressing frustration when policies don’t serve patrons’ needs or when local, state, or national politics interfere with intellectual freedom or other professional values and ethics. Performing “niceness” even when you’re dealing with harassment or unreasonable demands. All of these involve emotional labor and often invisible labor.
What helps: Having people you can be honest with about how you’re really feeling. Setting boundaries with emotionally draining situations. Processing difficult interactions instead of stuffing them down.
The institutional piece: This is huge. Libraries need to move beyond the veneer of niceness that makes it impossible to address real problems. They need psychological safety, environments where staff can voice concerns without fear of being labeled “negative” or “not a team player.” They need clear protocols for handling abusive patron behavior instead of expecting staff to just absorb it. They need to acknowledge that emotional labor is real work and stop treating it as an expected personality trait, especially for women and people of color. It is important to ensure staff have downtime away from patrons and coworkers in a private space to allow staff to process emotions without masking. Make sure tasks that involve emotional labor are not piled on to one person or a small group. Look at policies and practices to help distribute invisible labor equally.
The personal piece: This is the type of rest many of us struggle with most, especially those of us who are “fixers”; we see problems and want to solve them, or we see something that needs to be done and we do it. But that means we often don’t give ourselves space to feel frustrated or sad or angry about workplace challenges. You don’t have to immediately move to problem-solving mode. Sometimes things just suck, and you need to acknowledge that before you can move forward. Be selective about who you process difficult situations with; some people help you feel heard, while others inadvertently make you feel like you need to manage their reactions to your feelings.
5. Social Rest: Recharging Your Social Battery
Social rest isn’t about being anti-social; it’s about balancing draining social interactions with restorative ones. It’s the difference between being “on” all the time and having a real connection.
What it looks like in libraries: Being in public-facing roles all day. Attending committee meetings. Making small talk at community events. Navigating workplace relationships and politics. Dealing with interpersonal conflicts. For introverts, neurodiverse people, and people in minority groups, even positive social interactions can be depleting without adequate recovery time.
What helps: Time alone to recharge. Saying no to optional social events when you need to. Spending time with people who energize rather than drain you. Having control over when and how you engage socially.
The institutional piece: Stop making attendance at social events outside of work hours feel mandatory. Respect that different people have different social needs. There are many reasons people may not work to socialize outside of work, that does not mean they are antisocial or unfriendly. They just need different conditions to thrive. And it might mean they have healthier boundaries. Reduce the number of meetings that could be emails. Create roles that balance public interaction with behind-the-scenes work. And please, stop using “culture fit” as code for “people who want to hang out together outside of work.” This leads to favoritism and bias.
The personal piece: Librarians work in a profession that requires significant social engagement. For years, you might have thought something was wrong with you because you felt exhausted after days that other people found energizing. Understanding that social rest is a real need can be liberating. It doesn’t matter if you’re an introvert or extrovert, neurodiverse or neurotypical. Be honest about your capacity. Don’t attend every optional event. Build in alone time after intense social periods. And stop feeling guilty about it, this isn’t antisocial behavior; it’s self-awareness about what you need to show up as your best self.
6. Creative Rest: Replenishing Your Capacity for Innovation
Creative rest is about appreciating beauty and inspiration without the pressure to produce something. It’s what we need when we’re experiencing creative fatigue, when every brainstorming session feels like pulling teeth, when we can’t think of one more way to make storytime engaging.
What it looks like in libraries: Constantly developing new programs. Creating displays. Solving problems with limited resources. Being expected to “innovate” without the time, space, or resources to actually be creative. Sitting through another meeting where you’re asked to “think outside the box” while still operating inside very rigid constraints.
What helps: Engaging with art, music, or nature without having to do anything with it. Reading for pleasure instead of professional development. Visiting museums. Taking a walk and actually looking at things. Giving yourself permission to consume creativity instead of always producing it.
The institutional piece: Libraries need to stop treating creativity as something you can turn on and off like a faucet. Innovation requires space, literal time, and mental bandwidth to explore ideas without immediate pressure to implement them. Professional development budgets shouldn’t just cover conferences; they should cover museum memberships, art supplies, and subscriptions to creative magazines. And please, stop asking staff to be creative while simultaneously micromanaging every detail of their work.
The personal piece: Some library roles feel like they require constant creativity and problem-solving, and there are times when you’ll feel completely tapped out. What helps is separating consumption from production. Read fiction without thinking about programming ideas. Visit art museums without photographing everything for social media. Cook without documenting it. You need to fill the creative well before you can draw from it, and that means sometimes just appreciating beauty or creativity without turning it into work. Be present in what you’re doing.
7. Spiritual Rest: Connecting to Something Bigger
Spiritual rest, whether through religion, meditation, purpose, or community, is about feeling connected to something beyond yourself. It’s not necessarily religious; it’s about meaning and belonging.
What it looks like in libraries: Experiencing a disconnect between your values and institutional policies. Being asked to enforce rules you don’t believe serve your community. Feeling like your work doesn’t matter or isn’t valued. Losing sight of why you became a librarian in the first place, because you’re drowning in bureaucracy or fighting book challenges.
What helps: Connecting with your library’s mission in tangible ways. Volunteering for causes you care about. Meditation or prayer if that’s meaningful to you. Spending time in communities where you feel you belong. Reconnecting with the “why” of your work.
The institutional piece: This is where value alignment becomes critical. When libraries require staff to enforce policies that contradict core professional values and ethics, whether around intellectual freedom, privacy, or equitable access, they create spiritual distress. When librarians are forced to compromise their beliefs about serving their community, when good work goes unrecognized, when mission statements ring hollow because actions don’t match words, that’s a recipe for moral injury, not just burnout.
The personal piece: Spiritual rest can come from connecting with why you do this work in the first place. When you’re feeling burned out or cynical, create opportunities to reconnect with libraries’ impact on people’s lives, read thank-you notes from patrons, talk with colleagues about meaningful interactions they’ve had, or volunteer in ways that remind you of the difference this profession makes. Find spiritual rest in nature, in faith or spiritual communities if that’s meaningful to you, or in groups where you can show up as your whole self, not just the professional version. Those connections remind you that you’re part of something bigger than any single frustration or challenge.
Moving Beyond Individual Self-Care
Here’s what I want you to take away from this: if you’re experiencing exhaustion despite taking care of yourself physically, you’re not failing at self-care. You are probably neglecting one or more of the other types of rest, and often because your workplace makes it nearly impossible to get them.
I’ve attended too many conference sessions and workshops or seen online courses that tell library workers how to individually prevent burnout through better self-care. But burnout isn’t an individual problem; it’s an organizational one. All seven types of rest require not just personal choices but institutional support.
So yes, look at where you might be neglecting certain types of rest. Build time for mental quiet, emotional authenticity, social recharging, creative play, and spiritual connection. But also? Advocate for workplaces that make rest possible. Push back on policies and cultures that deplete you faster than you can recover.
Because the truth is, we can’t yoga and meditate our way out of systemic workplace problems. Real rest requires real change, at the organizational level, not just the individual one.
Edited November 18, 2025
Someone commented asking for references and I’m embarrassed I didn’t include them! (Thank you commenter for pointing that out!) Regular readers know they are normally included with posts like this. This post is a longer version of content I’ve been including in my presentations for over a year I didn’t go back and pull the sources I have at the end of the presentation. Here they are!
References
Abramson, A. (2025, May 6). Seven types of rest to help restore your body’s energy. Https://Www.Apa.Org. https://www.apa.org/topics/mental-health/seven-rest-types
Beddington, E. (2021, November 25). The seven types of rest: I spent a week trying them all. Could they help end my exhaustion? The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/nov/25/the-seven-types-of-rest-i-spent-a-week-trying-them-all-could-they-help-end-my-exhaustion
Ericson, C. (2021, September 29). The seven types of rest that can improve your well-being. The Boston Globe. https://sponsored.bostonglobe.com/point32health/7-types-rest-improve-well-being/
Here are the 7 types of rest that can help you to feel fully renewed. (n.d.). Calm Blog. https://blog.calm.com/blog/7-types-of-rest
Maslach, C. (2017). Finding solutions to the problem of burnout. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 69(2), 143–152. https://doi.org/10.1037/cpb0000090
Schaufeli, W. B., Leiter, M. P., & Maslach, C. (2009). Burnout: 35 years of research and practice. Career Development International, 14(3), 204–220.
Skowron, C. (2022, December 21). The 7 Kinds of Rest You Actually Need. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/a-different-kind-of-therapy/202212/the-7-kinds-of-rest-you-need-to-actually-feel-rejuvenated
Willkomm, A. C. (2022, November 14). 7 Types of Rest. Graduate College, Drexel University. https://drexel.edu/graduatecollege/professional-development/blog/2022/November/7-types-of-rest/
Yang, A. B. (2023, March 30). Don’t rely on work for socialization. https://www.workbetter.media/p/dont-rely-on-work-for-socialization
#7TypesOfRest #burnout #health #healthyWorkplace #mentalHealth #psychologicalSafety #selfCare #sevenTypesOfRest #wellness #workplaceWellbeing -
Diese Resignation ist nachvollziehbar. Das 5. agile Prinzip ist da glasklar:
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Wenn diese Unterstützung fehlt, weil das Team gegen Mauern läuft, zieht es sich auf den Balkon des Meckerns zurück.
Die Haltung "Konzentriert euch nur auf das, was ihr ändern könnt" wird zur Farce.
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A new study links workplace AI adoption to increased employee depression 😔, partly due to reduced psychological safety 🛡️.
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#WorkplaceAI #EmployeeMentalHealth #PsychologicalSafety #AIImpact #WorkplaceWellbeing https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-025-05040-2
Reenviado desde Science News
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https://medium.com/@sanjay.mohindroo66/building-high-performance-technology-teams-6d327131c21a
