Nice Work: The gloom and the good

Hey there,

Last week, Jen and I went to happy hour with Philamade, a local group of design-related folks. It was beautiful: old friends, a warm sunny day fading into golden hour, a rooftop overlooking the whole city.

The conversation still managed to turn gloomy: ICE raids, trade wars, the long history of gerrymandering. Layoffs, small business anxieties, bad job markets.

It wasn’t just this conversation. It’s most conversations lately—at least, the ones where people feel like they’re allowed to be honest. We’ve all got big, difficult stuff on our minds. Even when the sun is out and the flowers are blooming and everyone’s got a cold drink in hand.

Personally, I’m grateful for these conversations—grateful to surround myself with people who’d rather talk about what’s really going on in the world (and in their heads and hearts) than fake-smile and “keep it professional.” But something else happened that night, too. And it was just as important to make space for as the gloom.

“What’s good in your life right now?”

When Scott Weidman, one of Jen’s old colleagues, asked this question, it stopped me in my tracks. “What is good in my life right now?” I wondered, mind suddenly blank. “Anything? Anything at all???”

I flailed for what felt like half an hour, but was probably more like 20 seconds. And then, like magic, a flood of good things started coming back to me:

• I’d had a great coaching call with a client that afternoon—one filled with trust and honesty and real aha moments.

• I’d just completed the Broad Street Run, Philly’s massive 10-mile race, and I’ve been making lots of progress getting my running pace back to its pre-ACL tear, pre-pannie peak.

• A beloved corporate client asked me to put together some new programming that’ll be really fun to produce. 

• I’m thiiiiis close (and getting closer) to my first unassisted pullup. 

• My partner and I have scheduled lots of small pleasures for the next couple months: playing hooky with friends to check out the newly renovated Frick Collection, catching Cole Escola in Oh, Mary on Broadway before they end their run, going camping in the Catskills. 

• My tween nieces are visiting without their parents for the first time this summer. It’ll be a week of beach days and boba (and, hopefully, holding onto my “cool aunt” title). 

Turns out, there’s a lot of good in my life: work wins, athletic feats, friends, just plain fun. But if I let the gloom have all my brainspace, I can’t remember any of that. And even worse, fixating on the gloom stops me from enjoying the good stuff even while it’s happening—because when we train ourselves to focus on the bad, that’s all we notice.

So that’s what I’m up to this month: reminding myself to make space for the good. Not so I can stick my head in the sand. Not so I can spew toxic positivity at you. But because I deserve to enjoy the good stuff, too. We all do.

What about you? What’s good in your life right now? I’d love to hear about it.

—Sara 

Does work feel like a chaos factory custom-designed to distract your ADHD brain?

That’s what I’ve been hearing from lots of clients—that their jobs have become a swirl of panicked bosses, sudden reorgs, and whiplash strategy shifts. They’re being asked to ship faster and juggle more projects. It’s a recipe for overwhelm—especially for people with ADHD.

If that’s you—whether you’ve been formally diagnosed or not—I’d love for you to check out our next workshop, coming up on June 6: Protect Yourself from ADHD Burnout. It’ll be led by two experts on ADHD at work: Active Voice’s own Jen Dionisio—who not only has ADHD herself, but is also a trained ADHD coach—and our friend Melissa Rogel, LMFT. Melissa is a coach and therapist who also has ADHD, and she works closely with neurodivergent and creative clients in her private practice.

I am so excited for the workshop they’ve cooked up together—taking all their personal and professional experience and rolling it up into a practical program that will help you:

• Get a deeper understanding of your strengths and vulnerabilities at work—especially in times of uncertainty

• Learn to identify when you’re approaching a burnout tipping point—and pull yourself back from the brink

• Work with—not against—your brain to create flexible systems and rituals that ground you in even the most challenging times

If your ADHD brain struggles with the demands and distractions of your workplace—and you want a nurturing, knowledgeable space to figure out how to make work better for you—check out this workshop. And if you have questions, hit reply and let us know!

Protect Yourself from ADHD Burnout

June 6, 2025 from 1-3:30pm ET

Cost: $229

Per My Last Email is coming back—and we need your work dilemmas 

Jen and I are planning new episodes of Per My Last Email—our podcast about what to do when work gets weird. Each episode, we coach listeners through sticky work situations—like how to start an awkward conversation with your manager, what to do about a bad performance review, or how to cope when work feels pointless.

That’s where you come in. If you have a dilemma around one of these topics, tell us about it—and we’ll coach you through it in an upcoming episode:

• Managing humans: Are you struggling with someone on your team? Trying to rebuild trust after a layoff or reorg? Or just wondering why management is so hard? We want to hear from you.

• Working through the polycrisis: Are you struggling to care about work when the world feels so chaotic? Worried about the future of your career in a world of AI and climate change? Wondering if any of this even matters? Bring us those big, existential questions!

• “Proving your value”: Are you trying to show how valuable you are—but find yourself feeling less and less confident? Is people-pleasing causing you pain? Or just plain tired of feeling like you have to defend your work day-to-day? Let us help you reset.

Have a different topic? Send it! No matter how weird or wild, we want to help. And unlike classic advice shows, we won’t tell you what to do—because we know there’s only one person with the right answer for that: You. So instead, we’ll ask questions that help you break out of stuck spots and thought spirals, find new ideas and paths forward, and feel more confident in whatever you choose.

We’re recording later this month, so send us your juiciest challenges ASAP!