A person can download the TaskHuman app and run a search for what they are interested in doing or ... [+] learning. You can search for individual practitioners or the terms, "how can I improve my mindset? or what are the best ways to deal with anxiety and stress? The app will lead you to the appropriate coaches. The choices include personal training, yoga, pilates, meditation, life transitions, financial wellness, mindfulness, leadership, coaching, diversity and inclusion and more. It's meant to help with the overall mental, physical and spiritual health of the workers.

We are in a new, exciting era that places the focus of attention on workers. Companies have realized that they need to roll out the red carpet to job seekers and show empathy and appreciation to their current employees. With millions of open jobs each month, and 4 million quitting on a regular monthly basis, executives nervously noticed the sea change. In response, they are offering an array of benefits to attract, recruit and retain people.

It used to be that bosses would throw some more money at a person to make them shut up, put in the long hours and keep working hard. The power dynamic has now dramatically shifted from management to workers. It takes more than a few bucks to entice job hunters to select their company and keep current employees happy and engaged.

Smart entrepreneurs are creating products and services for businesses to offer unique experiences that express appreciation and gratitude to their workforce. Ravi Swaminathan, CEO of TaskHuman, is a progressive, forward-thinking startup founder. He built a unique platform that helps companies combat the current Great Resignation culture and win the war for talent. His app offers comprehensive and holistic employee wellness and coaching solutions that improve the quality of lives of workers.

Swaminathan believes employees are the most valuable assets of a company. He is a champion of the concept come as you are, which means that business leaders should offer deep personalized support for each employee based upon their individual needs and desires.

When employees are appreciated and offered meaningful ways to enhance and improve their lives, theyll be more apt to stick with the company. Theyll also be more motivated and productive. To best future-proof their organization and retain talent, business leaders must create an environment where employees feel valued and are offered resources that help them build healthy behaviors and help the employee feel good about both their personal and work life, said the TaskHuman chief executive. Swaminathan added, Employees will see their workplace as an invaluable resource that supports their unique individual lifestyle.

In an effort to better the lives of workers, the TaskHuman app easily connects workers with an expert in a specific field with a personalized one-on-one experience. The company has over 1,000 coaches for over 1,000 topics, which can be accessed anytime. Companies use the platform as a great benefit to employees to improve and enhance their lives. People can also subscribe on their own, too.

A person can download the app and run a search for what they are interested in doing or learning. You can search for individual practitioners or the terms, "how can I improve my mindset? or what are the best ways to deal with anxiety and stress? The app will lead you to the appropriate coaches. The choices include personal training, yoga, Pilates, meditation, life transitions, financial wellness, mindfulness, leadership, coaching, diversity and inclusion and more. It's meant to help with the overall mental, physical and spiritual health of the workers.

Some of TaskHumans corporate clients include Zoom, RingCentral and Purdue University. The companies use the app to help support employees by enhancing morale, improving health, well-being and productivity via personal and professional help with the video calls.

Swaminathan says that personalized guidance that caters to each employees unique needs creates transformative experiences for employees. Additionally, in remote and hybrid workplaces where people start to feel alone and isolated, group sessions build morale and improve employee satisfaction.

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Company-Sponsored, On-Demand, Personalized Live Coaching Is The Latest Trend To Help Improve The Lives Of Workers - Forbes

Mike Zimmer stood at the goal line 30 minutes before kickoff on Sunday at U.S. Bank Stadium, his arms crossed across his chest as he surveyed his kingdom for potentially the final time.

His lifes work as a coach had been reduced to a meaningless Week 18 game with the Bears, neither team capable of doing anything with their respective seasons beyond the 60 minutes left on the field.

Here comes Mike Zimmer! the public-address announcer bellowed over the loudspeaker ahead of player introductions. And your Minnesota Vikings!

It was an awkward moment that got even more awkward as Zimmer animatedly stalked the sidelines throughout a game that, at times, felt more like a funeral. Hes not stupid. He had to know deep down that it was likely his last game with the Vikings.

His actions after the 31-17 win spoke to that, too, as he snapped a picture with his son, Adam, on the field. As he slowly made his way toward the Vikings locker room, Zimmer took a fleeting moment to look around the Vikings home once more.

It sure looked like a man coming to grips with what was about it happen. No official word regarding Zimmers future had surfaced on Sunday night.

If this is indeed the end of the Mike Zimmer era, though, its about time.

Asked postgame what he will remember most about his time with the Vikings since taking over in 2014, Zimmer pleaded, Lets not go there today. You want to talk about it tomorrow, then lets talk about it tomorrow. This isnt time to reflect for eight years.

He gave that answer knowing that if he is fired, he wont talk to reporters again.

As unpleasant as Zimmer could be throughout his tenure especially when things werent going well history will more than likely be kind to him. He was a very good coach with only the legendary Bud Grant and Dennis Green having more successful coaching careers with the Vikings.

This move has to happen, though, and it probably should have happened a couple of years ago.

Theres a good chance Zimmer would have been fired in January 2020 had veteran tight end Kyle Rudolph not hauled in a walk-off touchdown pass in the first-round playoff game against the Saints in New Orleans. Instead, Zimmer got another chance to prove himself, and the Vikings missed the playoffs in back-to-back seasons.

Would the Vikings be in a better position now if they just ripped off the Band-Aid? It might have saved them from a couple more seasons of mediocrity. The only thing worse than being very bad in the NFL is being kind of bad.

Looking back on Zimmers time in Minnesota is difficult. He skillfully toed the line between successful and stubborn for nearly a decade.

Did he mismanage his players at times? Certainly. The way he handled the Daniel Carlson situation was a masterclass in what not to do to a rookie kicker.

Did he struggle to adapt to the modern-day NFL? No doubt. He was obsessed with running Dalvin Cook into the ground despite having incredible pass-catching threats like Justin Jefferson and Adam Thielen.

Did he lack consistency as the man in charge? Absolutely. He never once led the Vikings to back-to-back winning seasons.

Still, the Vikings were always relevant under Zimmer, and they were one win away from playing in Super Bowl LI on their home field. The loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in the 2017 NFC Championship Game was as close as the Vikings got to hoisting the Lombardi Trophy with Zimmer at the helm.

In hindsight, that was the beginning of the end for Zimmer, as he never got the Vikings close to that level ever again.

Now its time to move on.

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Dane Mizutani: Vikings Mike Zimmer was a very good coach. Now its time to move on - TwinCities.com-Pioneer Press

Andy Page always looked like he was up to something, and it always looked like it was something good. He was a man with a distinctive spark in his eye, a witty original aphorism to fix most troubles, and a mischievous spirit that emanated from a boundless supply of plain old personable good will.

In short, Coach Page, as most locals call him, was a character in every sense of the wordbut he wasnt a caricature of one. He was a coach, an educator, about the most genuine politician youll ever come across, and for just about everyone who ever knew him a good friend.

Page passed away on Jan. 5 after a brief illness. He was 81 years old. Retired from a 30-year teaching and coaching career that culminated with a lengthy stint at Cullman Middle School (as a math teacher) and Cullman High School (as a football coach), Page was early in his fourth term in the Place 1 seat on the Cullman City Council.

To say that the councils loss is the least among the many that the Cullman community will suffer with Pages passing is no hyperbole. Even the mayors office confessed as much, issuing a heartfelt statement Thursday that focused on the legacy he leaves behind.

The Council and myself know that Coachs spot will have to be filled, but now is not the time to focus on that, said Cullman mayor Woody Jacobs. Now is the time to reflect back on the life of a great man and leader, to thank God for the impact He allowed Coach to make in everyones life, and to grieve with the family.

Coach spoke in a language uniquely his, and had a natural gift for cutting up that disarmed students, strangers, and longtime friends alike. Back in the days when fewer people complained about having thin skin, Coach would pause in the middle of an intense Algebra lesson, get a playful glint in his eye, and ask one of the seated 8th graders: Whore you sparkin? which was Page-speak for going steady with a school crushor at least aspiring to, in that bashful teenaged sort of way.

In math class and on the football field, he had this thing that hed always say, and it always made sense coming from him, recalls former student and longtime friend David Hutchens. Hed say, Its simple; its just not easy. He was happiest when he was trying to teach you something.

Whether in local politics, at church, in the classroom or even in the sweatiest dog days of summer practice, Coach knew how to build trust by balancing the stern with the silly. You always feel a little better when youre around him, said longtime friend Randall Key.

He was such a well-rounded individual. He was kind of a renaissance man. He could talk about having to defend against the option, or he could sit there and talk music. He was like a Siren: He was just fun to be around, and hed just draw you in.

Page could be intense after all, coaching football was in his blood. But it was his lighter side that always shone through to students, and his gregarious spirit served him well after he retired from teaching and embarked on his first venture into local politics.

The guy never met a stranger, says former coaching colleague Danny Miller. Hed make a friend out of anybody he didnt even have to know them. In football coaching circles, everybody just knew Coach Page, even if they didnt yet really know him. I guess thats what helped him become a politician. I told someone, when he first talked about running for city council: That guys never gonna have to introduce himself to anybody. He was just a natural in the way he could relate to people.

Hutchens tells an anecdote that pretty much captures Coachs instinctive knack for making lasting connections with a dose of comedy.

You can talk to 100 different people, and youll get 100 different Coach Page stories, said Hutchens. Mine is from when I was playing football in high school. We were doing a walkthrough at the stadium, and he walked up to me and said, Hey Cotton Top! which is what he always called me.

Page pulled a well-chewed plug of tobacco out of his mouth, made sure Hutchens saw it, and went on.

Hey Cotton Top! If I leave this chew somewhere out on the field, will you help me remember where I put it? Hutchens suggested the visiting teams hash mark on the 25 yard line, so Coach walked over (He did that little quick Coach Page shuffle, he recalls) and left the mangled chew on the spot.

I thought nothing else about it until the next day, when we were out there again, probably 20 yards from where we were the day before, Hutchens continues.

Well, here he came again: Hey Cotton Top! Where did we put that chew yesterday?! and he had that real big grin. He walked over there, picked it up off the ground, and put it right back in his mouth and he looked at me, still with that big Coach Page grin, and just got a sort of satisfied look and started chewing and he just said, Awww, yeah. He was doing it to be entertaining, and it was entertaining. He enjoyed doing things like that, because he knew it was something youd remember and man, I did.

Coach was intelligent with his pranks. The funny stuff came naturally, but it also came from a sharp mind that understood human nature. Page knew that people appreciate seeing the stuffy social barriers that often surround them broken; that they give their confidence to someone whos willing to first share a little bit of their own.

Current Cullman football coach Oscar Glasscock, a former student of Pages, took that lesson to heart early. It was Pages contentment with life; a happiness that he and the late coach Dale Cook, a longtime family friend and another of Glasscocks early mentors, both exhibited that helped Glasscock decide on a direction for his own life.

I had not fully considered coaching and teaching as a profession very much before I got to know Andy well. I wasnt certain about going into it, but I was certain I wanted to live life like he did; like he and coach Cook both did, says Glasscock. Because he was alway laughing; he was always in good humor. He always welcomed you and acted like he was glad to see you and he genuinely was.

Page was born and raised on a farm near Aynor, South Carolina, a small town not far from Myrtle Beach. Ive been fortunate to travel through there a few times, and of course because I knew Andy, Id stop and drive around, says Glasscock. I saw where he played high school football; I saw the fields hed mention in his stories when he used to tell us about chopping tobacco and helping with the harvests. Its coastal and a very different kind of Deep South from here, and its instructive to visit the place where he grew up before he came to Alabama and brought his personality; really his happiness, with him.

Andy took time to talk and listen to anybody; to tell a funny story; to make you laugh and generally feel at ease and seeing that as a student, thats the way I wanted to be, too. I would see that and think, What a great way to live. Im super grateful to have known him and how lucky is this community that he ever showed up here in the first place? How lucky weve all been, to have him come to Cullman; to put down roots in this community; to call this place home.

Graveside services for Andrew Jackson Page will be at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Cullman City Cemetery. Page was married to his wife, Liz, for 57 years. He was a longtime member of St. Johns Evangelical Protestant Church (I knew him from St. Johns as one of the greeters, and who could they have picked whod be better? recalls Key, wholl be singing at Coachs funeral today.) The couple had two children, Jay Page and Suzy Drasheff, and two grandchildren, Mary Claire and Anna Page.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that memorial donations be made to Cullman Caring for Kids, or to St. Johns.

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(Video) I wanted to live life like he did - Cullman Times Online

University of Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh is drawing interest from several NFL teams, and while some close to him maintain he will not leave Ann Arbor, he will not have difficulty getting an audience with owners should the right opportunity arise.

Harbaugh took the 49ers to the Super Bowl prior to returning to the college game, he has deep experience in the NFL as a player and a coach, and he just led the Wolverines to the College Football Playoff. While leaving his alma mater would be difficult, some in coaching circles believe that if he were to leave, now would be the time after finally beating Ohio State and reaching new heights with a program that had not soared previously under him.

Harbaugh is very well liked by Raiders owner Mark Davis, league sources said, beginning his coaching career as a quarterback coach there for the Raiders in 2002. Harbaugh also did great work in the Bay Area while the Raiders were located in Oakland at both Stanford and as coach of the 49ers from 2011-2014, where he went 44-19 and did not have a losing season. Davis has been very impressed by the work of interim head coach Rich Bisaccia since taking over for Jon Gruden following his resignation -- the team could reach the playoffs on "Sunday Night Football" against the Chargers -- but the opportunity to land Harbaugh would be attractive as well, according to some who know Davis well.

Harbaugh also has a huge fan in Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, who is also a Michigan alumnus and one of the school's biggest boosters. His belief in Harbaugh is well known, he has wanted to hire him in the past, and if Harbaugh did leave Ann Arbor, league sources indicated he would be tempted to lure the former quarterback as well. Numerous league sources said Harbaugh's name came up within the Dolphins organization midseason when the team was enduring a seven-game losing streak, and although it rallied to win seven in a row, the team was pummeled by the Titans last week to end any playoff hope.

Ross has long coveted Harbaugh and, at this stage of his life with a succession plan for ownership already in place, passing on Harbaugh might be difficult. Harbaugh also played for the Bears and is well known at Halas Hall, with that franchise pondering sweeping changes and considering a multitude of former players for a multitude of roles.

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Michigan's Jim Harbaugh drawing attention from several NFL teams, held in high regard by Raiders, Dolphins - CBS Sports

Wednesday, Jan. 5 Canvas & Silkand Image and Identityat Meadows Museum Theres long been a relationship between fine art and fashion. For Canvas & Silk: Historic Fashion from Madrids Museo del Traje, the Meadows Museum (5900 Bishop Ave.) presents pieces of historic dress including items like shoes and jewelry and full ensembles to show artistic connections and just how reality is translated by the artists eye. Tickets are $4-$12 for non-members and entry is timed, so reserve yours through Eventbrite. At the same time, a free exhibition Image and Identity: Mexican Fashion in the Modern Period in the first-floor galleries showcases Mexican fashion through photographs, prints, books and more from the collections of the Meadows Museum and the DeGolyer Library. See both in one visit; they both close on Jan. 9. Thursday, Jan. 6 click to enlarge

Color is on Chef Margaret Alvis' menu Thursday night

courtesy Chef Margaret Alvis

Anila Quayyum Agha: A Beautiful Despair at Amon Carter Museum There are a few dont miss it before its gone events this week and Anila Quayyum Aghas A Beautiful Despair at the Amon Carter Museum (3501 Camp Bowie Blvd., Fort Worth) is one of them. Plenty of exhibitions were overshadowed by the holiday hustle and mistletoed attractions, so we are passionate about getting people to these few before they close. A Beautiful Despair is immersive and gorgeous and impactful. It centers a Pakistani-American womans experience inside a barrier-breaking presentation that draws anyone in. It's site specific for the Amon Carter, and Agha created cut-steel sculptures that come to life via a single light. The play of light and shadow weaves the materials, messages and modern contemporary with the traditional in a captivating way. Become a part of the art before it closes Jan. 9. Admission is free, details are online.

Violinist Elena Urioste performs Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Friday, Saturday and Sunday

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Artist Jeremy Biggers brings Presence to Pencil on Paper this Saturday.

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Cambodian Street Food 37th Anniversary Fundraiser at Cambodian Buddhist Temple of Dallas This isnt just a Cambodian street food fest which would be worthy enough for some excitement but also the 37th anniversary celebration for the Cambodian Buddhist Temple of Dallas (5701 Crystal Lake Blvd.). Proceeds and donations from the market/fundraiser will benefit Selepak Khmer Angkor, the temples cultural program and performing arts troupe. Enjoy a variety of traditional Cambodian food and drink, live music from Samaun Band, social dancing and a ribbon cutting for the temples new dance school building. Hours are 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 8, and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday. Food vendors accept cash only. Find out more on Facebook.

Robert Rauschenberg, Autobiography: three works, 1968, offset lithographs on paper, Dallas Museum of Art, bequest of William B. Jordan and Robert Dean Brownlee, 2019.

Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. Image courtesy of the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation

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Best Things To Do in Dallas Jan. 5-Jan. 12 | Dallas Observer - Dallas Observer

In a move that has been anticipated for the past several months, NFL Networks Ian Rapoport is reporting that the Detroit Lions and offensive coordinator Anthony Lynn are expected to part ways following todays game.

After being fired from his head coaching duties with the Los Angeles Chargers following the 2020 season, Lynn contemplated taking a year away from football. But when Lions' new head coach Dan Campbell came calling, Lynn jumped at the opportunity. Lynn, Campbell and defensive coordinator Aaron Glenns relationships date back to their days with the Dallas Cowboys where Lynn was a position coach, and Campbell and Glenn were players.

The working relationship between the trio seemed like a perfect blend of coaching styles, but the offensive struggles in training camp carried over into the regular season, leaving the Lions desperate for answers.

Following the Lions' bye, the Lions made a decision to remove play-calling duties from Lynn and Campbell took over, despite not having any previous experience calling plays. The struggles remained for a game or two, but eventually, Campbell settled in, added some other minds to the mixnotably tight ends coach Ben Johnsonand the offense found life in December.

While Lynn remained an important part of the game-planning process, it was clear his future in Detroit was coming to a close as his role was not as impactful as was originally hoped.

As the coaching carousel is about to be set in motion on Monday, the Lions will be on the lookout for a new offensive coordinator.

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Detroit Lions, OC Anthony Lynn expected to part ways after season - prideofdetroit.com

It should have been a routine journey of approximately 80 miles. Down from a pre-tournament training camp in Pointe-Noire, beyond the Republic of Congo border and on to a new base in the Angolan city of Cabinda.

That was where Togo would be playing all of their three group games at the 2010 African Cup of Nations against Ghana, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast and the excitement was building. Les Eperviers the Sparrowhawks were ready to fly.

Yet three miles into Angola came the horrific attack that would change everything.

A convoy carrying the Togo squad and support staff found itself the target of a deadly onslaught from armed militia. Bullets peppered their two buses in a gunfight with security forces that is thought to have lasted at least half an hour.

Players made emotional calls to loved ones, lying prostrate on the floor between seats for protection. Some feared they would not leave the bus alive.

Its something we will never forget, Serge Akakpo, Togos former vice captain and centre-back, tells The Athletic. Its something that never leaves you because we were so close to death. I was thinking I was finished. I thought we were all going to die.

I wake up every day and I say I am blessed to be here, says former Togo captain and poster-boy Emmanuel Adebayor.

Two of the travelling party were not so fortunate. Assistant coach Amelete Abalo and media officer Stanislas Ocloo were both shot dead by the terrorists. Another nine were left injured, including reserve goalkeeper Kodjovi Obilale, whose playing career was ended by the attack.

Obilale required nine operations and now walks with the aid of a crutch. He is not afraid to admit he smokes a joint when the pain he suffers becomes too much. The day I was shot, I immediately knew it was over for football, he said.

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'I had two bullets in my back but I was lucky': The ever-lasting damage wrought by the 2010 Togo bus attack - The Athletic

You just can't push through it any more. Your Sunday night dread has become a week-long state of being. You're not just tired or restless you're burned out.

You've got loads of company. More than 4.5 million Americans quit their jobs in November, the highest number in over two decades and an indicator that "the great resignation" isn't going away.

Author Jonathan Malesic has been there. As a tenured professor, he had job security and a career in a field he cared out. But the actual job was making him miserable. Now, in "The End of Burnout: Why Work Drains Us and How to Build Better Lives,"the self-described "former academic" explores the lengthy human history of burnout, why it happens, what it does to our psyches and what we can learn from the communities that have managed to stave it off.

Salon spoke to Malesic recently via Zoom about his new book, our centuries-long relationship with burnout, and why we "suffer from and perpetuate" toxic work cultures.

This conversation has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

You start the book with the first two thousand years of burnout. We have had burnout with us as long as we have had people. I can imagine early humans sitting around the fire thinking, "If I make one more fire, I'm going to lose my mind. If I have to gather any more berries, I'm going to scream." Tell me about what burnout has meant historically, and how we first began to articulate it in the seventies.

The key distinction is exhaustion has been with us forever. Throughout history, there have been different exhaustion disorders corresponding to different cultural moments and different cultural concerns. I look in the book at more than two thousand years, but two thousand is a nice round number. It echoes David Graeber's book, "Debt: The First Five Thousand Years."

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Throughout those two thousand years or so, the characteristic exhaustion disorder has shifted. In the early medieval era, Christian monks were very concerned about acedia. It was considered one of the eight bad thoughts of monastic life and characterized as the Noonday Demon. It was a disorder peculiar to spiritual life, so it's spiritual dryness. I think acedia is still with us, but it emerged at this time when the culture needed a term to describe a specific experience.

In the 19th century, the analog to burnout was neurasthenia. Its history really parallels burnout in interesting ways. Like burnout, it was a simultaneous discovery of two scientists working independently, publishing papers at almost the exact same time on the same topic. It very quickly became this cultural phenomenon to the point where William James described it as Americanitis this characteristic disorder of being an American and living the supposedly fast-paced American life.

In the seventies, something very similar happens with burnout. Two psychologists working independently on opposite coasts with different methods one a clinical psychologist, the other a researcher identified the same disorder in similar, complementary terms, and published almost simultaneously in 1973 and 1974.

I had a really key moment in this historical argument when I was listening to the radio in the car and Bob Dylan's "Shelter From the Storm" came on, and I'm grateful to my local radio station for playing extremely long songs sometimes. There's this one line, "I was burned out from exhaustion." And it clicked. This album was was recorded in 1974. It was a top-selling album. So Dylan noticed something from the culture that's already going on and then giving it back to the culture. These psychologists are doing the same, all at the same time.

RELATED:The pandemic-era "flexible" workplace has become oppressive. Workers should demand more

Something was happening in American culture in the early-to-mid-seventies that meant "burnout"was the term to describe the problem with work. As historians argue, 1973 and 1974 was this watershed moment when work in America changed decisively. We're still living in the wake of that. It was a moment of the beginning of de-industrialization. The power of the labor movement had peaked in the early seventies and was beginning its decline. Wage growth detached from productivity growth. You have the shift to a more service-oriented economy. Women are entering the workforce in huge numbers, this huge upheaval in the way we work. Burnout caught on as the term to describe it. We're still in that burnout culture that dawned in 1974, because the economics, and our outlook at work has not really changed in fifty years.

You reference David Graeber's "Bullshit Jobs" in the book. I'm really intrigued at the overlap of bullshit and burnout. Burnout to me seems something that happens to something that you loved. When something you loved is transformed into something detestable, part of that is bullshit, but that's not the only thing. How do you describe burnout?

In the broadest terms, I describe it as the experience of being stretched between your ideals for work and the reality of your job. You have to have some investment in the work in order to burn out. It doesn't necessarily have to be passion, but some kind of high ideal or expectation. Even if it's not passion or love, it might be a desire that goes beyond the material.

You look for dignity. You look for status from your work. You look for fulfillment. The ideals can be many. That motivates you to get into the work, and then you get there and it doesn't deliver on those goods. That's the broad definition.

The more nitty-gritty definition I borrow from the leading researchers is that burnout is this syndrome with three dimensions: exhaustion, cynicism or deep personalization, and a sense of ineffectiveness at work. Exhaustion is something we're all really familiar with, but the exhaustion that's characteristic of burnout is not the same as the exhaustion that you feel at the end of a difficult project. Yesterday, I was working on an article, and my brain was totally spent. But I wasn't burned out. I knew that this is a kind of tiredness that would pass. A good night's sleep, a couple days, and I'll be fine.

The exhaustion of burnout doesn't disappear with rest. When I was burning out at my job as a college professor, I took a very long rest, a semester of unpaid leave. I was away from the college for five months, and I thought, "I'm going to feel better at the end of this." When I got back to work, that feeling lasted for a week or two. Very quickly, I was back to the same exhaustion and misery and despair, because nothing about my job had actually changed. The exhaustion of burnout is not only exertion.

It reminds me of when they talk about childbirth, and it's described as pain with purpose. If you have pain with purpose in your work, then the exhaustion from it is very different than the pain of just pain. When pain is just pain, it's burnout.

I think that's a good description.

Your book is coming along at an interesting time of tension. There's high stakes competitive burnout of "Oh, you think you hate your job? You think you hate your life? You think you're exhausted?" You talk about it in the book too, that sense that things can't be easy or enjoyable. But then we have this anti-work movement starting to crop up now. We see people saying, "I don't want to do this. Where's the payoff for me, then?" Tell me about what you're seeing in response to burnout.

Some of the phenomena you mentioned like the anti-work movement, it's unclear what that will mean concretely. But it runs parallel with what we're calling the great resignation, where and I don't want to make a clear pronouncement because I'm not reporting on it I think that these are encouraging signs coming out of the pandemic. I'd love to talk a little bit about why the pandemic was perhaps so transformative.

We're not fully out, but after the experience of this great disruption in our work due to the pandemic, workers are realizing that they have a little bit more power than they did at the beginning two years ago. We developed this new category of essential workers. We see that there's in some sectors a labor shortage at the moment. And millions of people just had the experience of g being paid in some cases as much or more than they were prior to the shutdown, to stay at home.

I think we're seeing evidence that those concrete realities really did have a positive effect on workers' understanding of their human value and then their market value as workers. An argument that I'm trying to make in the book is that we need to lead with that human value that each one of us has an inherent dignity.The market value of the worker needs to follow from that. My hope is that if we lead with that human value, then the labor value will rise accordingly.

You talk about how things are changing and who seems to have figured it out. What are some of the things that you're seeing in populations that have been able to successfully stave off burnout, and what can we learn from them?

There's a whole chapter on Benedictine religious, three different communities in two different locations. The one community I wanted to go to, I wanted to get as far away from burnout culture as I could without leaving the country. I found the Monastery of Christ in the Desert in Northern New Mexico. This is a community of about sixty monks who live not entirely off the grid. They generate their own electricity. They have internet service through satellites. but they're aiming to be as self-sustaining as possible and live the life that St. Benedict prescribes in his rule from the early sixth century. They're kind of unusual among Benedictine communities in the United States, because they are to adhere to this 1,500-year-old rule as closely as they can while living in the 21st century.

They are as modern as you and I are. The abbot at the time kept an email newsletter. They brew beer. They spent a couple years in the 1990's building websites as a money-maker for them. They're fully modern individuals who, in many cases, have had secular careers and are now living according to a 1,500-year-old rule. To do that faithfully, they spend a lot of time in communal prayer.

I guess the takeaway for the secular workers would be that one thing the monks do is that they put something other than work first. Their working lives exist to serve a different end. The top priority is the five or six hours a day that they spend in communal prayer, very slowly and methodically chanting these prayers and psalms that monks and sisters have been chanting in the same order for fifteen centuries.

The other big thing that they do is they honor each other's dignity. Benedict says this about guests, but I think it's true of the monks as well, that you should greet guests as you would Christ. The monks recognize the dignity of each other. They put a great emphasis on upholding and preserving the community and trying to live together. That, too, means that you can't say, "Hey, Brother, you've really got to put in another ten hours on whatever project."

They put something else first. Second, they really emphasize each other's inherent dignity, and that sets limits on work. Also, they live in community in order to make this life possible. It wouldn't be possible as individuals. We can't fix our burnouts on our own. You need a community to help you do that. If you decide,"I'm not going to check email after 5:00 PM," or something like that, and you're the only one in your company who does that, you become a problem. But if everyone in the company decides that, well, it's a different story.

Another side of it that gets sticky and confusing is the the front-facing aspect of it, where the people who are burned out are dealing with the public in one way or another, whether as a nurse or as a delivery person or as an academic. And then we're all bringing that sense of defensiveness to our interactions with each other.

When I was teaching full time, I was very concerned about these students or that colleague making life difficult for me. It took years after I quit before I realized, I'm probably making life difficult for them, too. hope it's not only because of my personality and my normal tendencies, but because I was burned-out, because I was frustrated, because I felt like I wasn't having my dignity and accomplishments properly respected. I behaved badly to others, potentially increasing their risk of burnout, and other complications.

This isn't a life coaching book, this is an examination of how we have always had this with us but don't always continue to. What do you want people reading this to come away with it from?

Ultimately, that we live in a burnout culture. There is a competitive side of it, where I try to show, "No, my burnout is way worse than yours" When I do that, I'm trying to show that I am a good and competitive worker, I am an ideal American worker, and that confers a lot of status in our society.

We live in this burnout culture that we both suffer from and perpetuate. And we're not going to end it if we don't see it for what it is and recognize our implication in it and recognize that we can both heal and harm other, and we should decide to heal. The way to do that is going to have to start with recognizing those connections and talking about them, talking about our ideals for work, talking about the reality of our jobs and how that reality doesn't live up to those ideals, and then collectively trying to change it.

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Mary Elizabeth Williams is a senior writer for Salon and author of "A Series of Catastrophes & Miracles."

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"We live in a burnout culture": Author Jonathan Malesic on the death spiral of the American worker - Salon

Fast forward and Pfannenstiel found himself looking for candidates for a historic hire around the same time a fifth-year MLS assistant was impressively leading the New York Red Bulls to the 2020 playoffs as an interim coach. The Red Bulls were following a script penned with recognizable handwriting. It was time for paths to cross again.

What do we stand for? Pfannenstiel said this week after announcing the 44-year-old Carnell as Citys first head coach. Who are we as a club? We are hungry. We are motivated. Nobody really knows what to expect from us. But we do have a clear plan and a clear playing style. That aggressive approach, in a positive way, that high intensity, pressing style. We want to stand for a new generation of football.

I believe we need to have a coach represent us. Hungry. Motivated. Still on the way up, to develop. That is why Bradley was, for me, the absolute choice. He is very hungry. He wants to prove himself. He did a lot of great work in New York and he really was ready for a next step, ready for a chance.

Hes like a bull. Hes ready to go out and work. Hes hardworking. Hes honest. Hes clear in his mind. Thats how we want to be seen in the community, and as a club in MLS.

If youre thinking, wow, thats a lot of pressure on Carnell, you would be correct. But pressure is sounding like this teams trademark. A pledge to apply it is a big reason Carnell ascended to the top of the list Pfannenstiel said included hundreds of candidates. A belief in its power is a big reason Carnell sidestepped what City president and CEO Carolyn Kindle-Betz described as interest from several other clubs.

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BenFred: If the play of St. Louis City SC lives up to coach Carnell's vision, our new MLS team will be easy to cheer - STLtoday.com

MINNEAPOLIS Seven years ago, as we stood breathless on the clean edge of change, we watched Bears chairman George McCaskey more than we watched the game.

It was the season finale of the 2014-15 season and we were in Minneapolis, watching the Vikings beat the Bears 13-9. The game was at TCF Bank Stadium, home of the Minnesota Golden Gophers, and the visiting owners suite was attached to the press box.

So we watched George fist pump and sigh and go through the normal range of emotions you feel while watching a very bad football team that you own. Bears general manager Phil Emery was also in the box, dutifully taking notes on a yellow legal pad. Did he know he was getting fired the next day, that he would end his time in Chicago by quoting folk singer Carrie Newcomer in an impromptu news conference in which he took no questions?

This team around, the Bears finale was a little more interesting, and by the end of the 31-17 loss, emblematic of the failed Ryan Pace regime.

Pace, hired to take Emerys place Jan. 8, 2015, usually sits in the press box for road games. But he gets to sit a level above the media in a broadcast box at U.S. Bank Stadium. I didnt see George, or any McCaskey, at all.

What could they have been thinking as the Bears blew an 11-point halftime lead by getting outscored 28-3 in the second half? Probably something about collaboration.

Win or lose, this game was essentially meaningless. No jobs could be won or lost with the process or the results, but even so, the journey from insignificant win to symptomatic loss was jarring but familiar. Watching

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Matt Nagy has a lot of words but no answers as he reaches the end of the line with the Bears - The Athletic