MAKE IT MAKE SENSE: why do we grow up just to end up going to WORK?

ugh, argh, why do i have to do this? some musings from the work chapter of our book <3

Hi crushes!! Bel here! Reporting live from my sunny desk nook in Lisbon while Luce is off touching grass and being an IRL she-e-shan’t (cringe? funny? who’s to say…) for the next month.

Welcome to the first of my Make It Make Sense takeover chimes because, well, we thought it was probably time we told you a bit more about, um, the BOOK we’re releasing in September?!

Plus, I seem to be having more and more conversations lately about the changing/chaotic state of things, particularly around work, and when this happens, it always makes me think maybe… we’re onto something.

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For at least two months of the book writing process, I was bedridden with some kind of illness, and Luce would sit on my duvet, and we would scheme what to write next.

What is work, why do I have to do it, and why should I care?

There are a lot of lies we’re told about what work is.

And even though Luce’s experience of work is different to mine (hi setting up a blog and Instagram page with your two high school besties and going viral in your early 20s), we are both obsessed with working because we love what we do.

But this has meant weird, bad and good things have happened to us in our jobs that might also make you feel less alone in the world:

An unhinged list of things that have happened to us at work

• Men DMing Luce advice on what amount of Harry Styles to post on Instagram

• Being asked to take the coffee order despite the fact you are running the meeting

• Lying about knowing what’s happening in the rugby league semi-finals in order to be taken seriously

• Being trolled

• Being offered a job with an extremely low salary, walking out of the building and getting a phone call from the manager double checking they weren’t going to see us pumping petrol over the weekend to ‘make up for what they couldn’t offer’

• Being bullied

• Having a ‘pinch me’ moment in a hotel lobby before doing something you can’t believe you’re doing and… getting paid for it

• Trying to explain to your parents what you do without sounding like an AI alien inventing a job that completely doesn’t exist

• Working 80-hour weeks to the point you Titanic and have to go on sick leave

• Posting on LinkedIn and wanting to die

• Getting a DM from someone you really admire and having this private, invisible swoon moment that feels like you’re suspended from reality

• Getting so stressed you spew in the office toilets

• Start a ‘dream job,’ two weeks after, realise you hate it and have to go home

• Get taken to the most amazing opportunities your teenage dreaming self could have ever imagined

In the Uber to meet our agent in Lisbon for the first time IRL, the ultimate revenge for all the times we’ve been underestimated <3

Some useful things I’ve learned about work as a Worn Out Woman over the years:

• Work should not fill you entirely up, all the time. If it does, something else in your life is suffering

• In the same breath, to let work be everything, consciously, for a moment in time, knowing what you’re getting out of it is ok. But then make sure you take a break

• You are not meaningless if you don’t love your job

• Having an ego death and working a mellow job for a while is a great way to come back down to earth

• If you’re sick, take the day off and stop feeling guilty - no one mad at you for lying in bed feeling awful, mad that you’re not at the meeting

• Find someone in your company/industry/ether whose job you find interesting and let that help give you a reason for being there

• Gather a collection of people you really admire into your ether and call on them when you need advice. Even better if you can offer something back in return (lol my older mentors love hearing what’s trending on TikTok)

• If you are not the smartest or most talented person, you can still be the best person to work with and this is just as, if not more valuable

• If your job is making you emo af, ask yourself whether you’ve taken a break recently, are giving too much of yourself and are expecting the boss to personally thank you with a $50,000 payrise and are livid because neither has happened or, lastly, that you’re expecting too much from it

• Consider things outside your job that can make your life feel meaningful

• And lastly, if you’re fantasising about burning down the building where you work, it might be time to quit…

Someone else who talks about work so well

Parts of our chapter were inspired by an excerpt from Toni Morrison’s essay, ‘The work you do, the people you are,’ which I’ve included in Chimes gone by but still think about all the time:

I’m always getting Qs about work for the weekend 💌 Wait, But What? 💌 advice newsy, but if you have some gorge gems of wisdom, would j’adore to read them and then regret we didn’t print them in the book.

Love you! xxxx