When people as me what I do for a living, I say:
“I help people treat their employees, coworkers and themselves better to make work suck less.”
Hi! I’m Tara.
I use she/her pronouns.
I’m queer and live in Minneapolis.
I’ve spent 20 years working with human behavior: in healthcare, technology, and beyond. I’ve studied how I show up at work, how others show up, and how others lead.
I teach people practical practices to help them get a handle on the Sunday Scaries and deal with toxic people and environments by focusing on what they CAN own: reactions and decisions.
I created a kick ass class called The Actionable Psychological Safety Workshop and engage a lot with humans on places like LinkedIn (and also real life) about how and why the thing we’re “supposed” to do makes so many of us miserable.
What I’ve discovered is:
We all have habits and stories and talents to unpack that we never do. We just keep pushing and working without understanding how we behave and how it impacts ourselves and others.
We have a lot things to learn from one another that help us build a growth mindset that allows us to create incredible things.
We all have the power to change things for ourselves and even our culture, regardless of our role in the organizational chart.
That’s the key: being willing to humbly understand your experiences on a deep level and recognize where and how you want to evolve and change.
No industry left behind. Retail. Healthcare. Hospitality. Tech. Nonprofits.
Being rogue by definition is “behaving in ways that aren’t expected or normal".”
Join the league of Rogue Humans and let’s create new work normals.
Let’s start making work suck less together.
The “Culture” of Work:
So, why does work often suck so much?
Because human beings are complex.
We are not machines.
We have up to 100,000 miles of blood vessels streaming through our bodies.
As of 2017 we have 27 CATEGORIES of emotions, and scientists aren’t done counting. So we throw a bunch of bodies together and try and create things! It’s actually really a miracle we can create anything at all, but that’s also the beauty of connection.
In 2006 my father had a psychotic break. This was in large part due to work stress that was never discussed, never dealt with, never processed.
His boss told him, “you don’t sell, you don’t eat.”
So, he was a hard ass. A toxic, bossy hard ass.
My father thought he had to Man Up, provide for his family and just keep pushing himself as hard as he possibly could.
Spoiler alert: that isn’t sustainable. For anyone.
And the pandemic has proven this to us.
Really successful collaboration happens is when we’re free to be ourselves. Flaws and all.
Free of judgment. Free of fear. In a place we don’t hate with people we trust and respect.
Where people laugh.
Where things are still hard and frustrating sometimes, but not unbearable.
Because it’s not up to anyone to fix toxic people at work, it’s up to them.
But we can control how we work with them.
Is that even possible? To make work suck less?!
Yes.
Which is why I’m here to help with practical tools, personal stories and actionable practices to help you learn more about yourself and the humans around you.
Free v. Paid Subscription
I am deeply passionate about what I do and I want to help as many people as I possibly can to help themselves, their mental health and their work lives.
As a queer woman in technology I also recognize my worth and pour a lot of effort into what I create.
This is a job for me, and one I’m in love with. I truly want everyone to find work they love and take care of their mental well being.
I want things to be accessible as well. If you’re unemployed I offer plenty of free content and also give members gifts of membership to share.
Free subscribers get:
A portion of the weekly email from me about real-life scenarios of what work culture stuff I’m digging into that week, covering a topic that will be pertinent to your world in some way, shape or form. Stuff I’ve tripped over. Stuff that brought clarity. Stuff that you can try in your own world.
Paid subscribers ($6 a month) get:
Rogue Humans Newsletter: Once a week I’ll be sharing personal discoveries in the field of clumsy human behavior and a roundup of things I’ve read/run into the past week, along with a bit of travel stuff since I’m on the road fairly often.
Hump Day Hurdles: stuck with a challenging communication gap with a coworker or boss? Old work trauma stuff coming up for you and you want to understand the why? Biweekly I’ll share some prompts based on a theme to help you walk through where you’re stuck.
Paid only essays on hot topics you ask for
Comment and engage on any post with the community
Access to archives
Access to reading/listening list (always evolving)
If you subscribe for the year you get an even BETTER deal, and pay $50 bucks ($22 bucks less than monthly) because I’m all about saving money where you can and getting the most bang for your buck.
As my Substack evolves I’ll also be asking for YOUR input.
What do you want to hear more about? Less about?
Super stoked to get to know you and how we can make work suck less together.
