Significant Career Lesson From A Head of Exhibitions At UC Santa Cruz
Louise, Head of Exhibitions, learned a significant career lesson about work-life balance, particularly in the wake of the pandemic: "don't work yourself to death," a realization underscored by a stress-induced illness that highlighted the importance of prioritizing relationships and well-being over professional accomplishments, even while maintaining a love for the work itself.
Work-Life Balance, Stress Management, Executive/Leadership, Overcoming Challenges, Resilience
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
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Louise Leong
Head of Exhibitions
UC Santa Cruz Institute of the Arts and Sciences
University of California Santa Cruz, 2012
N/A
Fine Arts, Music
Arts, Entertainment & Media, Education
Operations and Project Management
LGBTQ, First Generation College Student
Video Highlights
1. Work-life balance is crucial. Louise emphasizes the importance of prioritizing relationships and well-being alongside career success, sharing a personal anecdote about experiencing health issues due to overwork.
2. Don't overwork yourself. Louise's experience highlights the potential negative health consequences of neglecting personal well-being for career ambitions. She suggests that finding fulfillment outside of work and valuing non-career achievements helps with preventing burnout and career dissatisfaction.
3. It is important to reassess your values. Louise discusses how the pandemic caused many people to reassess their values and how it applies to their own life and career. This highlights the importance of continuous self-reflection and adaptation in one's career path.
Transcript
What is one lesson that you have learned that has proven significant in your career?
One significant lesson is that there's always tomorrow. I think in the last two years, I've heard this before, and it started to feel real. People on their deathbeds often wish they had worked less and spent more time with family.
The pandemic likely brought this kind of thinking to light. The work-life balance has shifted significantly since the pandemic began and through it. People are reassessing their values and where they direct their energy in life.
Relationships are important, even when the work we do is also important. I've gotten very sick from working too much, experiencing extreme stress while trying to open a show. I developed shingles, which is a reactivation of chickenpox, causing nerve pain. If you don't rest, your body will force you to.
That lesson has definitely stayed with me: don't overwork yourself. It's not worth it. In the end, you can't take anything with you. You can't take money, accolades, resumes, accomplishments, or awards with you after you die.
I try to keep that in mind. I love my work; I love getting things done, putting things in place, seeing things go well, and creating great shows. However, it's also easy to get really wrapped up in it and become addicted to it. I'm sure many people in various industries find it easy to become workaholics for different reasons.
It's probably satisfying to some extent. There's also the reality that you have to make money, so some people will work a lot because they need to provide. These are all aspects of domestic and social life under capitalism. Ultimately, don't work yourself to death.
That's a big lesson I learned, and I'm sure I'll continue to learn and need to remind myself of it. Shingles is something I'd only heard of older people getting; you can't even get a vaccine until you're 55 or 60. It was definitely stress-induced.
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