1 00:00:01,450 --> 00:00:02,710 Claudia is yours. 2 00:00:03,230 --> 00:00:04,130 Thank you. 3 00:00:04,130 --> 00:00:08,670 Hi everyone, my name is Claudia Osagie and we're going to talk about Burnout today. 4 00:00:08,670 --> 00:00:11,370 So let me first start sharing my slides. 5 00:00:12,150 --> 00:00:13,170 One second. 6 00:00:13,170 --> 00:00:22,570 As some of you guys have probably seen this talk before, just note that this material also contains today's talk, that means, has new stuff in it. 7 00:00:22,570 --> 00:00:26,310 So I'm looking forward to sharing this with you guys. 8 00:00:26,750 --> 00:00:28,710 So let's dive into this. 9 00:00:28,710 --> 00:00:32,990 Now, the first thing to note is that this might be an emotional talk for you guys. 10 00:00:32,990 --> 00:00:45,790 So if you are starting to feel like heavy emotions or you need to take a pause or whatnot like that, I recommend doing the following steps, which is to take six breaths within the one minute. 11 00:00:45,790 --> 00:00:50,330 So breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth or vice versa. 12 00:00:50,490 --> 00:00:54,730 Do that six times within a minute and that should help calm your nerves. 13 00:00:54,730 --> 00:00:59,810 It is a good trick to have when you feel like your anxiety is pretty high. 14 00:01:00,290 --> 00:01:00,650 All right. 15 00:01:00,650 --> 00:01:03,750 So welcome to the Art of Balancing a Burnout Talk. 16 00:01:03,750 --> 00:01:11,750 If you're wondering why the art of balancing, because burnout usually happens when we're not balancing our personal life and our work life. 17 00:01:11,870 --> 00:01:16,530 On top of that, it also happens when we don't take care of ourselves. 18 00:01:16,690 --> 00:01:19,310 So let's dive in, shall we? 19 00:01:21,950 --> 00:01:25,310 So if you don't know who I am, my name is Claudia Osagie once again. 20 00:01:25,310 --> 00:01:28,090 I'm the VP of Strategy over at Point Three Security. 21 00:01:28,090 --> 00:01:30,570 And when I'm not that, I'm an ethical hacker advocate. 22 00:01:30,570 --> 00:01:32,870 In other words, I'm trying to push for rights for us. 23 00:01:32,870 --> 00:01:36,090 That means changing legislation, updating it and so on. 24 00:01:36,090 --> 00:01:43,810 Also notifying the media if they have our image down wrong or using the wrong term, such as hacker. 25 00:01:43,810 --> 00:01:49,110 And so what they should be using cyber criminal for any terrible malicious acts. 26 00:01:49,110 --> 00:01:52,450 But also trying to do my best to also help the community. 27 00:01:52,450 --> 00:01:55,010 If that means pushing for mental health. 28 00:01:55,190 --> 00:02:00,070 Also, that means trying to bring diversity inclusion into the field a little bit more. 29 00:02:00,290 --> 00:02:04,830 And with that, I'm also president and co-founder of ROSAC, which is Women of Security. 30 00:02:04,890 --> 00:02:11,550 And when I'm not doing that, I'm also the founder of We Are Hackers, formerly known as Women Hackers. 31 00:02:11,670 --> 00:02:14,070 I'm also the Hacker Book Club organizer. 32 00:02:14,070 --> 00:02:17,210 We basically read a new book every month. 33 00:02:17,570 --> 00:02:20,630 And every week at Tuesday at 5 p.m. 34 00:02:20,630 --> 00:02:24,610 Pacific Time, we all meet virtually to talk about what we've read. 35 00:02:24,770 --> 00:02:27,110 Yes, the authors do attend. 36 00:02:27,110 --> 00:02:30,310 And yes, people mentioned in the books do attend as well. 37 00:02:30,650 --> 00:02:37,350 If you're wondering why it's called the Hacker Book Club, it's because we actually read books written by people within our community. 38 00:02:37,870 --> 00:02:40,450 And, you know, the hacker community reads them with them. 39 00:02:40,450 --> 00:02:41,830 So it's pretty fun. 40 00:02:41,830 --> 00:02:47,510 We're going to be doing the Tribe of Hackers Red Team Edition coming up next. 41 00:02:47,510 --> 00:02:49,310 So feel free to join us. 42 00:02:49,750 --> 00:02:53,450 Also, ITSP Magazine's Uncommon Journey podcaster. 43 00:02:53,470 --> 00:02:58,170 I do this with Phil Wiley, which I think he spoke a little bit earlier with you guys. 44 00:02:58,170 --> 00:02:59,830 And also Alyssa Miller. 45 00:03:00,030 --> 00:03:01,170 That is my website. 46 00:03:01,170 --> 00:03:04,790 If you want to find out anything about me, it's most likely on there. 47 00:03:04,790 --> 00:03:07,430 I include my personal details. 48 00:03:07,770 --> 00:03:09,450 My Twitter and Instagram is there. 49 00:03:09,450 --> 00:03:14,030 Feel free to follow or like to reach out anytime my DMs are open. 50 00:03:14,030 --> 00:03:16,310 Now let's dive into this stuff. 51 00:03:17,490 --> 00:03:19,670 I'm going to pick some scenarios for you. 52 00:03:19,670 --> 00:03:23,170 And these are experiences that you may have gone through. 53 00:03:23,230 --> 00:03:30,510 But this is usually a good way to know whether or not you are dealing with burnout or you did have burnout at one point of your time. 54 00:03:30,510 --> 00:03:36,890 So these examples, I want you to try to pretend that you're in this situation. 55 00:03:36,910 --> 00:03:41,090 So the first one I want you to think of, pretend you're driving in your car. 56 00:03:41,570 --> 00:03:45,830 And while you're driving in your car, you need to merge into the left lane. 57 00:03:46,290 --> 00:03:51,750 And at that moment, you think to yourself, should I look at my side mirror? 58 00:03:52,750 --> 00:03:58,590 Because maybe if I get in a car accident, I don't have to go to that place. 59 00:03:58,590 --> 00:04:00,450 Or I don't have to get that task done. 60 00:04:00,450 --> 00:04:01,730 Or I don't need to do that project. 61 00:04:01,730 --> 00:04:03,910 Or I don't have to have that awkward moment. 62 00:04:04,370 --> 00:04:08,470 I would feel so much better if I just get in a car accident. 63 00:04:09,730 --> 00:04:13,670 The one thing you should note is that burnout causes this feeling of being trapped. 64 00:04:13,670 --> 00:04:16,690 And most of these examples are going to demonstrate that. 65 00:04:17,190 --> 00:04:21,950 Or perhaps you're one of those people that it used to take you a few minutes to respond to an email. 66 00:04:22,070 --> 00:04:27,130 Now it takes 10 minutes, maybe 30 minutes, now an hour, maybe a day. 67 00:04:27,130 --> 00:04:31,670 Maybe days, sometimes weeks to just respond to a short little email. 68 00:04:31,670 --> 00:04:34,730 Next thing you know, your inbox is flooded and it's overwhelming. 69 00:04:34,730 --> 00:04:38,730 And every time you get in your inbox, you have this feeling of being trapped. 70 00:04:38,730 --> 00:04:41,810 That this is all that you have and you have to do it. 71 00:04:41,810 --> 00:04:43,750 And you're so behind on everything. 72 00:04:43,750 --> 00:04:48,930 But you don't even have the energy or the rush to try to get through your emails. 73 00:04:49,950 --> 00:04:52,570 Or perhaps you've been in this situation before. 74 00:04:52,570 --> 00:04:55,190 Where you have friends and families or colleagues. 75 00:04:55,190 --> 00:04:57,550 They call you but you decline their call. 76 00:04:57,550 --> 00:04:59,270 Not because you're busy. 77 00:04:59,630 --> 00:05:02,850 It's because you see them as another task. 78 00:05:02,850 --> 00:05:05,170 As another thing that you have to complete. 79 00:05:05,170 --> 00:05:07,250 Or a thing that you need to get done. 80 00:05:07,470 --> 00:05:10,350 And you just don't have the bandwidth for it. 81 00:05:10,350 --> 00:05:13,130 You can't hear them talk about their emotional stuff. 82 00:05:13,130 --> 00:05:15,210 Because you're emotionally not doing well. 83 00:05:15,210 --> 00:05:17,070 Something's off about you. 84 00:05:17,210 --> 00:05:19,110 And you can't really do anything. 85 00:05:19,110 --> 00:05:22,010 And you're also concerned that they're going to ask you to do something for them. 86 00:05:22,010 --> 00:05:24,070 When you can't keep giving anymore. 87 00:05:24,070 --> 00:05:26,410 Because you're not doing well yourself. 88 00:05:28,990 --> 00:05:31,090 So burnout causes these feelings. 89 00:05:31,090 --> 00:05:35,370 Where you have sudden sadness to sudden anger. 90 00:05:35,370 --> 00:05:37,010 Like for example, you see a tweet. 91 00:05:37,010 --> 00:05:39,190 And you're like, are you kidding me? 92 00:05:39,190 --> 00:05:41,990 And you just get suddenly really angry. 93 00:05:41,990 --> 00:05:43,250 Really fast. 94 00:05:43,250 --> 00:05:47,870 Or you get sad by watching a commercial and there's some puppy in it. 95 00:05:47,870 --> 00:05:49,710 And you don't know why. 96 00:05:49,710 --> 00:05:52,590 But you just feel like you're hopeless. 97 00:05:52,650 --> 00:05:56,670 And once again, that term trap comes often. 98 00:05:57,110 --> 00:06:00,010 And you feel maybe empty. 99 00:06:00,090 --> 00:06:05,110 You might be experiencing more anxiety or depression as well. 100 00:06:05,490 --> 00:06:08,370 You just feel like you're all over the place emotionally. 101 00:06:08,370 --> 00:06:12,590 Or you just don't understand why you're reacting so harsh. 102 00:06:13,330 --> 00:06:14,130 Suddenly. 103 00:06:15,830 --> 00:06:19,590 Or perhaps you've been in a situation where, you know, something is due. 104 00:06:19,590 --> 00:06:23,370 But you procrastinate to the last minute because you can't focus until then. 105 00:06:23,650 --> 00:06:25,470 Yeah, I've been there before. 106 00:06:25,990 --> 00:06:27,490 Definitely in college. 107 00:06:27,530 --> 00:06:30,370 I'm like, you know what, I'm going to write that essay the night before. 108 00:06:30,370 --> 00:06:32,630 Or I'm going to stay for the exam the night before. 109 00:06:33,130 --> 00:06:36,410 Actually, I'm going to study like two hours before I take the test. 110 00:06:36,410 --> 00:06:43,110 The thing is, though, is that when you're dealing with burnout, you will do whatever you can to push out a date. 111 00:06:43,370 --> 00:06:47,750 So you're like, well, I don't really need to do that because I can just keep pushing it out. 112 00:06:47,750 --> 00:06:48,430 It's fine. 113 00:06:48,590 --> 00:06:50,630 So you might be late for your work. 114 00:06:50,630 --> 00:06:53,850 Or you might be late for trying to attend something. 115 00:06:53,850 --> 00:06:58,850 Or you might miss things because you don't want to be there or you just can't do it. 116 00:06:59,250 --> 00:07:06,670 Because once again, there's this feeling of hopelessness and you feel like overwhelmed and that you are drowning pretty much. 117 00:07:06,670 --> 00:07:10,930 You're just in that water just trying your best to breathe. 118 00:07:12,370 --> 00:07:16,210 But overall, a lot of times when people think of burnout, it's just that they feel so tired. 119 00:07:16,210 --> 00:07:21,950 No matter how many hours of sleep a night you get, you just feel so tired and exhausted. 120 00:07:22,250 --> 00:07:25,890 And it's just like you reach maybe more for caffeine. 121 00:07:25,890 --> 00:07:30,630 But the thing is, you just feel so tired and there's nothing you can do to change that. 122 00:07:32,770 --> 00:07:37,850 One of the things about burnout you should note about is it's very similar in some ways to stress. 123 00:07:37,950 --> 00:07:40,830 Where when you're stressed out, what do we tend to do? 124 00:07:40,910 --> 00:07:43,690 You might reach for, you know, to get high. 125 00:07:43,690 --> 00:07:45,970 You might reach to get a drink. 126 00:07:46,650 --> 00:07:50,370 And by a drink, maybe more than just one drink, let's be real. 127 00:07:50,970 --> 00:07:54,410 Or maybe you're like, you know what, I think I want to go back to smoking. 128 00:07:54,410 --> 00:07:56,590 Or you're smoking a little bit more. 129 00:07:57,570 --> 00:07:59,730 Or you're drinking a lot more caffeine. 130 00:07:59,730 --> 00:08:08,750 Now the thing is that when you're burned out, you're trying to compensate for the fact that you have no more energy and you feel burned out already. 131 00:08:08,750 --> 00:08:12,930 So how are you going to do that is by going to different things. 132 00:08:12,930 --> 00:08:16,390 So for example, wanting something salty or sweet. 133 00:08:16,390 --> 00:08:19,050 So snacking a lot more than usual. 134 00:08:19,110 --> 00:08:23,430 Or the fact that you crave cigarettes a lot more often. 135 00:08:23,430 --> 00:08:28,950 Or getting high is something that you need to do at the end of the day to just feel better. 136 00:08:28,950 --> 00:08:32,370 Or perhaps drinking a lot more than usual. 137 00:08:33,290 --> 00:08:35,830 Or also drinking lots of caffeine. 138 00:08:35,830 --> 00:08:43,790 So one thing that I'll definitely tell you is that when I know that I'm starting to do too much, I tend to crave more caffeine. 139 00:08:43,790 --> 00:08:47,610 So I'll drink like five cups of tea versus just two cups of tea. 140 00:08:47,630 --> 00:08:53,850 And that usually lets me know that I'm entering like some sort of burnout phase if I don't take care of myself. 141 00:08:53,950 --> 00:08:57,250 But also snacking is something that we do when we're stressed. 142 00:08:57,250 --> 00:08:58,230 We binge eat. 143 00:08:58,430 --> 00:08:59,210 Some of us. 144 00:08:59,210 --> 00:09:00,810 Or we don't eat at all. 145 00:09:00,850 --> 00:09:02,690 Instead, we go to other substances. 146 00:09:05,150 --> 00:09:09,830 Overall, burnout just feels kind of like this image where you're just like, I just can't do this. 147 00:09:09,830 --> 00:09:11,830 I can't do this. 148 00:09:11,830 --> 00:09:12,910 I need a break. 149 00:09:13,030 --> 00:09:14,610 I need to take time off. 150 00:09:14,610 --> 00:09:15,610 I can't focus. 151 00:09:15,610 --> 00:09:17,030 I can't do anything. 152 00:09:17,130 --> 00:09:19,810 I just feel like I'm not myself anymore. 153 00:09:21,670 --> 00:09:25,870 Overall, burnout, how it feels, it's like a battery. 154 00:09:25,870 --> 00:09:27,130 You're like a device. 155 00:09:27,130 --> 00:09:28,430 You're like your cell phone. 156 00:09:28,430 --> 00:09:32,010 But you haven't charged it for quite some time and it's dying. 157 00:09:32,010 --> 00:09:34,450 And it's on red and whatnot. 158 00:09:34,750 --> 00:09:36,050 That's what kind of burnout feels. 159 00:09:36,050 --> 00:09:39,930 It's like you have this battery, but it's kind of depleted. 160 00:09:42,230 --> 00:09:52,150 I want to start diving into, now you've seen these examples, and hopefully, or maybe, they might resonate with you. 161 00:09:52,150 --> 00:09:56,090 It's good to see if something connects with you. 162 00:09:56,090 --> 00:10:02,250 That's the first step to making sure you get better or take the preventative steps as possible to get better. 163 00:10:02,290 --> 00:10:07,670 The first thing I want to let you guys know is that I'm not a therapist, but I have dealt with burnout. 164 00:10:08,270 --> 00:10:16,750 The first time I dealt with burnout, and here comes a personal story, was back in 2013. 165 00:10:16,770 --> 00:10:18,670 I did Teach for America. 166 00:10:18,710 --> 00:10:21,150 I was supposed to be a special ed teacher. 167 00:10:21,850 --> 00:10:31,070 When I first started, the thing is that how it works is that you go to school for like four weeks before you start being an official teacher. 168 00:10:31,070 --> 00:10:31,630 That's right. 169 00:10:31,630 --> 00:10:45,530 You probably have had no experience with kids at all and you haven't ever taken courses on being a teacher, but for those four weeks, they try to train you in every single way possible how to be a full-time professional teacher. 170 00:10:46,810 --> 00:10:55,830 The thing is that once that training was over, I went into Oakland School District in the East Side. 171 00:10:55,830 --> 00:11:16,410 One of the things was that I was stationed at one school and I had a caseload of 20 students, and students that actually witnessed their parents being stabbed multiple times or having kids that have undiagnosed mental health issues, but they didn't know what to do with them in the system, 172 00:11:16,410 --> 00:11:22,130 so they just put them in special ed when they don't have dyslexia or any of those things. 173 00:11:22,130 --> 00:11:27,430 The thing was that they weren't getting proper mental health coverage or anything like that. 174 00:11:28,610 --> 00:11:39,790 And then a few months down the road, at the same time, I had to go to another school district, not another school district, another school within the school district. 175 00:11:39,790 --> 00:11:44,530 So now, at a caseload of 30 students, now it's approaching 80 students. 176 00:11:44,530 --> 00:11:50,470 Someone who isn't licensed yet, someone who's had no training or no experience in special ed. 177 00:11:50,470 --> 00:11:59,830 And at the same time, every one or two days per week, I would have to go continue my education at night. 178 00:12:00,330 --> 00:12:07,650 And the other thing was that Teach for America didn't tell me all these things up front. 179 00:12:07,650 --> 00:12:22,430 So what happened was that you basically sign an IOU, which is basically if I were to leave this program within the first two years of it, I owe them anywhere from $60,000 to $80,000. 180 00:12:22,430 --> 00:12:27,250 As a teacher, you're making anywhere between $32,000 to $40,000. 181 00:12:27,650 --> 00:12:31,590 And you're barely getting by in the Bay Area paying for your rent for your apartment. 182 00:12:31,590 --> 00:12:42,110 So if you think about it, at that moment, I wasn't doing well because I wasn't trained to take care of kids and their mental health issues because I wasn't a psychologist. 183 00:12:42,430 --> 00:12:48,910 I was someone who was taught how to teach people that were dyslexic or ADD or ADHD students. 184 00:12:48,910 --> 00:12:54,650 And the thing was that no one taught us this and no one taught us how to take care of ourselves. 185 00:12:54,730 --> 00:13:06,210 So at that time, I remember I was driving in my car and I felt so stuck because I tried to get out and Teach for America said I couldn't leave. 186 00:13:06,210 --> 00:13:11,670 If I did, I would owe them a significant amount of money and I would go in debt. 187 00:13:11,850 --> 00:13:21,630 And I remember when I was driving like, okay, maybe I won't look in my side mirror because if I don't look in my side mirror, then I don't have to go to this program. 188 00:13:21,630 --> 00:13:33,110 I could get out and then maybe I can then find another way how to try to push for them to accept the idea of me leaving earlier from the program because I'm not doing well. 189 00:13:33,110 --> 00:13:36,930 And I mean, thankfully, no car hit me when I did do that. 190 00:13:36,930 --> 00:13:39,990 But the thing is, is that it was a realization moment. 191 00:13:39,990 --> 00:13:48,590 The fact that I was willing to lose my life because of debt was something that I could not believe happened. 192 00:13:48,670 --> 00:13:52,790 And I remember going to my parents and saying, I'm not mentally doing well. 193 00:13:52,790 --> 00:13:55,030 I've never felt this way before. 194 00:13:55,090 --> 00:13:58,390 And this is the first time I've ever heard the term burned out. 195 00:13:58,450 --> 00:14:01,670 It got so bad that there was no support. 196 00:14:01,670 --> 00:14:09,030 And when I went to approach them, they make me feel guilty for how I felt saying, don't you care about your kids? 197 00:14:09,030 --> 00:14:22,730 But the thing was that they kept using the term kids instead of students to remind us that by quitting, we're quitting all the people who are failing ourselves and them and that no one's going to watch over them. 198 00:14:22,730 --> 00:14:24,150 And it's your fault. 199 00:14:24,150 --> 00:14:37,190 It was constantly your fault when in reality, they didn't teach us anything and they were just putting in this program, fixing a basically a very, very broken school system with a bandaid that didn't help anyone. 200 00:14:37,210 --> 00:14:42,870 And I just remember just at that moment, I had to leave and I quit. 201 00:14:43,090 --> 00:14:53,630 And when I quit, I was they then put a lawsuit against me, forcing me to pay more than $10,000 for leaving for health reasons. 202 00:14:54,010 --> 00:15:11,290 And I and those are the things that I want you to know is that with burnout, when you leave unchecked and you don't have support, it puts you into a really, really bad place where it can take you many, many months to sometimes years to get over and to get back to normal. 203 00:15:11,530 --> 00:15:16,790 So I just wanted to share that with you is that don't let burnout dictate your life. 204 00:15:16,890 --> 00:15:20,470 You've got to invest in yourself when you know that something is wrong. 205 00:15:20,610 --> 00:15:21,710 Here are the symptoms. 206 00:15:21,710 --> 00:15:23,450 Here are the things that you can do. 207 00:15:23,510 --> 00:15:25,670 Okay, so let's go to the next thing. 208 00:15:27,230 --> 00:15:32,090 Another thing to remind yourself is that if you're feeling burned out, you should go see a doctor. 209 00:15:32,090 --> 00:15:35,410 And the reason for that is they should test you for your vitals. 210 00:15:35,970 --> 00:15:45,270 So for example, getting your blood checked when you're feeling low in energy is probably a good thing because sometimes that's a sign of having low iron or low vitamin D. 211 00:15:45,270 --> 00:15:49,230 So I highly recommend you guys getting checked out on those kind of things. 212 00:15:49,230 --> 00:16:00,350 So do go see a doctor, get your vitals checked if you can, just to make sure that there's nothing else wrong because sometimes people that are burned out low in energy, there's something else happening in their body. 213 00:16:00,350 --> 00:16:04,950 So remember, mental health is totally connected to your body and so forth. 214 00:16:06,090 --> 00:16:08,010 So what is burnout? 215 00:16:08,210 --> 00:16:13,570 So burnout is a state of emotional, physical, mental exhaustion caused by an excessive prolonged stress. 216 00:16:13,570 --> 00:16:19,170 It occurs when you feel overwhelmed, emotionally drained and unable to meet constant demands. 217 00:16:19,250 --> 00:16:22,350 Now, there is a quiz right there for you. 218 00:16:22,350 --> 00:16:25,430 The burnout index, which is wonderful. 219 00:16:25,610 --> 00:16:32,350 But I have to let you guys know that if you love your job and you love what you do, chances are that quiz isn't going to work really well for you. 220 00:16:32,610 --> 00:16:38,890 It tends to work better for those that are a little bit skeptical about whether or not they like their job or don't like their job. 221 00:16:38,890 --> 00:16:40,530 I highly recommend checking out. 222 00:16:40,530 --> 00:16:44,490 It's a good way to kind of check to see if you are already there. 223 00:16:45,330 --> 00:17:02,670 Now, the thing to note about COVID-19 I want to talk to you guys about is because even though burnout is something that us in the hacker community have dealt with before, COVID-19 with COVID-19, it puts on a whole different side where you have emotional burnout as well. 224 00:17:02,690 --> 00:17:07,930 So emotional burnout with COVID-19, these are usually the signs that you get. 225 00:17:07,930 --> 00:17:23,330 I don't know about you, but what happened was that right when COVID-19 started coming about, I didn't feel burned out at all before then, but I started feeling a little bit... I don't know how to describe it. 226 00:17:23,570 --> 00:17:27,410 I just didn't feel good in a sense. 227 00:17:27,530 --> 00:17:44,570 What happened was that I went to RSA conference in San Francisco this year, and I decided just to be on the safe side that I would stay at home and basically kind of just make sure that no one gets it in case if I carried it or anything like that. 228 00:17:44,590 --> 00:17:48,890 And I was like, okay, 12th day, I'm like, all right, I think I'm okay. 229 00:17:50,490 --> 00:17:52,710 That changed drastically. 230 00:17:52,810 --> 00:17:59,930 By the day 13, suddenly I felt like as if there was a hand on my chest putting down pressure. 231 00:18:00,330 --> 00:18:03,750 And I remember it just felt very weird. 232 00:18:03,750 --> 00:18:09,730 And then I got really lethargic and I got headaches, like body aches everywhere. 233 00:18:09,950 --> 00:18:13,350 And I was just like, okay, this is weird. 234 00:18:13,350 --> 00:18:14,870 How could I have gotten this? 235 00:18:14,870 --> 00:18:17,990 And I guess I got it from RSA and everything like that. 236 00:18:17,990 --> 00:18:29,610 But I remember having to try to call a doctor at that time because you couldn't get checked out unless you had a pre -existing condition, which I did not fit those terms. 237 00:18:29,610 --> 00:18:33,470 So I remember calling around, asking to get tested. 238 00:18:33,470 --> 00:18:38,370 And it took three hours, but no one really knew where for me to get tested. 239 00:18:38,370 --> 00:18:42,070 Not even the doctors, not even my insurance, not even the emergency room at that time. 240 00:18:42,070 --> 00:18:44,150 And I just remember just being like, this is terrible. 241 00:18:44,150 --> 00:18:45,650 We have nothing set up. 242 00:18:47,950 --> 00:18:51,770 And at the point of being sick for like five days, symptoms went away. 243 00:18:51,910 --> 00:18:58,750 And then a couple days later, a new symptom came in, which was just this dry, dry cough for about five weeks out. 244 00:18:59,710 --> 00:19:12,530 And still at that time, though, I kind of figured at that point, like way before, when I started getting the symptoms of body aches and everything, I was like, okay, I need to revisit my will. 245 00:19:12,530 --> 00:19:18,950 And then other things, I couldn't sleep because all I was thinking was like, is there any chance that my parents got it? 246 00:19:19,090 --> 00:19:25,010 And I'm pretty sure maybe some of you guys also have been freaking out about someone else, your loved ones, getting this. 247 00:19:25,010 --> 00:19:26,710 And it does keep you up at night. 248 00:19:26,710 --> 00:19:32,190 And it's really hard because you're also having to work through the emotions with yourself. 249 00:19:32,210 --> 00:19:37,050 It's not something like, oh, you can call a therapist because a lot of therapists right now are full. 250 00:19:37,570 --> 00:19:39,330 And so it's really hard at this moment. 251 00:19:39,330 --> 00:19:42,810 And, you know, I just want you guys to know you're not alone. 252 00:19:44,190 --> 00:19:46,010 And please wear a mask. 253 00:19:46,010 --> 00:19:47,390 I cannot push that enough. 254 00:19:47,390 --> 00:19:51,070 Please wear a mask because it is not something you want to get. 255 00:19:51,070 --> 00:19:58,170 And it's definitely something that you don't want to give to someone else, even if you don't show any symptoms, because it does sneak up on you. 256 00:19:58,170 --> 00:20:03,370 Like I said, I didn't feel anything until the 12th, 13th day of nothing. 257 00:20:03,550 --> 00:20:14,510 So please be careful by wearing masks and, you know, try to get your, convince your friends and family and colleagues to also wear masks because I'm not kidding you, it's not fun to go with. 258 00:20:14,510 --> 00:20:17,970 It took about two and a half months to get back to normal. 259 00:20:17,970 --> 00:20:20,710 So be careful with each other. 260 00:20:20,710 --> 00:20:23,130 Love each other and everything possible. 261 00:20:23,130 --> 00:20:24,170 Please wear a mask. 262 00:20:24,170 --> 00:20:25,750 So let's go into the next thing. 263 00:20:26,290 --> 00:20:36,030 So usually when we go to like how to prevent burnout, usually people recommend, you know, exercise, eat a balanced diet, practice good sleep habits, ask for help. 264 00:20:36,030 --> 00:20:40,230 But the thing is, is that at the end of the day is that exercise is wonderful. 265 00:20:40,490 --> 00:20:49,230 However, your gyms are closed or maybe for you, you can't really go walking around because your health is in jeopardy. 266 00:20:49,530 --> 00:20:53,530 So I do recommend like, you know, listen to music, find some other ways to find exercise. 267 00:20:53,530 --> 00:20:57,150 There's plenty of YouTube videos to try to do that. 268 00:20:57,150 --> 00:21:04,550 Eating a balanced diet is also very hard when you're burned out because the, remember when I said when you're stressed, you're going to probably stress eat. 269 00:21:04,550 --> 00:21:09,530 So you're going to go for like the salty sweet things or you might not even want to eat. 270 00:21:09,530 --> 00:21:13,670 Like you have, you don't crave any food and that does happen. 271 00:21:13,670 --> 00:21:21,090 So you want to do is kind of keep kind of a record of how much calories you're taking in and making sure you hit your correct amount of calories. 272 00:21:21,090 --> 00:21:24,430 And I hate tracking calories and you shouldn't have to do that. 273 00:21:24,430 --> 00:21:36,830 But if you're one of those people that like you're, you're really struggling to eat, do keep basically track of your calories, making sure you've hit it at least because when you have low calories, you're more susceptible to having a lower immune system. 274 00:21:36,830 --> 00:21:43,710 So it's really smart to like try to make sure that you're eating proper amount of calories, but also make sure that it's healthy. 275 00:21:43,710 --> 00:21:45,470 We know what's healthy, right? 276 00:21:45,770 --> 00:21:47,470 It's not candy or junk food. 277 00:21:47,470 --> 00:21:49,210 So just remember that. 278 00:21:49,510 --> 00:21:50,870 Practice good sleep habits. 279 00:21:50,870 --> 00:22:11,910 It's very hard because like I said earlier is that dealing with COVID-19, the fears of losing someone or you giving to someone and they die, it's something that's really hard or not knowing when things are going to change because humans are kind of silly in some ways because we feel like we could pretty much predict every day. 280 00:22:11,910 --> 00:22:15,350 We can predict that we can go on a vacation about three or four months. 281 00:22:15,350 --> 00:22:16,450 Nothing's going to happen. 282 00:22:16,450 --> 00:22:18,350 The thoughts don't even cross our mind. 283 00:22:18,470 --> 00:22:22,670 But now we're in a situation where we don't even know what's going to happen the next day. 284 00:22:22,750 --> 00:22:25,450 And because of that, that can cause us to have insomnia. 285 00:22:25,450 --> 00:22:28,550 It can make us even feel more stressed out, more anxious. 286 00:22:28,970 --> 00:22:32,670 It can also cause episodic depression as well. 287 00:22:32,670 --> 00:22:39,330 So it's really important to try to remember is to try to stay as happy as possible during this hard time. 288 00:22:39,750 --> 00:22:41,610 And there are ways how to do it. 289 00:22:41,610 --> 00:22:50,470 One trick that I do is I think of three things I'm grateful for first thing in the morning and when I go to bed and switch up, don't do the same ones. 290 00:22:50,850 --> 00:22:55,370 But that really does help because it reminds you that you have something that's good in your life. 291 00:22:55,370 --> 00:23:01,130 And that's the thing that we need to be reminded of more today than ever before because it seems like the world's on fire. 292 00:23:01,130 --> 00:23:05,930 Asking for help is something I can still do no matter what, which is great. 293 00:23:06,450 --> 00:23:09,030 All right, so let's dive into first the self-awareness. 294 00:23:09,030 --> 00:23:14,250 So the difference between stress and, you know, burnout is there's two different things. 295 00:23:14,270 --> 00:23:16,210 And I like to use this example often. 296 00:23:16,270 --> 00:23:25,090 When you're stressed out, you're like, OK, I'll feel better if I take a bubble bath or I'll feel better if I do some yoga or I'll feel better if I have that glass of wine. 297 00:23:25,490 --> 00:23:32,250 When you're burned out, you can do all those things and more and you still don't feel any different. 298 00:23:32,250 --> 00:23:33,630 So that's the difference. 299 00:23:33,630 --> 00:23:35,730 Now, self-awareness is the hardest part. 300 00:23:35,730 --> 00:23:47,550 The good news is that you now know of the term burnout, which is great because by knowing what the word is and the symptoms, you're able to have a better idea if you're entering that zone. 301 00:23:48,450 --> 00:23:54,310 So the ones I tend to find most often is when I'm doing my inbox. 302 00:23:54,310 --> 00:24:00,430 If it takes me longer than 10 minutes to respond to an email and I'm not busy, that's a sign. 303 00:24:00,430 --> 00:24:03,810 No matter how much hours of sleep I get, that's a sign. 304 00:24:03,810 --> 00:24:07,330 When I'm drinking more caffeine, that's a sign. 305 00:24:07,330 --> 00:24:14,490 And when I decide I want to have another glass of wine or a couple more, that's a sign. 306 00:24:14,930 --> 00:24:19,950 These are all types of signs that you can realize from all those previous examples. 307 00:24:19,950 --> 00:24:23,750 The other thing is knowing that your emotions feel kind of all over the place a little bit. 308 00:24:23,750 --> 00:24:28,870 What's really important is to try to identify if you're feeling trapped or you feel overwhelmed. 309 00:24:29,750 --> 00:24:42,170 That's going to be the first step because once you have that self-awareness that you're entering into a burnout phase, you start realizing immediately that these are the preventive ways that you can do and prevent it. 310 00:24:42,170 --> 00:24:47,050 Also, there are ways how to reduce it significantly and fast. 311 00:24:47,990 --> 00:25:03,710 So the first thing I always tell people is to journal because the thing is that we're not able sometimes to listen what's going on in our own head and our own body and how we're feeling deep down inside because let's be real, we are kind of at a point where when we're not feeling well, 312 00:25:03,710 --> 00:25:12,110 we put on the TV or we listen to music or we go on social media or we do those kind of things or read a book. 313 00:25:12,110 --> 00:25:17,130 The thing is we're constantly escaping from what's knowing what's actually happening on in here. 314 00:25:17,250 --> 00:25:25,290 So journaling is really good and I recommend doing it by hand because it's something that is a little bit more therapeutic versus typing if you can. 315 00:25:25,590 --> 00:25:28,450 So here you get to see my journal. 316 00:25:29,150 --> 00:25:31,030 Little prints, of course. 317 00:25:31,030 --> 00:25:38,130 What I do is I tend to journal at least once a week and I don't have any music playing. 318 00:25:38,130 --> 00:25:40,910 I need to have my own space to do so. 319 00:25:41,370 --> 00:25:45,330 And usually it's when the pups are sleeping, to be honest. 320 00:25:45,830 --> 00:25:54,630 But journaling is really good because what happens is that when you write in there and you go back in your previous pages, you'll find trends and patterns. 321 00:25:54,810 --> 00:25:57,430 And we love trends and patterns, right, in InfoSec. 322 00:25:57,430 --> 00:26:04,110 And so when you're able to pick up on those trends and patterns, you're able then to realize you have a situation and you need to deal with it. 323 00:26:04,110 --> 00:26:17,070 One of the things that I realized when I was dealing with burnout or felt like I was getting close to burnout, I kept seeing the term trapped or felt like pretty much it was the word trap that kept showing up in a couple of them. 324 00:26:17,070 --> 00:26:20,550 And so I realized, OK, I need to do something about that. 325 00:26:20,550 --> 00:26:25,670 So it's really important to journal, recall a diary, whatever works for you. 326 00:26:25,850 --> 00:26:33,170 The thing is that this is a time where you need to know what's going on emotionally for you, especially if you can't see a therapist at this time. 327 00:26:33,370 --> 00:26:36,090 At least keeping some sort of record with yourself. 328 00:26:36,090 --> 00:26:39,310 And I do recommend trying to do it daily if you can. 329 00:26:39,310 --> 00:26:43,650 If not, weekly is totally fine on that front. 330 00:26:44,130 --> 00:26:47,170 Now, the other thing that I tend to do is I do a break. 331 00:26:47,170 --> 00:26:50,430 I take a break from InfoSec at least once a week. 332 00:26:50,430 --> 00:26:54,550 For one day a week, I take a break from my devices. 333 00:26:54,870 --> 00:27:00,710 So phones off, computers off, and I will do anything that's not InfoSec related. 334 00:27:00,710 --> 00:27:03,370 If that means volunteering, that means volunteering. 335 00:27:03,370 --> 00:27:08,090 If that means going for a hike for the day, that means going for a hike for the day. 336 00:27:08,090 --> 00:27:11,770 If that means visiting family, that means visiting family. 337 00:27:11,770 --> 00:27:16,390 Or if you ever wanted to learn how to paint or draw, this is the perfect time to do so. 338 00:27:16,390 --> 00:27:24,290 But taking one day off from InfoSec is really, really important for you to start trying to get that balance and to keep that balance there. 339 00:27:25,190 --> 00:27:33,050 And if you are one of those people that you can't stay away from your devices in case of loved ones contacting you or whatnot, that's okay. 340 00:27:33,450 --> 00:27:43,990 One of the things that I tend to do is that I will let them know that I'm going to be taking a break between these hours and in case of an emergency that you reach me, this is where they can contact me. 341 00:27:44,390 --> 00:27:49,410 It's really important to do that, to let them know so that they're not worried about you at this time. 342 00:27:49,590 --> 00:27:53,530 But doing it every week is really good, even if it's just for four hours. 343 00:27:54,250 --> 00:27:57,410 Still, it's very good because you want to do preventative. 344 00:27:57,430 --> 00:28:00,890 And yes, you have to take a break from InfoSec Twitter. 345 00:28:00,910 --> 00:28:02,590 I know it's hard. 346 00:28:02,590 --> 00:28:04,450 Believe me, it is hard. 347 00:28:04,450 --> 00:28:06,390 But you have to do it once a week. 348 00:28:07,570 --> 00:28:11,230 And no, I don't mean you have to throw your phone on the ground or whatnot. 349 00:28:11,610 --> 00:28:12,690 Don't be silly. 350 00:28:12,690 --> 00:28:17,790 Even though there's times where I read something on Twitter and I'm just like, are you kidding me? 351 00:28:17,790 --> 00:28:23,310 But anyway, the other thing to do besides journaling is to keep a to-do list. 352 00:28:23,530 --> 00:28:25,250 So I have... 353 00:28:25,250 --> 00:28:27,730 I have a to-do list. 354 00:28:27,730 --> 00:28:35,990 And basically what I do is that I write down everything that I need to do, any tasks that I need to be on top of, and I write it down. 355 00:28:35,990 --> 00:28:37,450 And this could be personal stuff. 356 00:28:37,450 --> 00:28:38,430 This could be work stuff. 357 00:28:38,430 --> 00:28:41,850 But the thing is, I take this list everywhere I go in the house. 358 00:28:42,470 --> 00:28:45,650 Also, if I was on the road, I'd take it on the road. 359 00:28:45,650 --> 00:28:57,010 The reason for that is because it kind of empties out space in your head so you're able to think about other things and become more connected to have that self-awareness of what you're going through. 360 00:28:57,470 --> 00:29:02,290 So it's really therapeutic to write down all these things so you feel like you have more space in your head. 361 00:29:02,290 --> 00:29:03,710 It unclutters it. 362 00:29:04,070 --> 00:29:07,790 It's also really good if you are someone who struggles to sleep at night. 363 00:29:07,790 --> 00:29:10,150 Having a to -do list is going to be really helpful for you. 364 00:29:10,150 --> 00:29:14,450 Once again, it's something that has to be written by hand. 365 00:29:14,450 --> 00:29:21,170 And there's a reason for that because sometimes we have a to-do list on our phones or on our laptops. 366 00:29:21,170 --> 00:29:28,450 And that's great and everything, but the thing is, you know when you're about to fall asleep and you're like, okay, I'm going to go to sleep. 367 00:29:28,450 --> 00:29:31,970 And then suddenly you're like, oh my god, I forgot to send that email. 368 00:29:32,210 --> 00:29:34,610 Or, oh, that was such a great idea. 369 00:29:34,730 --> 00:29:35,590 I need it. 370 00:29:36,310 --> 00:29:39,150 And then you just keep thinking about it over and over and over. 371 00:29:39,410 --> 00:29:42,690 And this is the reason why it's harder for you to fall asleep. 372 00:29:42,910 --> 00:29:44,910 So one thing to do is have a to-do list. 373 00:29:44,910 --> 00:29:49,570 So have it by your bed in case in the middle of the night you wake up like, oh my god, I forgot to do something. 374 00:29:49,570 --> 00:29:51,610 Just write it down and you'll do it in the morning. 375 00:29:52,070 --> 00:29:54,670 Review that list in the morning too when you're ready. 376 00:29:54,850 --> 00:29:59,130 That means, you know, when you're drinking your coffee or your tea or afterwards. 377 00:29:59,130 --> 00:30:03,170 Whenever you feel like you're in that space to remember what you need to do. 378 00:30:03,250 --> 00:30:12,130 But it's very good because when I first started I was very, very overly anxious thinking that this is going to be hard. 379 00:30:12,310 --> 00:30:15,470 Because it is overwhelming when you see that list. 380 00:30:15,610 --> 00:30:16,810 But think about this. 381 00:30:16,810 --> 00:30:20,090 When I first started it was five pages long usually. 382 00:30:20,230 --> 00:30:23,530 And that's when I realized I got to fix something about myself. 383 00:30:23,530 --> 00:30:27,170 And also I need to fix my situation that I'm in. 384 00:30:27,630 --> 00:30:29,970 So now it's at one page. 385 00:30:29,970 --> 00:30:31,910 So it's always that one page now. 386 00:30:31,970 --> 00:30:32,830 And that's the thing. 387 00:30:32,830 --> 00:30:33,930 It's just be on top of it. 388 00:30:33,930 --> 00:30:36,510 And plus it feels really good to cross out things. 389 00:30:36,510 --> 00:30:38,130 You're just like, yes! 390 00:30:39,070 --> 00:30:41,010 So I really recommend this. 391 00:30:41,010 --> 00:30:43,590 Plus your memory might not be so great sometimes. 392 00:30:43,590 --> 00:30:45,870 So it's really good to remember it that way. 393 00:30:47,190 --> 00:30:57,170 Now, be a good manager is one of those things I like to tell people because if you're a bad manager you're going to make your people feel terrible too. 394 00:30:57,170 --> 00:31:04,890 What that means is you should be doing everything possible to understand mental health is an issue. 395 00:31:04,970 --> 00:31:07,070 Even if it looks invisible. 396 00:31:07,070 --> 00:31:08,970 And if you're wondering what do you mean by invisible? 397 00:31:08,970 --> 00:31:12,130 For example, if I had a broken arm, I would have a cast on. 398 00:31:12,130 --> 00:31:16,670 You would see I have a broken arm and you would understand that there's something wrong. 399 00:31:16,670 --> 00:31:19,970 The thing is with mental health is it's not visible usually. 400 00:31:20,190 --> 00:31:30,250 And because it's not visible, they think that you are making it up sometimes or they just don't consider it as a high priority versus because they can't see it . 401 00:31:30,350 --> 00:31:37,050 And so that is one of the issues with mental health and for offices to take it seriously is because it's invisible. 402 00:31:37,050 --> 00:31:38,710 It's an invisible danger. 403 00:31:39,310 --> 00:31:43,350 And so the thing is also to note about the invisible danger. 404 00:31:43,870 --> 00:31:50,290 I'm very glad that COVID-19 is forcing companies to finally recognize mental health, especially burnout. 405 00:31:50,330 --> 00:31:56,010 If you're a good manager, what you should do is make sure you give one mental health break day per month. 406 00:31:56,010 --> 00:31:58,810 And I ask to do it on a Friday or Monday. 407 00:31:58,810 --> 00:32:00,350 There's a reason for that. 408 00:32:00,430 --> 00:32:04,870 It gives them a chance to have a three-day weekend because we love three-day weekends. 409 00:32:04,870 --> 00:32:08,530 It's a good time for us to catch up on all the things you want to. 410 00:32:08,710 --> 00:32:11,710 So doing something like that is really beneficial to your employees. 411 00:32:11,710 --> 00:32:15,530 It's giving one day off per month for everyone. 412 00:32:15,670 --> 00:32:20,410 And you can call these self-worth days or something. 413 00:32:20,410 --> 00:32:20,970 I don't know. 414 00:32:20,970 --> 00:32:22,050 You can figure something out. 415 00:32:22,050 --> 00:32:31,390 But basically you give an option saying you can either do anything that will help you in your career or you can take the day off to relax and recharge. 416 00:32:31,530 --> 00:32:32,530 That's really good. 417 00:32:32,530 --> 00:32:37,390 The other thing is having one-on-ones weekly with your employees. 418 00:32:37,910 --> 00:32:41,690 About 15 minutes to 20 minutes per week should be good enough. 419 00:32:41,690 --> 00:32:55,850 It's a good time to visit all the things that you have to do, all the assignments, and work with your manager to prioritize which things are more of the things that need to get done or put more attention to. 420 00:32:55,850 --> 00:33:01,390 So it helps with prioritization but also is a good note to know how the employee is doing. 421 00:33:02,270 --> 00:33:20,830 With burnout and all of that, this is also a good way to note also if your employee isn't responding to emails as fast as usual and they seem a little bit different emotionally on a phone call or something like that, this might be a good time to remind them like, 422 00:33:20,830 --> 00:33:23,950 you know, you can take time off if you need to take time off. 423 00:33:24,470 --> 00:33:26,910 It's important for you to do that. 424 00:33:27,030 --> 00:33:33,510 Another thing that you can do is to enforce a no meetings day policy per week. 425 00:33:33,510 --> 00:33:39,390 So every week at a certain day, no one can book meetings on that day for anyone on the team. 426 00:33:39,390 --> 00:33:44,770 So this is a day kind of like to catch up on anything or to focus on certain things that you need to get focused on. 427 00:33:44,770 --> 00:33:48,970 So no meetings, so you're able to focus on whatever you need to get done for that week. 428 00:33:48,970 --> 00:33:50,450 It's really beneficial. 429 00:33:50,450 --> 00:33:52,810 So those are some good tips I have for you. 430 00:33:52,810 --> 00:33:55,210 And also, just be a good person. 431 00:33:55,910 --> 00:34:03,890 If you do have an employee that comes to you saying, I'm not doing so well emotionally, I need to take some time off, don't discourage it. 432 00:34:03,890 --> 00:34:08,030 Don't guilt them into well, what about your team? 433 00:34:08,330 --> 00:34:09,710 That's not your response. 434 00:34:09,710 --> 00:34:11,750 That's not the right response to do. 435 00:34:11,750 --> 00:34:18,270 The right response is to be like, okay, what days in the next one to two weeks work best for you? 436 00:34:18,270 --> 00:34:28,910 And to remember that if the person needs to take a break, you don't have to always let them tell you why they need to if they need to. 437 00:34:29,210 --> 00:34:33,530 Otherwise, don't ask right now at this time because chances are it's an emotional thing. 438 00:34:34,030 --> 00:34:41,870 I think that's really important is to try to remind your employees that it's okay for them to take a break if they need to. 439 00:34:42,990 --> 00:34:45,110 So now we're going to talk about how to bounce back. 440 00:34:45,110 --> 00:34:50,550 Those are all preventative things that you can do if you're starting to feel like you're getting burned out or you want to avoid burnout. 441 00:34:50,790 --> 00:34:54,850 Now we're going to talk about what to do if you're already burned out. 442 00:34:55,850 --> 00:34:56,850 You have to take time off. 443 00:34:56,850 --> 00:34:59,910 I hate to break it to you, but you have to take time off. 444 00:34:59,910 --> 00:35:06,090 That means you have to take at least three business days off to recharge your batteries. 445 00:35:06,170 --> 00:35:09,430 How bad it is, that means like a whole week. 446 00:35:09,630 --> 00:35:17,410 And the reason I say three business days is because you want to take it near your weekend so you actually get five days off, right? 447 00:35:17,590 --> 00:35:22,090 It's really important for you to get the time off that you need to recharge. 448 00:35:22,090 --> 00:35:28,330 And I know that we tend to feel guilty about taking time off because our team members need us and all that. 449 00:35:28,330 --> 00:35:33,330 But let me remind you is that when you are burned out, you're not 100% you. 450 00:35:33,690 --> 00:35:38,550 You're not even close to the percentage of usual you. 451 00:35:38,550 --> 00:35:46,410 And because of that, taking time off is really important because you need to recharge your batteries so you can go back to being who you usually are. 452 00:35:46,690 --> 00:35:48,490 And this is good for your team. 453 00:35:49,010 --> 00:35:56,850 Taking time off is so important on this and other things I know that we stress out is like, well, I'm going to come back with so many things and it's going to be overwhelming. 454 00:35:57,130 --> 00:35:58,710 I'm going to give you some tricks. 455 00:35:58,710 --> 00:36:10,650 So the first trick I have for you is to make sure that when you have your out of office message, put it as your date two days later than what you're actually returning. 456 00:36:10,650 --> 00:36:16,070 So for example, if I'm returning on the 14th, I'm going to let people know that I'm coming back on the 16th. 457 00:36:16,070 --> 00:36:19,630 This gives me two days of having to respond to emails. 458 00:36:19,790 --> 00:36:24,850 The other thing that you should do is put a hold on your calendar for the first two days that you're back. 459 00:36:24,910 --> 00:36:26,450 So no meetings at all. 460 00:36:26,450 --> 00:36:29,870 Just block it so then you're able to catch up on everything. 461 00:36:30,210 --> 00:36:31,970 If you can do two days, great. 462 00:36:31,970 --> 00:36:33,670 If only one day, just do it. 463 00:36:33,670 --> 00:36:36,850 It's going to help you so then you're able to bounce back. 464 00:36:36,910 --> 00:36:41,850 I did take my first vacation ever for one week in the past two and a half years. 465 00:36:42,510 --> 00:36:50,550 And I made sure to block that and it worked really, really well because I did return to like, I think it was definitely over a thousand emails. 466 00:36:50,690 --> 00:36:52,290 But it was definitely stressful when I came back. 467 00:36:52,290 --> 00:36:55,670 But I also felt better so I was able to respond a lot faster. 468 00:36:55,910 --> 00:37:06,310 When you do come back though, I do recommend in the afternoon on your first day back is to message your teammates and ask if there's anything that is urgent that needs to be done. 469 00:37:06,330 --> 00:37:11,750 So you're able to kind of prioritize and get everything done and also you don't get lost in your inbox. 470 00:37:11,750 --> 00:37:19,210 It's also important to let people know is to CC you in everything and to keep it on one communication channel. 471 00:37:19,210 --> 00:37:23,630 Meaning, if you have something that I need to be aware of, keep it via email. 472 00:37:23,630 --> 00:37:36,030 Don't do it by Slack because having multiple places to check for communication around things while you're gone is really stressful for everyone because things are, you're probably not going to catch that. 473 00:37:36,030 --> 00:37:39,530 It's going to be too much because there's just so much different types of communication. 474 00:37:39,530 --> 00:37:43,090 So just keep one long email chain for each thing. 475 00:37:43,230 --> 00:37:51,030 Also having a project management system is really important too to help you be able to prioritize and know what is on your plate. 476 00:37:51,110 --> 00:38:04,670 Now before you take the time off, just note for the first few days or that week before, you will probably have to work a little bit extra to make sure that you have that zero inbox if you can, but also be on top of any assignments that are kind of needed to be done within the week. 477 00:38:05,370 --> 00:38:07,810 Those are my tips that I have for taking time off. 478 00:38:08,970 --> 00:38:11,570 Also learning to say no. 479 00:38:11,570 --> 00:38:25,670 So when I had that to-do list the first time it was five pages long, I realized I had to learn how to say no because constantly over juggling every different thing is very exhausting. 480 00:38:25,970 --> 00:38:31,730 So it's really important to learn when is a good time to kick on something new, when is not. 481 00:38:31,990 --> 00:38:40,350 I know that sometimes when we have a job or whatnot, we need to accept assignments, but if it's not part of your job, you do not need to accept those assignments. 482 00:38:40,350 --> 00:38:44,490 And if they give you problems with that, let me tell you how you do this. 483 00:38:44,490 --> 00:38:45,950 Keep an email chain. 484 00:38:46,030 --> 00:38:50,810 Keeping your paper trail of all the emails is really important. 485 00:38:50,810 --> 00:38:58,070 And I do recommend that also when you tell your manager you need to take time off, send out a quick email saying thanks for meeting with me and talking to me about this. 486 00:38:58,070 --> 00:39:02,290 I really appreciate that and I'll take off these days. 487 00:39:02,290 --> 00:39:13,090 You want to keep a record of all your conversations if you definitely have a terrible workplace because this will protect you in case HR needs to get involved for you to be like, where are you talking about? 488 00:39:13,270 --> 00:39:14,530 You knew about my issue. 489 00:39:14,530 --> 00:39:15,770 Here's the paper trail. 490 00:39:15,770 --> 00:39:16,610 Here you go. 491 00:39:17,310 --> 00:39:22,690 Also, whenever someone puts a task under you that's not part of your job, remind them politely. 492 00:39:22,690 --> 00:39:26,030 Hey, I already have too many things and this is not usually part of my job. 493 00:39:26,030 --> 00:39:28,670 I recommend you reaching out to this person instead. 494 00:39:29,130 --> 00:39:30,670 So hopefully that person is your manager. 495 00:39:30,670 --> 00:39:32,310 So you have to learn to say no. 496 00:39:32,370 --> 00:39:38,610 And it is hard if you're a high performer because the chances are if you're a high performer, they're going to be like, oh great, you got that done. 497 00:39:38,610 --> 00:39:40,410 Here's some more stuff for you. 498 00:39:40,410 --> 00:39:42,530 It's a great reward, right? 499 00:39:42,670 --> 00:39:45,430 So just keep that in mind. 500 00:39:45,710 --> 00:40:04,030 I will definitely also share with you is that if you're someone who feels like there's no one on the team that looks like you or acts like you on your team, that there's a part of you that feels like you don't belong and you constantly have to prove over and over that you belong to be there, 501 00:40:04,030 --> 00:40:10,770 you're going to get a little bit more burned out because chances are they're going to always see you as someone else. 502 00:40:11,190 --> 00:40:12,990 And if you're wondering what do you mean by that? 503 00:40:12,990 --> 00:40:16,750 Okay, so I had one of my jobs. 504 00:40:17,550 --> 00:40:20,910 I was, you know, a marketing manager or whatnot. 505 00:40:20,910 --> 00:40:27,510 But every time I would go into a meeting, the executives would turn to me and say, Chloe, you got that? 506 00:40:27,510 --> 00:40:28,630 You got the notes down? 507 00:40:28,710 --> 00:40:33,030 And I remember just being like, why am I taking down notes? 508 00:40:33,070 --> 00:40:35,330 And you're like, oh, can you go get a glass of water for me? 509 00:40:35,330 --> 00:40:37,490 Oh, can you get me a cup of coffee for me? 510 00:40:37,670 --> 00:40:50,750 And the thing was that I kept doing those things because I knew that I could lose my job if I didn't or if I caused a problem because they were already seeing me as that woman who causes problems if I were to speak out. 511 00:40:50,830 --> 00:40:58,390 So if you're in that situation, please note that there are plenty of companies out there that would love to have you and you should not be working there. 512 00:40:59,890 --> 00:41:07,330 And what I meant on that one is like some of us we deal with, we have to be perfect because we're worried we're going to lose our job. 513 00:41:07,330 --> 00:41:14,950 So we accept whatever treatment, we accept the extra job duties on top of a job that isn't supposed to have anything to do with those things. 514 00:41:14,950 --> 00:41:20,070 We're constantly on being bombarded with projects from our teamwork. 515 00:41:20,190 --> 00:41:29,150 I mean, our team, basically our team members, we constantly have to accept it because if we don't, we're really worried we're going to lose our job. 516 00:41:29,410 --> 00:41:33,370 And that's a real fear, especially right now with the economic situation. 517 00:41:33,930 --> 00:41:36,850 We're constantly like, I have to do whatever I can to keep my job. 518 00:41:36,850 --> 00:41:43,070 I have to do everything I can to keep my job because there are hardly any jobs out there and I can't afford that right now. 519 00:41:43,070 --> 00:41:46,430 I have to make sure I take care of someone at this time. 520 00:41:46,790 --> 00:41:48,410 I can't handle all this. 521 00:41:48,410 --> 00:41:50,310 I have to do whatever I can. 522 00:41:51,750 --> 00:41:53,710 Please note, you're in InfoSec. 523 00:41:53,710 --> 00:41:58,610 There is definitely a shortage of personnel and there are definitely openings out there. 524 00:41:58,610 --> 00:42:03,670 And if you're looking for a role, DEF CON is the place, once again, to look for that. 525 00:42:03,850 --> 00:42:07,770 There's plenty of us that have connections that can help you get in the door. 526 00:42:07,790 --> 00:42:09,490 You should not be putting up with that. 527 00:42:09,490 --> 00:42:18,070 And if you have that fear of losing your job all the time, that means you're not working in a good collaborative environment or you have a really bad manager. 528 00:42:18,070 --> 00:42:22,690 And which is the case, we need to talk about, you need to start learning how to invest in yourself. 529 00:42:23,550 --> 00:42:30,570 One of the things about burnout is that when we're not balancing our work and personal life, it also means that we're not investing in ourselves. 530 00:42:30,570 --> 00:42:32,850 We're not taking care of our needs. 531 00:42:33,090 --> 00:42:46,850 And that's a really scary thing because if we're constantly doing everything we can bend backwards for our team members or for our families, our friends, the thing is, is that you're giving so much that you forgot to take care of you. 532 00:42:46,950 --> 00:42:53,010 And right now you need to invest in yourself because clearly you already are in burned out at that point. 533 00:42:53,010 --> 00:42:55,030 So it's really important to invest in yourself. 534 00:42:55,030 --> 00:42:57,070 Take some time for yourself daily. 535 00:42:57,350 --> 00:43:05,290 Put limits to different, if you need to call someone and be like, okay, I can talk for like this and this time, but I need to take it. 536 00:43:05,290 --> 00:43:09,690 I need to make sure that I get off the phone at this time for personal reasons. 537 00:43:09,690 --> 00:43:12,610 Then just let the person know ahead of time about that. 538 00:43:12,610 --> 00:43:16,890 It's really important that we start really respecting other people. 539 00:43:16,890 --> 00:43:29,650 If they seem like I can't talk right now or like I need to take a break, respect that at this time because chances are they're trying to figure out how to reinvest in themselves and your manager should invest in yourself. 540 00:43:29,650 --> 00:43:37,110 So if you have a manager that isn't investing in you, I want to just also let you know about that is that a good manager wants you to thrive. 541 00:43:37,110 --> 00:43:38,950 They want to see you go be on them. 542 00:43:38,950 --> 00:43:49,370 And if you don't have that type of manager, it's time to look elsewhere and you can still work at the same job, but also look on the side, reach out to some recruiters. 543 00:43:49,370 --> 00:43:54,610 They're always looking to help people find something and also people in the community and InfoSec Twitter. 544 00:43:54,610 --> 00:43:57,030 It actually helps out quite a bit. 545 00:43:57,890 --> 00:44:02,890 The main takeaways from this I hope you have is when you feel overwhelmed, do a device detox. 546 00:44:02,890 --> 00:44:05,890 Remember, you want to do more than four hours per week. 547 00:44:05,890 --> 00:44:08,630 Get away from InfoSec once a week. 548 00:44:08,630 --> 00:44:09,950 Do other things. 549 00:44:09,950 --> 00:44:11,690 When you feel overwhelmed, invest in yourself. 550 00:44:11,690 --> 00:44:22,350 That means do something that's going to make you feel happy and better because the chances are you're feeling burned out or you're getting close to being burned out is because you're not taking time for you. 551 00:44:22,590 --> 00:44:24,830 When you feel overwhelmed, ask for help. 552 00:44:24,850 --> 00:44:27,470 InfoSec Twitter is an amazing place to ask for help. 553 00:44:27,470 --> 00:44:30,070 Defcon is a wonderful place to ask for help. 554 00:44:30,370 --> 00:44:33,830 Mental Health Hackers is a wonderful place to ask for help. 555 00:44:33,870 --> 00:44:40,090 The thing is, I wouldn't be where I am today if I didn't ask for help. 556 00:44:40,270 --> 00:44:43,450 And so that's really important to know is that the community has your back. 557 00:44:43,450 --> 00:44:45,290 They are there to support you. 558 00:44:45,510 --> 00:44:46,810 So ask for the help. 559 00:44:46,810 --> 00:44:47,430 It's okay. 560 00:44:47,430 --> 00:44:52,310 And I know it's scary to ask for help sometimes, but just do it because they're there for you too. 561 00:44:52,450 --> 00:44:54,410 When you feel overwhelmed, write it down. 562 00:44:54,410 --> 00:44:55,870 Remember, have a to-do list. 563 00:44:55,870 --> 00:44:56,610 Do your journaling. 564 00:44:56,610 --> 00:44:58,370 This is going to be really helpful for you. 565 00:44:58,390 --> 00:45:00,390 Do it by hand and paper. 566 00:45:00,530 --> 00:45:10,130 Please don't do your computer or your phone or whatnot like that because that is not going to help you at all because what happens is that when I pick up my phone, I'm like, I'm going to get this email done. 567 00:45:10,130 --> 00:45:13,310 I'm going to go to another app and then another one and then another one. 568 00:45:13,310 --> 00:45:18,330 Next thing you know, it's been an hour when I was only planning to spend maybe like five or ten minutes on my phone. 569 00:45:18,390 --> 00:45:20,470 So the thing is, make sure you do that. 570 00:45:20,550 --> 00:45:22,310 When you feel overwhelmed, take a break. 571 00:45:22,310 --> 00:45:31,410 Remember, if you are starting to feel like you're getting burned out or you are in burned out, make sure that you take at least three business days off. 572 00:45:31,870 --> 00:45:36,790 Also, making sure that you take a weekly day off for that device detox. 573 00:45:36,790 --> 00:45:39,150 That also means getting away from social media. 574 00:45:39,210 --> 00:45:50,210 And I just want to put out here beforehand, if you're going to take time off for work, that means you've got to get off of social media and InfoSec Twitter. 575 00:45:50,210 --> 00:45:53,050 That means you need to get off your devices too. 576 00:45:53,050 --> 00:46:02,410 So how burnout works when you want to get back to normal, you actually have to take those days off as if you are doing a huge device detox. 577 00:46:03,110 --> 00:46:04,110 I've done it. 578 00:46:04,110 --> 00:46:05,370 It works like a charm. 579 00:46:05,370 --> 00:46:09,930 Let me tell you, two days of just a device detox and I felt 100% almost better. 580 00:46:09,930 --> 00:46:11,670 So I really do recommend it. 581 00:46:11,670 --> 00:46:13,330 When you feel overwhelmed, put yourself first. 582 00:46:13,330 --> 00:46:20,690 And I want to really let you guys know about this, is that when you're not taking care of yourself, you cannot be there for others. 583 00:46:20,690 --> 00:46:25,830 When you're mentally not well, you cannot be mentally there to support someone else. 584 00:46:25,830 --> 00:46:36,050 That's why it's important, if you care about the person that you're trying to be there for, you also need to keep yourself in check and have that self-awareness and do whatever is needed to make you feel happy. 585 00:46:36,090 --> 00:46:42,350 And if you're wondering, I don't know what makes me happy anymore these days, write... I'm all about writing. 586 00:46:42,350 --> 00:46:43,530 I do a T-chart. 587 00:46:43,530 --> 00:46:45,690 So basically a T-chart like this. 588 00:46:46,070 --> 00:46:51,590 And I have one column that is things that I love about InfoSec, things that I love outside of InfoSec. 589 00:46:51,590 --> 00:46:56,370 And then I look over it and see what are things that I'm doing, what are things I'm not doing. 590 00:46:56,370 --> 00:47:02,390 And the things that used to make me happy, I try to do those things all over, or I try to learn something new. 591 00:47:02,390 --> 00:47:04,470 There's plenty of things to do out there. 592 00:47:04,630 --> 00:47:07,130 I mean, YouTube, Google, it's all there. 593 00:47:07,130 --> 00:47:10,270 You can find out anything and learn how to do anything these days. 594 00:47:10,610 --> 00:47:13,050 When you feel overwhelmed, know that you're not alone. 595 00:47:13,050 --> 00:47:15,230 I really want to push this forward. 596 00:47:15,230 --> 00:47:18,830 It is so important for you guys to know that you are not alone. 597 00:47:19,250 --> 00:47:31,130 There has been one part in my career where I felt very isolated from everyone because I didn't know Twitter or InfoSec really existed yet because it was my first year in InfoSec. 598 00:47:31,310 --> 00:47:41,010 But I remember feeling very isolated and alone and wanting to leave InfoSec permanently because I didn't know that there was such a great community here that has each other's back. 599 00:47:41,010 --> 00:47:53,110 And when I did find that community, oh my God, it was like as if I've seen everything like black and white and gray shades and everything and then suddenly became something like HD in color. 600 00:47:53,110 --> 00:47:58,610 The thing is that there are so many great organizations here and everyone has your back. 601 00:47:58,610 --> 00:48:05,450 At the end of the day, there are a lot more good people in the world than bad people and I try to remind that quite often. 602 00:48:06,410 --> 00:48:14,290 Most importantly, though, how you can tell if you're burned out is always to ask the question, am I balancing my work and personal life? 603 00:48:14,310 --> 00:48:16,250 If not, take the steps to fix it. 604 00:48:16,250 --> 00:48:32,970 If that means that you only have two devices, so for example, having two different phones, one for work, one for personal life, I highly do recommend if you can do that because what you can do is stay away from your personal device and then during the times that you usually work, 605 00:48:32,970 --> 00:48:35,130 you only have your work device near you. 606 00:48:35,390 --> 00:48:48,230 And when you're done with work for the day, take a one hour kind of like break to yourself, do whatever you need to do and then go on your personal device and take your calls, text and do all that. 607 00:48:48,450 --> 00:48:52,310 I do this so I separate my personal life from my work life. 608 00:48:52,310 --> 00:48:57,990 It's really good to try to separate the two because it does help with understanding how much balancing I'm doing. 609 00:48:57,990 --> 00:49:03,230 You want to make sure you're doing more personal hours or the same amount of personal hours as your work. 610 00:49:04,430 --> 00:49:09,050 And I just want to let you guys know, I did have burnout. 611 00:49:09,050 --> 00:49:10,870 I've had burnout a few times. 612 00:49:10,870 --> 00:49:16,830 You can definitely get back to normal with your break. 613 00:49:16,830 --> 00:49:21,530 It's just important to remember these preventative techniques and whatnot. 614 00:49:21,590 --> 00:49:24,650 And also, if you're already burnt out, now you know what to do. 615 00:49:24,750 --> 00:49:27,330 And if you need any help, I'm here for you. 616 00:49:27,330 --> 00:49:30,410 I'm also here to do Q&A for you and everything. 617 00:49:31,430 --> 00:49:34,710 And also, I ask for one favor from all of you guys. 618 00:49:34,710 --> 00:49:44,790 If you guys can take a quick screenshot copy of this page, you don't know you might be helping or saving someone else's life by simply just sharing this. 619 00:49:44,790 --> 00:49:47,670 It's good for you to have this wherever you go. 620 00:49:47,730 --> 00:49:48,910 Have it on your phone. 621 00:49:48,910 --> 00:49:50,750 Have it on your computer or whatnot. 622 00:49:50,890 --> 00:49:59,210 Send it to your loved one so then they're aware that they have this because maybe they don't need it, but maybe someone that they know or are talking to, they now know these. 623 00:49:59,210 --> 00:50:03,850 These are really important resources to have, especially at this time. 624 00:50:03,850 --> 00:50:08,950 This was a list basically provided from the CDC, so please go ahead and use it. 625 00:50:08,950 --> 00:50:17,130 And last but not least, I just want to also let you guys know, a lot of questions I tend to get are about drinking. 626 00:50:17,130 --> 00:50:19,810 How much is drinking is okay? 627 00:50:19,810 --> 00:50:21,570 How much is not okay? 628 00:50:21,850 --> 00:50:33,470 And I do recommend doing the following things, which is don't ever drink by yourself, meaning have a virtual one-on-one or be on the phone with someone else who's having a drink with you. 629 00:50:33,470 --> 00:50:35,090 Never drink by yourself. 630 00:50:35,130 --> 00:50:40,710 Set certain days as the day that you can drink and never go past two drinks for that day. 631 00:50:41,150 --> 00:50:48,890 Don't drink, of course, during any time of work hours, but do it in the late afternoon or evening, it's okay. 632 00:50:48,890 --> 00:50:53,270 So please remember, that's how you practice good drinking habits. 633 00:50:53,270 --> 00:50:57,030 If you want to drink, definitely on that front. 634 00:50:57,230 --> 00:51:14,810 And just remember, if you're drinking or you have the urge to drink a lot more and maybe it's a time for you to look for help or to tell someone about that because I know it's a hard time right now, but drinking is not going to solve that for you. 635 00:51:14,810 --> 00:51:18,710 If anything, it's going to make you feel worse, especially if you are burned out. 636 00:51:18,710 --> 00:51:34,550 I hate to break it to you, but alcohol is just going to make you feel 10 times worse afterwards because you have this drop you experience a drop of and sometimes you get experiencing like this kind of like depression symptoms. 637 00:51:34,570 --> 00:51:36,670 So I really recommend you not doing that. 638 00:51:37,970 --> 00:51:40,650 Anyway, I just want to say thank you guys for existing. 639 00:51:40,910 --> 00:51:44,210 If you have any questions at all, feel free to reach out to me. 640 00:51:44,210 --> 00:51:44,890 I am here. 641 00:51:44,890 --> 00:51:47,230 I'm also here to take any live Q&A. 642 00:51:48,090 --> 00:51:55,370 I'm going to turn off my slides so then I can you guys can, I don't know, well, we'll just I'll turn off my slides now. 643 00:51:55,370 --> 00:51:55,890 Hold on.