Does the work stress ever really go away?
When I opened up to my senior coworkers at Adobe and Oracle about being overly stressed about work, many told me that feeling never went away. At first I was disappointed, but after it happened a few times, I decided that answer wasn't good enough for me. So over the past few years I’ve been digging and trying to define my relationship with work. I wrote in-depth about the anxiety wrapped up in that, last year.
I don’t think there’s much helpful one-size-fits-all advice about work stress or career because everyone’s disposition and work environment is different. We also have a workaholic culture in the United States, so individual solutions can only go so far. However, for me there’s been a disillusionment / evolution from the idea of work making me happy and giving me purpose (big millennial energy). I also naturally gained experience in my tenure in this role, which has brought perspective and makes thing easier and less uncertain. It’s so nice to grow and not worry as much. Last year I wasn’t sure how I could go on some days—and this year, I know I’ve got this.
Another nice benefit of examining my relationship to work is that I’m at a point where I get excited about a handful of the challenges in my. job, instead of just being overwhelmed. I wouldn’t even say it’s 50-50 yet. I’m still more stressed than I would like to be. But it’s progress.
The most recent example of this is learning about the Creative Production pillar of Adobe’s Content Supply Chain story. It combines elements of the Digital Experience solutions that I sell (digital asset management and project management software) with the Creative Cloud (Photoshop, Illustrator, etc), that I don’t typically get to sell.
The Creative Cloud has always had this sexy mystique for me. Back in college when I was taking graphic design courses and making attempts at my own art, I learned about the Creative Cloud as THE tool for designers. It enabled so much inspiring work.
I’ve dabbled in the Creative Cloud again lately, but mostly Adobe Express. And since I’ve never sold it, it was a black hole for me in a professional setting. But in the last year, I’ve been on a deal co-selling software with the Creative Cloud sales people. And I’m finally understanding this common value proposition between the Creative Cloud and Digital Experience cloud. I’ve known the talk tracks the whole time, but now it’s coming to life. And I only got here because I spent hours watching discovery calls and studying the solutions. Sure, I could have had AI summarize it for me, but I wanted to actually learn it. I got there, and it’s exciting!
It takes a certain degree of comfort and autonomy to be able to spend time learning like this. I already sell over a dozen software products to more than 20 large retail companies, on large, ad-hoc teams. It gets complex quickly. Learning is part of my job but the breadth and depth of what I could be learning or working on at any given time is overwhelming. So it also feels good to carve out something specific and say, I got from A to B.
Some days I felt like there was no way out or no way for things to improve, but I’m so happy that feeling didn’t last.
My relationship with work still needs, well, work, but I’m proud of how I’m showing up.
