thank you to everyone for their sweet comments in my latest community post talking about my stress and overwhelm! remember that self-care is so important, friends

@prashantsingh-gf6dq

3 ай бұрын

Mam I have some queries, regarding archivist. How to contact. I am from India..❤

Thank you (for this)! As of december 2023 this remains the only +4 min video dealing with the profession of archivists, and its impact/conditional effect on mental health/public health.

As someone who works for a museum I can relate. The mid season professionals are really feeling the pressure to take on many hats due to reduced staff

As a new archive professional it’s great to see you work, but also talking about burnout and how to deal with all the hats we have to wear at times. Great video

I’ve been complaining to myself that I often get bored at work, that it’s not fulfilling because I don’t have enough tasks to do and there are people like you out there getting burned out because you have too many things to do. Guess the grass is always greener on the other side uh. Much love and strenght to you friend

Right here with u, was in the same situation for months .. not only the work is overloaded and erupted, I am also surrounded by toxic environment at work 😢 so feel you

@SheilaJoy

Жыл бұрын

oh no!! adding a toxic environment to the mix can only make things ten times worse. thinking of you, friend!

As a solo librarian and digital archivist at a science research center....this video was so comforting

@SheilaJoy

Жыл бұрын

you know the struggle! sending love

I am right here with you, friend. I’m struggling so hard with burnout - it’s just so hard to maintain balance all the time and sometimes the volcano just blows. But you’re doing great because you just keep trying and keep going. I think that’s all we can do. Sorry your week didn’t go as planned but I appreciate you sharing this real and relatable side of your work and life. I hope you’re feeling better soon!

@SheilaJoy

Жыл бұрын

you are so right about doing the best we can and showing up, taking it day by day. that is the mindset i've been trying to adopt. it's a work in progress! hope you can find some rest and calm in your life as well

Sorry to hear that your week didn't go well but I am glad that you were able to take some time for yourself. Self care is very important and is encouraged especially when you are going through a rough week. I am in the middle of reading "Daisy Jones and the Six" and its alright. Better then the series tbh. I caved and picked up "Fourth Wing" but as an audiobook and will be saving it for my "End of summer tbr" at the rate i'm going, I may get to it by the end of June but we'll see. Have a great week! 🌼🤍

Thank you for sharing and being open and honest 🙂. I hope you continue to rest and take time out for yourself.

@SheilaJoy

Жыл бұрын

thank you, friend!

I hope you’re getting lots of rest this weekend and that the week ahead will be better for you. 💜

@SheilaJoy

Жыл бұрын

thanks, friend

❤❤❤❤

You are so awesome! I really appreciate what you share in your videos. Lately I've been doing a lot of soul searching and trying to see what career might be the best fit for me, if I need to make a big career change. In that process I learned about archivists and I am very intrigued. From another one of your videos I learned what "public history" is. I'm also an introverted person who loves history and photography and art. My background is in journalism/local news, right now I work in news marketing. It's exciting to think of another career path that might fit my personality and I just really appreciate your honesty. .What your day looks like, what kinds of tasks you juggle and what the burnout looks like. How you deal with it. All great stuff! Thanks so much for sharing. Also, you just seem like a really cool person in general haha

@SheilaJoy

11 ай бұрын

aww thanks for the sweet comment, Amy! I'm glad my videos are helpful to you in terms of figuring out a new career path. Before I realized I wanted to be an archivist I actually wanted to be a photojournalist and went to school for photography only to realize I preferred it as a hobby...which is why I ended up on KZread since I love documenting and storytelling :) best of luck to you on your journey!

@AmyAbdel

11 ай бұрын

@@SheilaJoy I'm very similar to you in that way! I love storytelling too. Until recently I just couldn't imagine a career in anything outside of journalism! Even when I feel burnt out and over it I've always thought there's no place for me anywhere else. Then I stumbled your KZread! You give me hope lol

Oh my gosh you are not alone! I am having the same situation at work including the inbox overwhelm lol. I have my non negotiable to do today to go through alllllll my email 😢. Thank you for sharing! Let us know how you figure it out! I need some tips 😅

@SheilaJoy

Жыл бұрын

arghhh the inbox overwhelm is real!! hoping you can find some peace along the way

@colleen5236

Жыл бұрын

thank you! you too!

I always associate burnout with poor working conditions and exploitation. Clearly other personal or emotional aspects can have an influence but I think that when the workload is too much and the functions we perform are too many to handle (bc should be shared with other employees), then this feeling of not being able to handle anything appears. In some workplaces it can be a problem of lack of personnel and that makes all the burden always falls on a single employee who can not cope bc it's clearly not work for one person. And that has to be solved by the company itself because no matter how much you try to alleviate that feeling by yourself those are only temporary solutions. Burnout can be overcome with structural changes in the dynamics and work policies in a company. But this is only my perspective from reading and listening other people's experiences on "burnout". Take care!

@SheilaJoy

11 ай бұрын

totally agree with everything you said and it sounds like what I've been experiencing. Where I work it is definitely a case of there are simply not enough people to distribute the work to and I have been left to take it all on...but thankfully we recently hired some more people to help out and while they've been focused on what they were hired to do, I've learned that it's okay to ask for help and to delegate tasks to them...and after speaking with my boss we changed some things and now my assistant processor is also helping me with emails and research requests which has helped a ton!

I'm so sorry to hear about your volcano erupting! I wonder if your employer could give you a part-time assistant? It sounds like your workload has grown beyond being manageable. Sometimes when you are good at what you do and you work very hard employers assume you can do it all.

@cadeylinn

Жыл бұрын

This is so true. Such a common problem in America that the only reward for being a good worker is more work.

@SheilaJoy

Жыл бұрын

thank you for sharing this!! I am planning to speak to my boss soon about everything and figuring out a way I can move forward with my work load. something's gotta change either way!

@cuppajavaplease

Жыл бұрын

@@SheilaJoy Good for you!!

I am having the same problems dealing with people at work and I will talk to my boss soon about this, I came home very exhausted and fatigue killing my body and I have a teen age daughter needs a lot of care and attention rather the house chores from cleaning to cooking. When I came home I cry because of stress and stayed the weekend not doing anything which frustrated me so much as I am an author and booktuber too and since three years I couldn't do any videos about my passion of life : books and I am turning so frustrated and angry, please advice me what to do ? I could not leave my job because I really need it. Thank for sharing this topics with us because many of us are having the same problems. Love you.

@SheilaJoy

Жыл бұрын

So sorry to hear that you're experiencing burnout, Meg! I have a new video coming out soon that shares how I've been healing from my burnout, so I hope that will help you. My advice to you (which I also talk about in the video) is to perhaps speak to your supervisor about what you're going through and see if you can figure out ways for your workplace to support you through this time of burnout? Can you take some time off? Or drop your hours? Or drop some responsibilities? I understand that may not be possible or would bring its own challenges but considering you do not want to leave entirely, my hope is that your workplace will support and help you move through this time.

@megreads9

Жыл бұрын

@@SheilaJoy yes you are totally right, this whole week we received our new responsible for our work and with my colleague I spoke to her and she was very understanding our situations and she transfered our concerns and anxiety to the highest administration and we hope that she will give us a little drop of responsibilities. Today it was the most exhausted day as always but one thing that relieved me is that she is hearing us and our problems, at least I felt some relaxing about it. Thank you Sheila for being an inspiration to me.

Sheila, how do you take days off work when you’re having a bad mental health day? Do you just use a vacation day?

I have a lot of questions about archives work, three of them : 1- Why do you keep archived books in a boxes ? 2- What do you do as establishment to save these books from decading and humidity ? 3- What is the software name that you work on computer to archive the books ? Thank you for giving me hints.

@SheilaJoy

Жыл бұрын

thanks for your questions! 1. Our institution keeps books in boxes for long-term preservation and mainly, protection from water since we've had three water leaks since I've worked there, and two of them causing MAJOR damage to material. Boxes add an extra layer of protection against water (or other elements) and there are even boxes made to be water resistant. We also purchase "perma/dry" document boxes that are described to repel water: www.universityproducts.com/perma-dry-document-cases.html 2. Climate control is the best way to preserve books. You want the temperature to be stable and not over 70 degrees F, and the humidity between a minimum of 30% and a maximum of 50%-65% (you will see differing recommendations out there.) If you do not have the best environment (as in the building/room is hot or high humidity) I would suggest investing in air conditioners and/or dehumidifiers and trying to keep the room at a consistent temperature (you can also purchase temperature and humidity monitoring devices.) The most damage can occur when books are in an unstable environment i.e. the heat/humidity is constantly changing. Again, the key is maintaining a stable environment. If you can't get the temperature below 70 degrees F, at least try to KEEP it at 70. The best way to prevent degradation is to maintain a consistent environment for the materials. 3. We use PastPerfect as our collections database, which we use to catalog our library books as well as our archival collections and objects. We also use Google Sheets and Google Docs for our shelf listings and inventory lists!

@megreads9

Жыл бұрын

@@SheilaJoy wow very informative answers and so useful, thank you so much for replying me indeed. I will benefit from these instructions to my own bookshelves that have more than 4000 books in Arabic and French. Thank you 💖

Snoozing seems as much work as dealing with the email ?

@SheilaJoy

Ай бұрын

Good point! It’s been almost a year since I made this video and I can say that I like to use the snooze function when I feel very overwhelmed after opening my inbox first thing when I start my day. (I’ve also learned that I’m neurodivergent since making this video and that has really changed how I think about the way I work.) Since I need to check my email first thing in case there’s anything urgent I need to deal with, the snooze button helps me filter my inbox so I can focus on the more pressing or relevant emails on that day. Alternatively, I also tag my emails which puts them in different categories, which I can work on later but it removes them from my main inbox. Hope this makes sense lol