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Kate Gamble: Today in Health IT, we're discussing the transition from work to weekend mode. Techniques for mentally clocking out and leaving work stress behind.

This episode is brought to you by SureTest. Transform your health system's application testing and reclaim thousands of hours with SureTest. Visit thisweekhealth. com slash suretest to learn more. I'm Kate Gamble, Managing Editor of This Week Health, where we host a set of channels and events dedicated to transforming health care for One connection at a time.

I've spent the last 12 years interviewing CXOs, and I'm excited to bring that knowledge into this community of leaders. So today we're discussing transitioning from work to weekend mode, techniques for mentally clocking out and leaving work stress behind, and I'm joined by my friend, Sarah Richardson, president of This Week Health 229 Executive Development Community, Sarah, welcome to the show.

Thank you, Kate, and happy Friday to you. TGIF. So this story came from our friends at Hit Like a Girl podcast. which amplifies the voices of women leading the charge in healthcare and health IT, like you. So this post is written by Cherise Maynard, who's really well known in the health IT community, and it addresses the difficulties facing women in this space when it comes to fully disconnecting from work on weekends.

It offers strategies for mentally transitioning from work to personal time, including creating end of the week rituals, setting boundaries, and practicing mindfulness. this. The goal is to promote a healthier work life balance, reduce stress, and ultimately enhance productivity. So Sarah, tell me why this topic resonates so much with you.

Sarah Richardson: It resonates with me, and I'll say that I don't believe this is necessarily specific to women, although women carry a burden of what it takes to run the families into their perspectives on the weekends. And I say that because as Health IT practitioners, we run 24/7 365 shops. And so for most people, you can likely clock out at the end of your week.

If you work in a hospital system or have a 24, 7 operation, it changes the dynamic for men and women. Yet it does not mean that you can't put these practices into place and have mitigating strategies, just like we do for, say, a security finding. in order to make sure that you can recharge and fill your cup over that weekend and be your best version of yourself going into the week ahead the following Monday.

Kate Gamble: And when we talk about things like setting boundaries around work. What are some of the things that can be done there? Like more specifically?

Sarah Richardson: Yeah. So I will share in terms of my most previous team and most of us knew each other's work patterns. So when I, if I was to say to you, Hey, I like to catch up on my email on Sunday evening.

And I'm going to go ahead and respond to my email. I may ask you, are you okay with your inbox getting filled up on Sunday night with me? responding, knowing you are not required to answer, or would you rather that I schedule them to arrive on Monday? And you may get a mixed bag. And when you have these open conversations with your team, it's really powerful because honestly, this is about how you are wired.

Would you rather see a whole bunch of messages on Sunday night or just know that Monday morning, eight o'clock, it's going to be a huge dump of email coming in? What I find interesting is several. Practitioners of technology and I'm sure other industries as well, tend to catch up on Sunday night. You're getting ready for your week ahead.

And so it's naturally a part of the rhythm to work on Sunday evenings, as an example, just like the weekday nights, same thing. If I answer my email after everybody else has gone to bed or after workout, after dinner, after whatever, You're going to see messages at night. Having that open and consistent line of communication with people really is helpful.

So you understand how you don't breach their boundaries for also having work, email notifications, et cetera. I've noticed most of our team here at This Week Health will silence their notifications for Slack, email, and others after certain hours or on the weekends. We happen to live in a world today at This Week Health where unless we're hosting an event on a weekend.

We don't have to necessarily be available for an outage and upgrade, et cetera, on the weekends, which is helpful, except that there's still that cadence of how communication is arriving to you, and how does it help you to make sure you live a balanced life? after hours and on weekends.

Kate Gamble: Yeah, I like what you were saying about the importance of communication and knowing people's patterns.

And I would think that can be challenging as your teams get bigger, but it's still important to try to set those parameters and get people's feedback, especially on things like, as you said, maybe one person likes to send out emails on Sunday night, but then communicating that. I don't expect you to answer right now.

So I guess it's really trying to take into consideration all those different preferences.

Sarah Richardson: That's important. Think about how you can improve employee well being, reduce burnout, enhance productivity. So if you are running a 24 by 7 by 365 shop, and it's taken me a bit to adjust. I have been in that environment my entire career.

Hotel, casino business. And then I went into the airlines and then I went into healthcare. Guess what? They all run all the time. And on the weekends, if you are going hiking, you say to your next person in line, I'm going to be out of range for the next four hours, can you cover me on these dates? And you do this ahead of time.

So people are aware it's a real thing because things happen inevitably middle of the night and the weekends in different environments. But when you let people know that they have that responsibility while you're unavailable. Yeah, a four hour block on a Saturday is one thing, but what happens when you go on vacation?

And so I'm a scuba diver. And may have been the best hobby I could have ever chosen because when I go on a scuba trip, I often go on what's called the liveaboard and there's no internet, which is awesome to be realistic about the whole thing. Put somebody as your CIO in residence. Make sure they have What they need to be successful before you go on And when this is a constant conversation with your teams, they know exactly how to respond. In my time at HCA, and very specifically, I worked with Leah Miller, who's now one of the executives at Common Spirit. She and I had a rhythm where if either of us were gone, This is how we covered for one another.

She was in charge when I was gone. And then she had somebody in charge of she was gone. And then of course we had oversight for one another, but the key there was save it all up and handle it. And Monday morning, when I walked back in that door, I guess my first meeting was couple hours debriefing with her about what had happened, we would always.

So we used to

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Sarah Richardson: come out when you go on vacation. And

it was a two way street. And it

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Sarah Richardson: what happened. procedures involved is not just our thinking is responsible happening, but our actions are.

incredibly well my business. on PTO and not working because they know you trust them and they make sure it gets taken care of. And so when you have that level of communication and camaraderie and trust in your teams, anything is truly possible. And that's why I encourage people, take your PTO, go for the weekend hike, go to the kids basketball games, do the things where you can literally Show up as if you could have 20 years ago.

Kate Gamble: I love that. And one of the things I really like about This Week Health is that culture is one of our core values. And this really plays into that because when you encourage your teams to set boundaries and disconnect, you're building a stronger culture. And it's something that I used to think sounded counterintuitive, but it really does make sense when you think about it.

People are going to be more bought in when they're encouraged to be, to take time away and really use that time.

Sarah Richardson: 100%. Like you're not going to get as much burnout. You're going to have a chance to recharge better perspectives. And it's just a culture shift. It's an environment where boundaries are respected and well being prioritized.

And that's the thing I will say is boundaries are respected. I've worked in organizations where I literally back to the, had a CFO who said that he had to have a Ledge installed in his shower so he could keep his cell phone handy in case the previous CEO called him on a Saturday. I was like, that is not a respected boundary.

The fact that you're supposed to always be available and always on. And I encourage people, have those conversations before you join an organization. Now I know we all get Executive shifts and changes, but really knowing what you're signing up for. And it's not awkward to ask those questions in an interview.

What is the expectation of availability now? Upgrades, outages, etc. Totally appreciate that. Saturday afternoon, if I'm at the kid's soccer game and now you're calling me with some idea that you happen to come up with because your creative time was Saturday while you were out doing whatever you're doing.

Honestly, is that okay with you as an executive? And more importantly, is it okay with your family So make sure that the people that are affected downstream in any way, Sense of this equation, have a say in what is happening.

Kate Gamble: That's

Sarah Richardson: a

Kate Gamble: really great point about bringing it up in an interview, getting that out, getting out in front of that.

That's so important. It it sets the tone for how you are as a worker and then how, what you expect from your leaders. So that's really good. That's great advice. And, we're seeing We know that solid IT talent is at such a premium right now. People have a lot of options. So it's more important than ever for leaders to foster that healthy environment and make it a place where people want to work.

Sarah Richardson: 100%. Think about fully remote environments. Does that mean fully remote means you're always available and those different aspects. And so as we go into the weekend, Kate, how are you going to recharge? What's your jam this weekend? What's going on with the kids, the dog, the fam?

Kate Gamble: Outside time, getting as much outside time as possible.

And I live near the beach, which is wonderful, but I also miss being around trees. So we will drive out to parks and just walk around and I have my no phones rule and actually. You can have a phone if it's set to airplane mode if you want to take pictures, but unplugging is just a really big thing, and we make it a point to do that.

What about you?

Sarah Richardson: I do love the idea of airplane mode so you can take pictures. We literally could walk out of our front door and go on some hiking trails, and so that tends to be one of the things that we love to do. So if the weather holds, it's supposed to rain the next couple of days we likely will go out during a break in the clouds and the drizzle and get some really good outdoor exercise in because it's really hot here in the summer and then it gets cold pretty quickly.

Middle of the day though, you can usually go for it. So we have friends coming to town we're going to have dinner with and some hiking and of course there's always football in the

Kate Gamble: Always. Before we wrap up, I do want to congratulate Sarah on six months at This Week Health. We are very lucky to have you here.

Sarah Richardson: Thank you. And you joining us too is just such a wonderful addition of everything we get to do every day. So thanks for the camaraderie and friendship that we get to host this show together. And set a good example for going into Friday recharge mode. Love that.

Kate Gamble: All right. Don't forget to share this podcast with a friend or colleague.

Use it as a foundation for daily or weekly discussions on the topics that are relevant to you and the industry. They can subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. That's a wrap. Thank you for listening and enjoy your weekend.