Welcome to Season 3 of The Anxious Achiever, the show where we look at stories from leaders who've dealt with anxiety, depression, or other mental health challenges, how they fell down, how they pick themselves up, and how they hope workplaces can change in the future.

I'm your host, Maura Arendes Mealy.

I first got to know today's guest through her writing. At the height of the stress of coronavirus this summer, the Black Lives Matter movement took over the national consciousness like never

before. And it's still

playing out today. It likely will be for some time, as managers, workers, and everyone with

the career is grappling with the ways they're affected by race, either as perpetrators of

stereotypes, the status quo and unfair systems, or as those who feel the effects of bias and

racism. All that's to say, I'm still who feel the effects of bias and racism.

All that's to say, I'm still thinking about the piece that I read by Prisca Neely, her article,

I don't need your check-in texts.

But like all of us, Prisca isn't just thinking about one thing all day at work.

She's a new first-time manager with a big new job, and she's someone who works hard to articulate feelings and encourage others to do so. And she has, unfortunately, also felt the burden of being the only.

For those of you who heard our episode on the Anxiety of the Only in season one, you'll already know about the anxiety of being the only person of color or woman or anything else in a room.

It's difficult to be an only, and it's a difficult burden to explain to people in the majority

why their behavior needs to change.

And because we're all just people after all, and we are all constantly saying things that set others off,

even when we don't mean to,

workplaces are rife with lots and lots of unexpressed feelings.

So Prisca can help us wade through all of this.

She's skilled at asking herself this question at work and turning it into good change.

How did this interaction make me feel and how can I do something different next time?

It's just one piece of management advice from this new manager that I took away from our conversation.

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