Author: Mara Ellison
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What It’s Like to Work Somewhere That’s “Progressive on Paper”
The language says one thing, but the lived experience keeps telling a quieter story. I remember the first time I realized the difference. I was reading through a document—values, commitments, principles laid out clearly…
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Why I Shut Down Every Time I’m Asked for Feedback
It’s not the question itself. It’s everything my body remembers about what feedback has meant before. When someone asks me for feedback, my first reaction isn’t curiosity or engagement. It’s a subtle internal closing.…
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How Every Work Email Started Sounding Like a PR Statement
Somewhere along the way, communication stopped being about clarity and started being about optics. I remember when work emails were simple. You wrote what needed to be said. You explained the issue. You asked…
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What It’s Like Dealing With Impostor Syndrome at Work Every Day
It wasn’t the fear of being exposed all at once. It was the quiet, daily effort of proving I belonged somewhere I was already allowed to be. I didn’t wake up one morning and…
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Why Team-Building Exercises Started Feeling Like Surveillance
What used to be framed as connection slowly began to feel like observation. I remember when team-building felt harmless. A break from routine. An awkward game. A shared activity that didn’t mean much once…
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Why I Don’t Know How to Relax on My Days Off
I stopped going into days off with anticipation and started going into them with a quiet, resistant tension I couldn’t quite name. There was a time when the idea of a day off meant…
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What It’s Like When Every Mistake Feels Like a Moral Failure
The fear isn’t getting something wrong—it’s what the wrongness is assumed to mean. I remember when mistakes felt contained. You missed a detail. You misunderstood a requirement. You adjusted and moved on. There might…
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How Ambiguity in My Role Made Everything Feel High-Stakes
It wasn’t that the work was difficult. It was that I never knew what exactly “right” looked like — and that uncertainty made everything feel heavier than it should have. I didn’t realize quite…
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What It’s Like When You’re the One Everyone Vents To
It wasn’t a title any official document gave me. It was something that emerged quietly, in Slack threads and hallway moments and late-afternoon sighs that weren’t meant for me but landed there anyway. I…
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Why I Struggle to Say No Without Feeling Like I’m Failing
The word “no” used to be simple. Now it feels like a judgment on my worth rather than a boundary on my time. There was a time when saying “no” felt like a pause…