How to move on after making a mistake

Hi friends! It’s been 19 years since The Notebook came out. And I recently found out that Ryan Gosling ad-libbed the iconic "What do you want! What do you want?" scene that plays on repeat in my head every time I ask my bestie what they’d like to do for dinner after happy hour.

Friday vibes: Hold on for one more (Fri)day. I hear if you play this song all day, the weekend will come faster.

—Rod

How to Move Forward After a Big Work Mistake

 question 
I recently screwed up big time at work—like the kind that gets you dragged on the internet. I know it was an honest mistake and that accidents happen, but I can't stop beating myself up about it. Any advice?—A.

 answer 
Doing something that might get you dragged on the internet? You’ve come to the right place, friend. If you’re like me, no amount of “seriously, it’s not a big deal and no one will even remember by this time next week” will make you feel any better.

But: There are some things you can do that’ll help you try not to think about changing your name and entering Disney’s Princess Protection Program.

Learn from it. Emily in Paris learned her lesson about making out with her client’s grandsons (lol), you'll learn from this too. Every mistake comes with a lesson. Find that lesson, and I bet you’ll never make the same mistake again.

Keep busy. Staying busy with new projects or three-hour lunches with your work besties can help distract you from rewinding and replaying the scenario a billion times in your head like it’s a VHS you copped from BlockBuster. And it will also keep you from reading every single comment on the internet about it. 🫠

Focus forward. We can’t Control-Alt-Delete the past, so we have to just move forward. The less you dwell on it, the more you can focus on all the good stuff that’s yet to come your way.

How to Boost Employee Engagement

 question 
I volunteered to be on the employee engagement committee that the new HR director is starting at my work. We want this committee to be meaningful and impactful, so that it won’t just fizzle out in a matter of months. Any suggestions on things we could implement that everyone would actually enjoy?—A.

 answer 
Before jumping to the conclusion that a mandatory company-wide outing to an Escape Room is going to fix Lisa from Finance’s attitude (spoiler alert: she just wants Summer Fridays), I suggest doing some research on what has and hasn’t worked in the past.

One easy way to do that? An anonymous (like, actually anonymous) company-wide survey with questions like:

• What current benefits/perks do you value as an employee?

• In your time here, what has worked well for boosting employee engagement?

• What benefits/perks can we improve on?

• Are there any benefits or perks that you think wouldn’t work well for our team?

Give the people what they want! And get your answers straight from the source to save your team the time it takes to guess how many employees would value a soft serve machine in the kitchen. Once you’re able to nail down something that the majority of your company is in favor of, you’re more likely to receive positive engagement.

Got a Q for me to A? Submit yours here.

Things to Slack your work besties

…after unpacking your 1pm Trader Joe’s haul.

Some scientists think the rise of astrology (c/o technology *cough* Co-Star *cough* and the pandemic) is causing younger generations to depend too much on their quadruple Scorpio placements and not enough on logical thinking.

Not that there’s ever much left in my peanut butter jars when I get done eating spoonfuls over the sink, but definitely going to try this recipe hack for an easy peanut sauce next time!

We asked and you answered! Thanks to everyone who sent in their book recommendations for the summer. Keep ‘em coming, and we’ll keep sharing.

Here are a few of your faves:

• City of Likes by Jenny Mollen

• Falling by TJ Newman

• God in Pink by Hasan Namir

• Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

• The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

That’s all for today, folks! Wishing the most fun weekend ever! See you back here on Monday. 🫶

IDK WHAT DO I KNOW?! LMAO!

—Rod