Systems Won’t Save You, So Know When to Leave

Have you felt you’ve met milestones in your life that, as a child, people implied were supposed to be mountaintops, but they aren’t?

If you’re not saying, “No,” then this episode is for you.

In this episode of The Rest of Us, host Dana Tenille Weekes asks three questions for listeners who have a choice to no longer succeed without surviving, which she calls thriving. She poses these questions to help you determine whether you’re in a system you must leave, rather than pretending it is working for you while you’re in unbearable exhaustion.

Dana curated this episode to remind listeners that they are likely relying on too many institutions and society-sourced systems (on which our workplaces are built) to define their worth. 

And for listeners who have the choice to succeed without surviving, Dana challenges them with reflection questions to start honest conversations with themselves. Because, as she says, if you’re waiting for the system to validate or save you, it won’t.

What You’ll Settle Into

• How systems prioritize your brand over your personhood.
• How systems use productivity as a proxy for accountability.
• How resilience can be a coded word for accommodation.
• Three reflection prompts to foster honest conversations with yourself about whether you’re in a system that requires you to survive or thrive.

Key Quotes & Insights

“Systems and institutions will always have clear plans — strategies, metrics, and sufficient resources — for what they prioritize and want to invest in. So if there is an absence of such, the question is: what absence is constantly hindering your growth and advancement?”

“What we are seeing is that leadership is defined by profits and performative metrics, rather than true problem-solving. And the result is that these leaders can lead without accountability, because they treat productivity as the same thing.”

“Some organizations are asking you to be resilient to problems they create and don’t want to solve.”

LENGTH: 26 minutes