Introduction: Katie O’Keefe

Musician 
Wonderful academic 
Wonderful mom 
Community citizen in Columbus, Ohio

Professional Background 

Professional musician for about 30 years. 
Specialized in folksong, most especially in the German community, but also in the Irish community. 
 Performed Renaissance and chant in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Columbus where I was employed for many, many years as music director. 
Lost my voice following surgery I lost my voice
Went back to school 
Finished my Bachelor’s degree at 48 y.o.
Got my first grown up job at Ohio State University 

Current

Instructional designer, so I helped teachers teach better online
It gets really stressful when you're getting down to the wire on some things
Important keep yourself, grounded 
Angela came in in the middle of the pandemic to help me with getting and staying grounded
Pressure was immense & I was all by myself in an office that was designed to be run by two.

Personal Sacrifices

Made many personal sacrifices to help work at the office
Felt under appreciated
Was doing the workload of two people
Switched colleges within the University…
Stress of the mid-pandemic
Distrust amongst the new colleagues: “My job is to alleviate your job” but colleagues saw it as more work

Different Work Cultures

Same University, different cultures
Different colleges have different values
Different colleges (i.e. departments) have different focus

Emotions during Overwhelm

Burst into tears
Everything was changing constantly
Nothing was improving
“Women aren’t supposed to cry in professional settings”

How did you get there?

So how I got there was by asking more of myself than anyone else was asking.\
Come in, take charge, make it happen. Make everybody's day and keep everybody kind of floating. I mean, I felt like that was my responsibility.
Missing colleague
Missing well-loved former manager
That all of this work was going into keeping people alive and keeping them safe.

 
Moving Pieces & Parts at Home

You were building your home. 
You were building on.
Grieving: we lost 25% of membership in German clubs in 2020-2021
Family illness
Covid in the community

Losses in the Community
Many holes. It leaves holes in the, in the cultural makeup of of your circle. Even if you weren't, their best buddy. You didn't sit next to them in choir or anything. You were still looking for that person across the way and listening for their laugh
Angela: Choir is a supportive Community

Without the choir and support, feelings of isolation. 
Setting boundaries requires support to establish & maintain them.

It’s OK to cry

You know, sometimes crying is the first step of saying, OK, I need some help, yes?
Final step in the stress process
Pressure Valve to keep us safe
Warning signs

How did you recover?
And I I even have that on the door. It's very exciting. So there were there, were a few things that I did. One of the first things that I did was you reached out to me and said, "Hey, I can help you"
We need Community
Because you absolutely have to have people. People do need other people. And I definitely needed somebody who knew more than I did about how to handle burnout.
Recovery Tips

Good Food
Walk outside
Drink Water
Get an accountability partner

Walking
And it literally works every time. And of course, right now it's,, fall. At this moment in time, it's fall and all the trees in my neighborhood are in full color. It's beautiful out and so I'm, I'm just I'm delighted that I that I took that time for myself because when I got back I was able to refocus and dig back in and really make some progress on the problem I was working on. And that's, that's like one of the most invaluable things that I got. And then I don't remember if you told me to do this or if I just intuited it, but I realized that one of the things that I was missing was the creative activity of music.
Music
My, my, my music, my musicianship. I conduct. And so there is no conducting, your your phone and, it's kind of hard