Long Covid's Dark Gifts: CripWork Rules

One of the dark gifts of Long Covid disability was the way that it forced me to totally rethink what 'work' needs to and can look like in order to accommodate the new needs of my body.

From 2020-2022, I couldn't reliably count on it to be able to walk and move anymore - sometimes, to get to the bathroom or up the stairs without crawling. To work for more than 2-3 hours in a row without a nap or dark room break. To find the word that I needed at the right moment. To 'deliver the thing' at the speed I was used to. In short, to function - even on what felt like wild amounts of sleep, rest, recovery, support. To say nothing of managing the endless symptoms of Long Covid.

But I still wanted, and needed, to 'work' on projects that mattered to me and that I believed mattered for the public, and to deliver that work well.

I was unspeakably lucky to be collaborating with the awesome Laura Malan and Fran Cook from AndGood at the time, who co-lead most Bright Harbour Collective projects in that period. (And, as ever, to be supported by so many people from the amazing Collective, who we knew we could trust and count on).

Together, all healing from March 2020 covid/long covid, we re-wrote the rules.

Project updates and delegation meetings became async voice-note exchanges. Responsibility hierarchies and milestones monitoring evolved into something more fluid, caring and collective. Meetings sometimes happened (camera off!) from the bath. Monday meetings started with the personal, not the professional, and the week's plans went from there. Project plans included plentiful redundancy - something I wasn’t used to in ‘efficient and cost effective’ project planning.

Magically, as the rules dissolved, the work didn't just 'come off' anyway - on time, on budget, for good value, at a quality I was proud of. It became more fun, whole, nurturing and real. Words I wouldn't have expected to prioritise as my professional self.

Shout out to Emily Bazalgette for recently helping me reflect on the magic of the CripWork rules we developed in that period - alongside the rollercoaster and grief of managing evolving chronic illness and new disability. (And if you haven’t checked out her fantastic GriefSick here’s your moment).

As I've 'recovered' (more on that later), unlearning and refiguring has continued, today with my excellent co-conspirator Natalie Bear.*

Today, 'work' included:
- A comfy seat in a kitchen with heating pad on lap
- Sharing high-speed personal updates to create space for the professional
- Being fed bone broth and ginger shots (because she knew I was in writing mode and needed feeding)
- Gentle course corrections (I need this from you - what do you need from me?)
- Rapid business decisions captured in happy sketches
- Prioritising tasks for our shared assistant
- Petting an excellent shaggy dog
- A big old cuddle to cap it off.

More to say on all of this - there is so much more to share.

In the meantime, I'm eager to connect to other business owners and leaders who have been rewriting the rules against the lighthouse of CripWork.

Happy Wednesday everyone. Today, my heart (and our business plans! And my notebooks! And the pipeline!) = full.