Work Besties Who Podcast

Pass the Gratitude, Please: Thanksgiving Confessions from Two Work Besties About Burnout, Boundaries & Being Seen

• Work Besties Who Podcast • Season 2 • Episode 77

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This Thanksgiving, we’re feeling all the feelings: grateful, tired, over-caffeinated… and very, very thankful for YOU. 💎

In this cozy holiday episode, Jess and Claude slow down to reflect on what they’re grateful for at work, in their personal lives, and in each other. They unpack the difference between genuine appreciation and toxic positivity (yes, including the infamous “thank you for your leadership” for everything), share behind-the-scenes wins from the Work Besties Who Podcast journey, and tell stories of work trauma that turned into deep friendship and a growing community.

You’ll also hear how Jess uses affirmations to stay grounded, how Claude’s daily rituals and swimming became moving meditation, and why they both agree their friendship is… the stuffing. (Main character energy only.)

Whether you’re driving to family dinner, hiding before the office potluck, or taking a much-needed solo walk, this one’s a warm hug for you and your inner work bestie.

In this episode, we talk about:

  • What real gratitude at work looks like (and what it definitely doesn’t)
  • The difference between appreciation and toxic positivity
  • How shared work trauma can bond people into true work besties
  • The behind-the-scenes support that kept the podcast going during a hard season
  • Why taking vacation and actual breaks changes everything
  • Jess’s affirmation practice vs. Claude’s daily rituals and “moving meditation”
  • Comparing their friendship to a Thanksgiving dish (spoiler: stuffing is the star)
  • A lightning round of chaotic Thanksgiving questions and heartfelt gratitude

Key Takeaways:

  • Gratitude at work can foster genuine, trusting relationships.
  • Toxic positivity (“thank you for your leadership” for everything) eventually erodes trust.
  • Take 10 seconds to tell a coworker why you appreciate them — it matters.
  • Many growth moments come from challenging or even painful work experiences.
  • Audience engagement and community feedback have grown significantly this year.
  • Time off and vacations are essential for mental health and perspective.
  • Affirmations and daily rituals can ground you before the chaos of the day.
  • Friendship can feel like a Thanksgiving dish: layered, comforting, and a little chaotic.
  • Support from friends, colleagues, and fellow creators is invaluable on any journey.

Chapters:

  • 00:00 – Thanksgiving Reflections and Gratitude
  • 04:25 – Work Besties: The Importance of Appreciation
  • 07:52 – Moments of Growth and Perspective Shifts
  • 12:01 – Behind the Scenes Wins and Community Engagement
  • 16:36 – Finding Gratitude in Personal Lives
  • 21:14 – Fun Thanksgiving Questions and Celebrations

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Work Besties! Theme Song Written by Ralph Lentini @therallyband

Jess:

Hi work besties, it's Thanksgiving and we're feeling all the feels. Grateful, tired, overcaffeinated. But today we're slowing down to talk about what we're thankful for at work, at life, and in each other.

Claude:

Yay, and yes, we each brought a surprise question for the other. No prep, just feelings. It's going to be interesting. I'm scared. I am too. Hi, I'm Claude. And I'm Jess.

Jess:

We are corporate employees by day. Let's kick off with a moment this year that you felt genuinely appreciated at work. So I'm going to start by saying I personally want to congratulate the two of us. We did something this year. I think we mastered it, in fact. Something that I know is taking me years to accomplish in other working relationships and other friendships. And that is finding the right balance and the right way to give gratitude toward each other. And I think the way that we do it is so genuine to how we both want to be accepting of gratitude and appreciating it and recognizing it. And it doesn't ever feel forced. Yeah. It doesn't ever feel like you don't really mean it or it's not true. I'm very proud of us for that. I am too. Well, good.

Claude:

So then let's talk about some other things. Well, I kind of took the section like how to be thankful for our 9 to 5.

Jess:

Oh worse, the work bestie. Got it.

Claude:

But I I wanted to for the 9 to 5 also, I wanted to say something about myth, the myth of toxic positivity versus gaining appreciation. Okay. I think that is very important. I mean, when you want to show gratitude, feel it. Okay. It's so important. You and I experienced in our 9 to 5 someone that was saying thank you for your leadership. For anything, even going to the bathroom, thank you for your late leadership. So I think that is so important because at the end you don't feel it, you don't trust it anymore. So when you appreciate something, it really has to be genuine, yeah.

Jess:

I think you hit on two really very poignant comments there that are very applicable to an episode about being thankful, one of which is work besties in general, which we didn't even incorporate or think about that.

Claude:

Because it's a giver, I know. It's a giver.

Jess:

I mean, at this point, it's like you know But it's true. And the thing that usually and sadly bonds individuals that the work environment to become work besties is work trauma. Working with some type of toxic environment, positive toxic element or work trauma in general. So you're hitting upon things that totally resonate with us and how we became such a strong partnership, but I'm sure resonate with many of you out there too.

Claude:

So hold on, what does it mean that we are grateful for toxicity?

Jess:

What's my thing is that we're rising above it.

Claude:

Which, if you think about it, that was what three years, three, four years ago. It was quite a while ago. And we are still friends, right? And now there's no-podcast now. And we have a podcast, yeah. With multiple people listening.

Jess:

Yeah. Grateful for that one. Yes, totally. Um, and we have a section for you all coming up. But maybe what we do for this is we suggest to our lovely work bestie community, and we appreciate you all so much that this is the time. It's Thanksgiving. We we think about family and friends, and our work besties are kind of both family and friends. So think about that one co-worker you're grateful for. And maybe it isn't your work bestie, but somebody you've become somewhat close with, and just take that five, 10 seconds to tell them why. Maybe even buy them a coffee um or a lunch and just say a card. Old fashioned way. What are they gonna do? Snail nail it with a pigeon. With a pigeon. Yes, so find your way, authentic way to show that appreciation. Let's shift now to discussing what we're thankful for in the Work Bestie Who podcast journey. So, Claude, how have things changed for you when it comes to our audience and our community?

Claude:

So, our community increased, right? We have a lot more people following us, a lot more socials, uh, platforms were a lot of yeah, a lot more platforms. Gratitude to you on that one because you're really the master behind gratitude. Yes, thank you. Um, and also like really engaging with them, like a lot of them answering to all the the posts and really seeing how like this, yeah, this community growing. And I I'm really genuinely grateful for it.

Jess:

So, this year we're actually getting a lot more engagement on there as far as people actually responding with certain questions and um things to think about for us to add into our podcast, and a lot more. Oh, we liked this, we wanted to see more of that. That's significantly increased this year versus for this year versus last year, and also I have to say, being able to get more guests on our podcast.

Claude:

It's been a lot we start to have this community growing, and one guest is going to say, Hey, you should speak to so and so, and that I think it's fun. And also, we've been going more networking and going to a lot more uh conferences and events, so that's cool. Yeah. Now, about you. What's a small behind-the-scenes screen? There's been a lot.

Jess:

I feel like there's a lot of things that you and I have done behind the scenes that didn't always quite make it into any of our podcasts themselves or in any of our socials. In fact, I think that's something we've been thinking about. How do we show ourselves more for season three? So more to come on that. But I would say the one element that comes to mind, or the one very specific example I have of a behind the scene that did not get a lot of credit for, and these people all leaned in, was during that time frame when you were away on vacation and I was leading everything. It was only about three, three and a half weeks or whatever, but it felt like a year. And I was really struggling. And at one point, I reached out to two different content creators that we had already previously collaborated with, and one that is just a friend of mine, and asked for support on a quick thing, and they all jumped. They all were like, We're here for you, we'll figure it out. And the amount of support and what they provided back. I mean, I just want to say, give a shout out to all of them, to Corporate NX, that um Not Your Average Coward, and my friend Jackie. The three of them all provided content to me, worked with me on things, and their version of what they were in on it was so small, and I feel really bad I should have done a bigger deal with it. They were all so gracious, so kind, and they all checked in with me after that for like the next two weeks. Like, are you okay? How are things going? I mean, I haven't even met two of them live.

Claude:

Yeah.

Jess:

And for them to lean in on that, it's just I'm very grateful for that for sure. And we'll always be grateful for those for those two.

Claude:

To this point, those three people. To this point, I'm grateful for you, to you, that I was able to take three weeks' vacation because I needed it. I was so burned out. Not that I'm not saying you were out, but burned out on me. I was totally burned out, and taking those vacations really made a world of difference. A world of difference. You came back a completely new person. You were so calm and positive about everything. How long was did it take? One week? It lasted for like three weeks. Three weeks, exactly. Yes, it lasted once. Yeah, yeah. It definitely goes to show you take your vacation. Exactly. So that was I'm very grateful because I know last year was hard.

Jess:

Well, I'm glad I'm glad you got to do it. I don't regret taking in the leap and helping you with that. I did learn that I do need more support when that happens. So thank you.

Claude:

I will put the boss in advance. Cool. So now discussing finding gratitude in our personal lives because it's a lot work besties, but we do have also personal lives.

Jess:

Do we?

Claude:

I would think so. So, what is uh one thing you're gonna do?

Jess:

I mean, obviously, you I'm very grateful for you.

Claude:

I am asking you because now you're I'm part of your personal.

Jess:

You are part of my personal life. It's nice to network of support from work from our our joint venture and also as friendship, and as friend, yeah, and um she's like I made it. Um and I am grateful for it's been a stressful year across all of those. Oh yet you've been Iraq and you've been there, we've had our ups and downs, but we figure it out. That's relationship. I know, I know, but not all, not everyone's around along for the journey, and you've always been there, so I appreciate that. And then I do have one other thing, too. But obviously, I love you. That's like the top. But I knew this question was coming up, so I I also provided one other one that I felt the uh work bestie community could relate a little bit more to because I'm not giving you up. They're not allowed to have you as the work bestie. So the one that I'm exclusive. We're exclusive. We might have a ceremony. We should have a ceremony. That would be so funny. Oh, work bestie. No kidding. That was so funny. Um, all right, so anyway, the one that I'm giving as a shout out for the work bestie community to think about doing is one of our earlier episodes. And she's giggling because she knows I do it and she does it. Affirmations. I very much believe in them. I get up that extra five, ten minutes. Sometimes I uh this last couple months have not been the best about doing it, but I used to get up a good 30 minutes and write my affirmations. Now it's about five, ten minutes, and I try and do them in the morning and I try and do them at night, and I really feel like it just it grounds you, it makes you think about what's truly important in your life. First, all of the chaos of everything else that's coming at you, schedules, emails, all that stuff. It gives you that five, ten minutes with your cup of coffee to not think about anything else, like you and what your affirmation is. And for me, it's really given me a pause there.

Claude:

That's awesome.

Jess:

So now I know you don't do affirmations, Claude. But I still wanted to ask you do you have a daily ritual or small joy that grounds you in a similar way?

Claude:

So obviously, our when we send our memes for me, that is something, it's a ritual that I love. And that when I don't get one, I'm like, I don't like it. But then also is my daily calls with my friend when it's like going to work and coming back from work. It's just like being able to chit-chat is like one thing where it helps you decompress, it helps decompress before going to our life at home, and I have to say it just came to me. But that was just in the summer was my swimming. Oh yeah, that I really liked. Like I was swimming an hour and it was like kind of meditating because I could hear my breath.

Jess:

Um, I really enjoyed that. It's funny because member used to make fun of me for saying that's why I ran. Because it is uh it just gets you into your moment. The the one you would never do it, but that's your same thing.

Claude:

I would not never do it, but yeah, but exactly like I can swim, I cannot run. So yeah, I I really that was one thing that didn't do last year. Okay. Wait. What?

Jess:

Not smoking! Oh my god! But that's that is not necessarily a daily ritual for small joy, though, is it? That's gratitude. That's gratitude, but it's not a daily ritual over small joy that goes. That's fine. And now it's not necessarily a thing, it's you're you just don't smoke. Exactly. So proud. All right. We should go into our work bestie exchange and ask each other questions. So explain what we're doing. So what we decided when we came up with this episode was that we would have kind of an assessment of parts of what we are happy or grateful, and then we were going to ask each other questions without pre-sharing them. So this round, I have not seen her questions, she has not seen mine, and we have to in the moment respond to that. Mine is Celia. Are you going first or do you want me to go first? Go first. Okay, I'm gonna go first. So, Claude, Jesus, if our friendship was a Thanksgiving dish, what would it be and why?

Claude:

Okay, let me tell you my now. If your work bestie was a Thanksgiving side dish, what would it be? And no pressure, but this is everything about your friendship.

Jess:

Mine isn't a side dish though, so you could be the main chorus. You could have main character energy on mine. Yours is a side hustle. What is going on? What? What do you mean the side hustle? I because yours is it's a side dish.

Claude:

Why a side dish, yeah.

Jess:

Well, I gave you, you could you could say you were the turkey. You could be main character energy.

Claude:

Yeah, I could be the turkey, but it would not be the main.

Jess:

We it's our relationship. Alright, so then you should have an answer because I came up with that answer for for myself. What's your answer? So, what's the question again? Okay. It is if our friendship was a Thanksgiving day, what would it be and why? And then I have a little funny thing. Please don't say cranberry sauce. No. Because we don't know that's a little extra. Stuffed.

Claude:

So we are main characters. We are main character and then me white stuff. You tell me why you tell me. So stuffed, it's because, and of course, it's the French stuff. French stuffing, right? Not so it is the one that has the ground beef, the ground pork, the cognac, the sour cream, okay. Yeah, the chestnut. So, what it means is that it's like a melting pot. So, we are the main.

Jess:

What don't laugh. No, I'm laughing because I said we're the stuffing. Do we work together too much?

Claude:

What is happening here? So it's the same thing because we all our years come with this beautiful thing.

Jess:

Because I said, Essentially, we're slightly chaotic. Yeah. Because your stuffing's always like a medley of different things, as you are now very intricately explaining. I didn't know all that was in there. So and I've made stuff. That's the French one. Okay. I kind of make that one. Yeah, you're gonna have to give me that one. All right, and I said, and we make everything better. Like turkey's kind of like it should be stuffing in it. And you're like, oh my god, it's so good. Now it's good.

Claude:

Are you white or dark meat? I kind of like both. I like a little bit of both. But if but if I'm forced, if you're forced to choose, I'm dark. So we are complimented. There we go, we can eat the turkey together. That is we'll just fight over the stomach. That is so funny.

Jess:

Oh, that's already moment this year. Proud or happy? Either you can define proud in any way you want to.

Claude:

I loved our water. Oh, yes. I I really loved it.

Jess:

Well, we also have a we also have a third person that we should thank for that one. Yes. So big thanks to it. Well, not just one, to the whole family.

Claude:

Yeah. Yeah. I I loved like even like driving together and just a mutual.

Jess:

This time I drove, just call out. I'm a better driver and I'm not a great driver. You're scary. You're very scary. I don't know what happened at the time.

Claude:

But no, it was fun, right? It was a lot of fun.

Jess:

You said this before we started recording. You were like, you know what I'm most proud of is when we went on the road trip.

Claude:

Yeah, when the road trip, and then when we went to that event, yeah, and seeing that the event was fantastic, the event was amazing. And for me, that event really showed that we were in the right path.

Jess:

Yeah. We're in a community of great people. Yeah.

Claude:

And also We were a little we were on the path that we meant to be on and that we're doing well. Exactly. Because my complex of imposter syndrome going to that event showed that we're doing this, we're doing that. So really showing that we are in the path, in the right path. And we're we're continuing. Season two and we have the same question. It's coming. And we have the same question. That's so funny. So now is the lightning round round. So turkey or takeout? Turkey. Turkey. Yeah. Who's more likely to burn the pie? You or I? Me. Definitely me. Yes.

Jess:

Definitely me. Oh, for sure. I'm not a baker. I will a hundred percent.

Claude:

What's your work best? What's your holiday survival drink of choice? Anything with alcohol in it? What's yours? Mine, I found a way now when I host, I do a batch content. Oh, tell me more. So I do cognac or rum. Okay. I used to work for alcohol beverage company. Then the simple syrup infused with ginger, ginger tea, and then cranberry, cranberry juice. And then I put some. Oh! Also sometimes I put some uh it's a big mix, it's like the stuffing. Then I put also sometimes the apple cider. Sounds like jungle juice. Oh, it's so good. And then I put some uh cinnamon stick.

Jess:

How long in advance do you make this?

Claude:

So I make it in the morning for later on. But I cook the the apple thing, right? The apple cider with cinnamon sticks, with any stars. Yeah. And then I put that, and then I put some slices of oranges, apples in there. Oh nice.

Jess:

That sounds delicious. Let us know when we can have some. Maybe we can bring we can do an episode where we're drinking.

Claude:

Yeah.

Jess:

With our work best after hour. I know.

Claude:

Yeah. I drink some. Alright. Yeah. Or we can do a little one where I put the recipe and we we register. Oh. We do a little uh live or whatever when I do the cocktail and we drink it.

Jess:

I I'm game. Alright. Alright. Alright, next one. Who's sending an I'm thankful for you text after two glasses of wine? I would suggest. The more alcohol, the more the more uh sappy, I guess.

Claude:

What's the most chaotic thing? Sappy, but also sometimes you're festive festive. Tasty. Alright. Fair. Either.

Jess:

You never know when you're gonna get from it. It's like a box of chocolate. No comment. What's the most chaotic thing your work bestie could bring to Thanksgiving dinner? For you? I don't I feel like you were anything you would bring would be amazing. I don't think it would be chaotic. But the coward chaos sometimes is good. Well my bad chaos. I'd bring like, I don't know, the chaotic thing? I don't know. I don't know. I'm gonna skip that. Who's showing up late with the best dessert? Yes. I'm late, but not with the best dessert.

Claude:

I'm not saying you're going to cook it.

Jess:

Bake it. Bake it. I'm a cook, not a baker. Well, for events like that, I'm on time. I like very good. So none of us. Alright, so neither of us. Uh I'm thankful for my work bestie because Radio Silence.

Claude:

For my work bestie because she's supportive. I can vent. I trust her. And she's the she really leads this whole journey we are on. For the work bestie journey.

Jess:

Yeah. Well, you okay. I am thankful for you because you keep me grounded because I get very chaotic, apparently. You are very supportive, you're a good ear to listen. Like you never judge, never. And I've given you a lot, you could. Um and you've always been the one to help like calm me down when things are getting a little a little overwhelming. I think you've been my rock consistently, whether that overwhelming is requesty or anything. So thank you. That's awesome. Alright, that concludes our speed round. So a lot of gratitude for all of you, too. So wherever you're listening from, maybe in the car, on your way to that family dinner.

Claude:

Or hiding from your co-workers because you know, before the office five luck.

Jess:

We hope you take a moment to be grateful for the people who make your days lighter. Your work besties, your real besties, and especially yourself. Oh yeah, good one. So happy Thanksgiving, besties. We are so beyond thankful for all of you. So thankfully. Have a good one. Bye. Happy Thanksgiving. Remember, whether you're swapping snacks in the break room, rescuing each other from endless meetings, or just sending that perfectly timed meme. Having a work bestie is like having your own personal hype squad.

Claude:

So keep lifting each other up, laughing through the chaos, and of course, thriving. Until next time, stay positive, stay productive, and don't forget to keep supporting each other.

Jess:

Work besties!

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Claude F

Co-host
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Jess K

Co-host