Steady in the storm

Picture this: it’s Monday morning, and a remote marketing team is logging into their weekly call. Some are at kitchen tables, others tucked away in spare bedrooms or home offices. But as the grid of faces pops up, something feels different. By midweek, two of those faces are gone—employees who’ve resigned after months of constant change. By Friday, there’s an announcement of a brand-new manager, the third in under a year. Everyone’s trying to smile through their webcams, but inside, they’re wondering what next week will bring.

Sound familiar? Change like this is exhausting, and when you’re working remotely, it can feel even heavier. There are no hallway conversations or quick check-ins to ease the uncertainty. Instead, the silence between meetings amplifies the instability. It’s easy to start feeling isolated, overwhelmed, or even a little cynical.

This is where mindfulness can help. No, it won’t stop the turnover or magically steady leadership’s shifting priorities. But it does give you a way to stay grounded when everything around you feels like it’s moving. Even the smallest practices make a difference. Taking a deep breath before responding to yet another new directive. Slowing down in conversations and repeating back what you’ve heard so everyone feels clear—or simply giving yourself a moment of quiet between back-to-back Zoom calls.

Compassion matters too—both for yourself and your teammates. When someone suddenly disappears from the grid, it’s natural to feel frustrated at the extra work that lands on your plate. But remembering that everyone’s carrying invisible stress—family pressures, job insecurity, the fatigue of constant change—softens that frustration into understanding. And that sense of empathy can ripple out, helping the whole team feel less alone.

At the end of the day, you can’t control who leaves or what significant changes come next. What you can control is how you show up. You can choose presence over panic, clarity over confusion, and kindness over resentment. And when you do, you don’t just take care of yourself—you become a steady presence for your team.

Think of it like being the tree in a storm: deeply rooted, flexible enough to bend, but strong enough not to break. In today’s remote workplaces, where change can feel amplified by distance, that steadiness might be the most important contribution you can make.