#33 - Jaqueline Oliveira Cella - Bridging Work and Well-being: Strategies for the Modern Workforce

Jaqueline Oliveira Sela is an innovative force in employee health and well-being, with over 15 years experience transforming the corporate landscape through her work in B2B health, benefits, and insurance. As the founder of wellBe Consulting, she's at the forefront of advocating for health equity within organizations.

In this episode of "Rediscovering Connection," we delve into the intricacies of balancing professional life with personal health and caregiving responsibilities. Jaqueline shares her insights on:

Navigating the Modern Workforce: Strategies to bridge the gap between work commitments and personal well-being.
Digital Health Innovations: How technology can support mental and physical health in our increasingly virtual work environments.
Empowering Through Health: The impact of employee health programs on workplace culture and productivity.

We discuss the importance of creating sustainable work-life integration, exploring topics like mental health as a daily practice, the psychological safety in remote work, and the evolving nature of workplace relationships in the digital age. 

This conversation with Jaqueline will be an enlightening listen for leaders looking to foster healthier, more connected teams.

Find Jaqueline Oliveira Sela on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaquelineoc/

Episodes You Might Enjoy:

#32 - Ashley Chang - Reclaiming Sundays: The Power of Executive Assistance for Ambitious Parents
https://youtu.be/Rj4VURRfB1Y?si=QBzXlyPA9LQb1VhN
#12 - Candice Neveu - Navigating Mid-Career Transitions and Virtual Connections
https://youtu.be/iQy1o0S3yeE?si=F0vWeEw5gPDXiR7d
#8 Ame-Lia Tamburrini - How to Manage Difficult Conversations
https://youtu.be/DgytXJS7aNI?si=wBXzvcHAZrcfwuYp

---
I hope our conversation inspires you to rediscover connection in your personal or professional life.

Subscribe now and let the magic unfold.

Love & sparkles,
✨Shelley

About Your Host

Hi, I'm Shelley Doyle, a Social Wealth Strategist and Connection Coach. I empower remote and nomadic founders and leaders who crave deeper connections to activate their social wealth, so they can feel trusted, supported, and truly connected—both online and offline—no matter where they are.
Discover More.

I combine cutting-edge research on social wealth, social wellbeing and social capital with two decades in corporate communications to deliver mind-shifting talks, workshops, and programs around the world.

Find me at TheCommuniverse.com and on LinkedIn.

Global Workshop Tour "Beyond Screens" begins September 2024.

To hear when new episodes drop, subscribe to my weekly newsletter, or check out recent episodes.

Transcript

0:00

It's funny because, the pro ability community has been asking for those types of, um, hybrid scenarios or virtual way of working for many years. And COVID pretty much accelerated. There are companies that were a little bit more on a. forefront of knowing how to work virtually. When you combine this with the fact that mental health, it should not be a checkpoint, checkpoint, checkpoint. Mental health is to be worked as the same way that you think about going to a gym, that you think about breathing, or you think about eating. You're keeping your emotions and your mental well being in check. It's something that benefits you hello and welcome to Rediscovering Connection. I am Shelley Doyle and I'm here this morning with the beautiful Jackie Oliveira Sela, originally from Brazil, currently living in the US of A, and we were introduced to each other through Trish Tonaj's community, share your stories. So I'm just going to give a little shout out to my friend Trish over on the east coast of Canada, Thank you for bringing us together, Trish. I'm really excited to welcome Jackie here today. Something that Jackie said when we first connected was this crazy stat that I just never heard before. And you know, when something like this comes into your consciousness and it sticks with you, this particular stat was that 80 percent of full time workers have caring responsibilities outside of work. Now, as a mom, obviously I have caring responsibilities outside of work. And I think about friends and connections of mine, whether they're parents or not. They've got, perhaps some of them have got dogs, animals, big responsibilities that actually sometimes do take them away from work with like vet visits and that sort of thing. And then other friends of mine have, have elderly parents that they're taking care of. So actually, when you think about it, it's obvious. Stop. That, that is the case, but I know how it feels to be in a big organization and feel so apologetic when something comes up in your personal life with your kids that you have to get away for. And, and, and the reality is this is a reality for the majority of us at 80%. Beautiful. Thanks for having me, Shelley. So it's true, the majority of our employees are caregivers, parents or sandwiched generations and so on. So the reason why I'm here, relates to. Feeling the pain, like having empathy for so many employees who are not, like, so often not able to articulate for themselves how to, um, advocate for their health. And if, I figured that if we can help them with data to, um, articulate for themselves, have the right talking points, and be able to share that in a way that it's not about the individual, the person, but it's more about, uh, our employees who could be in that same situation, then magic happens. That's why, for example, an actuary, with a business background, uh, decided to create different business cases focused on top health risk concerns, which serves as a self advocacy tool, but it also serves as a tool for employers who are curious enough to understand what best practice could look like. And I try to make it as dynamic as possible. It's a collaboration. So, um, All the healthcare experts, the brilliant minds, the industry leaders that are part of those different collaborations, um, they are volunteering their time. It's a beautiful way to share knowledge and impact. So that's part, that's part of my, um, my mission, right? It's like finding ways to uplift others. And pausing, creating the meaningful pause is, uh, whatever that pause is for you, so you can rethink your journey. Right, you are, you'll feel like you have the luxury because it's true, it is a luxury to pause and, uh, and make sure that you understand who you are and where you want to be and who is going to be there with you, for you. And just the idea of. Pausing. Like when I had my first child, I was back at work within a week because I had my own agency and I had an opportunity came through that I couldn't not jump on. And actually when your baby's a week old, they're kind of sleepy most of the time anyway, so I wasn't working a lot. But then when my son was. It's five, my second, when my son was five months old, I was back in the office. And it wasn't till I came to Canada in July, 2021, that I really took my big pause. So I've just been working, working, working all the while with little ones. And this has been such a beautiful opportunity to find out my why, but yeah, this isn't a luxury that's afforded to, to everyone. So I'm. Very, very grateful and feeling blessed for the opportunity to take that pause. And what a beautiful idea to encourage people to, whether that pause is a day or a week or a month, whatever that pause looks like to help people recalibrate in a world that's so fast paced. Absolutely. I also had a few weeks of parental leave, Different cultures take in different manners, like, of how to, to create the pause, how to, to care for, um, caregivers, for example, right? Um, I'm also, I, I am a caregiver. I have two beautiful children. I also have elderly parents. I also love work. That's like, uh, creating solutions, crafting solutions that can, uh, empower health, wealth, and wellbeing of employees and that comes when you are in a, when you feel psychologically safe, when you are able to create the trust, uh, with the ones that you love. surrounding you. Why do I mention that? Because I had that. And when I joined, uh, on my prior corporate job, I have worked for very large corporations. This corporation we are talking about at the time around, uh, 350, 000 employees in, in about a hundred countries. And I was empowered by the CHRO at the time, Diana Gearson to M. My boss, who, who is now my manager, who hired me, who is now retired. Barbara was amazing. Um, on we had a beautiful paid time off, uh, for parents in the U. S. But it was a mixed bag outside of the U. S., so they actually empowered me and my team to create that, uh, opportunity for our employees by taking a step back and understanding where the gaps were. It took us 18 months, country by country, business case by business case, and the last country was Canada. To be able to create that buy in and take the fear away. Look at the data. The data is telling you something. The data is telling you that when you are empowering caregivers, right, both, uh, our colors of the rainbow families and, uh, of our genders, and when you empower them to have that space with their offspring, you receive back. Like it's not that your company is going, uh, to be impacted in a way that you fear you were so, uh, um, worried about, right? There was a lot of, a lot of concerns about productivity and, and Presentation and how others, the ones that are left, uh, at work, how they would be able to cope. But that was all debunked time over time. We proved that that action, we created ripple benefits, not only for the ones taking the leave, but also for the ones staying, uh, and understanding that they are in a company that cared for them. So that was beautiful. It's, it was, uh, I think we were able to have it rolled out for, uh, 63 countries, 18 months, lots of hands on deck and successful stories. Time over time, we heard from employees, very positive feedback, engagement, uh, I feel pride. I feel joy to be part of this corporation. So amazing. Um, and on that note, when I think about, I think we are chatting before on employee benefits, on offering, something and the focus was on caregivers. The majority of workers are caregivers and there is more. One in five is expected to have a child with a disability. So, when I think about what type of offerings can, uh, and not just offerings, but the way that people work could enable those caregivers to be at their best selves, could remove roadblocks so they could be at their best selves. And I try to always start with what's the understanding the problem that I'm dealing, like what exactly I'm solving for. So when I start, when like for the leaves that I just mentioned, that's one. Part of the equation, right? It was to address. I need flexibility. I need time off to care and to bond with my child. I will be back at work with my full self. But now I need that pause. Um, But taking a step back, there is so much more. So the way, uh, start with understanding where the issues are, like, what are the problems you're trying to solve? Go big, go complex. Start with the more complex case, and then you can narrow down to what the company can act upon. And usually I think about, um, health, wealth, and well being in different categories. They are interconnected, but they, like, they build a beautiful picture together, but You, there are specific actions that you could be taking. So for example, when you think about caregivers that happen to be, uh, responsible for an individual with a disability, how many hours those, and I, this is real. I was on a, uh, Congress not so long ago where I over, on a, I was on a advocacy session and one of the parents behind me, um, those are like, one is, uh, a pilot for a very, uh, very large corporation. And his spouse was also at work, but basically they are telling how many hours they're spending to find the right doctor to fight, uh, medical claims. And those hours, it's not just lost. hours of work. That's energy. That's your, like, it's, it drags you. So that's, okay, that's a problem that could be solved if there are, like, within your healthcare plan or anything within your offerings, you are able to find, uh, I don't like the name concierge because it seems luxury and that's not what I'm asking for, but finding a way to get access to that healthcare, uh, to that healthcare professional who can help you as opposed to spend hours trying to reach. Other things that came to surface is the shock that, uh, the financial shock. Other than the emotion, the social, the financial shock that sometimes comes with a situation, an unexpected situation like having a child with disability, there are so many things that are not covered on your health care plan. And this is in the U. S. and in other countries as well. So Thank you. perhaps having a child disability program or having a fund for emergency. It's so much easier than trying to scramble. How many times, uh, I have seen, uh, HR, well intended, uh, HR professionals scrambling to trying to solve for a business situation. Now that executive has to, um, To care for a child with, uh, with disability and has extra costs. Is there anything that could be done for, for them in their, in their behalf? Um, and the other thing that it was really relevant to me and we can, uh, explore that a little further was, I heard time and resource, big ticket items, but when we think about wellbeing, um, the relationship, how your manager is reacting to a situation where You are, let's say it's an emergency, it's unexpected, how your manager reacts to that situation is a key indicator of whether or not you will feel like you can stay at that company. And that was like you, uh, one of the stories that were shared was exact. I asked the question, I said, okay, this happened, the, the, this particular, uh, executive had a child with down syndrome and I asked him how the company reacted. Right at the time and he vividly remember this was before all the new great pay time off and etc. And he reacted or policies in place. He enabled that employee, that dad, like that parent to actually take care of your family. This is, uh, an unusual, like an expected situation. You need to be there for them. That's going to, uh, it's a, it's a moment on your life that matter. Um, and he still remembers like 15 years, uh, actually more like almost 20 years later. He remembers the name of the manager. He remembers the situation. So it's about like, how can you train, like when you think about wellbeing, it comes to mind ways of work, right? How you're interacting with each other. Um, and. Then comes like teachings like boundless leadership, compassionate leadership, all of them with science back inside saying, Hey, the future of leadership needs to contain, um, empathy needs to contain action. Right needs to contain being transparent and pausing to have when you are interacting with one another to have your motives in your intentions. Yes, your company needs to perform. That's it. That's, that's, uh, uh, that's a given, yes, but you never know what's across from you. So maybe that's very close conversation, right, or open, not close, that conversation that enables the employee to feel comfortable enough to share something that could be the reason why he is not. Exactly why they're not performing as they want to be and as they usually do because they've got stuff on going on at home. Something you mentioned Jackie, um, about the, uh, about the language and how language serves us. And one of the words that you mentioned that you, you don't like to use because it seems, um, I guess like luxury is concierge. I've just spoken with a woman named Ashley Chang, who launched a company called Sundays, which is designed for caregivers and her terminology for this is life ops or life operations. So she supports families. you know, with their life ops. And I was like, that is it. That's the language, isn't it? That's, you know, we all have life ops, whatever stage of career or level of society we're working in. I love that. I love that. It's like being there for moments that matter. Right, create, uh, being there, and I get it, you still need to make sure that your actions are sustainable, affordable, uh, on the long run, um, but there are moments that matter that you need to bring the age back into the, into the equation. You need to bring the human back into the equation. Something else that you mentioned earlier was about psychological safety. And I, I'm really intrigued at how this has potentially been impacted with the huge shift to remote working. And I know Digital health interventions is something that you've studied. You've studied all over the place. It looks like Harvard business school. You studied in the UK also. Um, so yeah, I wonder if there's anything that, that comes up for you. And I mentioned that psychological safety and working remotely. Uh, thank you for that. So I have just finished. Like, uh, the one year executive program you were mentioning with Harvard Medical School. Digital healthcare transformation was a big ticket item. It's funny because, the pro ability community has been asking for those types of, um, hybrid scenarios or virtual way of working for many years. And COVID pretty much accelerated. There are companies that were a little bit more on a. forefront of knowing how to work virtually. When you combine this with the fact that mental health, it should not be a checkpoint, checkpoint, checkpoint. Mental health is to be worked as the same way that you think about going to a gym, that you think about breathing, or you think about eating. You're keeping your emotions and your mental well being in check. It's something that benefits you. So having digital health tools could help on this journey of, uh, creating that during the in between spaces. If you happen to be lucky enough to be with a therapist, You still want that uh, continuity to what, how you're caring for your mental well being, from setting up your intentions in the morning, whatever you do to, uh, regulate yourself and paying attention to your emotions during the day. So, There are so many tools, wearables and et cetera, that can help you on a journey. And we are not saying take the human out of the equation, quite the opposite. Use the tools, to solve for problems. Don't create things like, when people come with, what's your AI strategy? Pause. Would someone ask you, what's your PowerPoint strategy? What's your Excel strategy? No. So we start with what you're trying to solve and then go there. Yeah. I guess something that's coming up for me is just about connecting with colleagues. Thanks. Remotely, and like some people may not be comfortable with video. And I'm part of quite a few communities, and they stipulate when you, when they start, videos must be on. That if you want to be part of this community, videos must be on. We want to see everybody, everybody present. And like, for me, that's fine. I'm totally comfortable having my video on, but also understanding that some people might not be. Has that come up for you? Oh boy. This has been on and off for so many years. Um, here is what I would say to my direct report. Think about the impact to have emotionally when you read a text, a lot of things can be missed. Right on that text or an email, then you add to that a phone call. Wow. Now it gets a little bit more, um, like I can see, I can ask questions, I can interact. I feel a conversation, a meaningful dialogue being built. If you add to that the, the body image, if you add to that, even if it's a smile, someone can see, right, your expressions, um, That's powerful. Now, so I would tell them if, uh, no, I would share and suggest try to have some face time if you're uncomfortable because you never know. Some of my employees were working up to a very tiny apartment that you're sharing with their spouse. Right? And they're uncomfortable to, to be on video all the time. Um, respect that. But at the same time, can you make an effort to at least say hi so people see you and maybe say a bye? Like just In certain instances, make sure that people see you, right? If not in person, at least like a little bit over the camera. Um, that's, that would be my recommendation for them. Because I know that over time, um, It's, it's just human that you remember when you have the whole package. And I know before we jumped on and started filming, we were talking a little bit about the number of hours that it takes to make a friend, which is. Two hundred hours is suggested to make a good friend and actually a recent paper by Robin Dunbar Which was about the neurobiology of social distance, which was fantastic but it was saying the feeling that you can get from having a video call with a friend is almost as good as having face to face interaction with that friend. If they're already an established friend in your life, you can get the same physiological benefits from a video call, but that's very different to a telephone call. So there is, I can see the argument for there. So I think the idea of sandwiching that and giving people space that you don't need to have your camera on the whole, But if you can just say hello and goodbye, then that's going to serve us all and help us like see you. Absolutely. Um, I, I would just pause us, um, for a minute on the virtual. He's another stats that I would add to the equation. Yes. You, you said something that's crucial. You have established relationship. Right? So any shape and form that you can find to build that relationship. Sometimes it's like with friends, they, I only have time if I happen to be walking outside for a minute with the dog or else, or I'm on a train, they take it and vice versa. I take it, but I have a relationship established. If you do not have a relationship established. It does make like, uh, if feasible having an in-person encounter, um, I believe it makes, it just maybe makes that bridge faster and that's something for, for me to research as well. I will give you another, uh, thought provoking kind of aha moment in that I had when I was building the mental fitness at work. Collaboration I think it was a delight study where most of the new, like the, the younger folks, I think Gen Z, millennials, um, they were sharing that hybrid or virtual for them, it's the same as in person. Right? It's like, it doesn't matter. They prefer that type of arrangement in comparison with Gen Z, Baby Boomers, etc. Um, when you correlate that, With the other statistic that tells, uh, that's sharing, like, that's telling us that the younger generations are the ones showing symptoms of mental illness, depression, anxiety, loneliness. There is something that's missing between the two. And I, I say that some of the connections that I have made during my time, like there are virtual was a work in progress, right? When I started working, um, it was in person. Mostly, even if I had during all my global roles, there was like a heavy component of in person, uh, work, like being in the office and the relationships that I have built 20 years ago, 15 years ago, I still relationships. We are not working at the same spot, but we. Have built a bond together that has no, uh, that's, it's not the same as with the ones I have only built over, uh, virtually. Right. So those, a lot of the kids that are like, and again, I think the balance between the two would be beautiful, but can you imagine starting your career only with virtual? Imagine. Yeah. And I, I attended a CPHR workshop last week and the speaker was Emily Fair and she was talking about the different generations and the trends based on the impacts and the experience that they've gone through during those pivotal moments in their lives. And she was actually saying that the generation already. After the millennials, they're going to be looking for stability. They're going to be looking for much different, like millennials saying, you know, there'll be in a job for two, three years, they'll leave. They won't feel bad at all about leaving. Like the loyalty isn't really there. Whereas the next generation coming through, they're going to be much more loyal and wanting to stay. So it's, it's going to be very interesting to see how this does play out. Play out. And, you know, we have all had these experiences. We've all lived through COVID, but we've been at different levels of maturity. So how that plays out in people's. And the question is, will there be a place for them to create the stability? We need to train the kids. Um, I'm afraid that what we, there will be more and more, um, conglomeration of work as opposed to jobs. Right. Meaning working for a corporation versus like, I love the spirit of how entrepreneurs they are, how like, it's fascinating. Portfolio careers that you can have multiple hats on, um, to suit your interests, skills, capabilities. And adjust to the new ways of working. And that's like, um, just a few weeks ago, uh, there was a. A very interesting article published by, um, I think it was the Harvard Business Review with Diana Gerson, it talks about this. Um, this new way of working that employers need to prepare for what is, you may not be able to get the talents you want on a full time. So what to not have the time or the, um, the resources. to, to have that person, uh, full time. So what to do, how to create an environment where that person who is maybe a, a, a fractional C suite or a fractional, um, employee, that's a very, uh, it's a talent that you really want to keep. How to make them feel comfortable, how to make them feel, I think the word is not even comfortable, how to make them feel that they belong. So if this, we, Keep seeing over and over and over, maybe starting with GE many years ago, um, this mass, uh, mass layoffs that Like it deteriorated. I think I see that and studies show that employees trust the loyalty, the engagement can be there, right? Because again, people leave people, people don't leave necessarily companies, uh, The engagement may be there, but the loyalty, I think it, the trust was, has been broken, uh, for a few years now. So I, hopefully the new generation, even though they want stability, but they will, Learn how to live on this, uh, interesting word where like jobs are not going to look like the jobs we had, like in a few years ago, a few decades ago. Yeah, absolutely. And I attended an AI summit recently with the lead from Mindvalley, is it Vishal? And his prediction was by 2029, we will all. working a three day week. Because we're going to have learned how to use AI to our advantage to support us. So actually we will all get be on the same pay, but working a three day week. So love this idea. And maybe the stability of that is we have a three, you know, three day. job and then we all kind of have these other things going on that are more like passion projects on the side that we can be a bit more flexible with, like what a dream, let's uh, let's live that. It would be a dream if you can create sustainability with that type of arrangement, it would be beautiful. Um, we do need to be careful of who are we leaving behind, um, but absolutely it's, it's, uh, it's, I, I, I will wait and see, and not wait and see, I will continue to learn, uh, and see, because it does, uh, working on your passion projects, even if it's outside of your work day, um, it's something that really boosts your mental fitness, right? It makes you feel like the sense of purpose goes, like, shines, uh, bright. 100%. Jackie, it's been such a pleasure to have you here today. I feel like we could continue talking all day. So let's do that again, please. Um, but for today, I wish you a wonderful day ahead. Is there any final words that you want to share anything that you're like, I can't leave this conversation without sharing this? The thoughts that came to mind is so many times we, we are so busy in our lives and we refrain from taking a step towards making a meaningful connection. So number one is approach, like, It's a call for action. Perhaps today is the day that you're going to build a new meaningful connection with dividing tensions, thinking of what can you do for that other, For the greater good for to help that, uh, person across from you. Or it could be an old friend that you haven't seen in a, in a while and you happen to come across something that's really interesting that he or she may like. There we go. Right. Don't wait to build meaningful connections and to cultivate the ones you have because that's going to be, um. Part of what will determine whether or not you will leave your life with happiness, like with sustainable happiness. Thank you so much for sharing that. And actually this draws to a conversation I was having with a friend yesterday about networking and starting businesses. And you can, you can keep collecting new people, new people, new people, but actually at some point you need to stop, take a breath. and appreciate the people that you have in your life and stop collecting, collecting, collecting, because we can't keep hold of too many people. Yes. Yeah. Timing resource. It's like how we can prioritize now, but this was beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing your journey with me, sharing this space with me. And, uh, I hope us all a beautiful rest of our week.