Kate, your point that a sprint needs recovery gives people permission to treat energy as human, not infinite. That permission becomes real when the team plans around it: if one person’s recovery day means work simply piles up or gets handed to a colleague, the system has not recovered, it has shifted the strain.
Leaders can protect the pause by adjusting deadlines, coverage, and expectations before the sprint begins. Your story shows how one manager’s words can shape someone’s relationship with work for years. Thank you for making that lesson practical.
Kate, your point that a sprint needs recovery gives people permission to treat energy as human, not infinite. That permission becomes real when the team plans around it: if one person’s recovery day means work simply piles up or gets handed to a colleague, the system has not recovered, it has shifted the strain.
Leaders can protect the pause by adjusting deadlines, coverage, and expectations before the sprint begins. Your story shows how one manager’s words can shape someone’s relationship with work for years. Thank you for making that lesson practical.
Agree. This definitely needs to be part of a wider system, and leaders have a huge part to play in creating it.