I used to wear “busy” like a badge of honor. I had a packed calendar, was in constant motion, and always productive on paper. Then one day, I started blacking out and had to rearrange my life because of chronic back pain and being told that if I didn’t make some immediate changes, I would be wheelchair bound by age 40. Through the years my back issues have forced me to slow down in ways my schedule never would. I realized the truth, the hard way: Busy isn’t productivity, its

The holidays have a way of piling everything on at once…deadlines at work, family obligations, social events, end-of-year to-dos, and the invisible labor that somehow always lands on our shoulders. When everything feels urgent, it’s easy to burn out trying to do everything  instead of focusing on what matters most. Here’s your permission slip: YOU don’t have to do it all… Only what truly matters. At Work: Focus on the tasks that move the needle, not the ones that make you loo

By Dr. Gretchen Lain, Founder of GGCAS Somewhere between “I’ll learn it later” and “why does everything update every 6 minutes,” we all quietly realized something: the workplace is evolving whether we like it or not.  The jobs didn’t ask how we felt. They didn’t send a heads-up text. They just… changed. And now here we are trying to keep up, Googling acronyms we should probably already know, and pretending we’re totally comfortable in meetings where half the conversation soun

Rebuild Your Brand By Dr. Gretchen Lain, Industrial-Organizational Psychologist & Founder of Gig’s Greenhouse Consulting & Advisory Solutions (GGCAS)   Let’s Start With the Truth: Losing Your Job Feels Like Losing Gravity. One minute you’re working, scheduling, planning, and making life moves… and the next minute, you’re staring at a screen reading, “Due to budget cuts and restructuring, your position has been eliminated.” Even if you saw it coming. Even if rumors were circul

Behind every thriving business is one timeless truth: success starts with knowing your customer. Too often, organizations pour energy into building products, designing services, or launching campaigns, only to find they’ve missed the mark. Why? Because they skipped the most crucial step: understanding who their customers are and what they truly need . At Gig’s Greenhouse Consulting & Advisory Solutions (GGCAS) , we view this as the foundation that every successful business m

Growing Stronger Together: How Nonprofits and Organizations Can Help One Another In today’s complex world, no one thrives in isolation, not individuals, not businesses, and certainly not nonprofits. The greatest impact happens when communities, organizations, and nonprofits recognize that they’re part of the same ecosystem and lean into collaboration. At Gig’s Greenhouse Consulting & Advisory Solutions (GGCAS) , we see collaboration as the sunlight, soil, and water that help

If you’ve ever run a small business, you know the truth: some days you feel like you’re juggling flaming torches while riding a bicycle...

In a world full of competing demands, success rarely comes from working harder—it comes from working smarter. The simple yet powerful...

Stress often sneaks in when life feels messy... emails piling up, projects half-done, or laundry waiting in the corner. The truth is,...

Burnout isn’t just about overworked individuals, it’s often the symptom of deeper organizational misalignment. As an I-O psychologist,...