Burnt Out to Lit Up

4Real Talk: Release Your Hungry Ghosts

“Why me?” I wondered out loud.

A colleague and I, both female C-suite executives, sat in our offices, deep in airing out our frustrations of the day. These sessions had morphed into a vital outlet for us, helping to shoulder the near-impossible demands of our jobs.

That day, our discussion gravitated toward a familiar sore point: the unequal burden we shouldered as women in the C-suite. Unlike some of our male colleagues, notorious for neglecting their duties or kicking up a fuss only to walk away like they hadn’t just stirred the pot, guess who got to solve the resulting business mess and clean up the fallout from their drama? Yep—that responsibility invariably fell to us.

That afternoon, my patience was worn to its limit. I was inundated with a relentless flood of other people’s issues, feeling like I was under a perpetual storm cloud—much like the one that eternally dampened Charlie Brown’s spirits. The story I told myself was that I was the unlucky one who always drew the short straw. It was then that my colleague, more a friend in these trying times, offered a different perspective.

“Daisy, you’ll find it easier to cope once you realize that work is filled with hungry ghosts,” she said calmly.

“Say what?” I asked, my confusion evident.

She explained, “It’s a concept from Buddhism about insatiable spirits. Everyone at work is a hungry ghost, always craving your time and attention. To keep your sanity, you need to set your boundaries ...