Love Now Media’s Lunch & Love: Love Ambassador Edition saw equal parts of laughter, self-reflection, and wisdom as Syreeta Martin, director of communications, sat down with business executive Tiffany Tavarez for a conversation on what wellness can look like in the workplace. Tavarez, whose resumé boasts accomplishments such as Philadelphia Business Journal’s Top Forty Under 40, serves as the Senior Vice President of Technology Diverse Segments, Representation and Inclusion for Wells Fargo.
Throughout the hour-long discussion, Tavarez shared that grind culture is a topic she’s all too familiar with. She specifically emphasized the imbalance between personal financial needs and mental health that many amongst the corporate world find themselves battling. The association of money and success being directly correlated to mental wellness was an idea she felt caused more harm than good.
“If you’re looking for a source of, for lack of a better term, ‘professional love’ to only come from the place you get a paycheck from then that’s a problem in itself,” she said.
From the executive level to interns, Tavarez has witnessed the effect of “grind mode” within corporate America and across age and demographics. For her, the younger the individual, the more important she felt it was to emphasize freedom of choice as opposed to being bound by set career paths.
“When we ask our young people, ‘What’s your dream job?’ I always feel like it’s a disservice because you’re asking them to choose from a series of options they don’t know about yet,” she said.
It is practices such as these that motivate Taverez to be a strong advocate for work life balance. In her eyes, a healthy work life balance can be anything from setting firm boundaries to allowing yourself the space to pause and take a moment to reflect. Taverez noted that while sometimes setting a personal limit and saying “no” in the workplace may seem daunting, it is a necessary step in prioritizing yourself.
“If the ‘no’ was hard for you, it’s not because that means you should feel guilty or that you should regret it. It means that it was responsible, and sometimes it’s really hard to be responsible.”
Self-care for Tavarez also comes in the form of spending time with someone she highly values: herself. Notably, she spoke to disregarding the perceived “awkwardness” that many commonly find in being alone, reminding the Love Now Media audience, “If you don’t like your own company, how are other people goin’ to enjoy your own company?”
The opportunity to kick her feet back and enjoy her own presence while doing beloved activities is one Tavarez made clear that she will never shy away from. Similarly, she consults her own intuition in the face of adversity. In these moments, she finds the most clarity in dealing with any discomfort felt.
“Whatever things I end up doing or practicing are not contingent on the difficulty going away because if you were to wait on that [then] you ain’t ever gonna do a damn thing,” she said.
Alongside this appreciation for solitude, Tavarez also finds solace in the work of her daily life. Among other duties, her role at Wells Fargo primarily revolves around ensuring representation, inclusivity, and mobility in the workplace–all tasks that greatly align with her values.
“It’s not the obsession, for me, of getting a seat at the table–and I think grind culture is that. My obsession is with saving seats,” she clarified.
As for what’s next? In her role as one of Love Now Media’s 2023 Love Ambassadors, Tavarez supports the organization in the amplification of acts love at the intersection of social justice, wellness, and equity. More information about Tavarez’s work with both Love Now Media and Wells Fargo can be found on her LinkedIn page as well as Love Now Media’s website.
