The Harder Half

Last week one of our dogs was bitten by a rattlesnake.

Ten thirty at night. I called ahead to the animal ER, grabbed Ruby, and flew down the road in the dark. The lobby had plenty of people in it, and some of them looked like they’d been there a while.

I shot to the front desk. Before I said my name, the receptionist stood up. "I'm so glad you made it."

Then she turned to the whole room. "We have a possible rattlesnake bite. I'm going to take this one back first. I'm sorry for the wait."

She did that before I even handed over the leash. I got taken care of, and nobody in that room had to wonder why I was cutting the line.

The vet tech couldn’t find a bite mark on her. So they took her to the back to run a blood test for venom and check her clotting time.

While I waited, thoughts racing, I read the walls. Signage about new state-of-the-art imaging equipment. AI-powered blood panel analysis. A QR code for an app that tracks your pet’s status during surgery.

It was a showcase of shiny tools, and I'm grateful for all of it. Nobody could see the bite, so that blood work was the only way they knew what was happening inside Ruby.

She stayed overnight. The doctor called twice with updates, and she came home the next afternoon. Thankfully, she’s doing fine now.

All of that equipment is also the part any clinic can buy, which is what makes it the easier half of the job.

The harder half has a name. Sociologists call it emotional labor, and it means managing your own feelings so that someone else feels taken care of. Even when you're exhausted. Even when they're strangers.

That receptionist did it at ten thirty at night for a room full of strangers. I doubt that part was written anywhere in her job description.

I've skipped it myself. Years ago we ran a pop-up studio at SXSW and I packed the artist interview schedule wall to wall, back to back, no gaps. My team delivered anyway. They were also cooked by dinner, and I could see it. I’m sure the work suffered.

I had optimized for how many. What I cut was the time and the slack my team needed to reset before the next one.

That's the easier half to aim for. More output, lower cost, same tools everyone else has, which is where we are now. Then you're in a race to out-optimize the next person, and the trouble with that race is that you might win it.

Or come in second, which is worse.

Emotional labor can't be bought or automated, or easily scaled. You feel the choice every single time.

That's exactly why most people skip it.

~ Jaime

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Thanks for spending time with Red Threads. I’m glad you’re here.