Ask Dr. Mike

Should I Quit My Job?     The Great Resignation, a term coined by organizational psychologist, Dr. Anthony Klotz, characterizes the trend in which large numbers of employees have quit their jobs from Spring of 2021 to the present.  It’s believed that the trend is due to many factors in response to COVID-19 including burnout, being dissatisfied, lower wages and wage stagnation, being at home for an extended period of time, not wanting to return to the work space and reprioritizing one’s work life and personal life balance. So, if people are leaving their jobs in growing numbers, what does that [...]

How to Support Our Children During This Not Quite Normal School Year Our children are back in school, and everything’s great, right?  Yes and no.  Sure, there are plenty of positives to being in school again – our children can access academic material better, receive more personalized and direct instruction, form and maintain better connections, and they are less distracted.  However, while research has shown that children learn more when they are in school, the return to school has been problematic for many. In my opinion, the protracted changes, adjustments, and uncertainties of COVID-19 have been, and continue to be, [...]

In these technology driven times, managing our children’s screen time is a daily – and sometimes moment to moment – parenting task.  With the changes we’ve had to make societally as parents due to COVID-19, that task has certainly become even more imperative. Think about it.  Many children are on screens for full school days now, then they do their homework on a screen and then they enjoy much of their free time with screens.  If your children are awake about 16 hours a day, the majority of their waking time is likely being spent with some form of technology. [...]

Dr. Mike, My husband has been offered a promotion to a new position on the West Coast, but his company needs him to relocate by March!  If he doesn’t accept, they will give him a severance package, but then he’s without a job and I stay at home.  The move would have a higher salary, which is great, but I know for certain that moving abruptly will be difficult on our 3 children since Ashburn has always been their home.  It will be especially difficult for our two older children in high school.  My parents live in NOVA and my [...]

Dr. Mike, My husband has gone on an insane health kick that is causing us a lot of problems as a couple and as a family, and I don’t know what to do.  Basically, he’s lost his mind with diet and exercise, and it started in April and right after he started working from home because of COVID-19.  He’s lost 65 pounds on the Keto Diet and he exercises all the time; I guess I should be happy for him but the problem is that we don’t see him anymore.  He won’t eat meals with us because of his diet, [...]

Making Positive Change Happen in 2021! On a societal and global level, COVID-19 has made this year a difficult one in so many ways.  Worldwide, close to 1.7 million people have died, and close to 80,000,000 people have become sick with the virus.  Statistics on COVID-19 are also imperfect given testing limitations and the lack of consideration of those who may have it but are asymptomatic, so the number of cases is likely higher.  And the virus has impacted us all individually in so many profound ways – how we work, how we go to school, how we socialize, how [...]

Dr. Mike, My husband and I have watched politics ruin many of our closest friends’ relationships and now it’s happening to us.  I’m wanting to unfriend certain friends on-line because of what I see them posting, and I also don’t even want to have some people in my life anymore at all because their views are so different from ours.  My husband and I are Christians, and we’ve always tried to be non-critical and patient in God’s light, but it’s getting harder to do with everything that’s happening in the US right now.  This has also been very painful for [...]

Dr. Mike, The last few months have been hard for me with coronavirus.  I work in my home office all day now and haven’t been to work since late March.  I haven’t seen a single friend. I’ve gained 15 pounds.  I’m drinking too much, and I can’t even remember the last time I worked out with my gym closing.  I’m around my children and husband (who also works from home) all the time, which I guess should feel good but it doesn’t way too often.  I don’t have energy.  I feel sad most of the time, and I lay awake [...]