One of the first people who reached out to me when I launched Dear Constance is an old colleague. We worked at Gucci together during a very intense period. There is a certain bond between people that were in Gucci in those years, and we always take each other’s calls.

This is a woman I wouldn’t recognize if I ran into her on the street, but I like the way she reached out. I like that she gave me permission to say no. I especially liked that when she told me she wanted to talk about a work conundrum, she showed a lot of self-awareness by saying that it was actually a life conundrum. Of course our work and our personal lives are extremely interconnected. Inseparable, actually. So we get on the call and she basically starts telling me that her current job is ending in April, that she has some health issues that she’d like to address and that she’s afraid to stop working. That’s the net net. She told me she was embarrassed when people ask her what she was going to do next – and these are people asking with sincere curiosity – that she doesn’t have answer. We had a long, far-reaching conversation that tied into the dynamics in her marriage, the dynamics with her father, and the fact that they relate very beautifully. A lot of their intimacy and conversation and exchange is about her career and her accomplishments. Word is such a big part of her identity, the thought of not working makes her sad, but that little voice inside of her is telling her to pause. This woman’s 45.

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