‘When we’ve got a little breathing room, we have a responsibility to look around. If you’re not drowning, throw a damn rope’

Guess what I’m doing this weekend? Reporting for duty. A 24-hour shift.

And here I am – on a quiet day – already rehearsing it in my head. Not just the logistics, but the mental load. The weight of the unknowns. I’m preloading. We all do it – mapping out the shift before it happens. Running imaginary calls. Thinking through who might be on the crew, what station I’ll land at, what kind of energy the day will hold. It’s like mental time travel.

But here’s where it gets real: today, I feel good. Clear-headed. No fires to put out at home. No personal chaos clouding my judgment. I’ve got a little bit of margin – some headroom. Enough to maybe zoom out and do the one thing that doesn’t always come naturally in this job: notice someone else.

What if I use that space on Saturday – not to coast, not to check out – but to check in?

Because here’s the truth: when we’ve got a little breathing room, we have a responsibility to look around. If you’re not drowning, throw a damn rope.

We always talk about mental health in extremes – burnout, breakdown, crisis – but what about the in-between days? The quiet stretches where you’re OK, even solid. What if that’s when we have the most power to change the culture?…