That’s a wrap on my time in the corporate sector. My last day was Friday, the 17th. It was a long day—my manager was pushing hard for me to complete several tasks for the audit, including reconciling accounts that hadn’t been touched since I joined the company. At 3:55 PM, she texted me asking if they could extend my system access to Saturday so I could finish as much as possible. Ugh.
I understood her urgency—the senior leadership team’s year-end bonuses depended, in part, on a clean audit. Still, it felt like they were trying to squeeze every last bit of work out of me. After a moment of reflection, I followed my gut and replied that extending my access wouldn’t be necessary. I promised to finish what I could but made it clear I would be shutting off my laptop at 6 PM. I thought to myself, “I gave them more than a month’s notice—that’s enough.”
Working in corporate treasury gave me a front-row seat to the sheer amount of wealth the company generated—and how much of it went straight into shareholders’ pockets. I often wondered what would happen if just a fraction of that wealth were reinvested into the employees. It was disheartening to see no one question why passive shareholders reaped so much while the people driving the company’s success saw so little. That disillusionment stuck with me.
Now, it’s my privilege to start a new chapter as the accountant for the Healing Lodge. This feels like where I truly belong—working for an Indigenous charity whose mission is to end the colonial project of Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women. It’s a cause I can fully support with my energy and talents.
My journey with the Healing Lodge began in 2017 when the cofounders asked me to volunteer. We had just worked together to organize a massive rally in support of Standing Rock in November 2016, alongside many wonderful people. Back then, the Healing Lodge had just been incorporated as a nonprofit. My role was to help secure charitable status, manage donors, and prepare financial statements for grant proposals. We spent countless evenings and weekends strategizing ways to increase community awareness about the need for a facility like the Healing Lodge.
I stepped away during COVID when the organization grew too rapidly for me to support as a volunteer. Today, they have nearly 40 employees and multiple locations in Toronto. Then, out of the blue in November 2024, one of the cofounders—now the Executive Director—approached me with a job offer. I humbly accepted, saying goodbye to the corporate world. No more working my fingers to the bone to enrich shareholders. I’d rather work just as hard for the community.
I know this might sound idealistic and naive, and I’m aware of the challenges ahead. I’ve wondered whether it will be difficult to set boundaries with an organization I’m so deeply invested in. But I realized that the boundaries I needed in corporate life are entirely different from the ones I’ll need here. The two environments couldn’t be more different. One drained my soul; the other feels generative and life-affirming.
Of course, I’ll still need to protect my self-care. But if I wholeheartedly believe in the Healing Lodge’s mission, this work becomes personal—it’s part of who I am. So, from an existential perspective, I ask myself: Do I even need boundaries with something that feels like an extension of the self? Or can I follow my instincts and simply...exist?
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