Monday, January 19, 2026

Everything Stops for Tea

A simple daily ritual can foster connection, balance, and focus amid the unpredictability of your workday

By Justine Van Bolhuis, Research Supervisor

As a member of CLAC’s Research Team, I never quite know what my day will look like. We get research requests from front-line union staff across the country on issues ranging from drug and alcohol testing and termination for theft to who is allowed to sit on a bargaining committee and the tax implications of settlements—and that’s just within the last week!

Add that to the ongoing work of projects, educational events, and data tracking, and there’s always something to keep our team busy all through the work week.

But I know how the day will begin, because that’s always the same. After powering up my laptop, I start my day by checking online for new healthcare arbitration awards and collective agreements to add to our interest arbitration prep database. It’s a consistent task that doesn’t require any deep thought first thing in the morning and helps me to ease into the workday before turning my attention to whatever’s waiting for me in my inbox.

Another ritual occurs each day at two p.m. When the clock strikes two, my team gets out from behind our laptop screens and gathers for tea time. It’s a tradition passed down from our former, now-retired research director, and it’s basically sacred. As we like to say, everything stops for tea.

But here’s a little secret: it’s not really about the tea. In fact, most days nobody’s even drinking tea at our tea time.

It’s about taking the opportunity to connect as a team and discuss what’s going on in both our work and our personal lives in a more informal way than an official team meeting. It gives us a chance to take a breath and reset for the remainder of the day before returning to our workstations and getting back to our tasks.

Your workday probably looks a lot different than mine, but you likely have your own rituals and routines that regulate the rhythm of your work. It could be donning and doffing your scrubs, uniform, or work gear at the start and end of each shift or gathering for a quick team huddle to check in and assign the day’s tasks.

Perhaps you get focused with a routine safety check of your vehicle or work site or a review of the care charts at shift changeover. To break up the day, you might share a few trivia questions while grabbing a coffee with coworkers. Maybe on Wednesdays, you wear pink.

Whatever it is, building a ritual into the busyness of your regular work can reorient you to the task, shift, or week in front of you. It can help you to transition from personal to work mode at the start of the day, take a breather to mentally and physically reset midway through, or wind down at the end of it.

If you don’t have one already, consider what kind of ritual you could create for yourself or your crew, one that fits within the flow of your workday or week and gives you the chance to zoom in, step back, or connect as needed.

Within the unpredictability of your day-to-day work, you might find that having a few standing rituals to rely on is just what you need to keep yourself grounded.

Everything Stops for Tea

You might be interested in