Most people don’t think about their energy. Day’s are full of physical and cognitive activities, stress, and challenges. If we need a boost, we grab some coffee or rest our eyes for a few minutes. After a bit, we’re ready to jump back in.

But many people don’t have endless energy supplies. Physical, cognitive, and societal pressures may deplete their energy faster than it can be refreshed. A day’s schedule is impacted by their night’s sleep, stressful commute, illness, or the morning news. There comes a point when they need to step away from their computer and rest. It may be five minutes, five hours, or longer. 

This portioning of energy and activities is summarized in Spoon Theory. This is a popular shorthand within the chronic illness community to describe their energy levels and limitations. Christine Miserandino explained spoon theory with a friend by giving them a set of spoons and took away spoons as her friend described her daily activities. After losing most of her spoons, she realized how important it was to ration the spoons (energy) she had left for the remainder of the day’s activities. It’s now easy to imagine running out of spoons at work and not knowing how you’ll find the energy to drive home in traffic, household chores, and walk the dog. 

Spoonies, those who use spoon theory, use this metaphor as a shorthand with their friends, family, and colleagues to alert them they need to step back and take care of themselves. They don’t need to explain their pain, where they are going, or when they’ll return. 

Spoon theory for everyone

Spoon theory is not limited to those with disabilities. We all have moments that shake us and require some time to recover. For example, George Floyd’s murder in 2020 impacted everyone, especially those in our Hues network. People needed time to check with their families, friends, to absorb the news, and self-care. 

We’re also impacted by significant moments, from the birth of a child to the death of a loved one. We’re distracted by noises, children’s play, and our beagle barking at the birds. We may be stressed over paying taxes, explaining an accident, or planning for divorce. 

The key is, we need a method to explain why we need to step away from the computer and take some personal time off. And we want to do this without having to explain the situation to everyone. 

One of our Intuit colleagues explained their reluctance to share their energy depletion due to concern about how it would be accepted: “I deal with positional vertigo and just one episode uses all my spoons for days but I have a hard time dealing with that, meaning I don’t miss work and don’t want to share out of fear. “

An organization that embraces spoon theory can also improve their communication and working relationships. One colleague at Intuit said: “…it creates a good way to level set our interactions, I know something would be better to approach her with on Monday. After she ‘recharges’.” Conversations can start with “I’m low on spoons today” to level set the time available and the level of complexity in the discussion. 

Spoon Theory at Intuit

At Intuit, we’ve been hosting Accessibility/Inclusive Design Lunch and Learns for several years. Chronic fatigue/pain, brain fog, focus management, neurodiversity, and stress are common topics. These led to specific conversations about Spoon Theory and how Intuit could encourage the use of Spoon Theory from a global perspective. 

We kicked off a project to define a Spoon Theory policy, get HR approval, and created documentation for teams to understand the usage. Our ERG’s collaborated to ensure this represented the broad perspectives of those who use Spoon Theory. Kim Booberg (Enable Network) and Jessica Darke (Pride Network) were the key drivers. 

Kim and Jessica shared their experiences and how they previously used terminology to explain their energy levels, such as “my gas tank is empty”, “stick a fork in me, I’m done”, or a customized message for each person. They also explained the expanded spoon theory metaphors. 

• Sporks/Forks: Triggers that require excess energy and lead to unexpected spoon usage.
• Borrowing spoons: Going beyond your energy reservoir to complete an urgent task, solve a difficult situation, or meeting a deadline. Borrowing spoons leads to complete exhaustion and requires additional time off the following day(s).
• Masking: Hiding your condition from others and the additional stress required to code switch. 

With this foundational understanding we worked on a policy that could be used by other organizations. This included three parts:

• A universal method of announcing you are out of spoons
• A document that explains spoon theory for those seeing the messages
• HR approval and n FAQ and support articles for HR requests

HR Approval

We didn’t want people to be responsible for owning their status announcement and having to discuss/defend its use. To have universal support, we worked with our HR leadership from the beginning. We explained spoon theory, the importance of using it at Intuit, and asked what they needed from us to implement it. 

We created an FAQ for our HR team if people had questions about the status message, how to support employees who use spoon theory, and general information about accommodations for chronic pain, fatigue, illness, depression, and anxiety. We also published an article on our intranet explaining spoon theory and support. 

Slack Status

We use Slack at Intuit as a universal communication platform. Your organization may use WhatsApp, Teams, or Google Chat. We were limited in the number of official status messages (In a meeting, Gone for the day, At lunch, Out of office, and Break). So we explained how people could create a custom status message: “Offline: Out of Spoons”

Set your status in Slack

1. From your desktop, select your profile picture.
2. Click the Update your status field.
3. Type “Offline: Out of Spoons” as a status. For the icon, search for “spoon”.
4. Click “Clear after” to choose when your status will clear. If you’d like, check the box next to Pause notifications to turn off notifications until your status clears.
5. Click Save.
6. The status will be available in your recent status section

It’s been a couple years since we launched our Spoon Theory policy at Intuit. For many people, it’s become a common language for everyone on their team, regardless of their ability. For others, they’ve used it sparingly, but felt comfort knowing it was available. One of our customer success specialists explained: “I only did it once, as an Expert, here and it was honored…My manager is pretty awesome at this.” 

Intuit’s adoption of spoon theory has increased communication within teams, establishes a common respect for energy and focus management, and recognizes we do our best work when our capabilities match our output. It’s taken the burden off individuals who are under pressure to deliver when their bodies are shutting down.