Still Human
Hi! I help women stay human in a system built to extract from us. We know how burnt out we are. Employers take from us endlessly, and they use us to extract others too. But here’s what needs to stop: bullying ourselves to “just get over it,” compulsive self-optimization, and never-ending personal development. Contorting ourselves even more is not the solution. Whether you’re a mom staying in Big Tech to build generational wealth, plotting your corporate exit amidst a nervous breakdown, or stuck between a rock and a hard place, you deserve honest talk, tools, and a place to exhale.
About Me
I’m Rachel Tully. I spent ten years inside Big Tech — Tesla, Venmo, Nasdaq — until the machine broke me and I walked out. I learned that it was not possible to improve my mental health while keeping my workplace happy. So now I’m building Still Human for women like me: the ones watching people of color and women get denied what’s due, the ones whose talent is being used to extract from others, the ones surviving vicious office politics, B.S. performance reviews, and managers who bulldoze boundaries with a smile. I help women stay human inside a system built to extract — on their terms, at their pace. My goal is bringing us out of isolation, so we can use our power to make work better.
Why do I do this work? Because this is my bloodline. My great-grandfather was orphaned at nine and sent into the coal mine. He was small and expendable, so they sent him in with the canaries to see if the air was safe. The bird was the warning system. So was he. He spent his whole life underground until his lungs, full of coal dust, gave out. A family pattern emerged: my grandfather ministered to impoverished coal miners, steel workers, and immigrants for 55 years. My Dad counseled families poisoned by buried toxic waste at Love Canal and families left with nothing, abandoned by industry. My Mom took extraction to court at every scale — from a baker’s arm cut off in an industrial mixer to a coastline lost to the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Different pathways, same job: standing with people inside the machine. I’m the fourth generation.
Nobody sent me underground at nine. My version was gentler and compensated well. But it still broke me, because it runs on the same fuel: you are worth what can be extracted from you. I’m not special for having noticed. I’m just the one in my family whose mine was an Elon-Musk-issued laptop.
Some things you should know about me: I’ve been sober from alcohol since 2018, and my sobriety is intertwined with my recovery from extraction. (Don’t worry, I won’t tell you to stop drinking. Have a gin & tonic for me.) I’m from Buffalo and Pittsburgh, but I’ve also lived in London, DC, Philly, NYC, and San Francisco. Nowadays I’m in Phoenix with my wife and our three cats, watching Real Housewives and Below Deck, cooking ambitious Italian and Thai, and making our condo as mid-century modern as possible.
I can’t wait to get to know you here. We have work to do, and it’s gonna be epic.
