You know, oh so often we see articles or hear speakers talk about the importance of taking breaks and taking vacation time. It's important for our mental health and our energy levels, right?

Well imagine taking a two-week vacation where you don't even check email (gasp!) only to return to find your world higgledy-piggledy, with big decisions made about your jobs--professional and volunteer--with no prior notice and an inbox full of articles about quiet quitting. #Coincidence?

What is the Universe trying to tell me? You know, besides challenging my hubris in taking time off?

I'm not a surgeon or POTUS.

I get to take time off.

And it was GOOD time, doing good stuff, with good people, and made me feel GOOD. Unlike our usual vacations, we had PLANNED this, and I told people about it ahead of time. I'd prepared my work load and projects.

But coming back to so much completely unanticipated surprise (redundant--perhaps, but that's how surprising it was) was effective at negating some of the lingering good feeling and rather set me back to the stressed out, tired state of pre-vacation.

And that was what I returned to, no matter how much wishful thinking or hysterical outbursting or polite business emails of feedback or stewing or asking "but why?" I did.

So, where's the meaning?

How do I find meaning in it? What is it teaching me?

UGH.

So, not one to look a coincidence in the mouth, I looked up quiet quitting, which is a phrase I'd never heard before last month but have heard about 9,632,745 times in the last four weeks. I thought it would be the professional version of ghosting, where one just stops showing up to work one day, but NO! Instead, it is just quietly not going above and beyond, not taking on extra projects. So, #JustDoingYourJob

Maybe the Universe checked a different definition? What is the big deal about just doing your job? Isn't that what we're supposed to do? And then the other stuff is the icing? #ButtercreamThanks

That above and beyond stuff, those extra projects are what keep me coming back! They are the things that give my roles meaning! They make the job fun! Who'd cut out the fun bits if they didn't have to?

So, Universe, what is the meaning of all of this? 

Is it all just a massive inconvenient coincidence meant to challenge my professional control of emotions and maybe manage my expectations of others?

Reality, I've given feedback, mostly better than I would have expected, and it has been received, again, mostly better than I expected. In a couple of months, I may think of these as small roots across my path rather than the smack in the head they felt like--maybe more than a couple of months, but not too long. I also won't not continue to raise my hand to take on those extras! I love the extras!

Maybe it was that practical exam I needed to prove I could clearly communicate frustration and set some boundaries where I need them.

Yeah, maybe that.

OK, Let me know if you read all of this by posting your favorite candy bar in the comments of the LinkedIn post! I owe you one! (Offer expires September 30, 2022 :D)

And please feel welcome to share some of your similar professional adventures! #LoveCompany