The Transition

So in my first entry I wrote about how I found my dream job and my dream man and my dream house, all that jazz. Well I'll save you the cliffhanger and say sometimes it's not all roses and butterflies.

Planning a wedding that had been post-poned two years in a row almost became a full-time job, but my actual 9-5 was in no way slowing down either. I had a work trip to Palm Springs at the end of June, where flights were going crazy with delays and staff shortages. This was in my mind, the last trip or big plan before the wedding day. I wanted the month of July for final details before the wedding, and confirmations from all vendors. I also wanted to decrease the big projects on my plate at work given I was taking almost three weeks off work come the time of the wedding. 

You can plan, and you can hope, but sometimes life throws you new factors.

On the trip I had spoken to one of my co-workers about their team and day-to-day and it got me thinking about potentially switching roles at the company. I had been on the creative side for almost 5 years now and really enjoyed the company's product and purpose. When I returned I spoke to my manager about the possibility and I did some interviews. It was mainly a positive outcome but they needed to hire a bunch more people, and transition them all at once during oboarding. Made sense at the time, so I was patient but also let them know of my upcoming time off, which seamed to align just fine. 

So the phase of slowing down big projects that I was involved in, and not starting any new big projects really became more obvious to me when I had to book a mental health day on a random Wednesday in July. I don't think I have ever booked a day off previously unless it was vacation or if I was incredibly ill. I was simply at my limit of mental well-being and I wanted a reset day. Whether it meant putting this career plan down on paper for next steps, or finalizing more of the wedding planning, I just needed to be offline to not get 1,000 slack messages throughout the day. It honestly ended up being a great decision, my fiancé and I took a walk and got some ice cream, the weather was gorgeous, 10/10 mental health day. 

Now, returning to work the next day was okay but I let my manager know that I didn't want to dive into any new, big projects in the next two weeks or so considering I had a lot on my plate to finish up before my time off. And I really needed to focus on those current tasks at hand before piling on new work. This seemed to go over just fine, the other ongoing task was managing one of my designers development which was high priority. So it left only two or three main things before heading out for the big day and coming back to a career transition. 

A week before the wedding my boss and I were scheduled to meet with HR to discuss the development issues we were seeing with said designer. To say I was shocked that the morning before the meeting, I got an invite to a separate meeting to talk about my offboarding is an understatement.

I had worked extremely hard for 3 and a half years at the company. 

Started a team from scratch, implemented and improved processes constantly, developped new product features, you name it.

I cried, I panicked, I texted my best friends who were also all shocked. 

Tech companies were reducing their staff everyday and I just got unemployed a week before a wedding I've been planning for two years. 

What (the f) now?

Well, I'm still working through it. But the support of friends and family was my saving grace. I spoke to people as soon as it happened, all provided me encouraging words. I called one of my best friends who was visiting from Australia, didn't even think I would have a chance to see her on her trip here, but hey, the universe has a weird way of working things out sometimes. We went for lunch drinks the next day, we cheers-ed on phrases like "onwards and upwards" and "work to live, don't live to work"

It helped. And it helped to have time off before the wedding to tie everything together perfectly. It was honestly, an amazing day, I know they all say it but it was. A room filled with all our friends and family, our biggest supporters, and simply celebrating love at it's finest. I also thought it was almost ironic to have 6 friends and family staying with us for a week after from Ireland, they never really talk about work. Their labour laws are so strict as well, that if I was working there, I would have never been let go. 

After the week long wedding celebrations, I go back to the Linkedin job hunt, but read through multiple posts of a new term, "quiet quitting." I read through a couple, all commenting on it but not really going into detail about what this "quiet quitting" entails. So I do as I always do when I want to know the straight facts about something and ask my now husband. He explains to me that it's basically doing the bare-minimum, you're not about the rise and grind/going above and beyond culture and you essentially, just want to be paid to do the duties in your job description. 

Did I make the impression that I was "quiet quitting" instead of "dealing with burnout?"

Was I let go for quiet qutting?

Is this all just a huge blessing in disguise?

Cannot confirm or deny any of the above, except my gut is leaning a bit more towards yes on that last question. Seeing the benefit in even the darkest places will help you balance. Keep an open mind, don't be afraid of what else is out there and that the grass is potentially so much greener on the other side.

You're only one person, and you're capable of amazing things, but your 9-5 job doesn't define your talent.

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