RH’s Post

I was ready to give notice at my job but my manager was out of town. Not wanting to give notice via phone or email, I waited for his return. I had four days to do my job differently while I waited to give notice. I cleaned out my office. Next to my office was an open area with tables where candidates waited for interviews and informal HR conversations took place. I started leaving accumulated advertising specialties, conference giveaways and logo sportswear items on the tables with a sign that said, "Please take me!" I gave away a few items every day. Those four days were amazing. I had work to do of course, but I also got to see my job from a new perspective - the perspective of someone preparing to move on. I went through the pile of work on my desk - good ideas for projects, inspiration for initiatives and information on HR trends and practices I wanted to implement in our workplace. I started a list of the projects I had wanted to start but now could see I wouldn't begin, much less finish, in that role. I added reasonable timeframes to my project list. When the project plan was done, I realized that the pile of folders and notes on my desk represented nine months of full-time work - assuming I didn't have other responsibilities! That was a turning point for me. I had long had a tendency to overbook myself and take on more projects than was reasonable. Realizing I had laid a nine-month backlog of projects on myself shook me out of my stupor. I had done a fine job in my years heading up HR in that company. We had grown from $1M in sales when I started ($4.2M now) to $300M (close to $800M today) when I left. We had grown our team from 30 to over 1500 people. I had been working hard the whole time. When did I think I was going to make a dent in that nine-month self-assigned extra workload? It's so tempting to take on more work than we can finish. It's fun and exciting to innovate, create value and step into new terrain. There's a point where doing so is also unhealthy and bad for us. Nobody assigned me that nine-month slate of projects. I dreamily assumed I could get it all done by working a little harder every day. I joke about fanciful-bordering-on-delusional execs all the time but that day when my calculations were done, I saw the same tendency in myself. I threw the pile of notebooks and magazines in the wastebasket. When my boss came back, he walked into my office first thing and said, "Oh my goodness - are you leaving?" He had never seen my office so pristine or so barren. "Yes, I am," I said. We talked about my exit and the transition. I told him about the nine-month project backlog. "That's a wake-up call," he said. "The 'someday' pile is a mirage." He was right. If it's important, don't wait! If it's not, that's fine. Don't hold onto it. If an idea wants to come back into your life it'll do so without your help. Lighten the load! An overloaded plate doesn't make us more virtuous or more worthy.

I was ready to give notice at my job but my manager was out of town. Not wanting to give notice via phone or email, I waited for his return. I had four days to do my job differently while I waited to give notice. I cleaned out my office. Next to my office was an open area with tables where candidates waited for interviews and informal HR conversations took place. I started leaving accumulated advertising specialties, conference giveaways and logo sportswear items on the tables with a sign that said, "Please take me!" I gave away a few items every day. Those four days were amazing. I had work to do of course, but I also got to see my job from a new perspective - the perspective of someone preparing to move on. I went through the pile of work on my desk - good ideas for projects, inspiration for initiatives and information on HR trends and practices I wanted to implement in our workplace. I started a list of the projects I had wanted to start but now could see I wouldn't begin, much less finish, in that role. I added reasonable timeframes to my project list. When the project plan was done, I realized that the pile of folders and notes on my desk represented nine months of full-time work - assuming I didn't have other responsibilities! That was a turning point for me. I had long had a tendency to overbook myself and take on more projects than was reasonable. Realizing I had laid a nine-month backlog of projects on myself shook me out of my stupor. I had done a fine job in my years heading up HR in that company. We had grown from $1M in sales when I started ($4.2M now) to $300M (close to $800M today) when I left. We had grown our team from 30 to over 1500 people. I had been working hard the whole time. When did I think I was going to make a dent in that nine-month self-assigned extra workload? It's so tempting to take on more work than we can finish. It's fun and exciting to innovate, create value and step into new terrain. There's a point where doing so is also unhealthy and bad for us. Nobody assigned me that nine-month slate of projects. I dreamily assumed I could get it all done by working a little harder every day. I joke about fanciful-bordering-on-delusional execs all the time but that day when my calculations were done, I saw the same tendency in myself. I threw the pile of notebooks and magazines in the wastebasket. When my boss came back, he walked into my office first thing and said, "Oh my goodness - are you leaving?" He had never seen my office so pristine or so barren. "Yes, I am," I said. We talked about my exit and the transition. I told him about the nine-month project backlog. "That's a wake-up call," he said. "The 'someday' pile is a mirage." He was right. If it's important, don't wait! If it's not, that's fine. Don't hold onto it. If an idea wants to come back into your life it'll do so without your help. Lighten the load! An overloaded plate doesn't make us more virtuous or more worthy.