Don't tell my co-workers...

… But I’m quitting my job in January. I’ve been thinking about it for a while, and mentioned it to a few people when I was down in CA last weekend, but I hadn’t realized that I had actually made the decision until I noticed things like this happening all week:

- My co-worker told me that she had heard that, in January, she and the rest of the team would finally get to move their offices up to the hill to join us in the Career Center (they’re currently about a mile away, which gets frustrating). My outward response: “That’s fantastic! It will be so great to have the whole team together at last!” My inward addition: “But, really, I don’t actually care all that much, because I won’t be here anymore.”

- We just got a new manager, and she has set up a half-day team strategic planning meeting for next week. In the midst of trying to prepare for it, all I can think of is, should I tell her before the meeting that I’m leaving so that we can use the time to develop a plan for hiring and training a replacement, or should I wait until afterward so the meeting isn’t awkward with everybody knowing I’m walking out on them?

So, I guess my mind has made itself up without me for once. :P The plan is to (at some point, probably soon) tell my boss and my co-workers, so that we can put out the job announcement and go through the interviewing process, hopefully in time to hire somebody about a week before I leave for my Christmas and Harmony vacation. I can train the person, then go on vacation and leave him/her at the office. Then I’ll come back from vacation for a week or so to answer all the questions that came up and tie up any loose ends (and make sure I get paid for that vacation time!), and then I’ll be out of there! (Side note: Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love the people that I work with, and I will be honestly sorry to leave them behind. But the job’s not right for me, so I will be glad to get out of there!)

What am I going to do after I leave my job, you ask? Well, for starters, I’m going to get back on a decent sleep schedule. Then I’m going to start doing all of the things that need to get done but that I’ve been too busy with work to do, and then move on to all the other things that I want to get done but that I’ve been too busy with work to do. Things like volunteering, taking guitar lessons, doing yoga, exploring Portland on my bike, going to community events and lectures and meetings, and just participating more fully in my life in general. Because work isn't my life, and my life isn't work. Yes, I’ll have to find a way to make some money in there somehow, but honestly, I’m really not worried about that at this point. I think I am finally trusting that that part will flow easily into the rest of my life once I get a few other things figured out. (Hallelujah for that! It makes moving forward so much easier.) I just need some time to relax, to explore, to figure out who I am and how I fit into this world, how I can contribute to making it a better place while being true to myself.

So, there you have it. But, shhhh! My co-workers don’t know yet…