Unless you’ve been living in a cave without TV or internet you’ve heard about JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater’s resignation. As the story goes, Mr. Slater had enough after being verbally assaulted by a passenger and so he got on the loud speaker, announced he was leaving, grabbed two beers, and slid down the airplane’s emergency slide to freedom. Hailed as a workplace hero, Steven Slater has been talked about by every major media outlet. Jimmy Fallon even wrote a hilarious song about him:

The same week Steven Slater quit his job an article about a young woman quitting her job via a whiteboard went viral (see below). It turns out this was fake resignation, but nonetheless the piece spread very quickly; on my Facebook newsfeed at least five people posted this humorous take on quitting a job.

Girl Quits Job on Dry Erase Board.

Both of these incidents have me wondering what is wrong with the culture of work in America? I’m sure almost everyone has daydreamed about quitting a job like a rockstar, but is this healthy? I realize we are still bouncing back from a recession, but it seems our workplaces have become toxic to our health. According to workforce.com in 2009-2010 40% of employers reported a higher use of health care benefits due to workplace stress.

Speaking as someone who quit her last job due to workplace stress, I’ve often wondered if I was the problem and not the job. Don’t get me wrong, I am much happier now and I don’t regret the decision, but I wonder if I was too weak or if I just lacked the proper coping skills to deal with a work environment. Ultimately, I think I could’ve benefited from additional coping skills, but the fact was the environment was toxic for me and so did what I needed to do and I took myself out of it.

As a nation, I think we have several major problems in our workplace, but at the core of all of them is the way we define work for ourselves. In our culture of perfection it’s easy to internalize our jobs because we want to do the best we possibly can and there is nothing wrong with this; internalizing our work motivates us. The real issue is how much we let our work define our personalities.

Since quitting my last job I’ve had time to think about what I could do differently in the workplace. Now instead of getting upset I try to ask myself two questions:  In ten years will this particularly stressful day matter? If my family/friends were watching, would they be proud of me after the things that have taken place today?

99% of the time I can say no, this won’t matter in 10 years, and I can say yes, my family and friends would be proud of me. And while I still love the badass way Steve Slater quit, I do wonder if he had taken the time to ask himself these questions if he still would’ve grabbed “two beers and jumped”?

Well I fell off the gift giving wagon on day seven, which was Monday. I just forgot all about giving a gift and got wrapped up in my own world. In all fairness I did have something important happening Tuesday morning that was consuming my thoughts.

Needless to say I started the whole process over on Wednesday by giving a co-worker a book called One.  This book was sent to me as a gift from one of our customers at work. After seeing me open the package and receive the  book my co-worker commented she loved looking at this book the last time we visited the customer’s facility so I gave her my copy.  She was happy and surprised.  The remaining days of gifts have mainly involved me spending time with others or going the extra distance for Hess.  For example, today (gift six) I work up early for a work event and made Hess some toast and then brought him a latte when the event was over. It’s not a lot, but it seems a little thoughtfulness goes a long way.

I’ve definitely learned gift giving takes a conscious effort. Some days I see only a handful of people so I really have to pay attention to see what I can do that day. I’ve also learned sometimes I give a gift and realize that what I gave wasn’t really the gift at all. For example, one of the gifts I gave a friend (prior to falling off the wagon) was a silly collage I made. We met for dinner and I presented the collage, but after the evening was over I realized the real gift wasn’t the collage it was taking the time to listen. At the end of dinner she thanked me for letting her vent and for understanding her perspective on the issues she’s dealing with.

As I continue to move through this process I’m learning a lot more than I thought I would and am looking forward to reflecting on the 29 days after I’ve completed. Hopefully this time around I’ll move through the full 29 days without starting over.

For those of you just joining in I’m currently giving a gift and journaling about it for 29 days…go here to read the initial post, which explains why.

Gift 1

I gave gift one on the airplane on the way home from a short trip to Arizona.  The lady seated to my right decided to order a gin and tonic for the ride from Phoenix to Chicago.   If you travel on Southwest you may be familiar with their drink tickets; these are tickets you can pre-purchase for alcoholic drinks on the plane. I always seem to have some of these tickets laying around. The lady to my right didn’t have a ticket and was going to have to charge her $4 cocktail to her Visa so I offered her one of our drink tickets and she accepted. She seemed genuinely surprised that I offered the ticket.  She and I exchanged surface conversation the rest of the flight and we traded magazines. Although it wasn’t earth shattering I did learn somethings…

1.  I rarely talk to strangers on planes or anywhere for that matter, but for whatever reason I was offering her the drink ticket before I even realized I was doing it.  It just seemed to be the thing to do.

2.  This woman’s reaction made me want to give more! For example: while waiting in the Chicago airport to fly back to Columbus a woman commented she wished she had a sweater.  I found myself wishing I had one to give her.

All in all day 1 was a great expirence.

Gift 2

Gift 2 didn’t go as well as gift 1…for gift 2 I cleaned the kitchen and packed Hess’s lunch.  Typically I cook and he cleans the kitchen and we’re on our on for our lunches. It may not seem like much, but our fruit was strawberries and they had to be chopped and cleaned so it was a more time consuming than normal.  Hess didn’t really notice the extra effort and I was a little grumpy about this.  This has taught me I need to work on my intentions. If I give a gift I need to give it without wanting or expecting anything in return; afterall, that’s the whole point of this exercise.

I have yet to give gift 3, but will soon.  I’ll keep you posted as I continue to move through the process.

From the time I was young until the time I graduated college I was involved in philanthropic work, but after college I stopped giving back.  I guess I found myself feeling too busy to volunteer afterall I was getting married, buying a house, figuring out a career, going back to school for a master’s degree…the list goes on. The past few years have been challenging for me emotionally as I struggle to find what my passion is, who my true support system is, how to direct my career, etc. In other words, I have become very ME focused.

Recently, my mom gave me great book called 29 Gifts (thanks mom!).  This book has served as a  reminder to me of how much giving can impact our lives. When I talk about giving I am not talking about giving so you can recieve something; I am talking about giving because it feels good to give. Not only do we feel good when we give back, but helping others often allows us to see how we can help ourselves emotionally and spiritually.

29 Gifts is by a woman, Cami, who has MS and is struggling to fight the disease while remaining positive.  After a series of events lead to a downward spiral of depression a spiritual friend, Mbali, tells her to take 29 days and give 29 gifts. Each day she must journal about her expirence.  Mbali says, ” By giving, you are focusing on what you have to offer others, inviting more abundance into your life. Giving of any kind is taking a positive action that begins the process of change. It will shift your energy for life.”

Reluctantly Cami agrees to the challenge and sets out on her 29 day journey. Sometimes she gives material goods or money other times her gifts involve no money or objects, but instead she gives away things that are invaluable like taking the time to listen to an upset friend, cooking dinner for her husband, or giving career advice to a client for free. After the 29 days is over Cami emerges with more energy, a better outlook on life, her health improves, her business begins to thrive, her relationship with her husband is closer, and much, much more.

Inspired by this book I am going to give 29 gifts in 29 days and journal about it each day. I probably won’t post all of my thoughts or the events that transpire on here, but I will let you know how it goes.  Be sure to take a moment to visit Cami’s website, 29gifts.org and read some of the blog posts and stories; I think you’ll be inspired.

So I’m writing a paper for my Democracy class on how women entering the workforce has led to women gaining more political rights in the U.S. While researching I realized how impactful first ladies have been on furthering women’s rights. This got me wondering what the chances are that a female will be president in the U.S. in my lifetime? It also caused me to reflect on the role of the first lady. Here are the conclusions I’ve come up with:

~The role of first lady is the ultimate balancing act between nurturing and political involvement. It reminds me of the balance between working full-time and caring for kids.

~Many first ladies have had enourmous political impact, but have not been credited. When you think about it how could they not? My husband I often talk about the pros and cons of various situations; I imagine the same conversations happen at the White House between married couples.

~Finally, I think the reason a women has not been elected president (assuming there has been a worthwhile canidate) isn’t because our society can’t picture a female in the oval office, but rather our society can’t picture a man in the “first husband” role.

Those are my general thoughts. Your comments would be greatly appreciated as it might further spawn some great points to make in this paper.

One last thing, please disregard any typos…I’m typing this on my Droid on my lunch break.

As you know, Haiti was hit by a devastating earthquake and then hit again with an aftershock earlier this week.  The people of Haiti need our help!

Today, January 21st, the City of Columbus, Columbus media, and the Red Cross are partnering to put on a one-day fundraiser.

Here are the details:

• Volunteers from the City, media, and the Red Cross will be there to accept cash and check donations.
• If you can’t stop by you can also donate to the relief efforts by texting the word HAITI to 90999 or you can donate online on the Red Cross’s site www.redcross.org.
• For more information regarding this event click here to check out the full press release.

Please give what you can!