One my worse days in HR was when I was ready to quit my job. I don’t consider myself a quitter but I had enough.

No doubt about it, I was stressed out. At the time, I was in charge of administering hundreds of layoffs across a large division, consisting of the headquarters and multiple plants.

My boss had assigned one of the plant closures directly to me because the HR manager was not doing a good job and we let him go early. That’s right, now I had two jobs in very difficult circumstances.

I hit my breaking point. I remember walking in with a pile of notebooks containing all the RIF (reduction in force or layoff) information, laying it down on the round table across from my boss’s desk and saying that I could not do it anymore. She was going to have to find someone else.

It was too much. I did not have life – all I did was work. I had moved from Michigan to California and didn’t have time to enjoy it or meet people. I was 29, single, alone and lonely.

My boss’s response was “Go back home and see the family (Ohio), when you come back, we’ll talk”.

That’s what I did. I went home with lots of uncertainty. I spent time with my family and friends.

About ten days later, I went back.

A bit nervous, I stopped in to see my boss. She asked how my time off was. It was good. I was less stressed. I had been able to let go of all the work. You can do that when you quit.

She points over to the stack of binders on the table and says, “I guess you’ll need this.”

The pile looked untouched. I asked if she had done anything with it.

“No” she said, “it’s been waiting for you.”

There were lots of lessons for me that day.