Adventures of a Serial Quitter

On this episode of The Big Quit, Kris shares her personal quitting saga, offering a glimpse into her journey of bold decisions and unexpected twists. In addition to the why she quit, Kris shares an ever growing and evolving list of all the things she's quit since taking that momentous step away from her former career. As it turns out, quitting can be a tough habit to kick, and Kris shares her insights on the unexpected freedom and growth that come from embracing change. Tune in for laughter, inspiration, and a unique take on the art of quitting.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome to The Big Quit with Chris, a show that
originally started off as a place to connect with those
that identified as part of the Great Resignation and said
see you to their jobs, and has evolved to a
show where we talk about how quitting is just the
beginning for so many things, whether it's leaving a job,
a relationship, a comfort zone, or any other status quo.
We're here to explore the courageous journey of letting go

(00:27):
and embracing new possibilities. Hey, y'all, I'm Chris, and this
is The Big Quit with Chris, the show where we
talk all about quitting your job so you can live
your life and the ins and outs of that process. Right,

(00:47):
And today's minisoed, I'm going to share a bit about
my story, give you a little insight into who I
am and where the show is coming from. And I'm
also going to share a quick list of all of
the things that I've quit in life since quitting my job,
So stay tuned for that. And I want to be
honest with y'all, Like, as we're getting started with this episode,
quitting is a really hard habit to break. It's kind

(01:09):
of like eating one chip, Like can you really just
eat one chip. Nah, You're gonna eat multiple. So give
you the heads up that if you decide to quit something,
please know you will quit other things in your life.
And it's okay. So to get started, let me tell
you a little bit about my background. I was in
human resources for about ten years, and I'm one of
those cheesy HR people that actually really really loved it.

(01:31):
I was all about like employee field days and pancake
breakfast and true development, right, like, you want to go
to that conference, Let's find a way to get you there,
because training and development is a huge part of human resources.
And I actually studied human resource development, so I actually
really really loved being a resource to humans. And like

(01:51):
so many folks, in twenty twenty, I went through a
total mind shift and changed the way of thinking and
realized that I had been kind of hopping around from
different companies over the last few years, thinking like, maybe
it's just this organization that I'm not really feeling. And
in that time, like at the start of the pandemic,
when I had nothing to do but sit and think,

(02:14):
I mean think and think and think, I realized that
it wasn't the organizations that I didn't enjoy it was
the fact that across the board, human resources was really
being diminished to an administrative role, an administrative function of
just processing new hires, processing separations, making sure that like
this required state training goes through. And that wasn't for

(02:37):
me anymore. I want to be here to help people
and really be there for them. So even though I
was laid off at the beginning of the pandemic like
so many of us, and I wasn't sure if I
would go back into HR, I wasn't really looking during
the summer. I enjoyed my time to myself. Okay, I
still ended up being offered a job towards the end
of the summer, and I actually really thought like, ooh,

(03:00):
this is a chance to have a cushy associate director
job where like I'm involved in strategy but not necessarily
the day to day. And I was just like, yes,
this is a dub, this is a win. Ye. No.
So very quickly that dream fell apart, and pretty much
within two weeks, my director was in our one on
one meetings crying. I had two team members quit within

(03:24):
the next month along with her, and other people follow suit,
just kind of citing the unrealistic expectations on I think
we had a team of seven serving twelve hundred plus
team members, and it just really was an ideal. It
was a lot of hurry up and wait or hurry
up and we're going to ignore your recommendation because HR

(03:44):
is just for administrative processing. And it was one of
those things where it got to the point that within
six months, I actually myself was out on an emergency
medical leave due to the stress. And I'm not really
like a crier. I'm not like a oh man, this
is I'm overwhelmed. I don't get overwhelmed easily. But within

(04:05):
six months it had gotten to me all I was.
I was hurting. So it's one of those things where
I knew pretty quickly that I wouldn't be back. As
soon as I went on that leave, I was setting
my away message, you know, you put that message up
that's like, I'm going to be out of the office
for X amount of time and if you need assistance,
reach out to this person, and I expect to be

(04:26):
back on this date. Da da da DA's like that
automatic responder. I knew in my soul, like in my spirit,
the second that I set that away message, I would
not be back. I knew it, and I needed time
to process that. And it actually took me longer than
the original leave to stop hearing slack messages in my mind,

(04:48):
like phantom slack messages, stop fearing my phone when it
would ring, and it just it took a lot of
time to actually rest and to recuperate and to recover
from this deep burnout that I didn't even realize I
was experiencing, honestly. So all of that said, I ended

(05:08):
up resigning from that position and taking time to really
figure out what it is that I wanted to do.
And it actually took me about another six months before
I felt like I was ready to even find work
again and whatever that meant right Like, I already noted
that I was being I was losing my interest in
human resources, but what does that mean next? And that

(05:30):
led me to think about a question I used to
ask all of my new team members when they would
come in, which was, you know, if you had any
dream job, you could do whatever you wanted, what would
you do? And I always said, it's funny, how if
you actually listen to yourself, you're saying what you want
all of the time. But I would always say, if
I didn't have to have a real job, I would

(05:51):
be in music, or I would be in some type
of creative field, maybe a producer, just something that allowed
me to express myself and still help others connect with
people community, but do his fun stuff, you know. And
I had to really sit with that question, like, well,
what is a real job. Why don't I consider that
to be a real job. What's going on with that?
And sitting with those questions and figuring out like, hey,

(06:16):
this is something I really can make work. I can
be out there and work in creative fields. Really was
a game changer for me. So now here I am
almost two full years later, finally feeling recharged and ready
to revisit working and putting in the time and energy
and effort to build something and watch something grow. And
what I learned though, was by quitting that job, I

(06:38):
was also quitting several bad habits that were unknowingly haunting me. So,
like I mentioned, this is my short, forever growing list,
because again it's a hard habit to break, right, this
is my short but ever growing list of things that
I quit. I quit hypothesizing my success and started to
celebrate it. I never slowed down to celebrate any of

(06:59):
my accomplished mines before, not my graduating with the masters,
not moving up different levels in the corporate world, none
of it. I always just was looking to the looking
towards the future, trying to figure out what's next. You know,
where do I go from here? What's the next position
to apply for, what's the next step, what's the next degree? Like, girl, congratulations,
we've already been doing things. Let's celebrate. So I quit

(07:21):
hypothesizing what could be and just started celebrating where I
am in this present moment. I quit sleeping on myself.
And what I mean by that, as my wife says,
better right, She actually gave me a great quote. My
wife says, self deprecation is not a flex it's a
trauma response. Say, if you need a minute to sit
with that one, it's okay because I did to us

(07:44):
a dang girl, drag me. But really in that and
quitting sleeping on myself, like I'm now able to accept love, support, compliments,
and encouragement, like send all that my way, I'm sending
it right back to you, and let's be ready to
accept that we deserve we deserve. I quit limiting my

(08:04):
success if I can vision it, it can and will
happen period. I quit being okay with letting myself down,
with saying, oh, I'll get to it tomorrow. I'll get
to it tomorrow. I'll get to it tomorrow. I've been
getting to this podcast for like two years. But were
we here? Okay? And I'm celebrating that we're here. Whoo.
I also quit beating myself up for trying hell of

(08:25):
things and stopping them too. It's literally a part of
life to explore and try and figure out what does
and doesn't work for us. So if you're going through
that process, I want to let you know it's okay
to start and stop, to try and let go because
that's what we do as human beings. So don't ever
beat yourself up for trying. At least you tried and
you're not sitting with the what if. And finally, I

(08:48):
quit asking people what they do when I meet them,
asking people what they do for work, never is it
really going to give us a good idea of who
they are, right, especially if their work is just a
means to an end to pay rent. Whether you're in
California and like I am or not, Rent is too
day n pi, Okay, people are buying chickens because they're
cheaper than next Like, let's just let's be real for

(09:09):
a second. So I quit asking people what they do
because it doesn't tell me who they are, and that's
what I really want to know about folks. So all
in all, I hope this episode has told you a
little bit more about me, my story, and where the
show is coming from. Each episode of The Big Quit
is going to share the story of someone who has
quit their job and their unique journey, because let's keep

(09:31):
in mind, not everybody's the same. Some people quit and
get another job because again, eggs, price of eggs, let's
be honest. Some people go back to school, some people travel,
some people start businesses, and all of the in between.
So I really want to make sure that we're capturing
all of these different stories, and I hope that you're
able to connect in some of these resonate with you.
I also want to talk about some current events that

(09:52):
are going on right like at the time of this recording,
there are a lot of strikes going on, and what
does that look like within the workforce? Why are people shriking?
It's a quick note, it's for a good reason. Right,
So let's talk about those things. And the main point
here that I want y'all to get from this is
that we are all in community figuring this life thing out.

(10:12):
So community, let's connect. Keep up with a Big Quit
with Chris for more stories and a reminder that quitters
when to Thanks for listening today, y'all stay tuned for
more episodes and content, and I cannot wait to connect
with you community talk soon.