Gahhhh I didn’t have a great day yesterday.
Won’t get into many details here, but it was work related. The short version is that I got something essentially dumped into my lap and then put on the spot to lead a presentation to a group of managers, with no real advance warning. Until I was in the meeting and I was suddenly told to take over. Ended up being mostly fine, but I felt completely flustered. I knew I was going to contribute some to the discussion and attend the meeting- that part was fine- but obviously I would have prepared differently/approached things differently had I been aware that I was going to be the sole presenter!
On top of it, I then received some borderline negative feedback afterwards, which was just frustrating and felt a little unfair. Felt like I was being graded on a test I didn’t know I was taking! It seems to me there was some lack of communication or a misunderstanding along the way, because I am 100% sure I was never informed that I was leading this. (I had in fact reached out multiple times last week for some clarification about this meeting precisely to make sure I didn’t need to prep anything specific/ see if I’d be leading, and the responses definitely did not indicate this.)
Anyway, my immediate inclination was to then perseverate about this for the rest of the day, which obviously does zero good. The whole thing is still irking me some today but I’m trying to just learn from it and move on. It’s not the end of the world or anything, and like I said, overall, it went fine. Life is full of ups and downs, and in the grand scheme of things, this really constitutes not much more than a minor dip.
On a happier note, Asher had his last cross country meet of the season yesterday. He finished on a very strong note, with by far his fastest race of the season. (Sadly, he was only able to do a few meets due to his foot issues, but he bounced back by the end here and had a nice race.) His coach came up to him after and complimented him on a good run, especially after the complicated season he had.
Ivan had the day off yesterday so we were both able to attend for a change. It was a beautiful fall late afternoon on a country club course. Very pretty with the changing leaves.
Cross country is an odd sport compared to what I’m used to. You can’t really “spectate” the whole thing like you obviously can for soccer or swimming or tennis. All the parents sort of flock to a couple of viewing points on the course, so at least we caught him run by a couple times.
I’m not sure if he’ll do cross country again next year or not. He’ll be in 8th grade next year, so final year of middle school. I basically think there is no way he will want to run XC in high school, because the truth is- I don’t really think he likes running that much. But in middle school here he enjoys the friends aspect and the team environment, etc. We’ll see. If he ends up continuing with soccer and swim, I might put the kibosh on cross country next year if he still seems kind of wishy washy on it anyway. It was a lot to juggle with 3 sports!!! BUT, the XC coach is amazing and the school team is a ton of fun. So I do love that he has been involved with it. Guess we’ll worry about that next summer!
Quote of the Day:
“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all- in which case you fail by default.” – J.K. Rowling
Oh, and, a funny parenting meme that I saw yesterday that made me laugh:
Daily Gratitude:
I am grateful for my husband, who is a very good and patient listener whenever I’m upset about anything.
GRATEFUL KAE 
Oh, I’m sorry you had a disappointing work day. It’s hard to put it behind you and enjoy the rest of your evening, but it looks like you did your best!
I’m having a complicated time with my volunteer position and it’s causing me undue stress and it is VOLUNTEER and I think about quitting all the time. If only it wouldn’t leave the worthy organization in a bad spot. And it’s hard to put it behind me in the evenings sometimes. Don’t perseverate is a good rule of thumb, but it’s challenging sometimes.
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Ugh. This is so hard and I really, really struggle to not spiral when things like this happen. So gold star to you for looking for perspective and trying to move on. But it’s also fine to be grumpy about the whole situation, too – it clearly sounds like things were not communicated fairly or appropriately and it’s especially frustrating when a situation like this comes along that is so blatantly NOT YOUR FAULT!!
Onward and upward, my friend. Hope today is so much better.
Love all the fall pictures of Ethan’s XC meet. Abby didn’t want to do cross country this year and Levi isn’t eligible until Grade 3. I’ve actually missed attending the meets. The weather is always so nice this time of year and in the young grades it’s only a 1 km course so the whole race is over quite quickly. I’m excited for next year!!
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Ugh that work situation sounds really awful. And then to get negative feedback is really awful since you weren’t prepared to lead the discussion/present. Someone dropped the ball and you took the fall which really sucks. Plus you’ve been taking on so much lately with training the new employee! Do you have the kind of relationship with your boss where you could talk about what happened? It just seem like the course of events was at all fair to you!
I am glad you had a good day personally to offset the crappy work stuff. It was gorgeous here yesterday, too! I did not have the option to run XC where i grew up but it seems like a sport I would have loved.
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Oh my gosh, that work “surprise” would have left me reeling. I honestly don’t know if I would have been able to present at all, so I applaud you for getting through it. Hopefully you’ll be able to discover where the breakdown was in communication (OBVIOUSLY not on your end) and how your team expects you to prepare for similar things in the future. Ugh ugh ugh. I hope the rest of the week goes much better.
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sorry you had a rough day at work. when it happens, I remind myself that it’s part of the job (to take some BS from time to time) and move on, although letting the emotion to run its course. usually it’s either miscommunication or someone covering his/has A*. not fun but it happens sometimes. I try to focus on family when work doesn’t go well and I feel better to know what really matters.
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I can totally relate to knowing that it’s a minor blip, but dwelling on the work situation even so. Hope today is going better.
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Oh, I would have been so grump about your work situation… not only because you were put on the spot without notice, but also because the communication went so poorly and because someone had the audacity to give negative feedback afterwards. WTH!
Good for you for trying to keep perspective and move on from it.
Poor communication is a huge pet peeve of mine, just told my supervisor about this in our 1-on-1 meeting, because I was asked to give a presentation last week at a meeting that I ended up not even being invite too! Not quite as bad as being at a meeting unprepared, I admit, but I felt “left” out even though I was asked to contribute beforehand.)
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OMG, that work situation would have set. me. off. I’m so sorry you were put in that position. So frustrating! Thrown under the bus, indeed.
But I’m glad you were able to get out to the meet and maybe reset a bit? It was beautiful weather that week. 🙂
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