tomorrow i clock back in after 9 days of pto and honestly… i feel like i’m walking straight into the lion’s den. the unread emails, the “let’s align” meetings, the dashboards and reports waiting for my eyes—none of it excites me. it just feels heavy.

there’s this unspoken rule in corporate life: you can step away, but the machine never stops. and when you come back, it demands you twice over. they call it “rest,” but in reality, pto is just recovery time so you can return and burn yourself out all over again.

i’m tired of being the fixer, the steady hand, the one who can’t drop the ball because too many depend on me. sometimes i wonder if this is leadership or just glorified damage control.

nine days wasn’t enough to refill whatever this job drains out of me. and yet tomorrow i’ll log back in, smile in the meetings, and play the role. because that’s what we do.