When a friend casually brought up the buzzword “quiet quitting” during my three-month notice, I had to look it up. And then I laughed. I had tasks to finish, and I take pride in delivering quality right up to the last day.
September was brutal. Partly due to my damn pride, but not entirely. I’d been instructed to postpone a spring event, which ended up colliding with everything else.
I worked most waking hours. And then I just closed my laptop. And it was all over.
The emptiness was expected – anyone who’s wrapped up a marathon project knows the feeling. But the lack of a proper ending didn’t help. I had kind words from external partners, but nothing from the workplace itself.
On top of that, I was utterly exhausted. The first week, some days I didn’t get out of bed until the afternoon. The days in between I went on long excursions – which didn’t exactly help with recovery.
The picture from Briançonnet is from one of those trips. The cross stands on a reused Roman stone. I know this because a friendly local offered us a tour after spotting me with my two cameras – clearly not a typical tourist. I’m so happy we made that spontaneous stop and took him up on his offer.
It was my turn to play guide when a former colleague visited Nice. We had a great evening touring wine bars – also excellent research for my travel writing. The picture of the dog is from our stroll.
A few weeks later, when my former project partners all gathered in Milan, I felt a real pang of missing out. I was touched by their messages – and reminded of what I’d left behind.
Finding new colleagues is on my to-do list. I saw a job ad where the extensive list of requirements felt like it had been carbon-copied from (part of) my CV. Full-time, one subject and no more bookkeeping. It sounded perfect. I thought it was. They didn’t.
Someone suggested I take a month to rest. I picked mushrooms a few weekends (surely that counts?), but mostly I’ve been working on projects – one book-related, one I’ll share in November.
As an author, it’s always handy to have portraits. So on my last morning in Antibes, I went down to the sea to take advantage of the soft morning light. The next day, I was glad I did it, as I needed a photo for a magazine interview. The journalist had taken one a week earlier, but I looked… well, exhausted. The new one was so much better.
Then I published my IKEM recap (in Swedish) and saw my official portrait next to the new one. The difference was striking. I decided not to use the October 2025-version and to take new ones after a month’s sleep. But books don’t sell themselves, so a week later I ended up running paid ads with it anyway.
Maybe the quiet quitters were onto something – taking it easier and preparing for the transition to the next phase. On the other hand, maybe it’s not a problem with the right employer.
P.S. I’ve been writing these monthly recaps for over a year – you can find the full archive on my website.
These recaps are also published on LinkedIn and written in collaboration and discussion with the following AI-tools: Claude, ChatGPT and Perplexity (I am evaluating them).
Science communicator and project manager based in Sweden, working internationally. Montly recaps in English.
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