Adults

The Leap from Tech to Doggy Daycare

As Jenny Campbell approached her 30th birthday, she found herself questioning her career in Silicon Valley, which, while financially rewarding, left her feeling unfulfilled. A lifelong animal lover, Jenny recently rekindled her passion when she took in her family’s aging dog, Bubba, a few years earlier, only to feel a profound void after his recent passing. A conversation with her childhood friend Paola prompted her to reflect on the disconnect between her tech career and her love for animals. Motivated by this realization, Jenny enrolled in an animal behavior certification program and began considering opening her own doggy daycare. While the idea of leaving the stability of tech was daunting, Jenny felt a growing desire to align her work with her values and passion.

On a beautiful, sunny Saturday morning, Jenny Campbell was having coffee and taking a stroll with her friend Paola, who she had grown up with in her hometown and who was visiting her for the weekend. Jenny was feeling more contemplative than usual, as her 30th birthday was fast approaching in just a couple of weeks. She found herself talking more and more to people in her life about how conflicted she was feeling about her next career steps. Jenny felt that her values and life goals were not aligning with her current career in the tech sector. 

Jenny shared with Paola that the job she got in Silicon Valley at a big company right after college graduation had given her a solid foundation that set her up for success in tech. She then transitioned through various roles, each with perks including salaries of around $200,000, options in stocks, benefits, and a world of opportunities to build and advance. Yet, there was a lingering void. "I feel like I am tapping away my creativity on a keyboard," Jenny admitted to Paola. "I’m proud of my work, but my heart isn’t in spreadsheets and regulatory jargon." Perhaps it was the gnawing thought that life was too precious to be spent working in a full-time job that didn’t align with her other passion – her love for animals.  

Jenny had grown up surrounded by pets – at one point, her family had three guinea pigs, a fish, an iguana, and two dogs. The responsibility of taking care of the pets was split between Jenny and her three other siblings. However, she did not find taking care of her pets to be a chore. She looked forward to coming home from school each day and feeding them, walking the dogs, and cleaning the cages. Jenny loved being the friend who had the house with all the pets for she and her friends to play with. Having pets showed her that animals have feelings, and she felt showing her friends her pets made them understand that, too. She would take out books from the library each week to learn about different kinds of animals, and she became consumed by all things animal related. When she was 16, she even convinced her parents to foster a new dog.  

As a teenager, Jenny continued taking care of her pets, but she shifted the bulk of her time into her schoolwork. Her high school had a strong computer science department, and her parents encouraged her to pursue coding classes, with the hopes she could get into a good college and study computer science. From there, they thought she could get a lucrative tech job to support herself. Although this was the path that Jenny followed, as an adult living in California, she still thought a lot about her love of animals.  

A few years prior, when Jenny was 27, she had taken in her family dog, Bubba. At the time, her parents had only Bubba as a pet. He was 13 years old, and Jenny would only get to see him when she would fly across the country from California to her hometown in North Carolina for occasional family celebrations. When she went home to celebrate a family friend’s wedding in North Carolina, her parents started talking about how they were planning to retire soon. They had spent the bulk of their life working really hard, and now they wanted to relax and travel, but it might be hard with Bubba. They didn’t favor the idea of putting Bubba into a kennel when they went away, and they weren’t sure if any of their friends would want to take care of Bubba for more than a few days at a time.  

Jenny jumped at the opportunity to offer to take Bubba into her own apartment. Her building was dog-friendly, and she thought Bubba, even in his old age, could play with her friends’ dogs, too. After some thinking, her parents agreed, and Jenny finally had a dog of her own again for a few years, which made her visibly happier. Jenny started to wonder why she hadn’t pursued her interest in animals more when she was in high school. She could feel her motivation for tech work slipping, despite the accolades she was getting from her colleagues and management. Instead, she felt she was most looking forward to the play dates that Bubba and her friends’ dogs would have at the dog park. But tragically, a few weeks ago, Bubba passed away. Jenny described to Paola that she felt a huge void in her daily routine and her fulfillment. Jenny was thinking of volunteering at a nearby doggy day care.  

Jenny further shared her wonderings with Paola, saying, “I’m confused how I went from being this kid who loved animals, and was obsessed with them; it was all I could think about. And then I picked up coding and decided to be a full on ‘woman in STEM,’ working in tech. I’m proud of my accomplishments, but sometimes I think to myself, for what? What is it for? Why did I do this career?”  

Paola replied, “I don’t know Jenny. People change their minds, and that’s ok! I remember how much you used to love hanging out with your pets and caring for them when we teenagers, but then it seemed in high school you really leaned into being a software engineer and moving out to California. You did it, that’s great, and you’ve made great money along the way. But I don’t want to see you continuing to do something until you retire that doesn’t make you smile.” Jenny realized her friend’s words were a wakeup call.  

A few months later after Paola’s visit, Jenny decided to pursue an online certification on animal behavior. She started networking with the other students in the class, some of whom were her age or older, and they encouraged her to follow her passion for animals and start her own business. It seemed somewhat far-fetched, but Jenny did have some money set aside from her tech career that she could put towards starting a new business.  

Jenny felt an internal tug-of-war: Should she leave the financial security of tech behind and go full force opening her own doggy day care? What would she be sacrificing if she did or didn’t, and how would that impact her mentally, emotionally, and physically? Would the sacrifices of leaving tech be worth it for following her passion? 

Ms. Rodriguez’s Dilemma: The Unexpected Assignment

Ms. Rodriguez, a dedicated math teacher at Horizon International School, is reassigned to teach "Readings in History," a subject far outside her expertise, during the upcoming semester. Despite her success in previously teaching unfamiliar subjects like ethics and science, she feels increasingly inadequate and frustrated, unsure if she can provide the depth of knowledge her students deserve. Guided by her faith and strong commitment to her students, she adapts, but the stress grows as she struggles to stay ahead of the material. When she requests a return to teaching math, her department head praises her versatility and denies her request, leaving Ms. Rodriguez to wrestle with the tension between serving her students and staying true to her professional strengths.

Deep Sea Dilemma

Adam, the CEO of a deep-sea mining company, is faced with a difficult dilemma. He has been granted a license to mine in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ), a region of the Pacific Ocean rich in minerals essential for clean energy technologies. However, the CCZ is also a fragile ecosystem, and mining is expected to have negative environmental impacts (release of carbon, damage to the seabed ecosystem, etc.). Adam is committed to mitigating these risks, but he is aware that there is no guarantee that his mining operation will have no negative impact on the environment. Adam is also under pressure from investors to deliver profits, and knows that he needs to start mining soon in order to generate revenue. Adam has brought together a team to discuss his options. How would you advise Adam to proceed?

Training Trouble

Aaron works at a publishing company, where he was recently promoted from a coordinator to a client management role. As part of his promotion, he was tasked with training his replacement, a new hire named Rachel. While Aaron worked with Rachel and explained to her all of the office’s procedures and systems, Rachel found herself having difficulty, and she expressed to Aaron that the job was more complicated than he had explained. Rachel started going to others in the office for help rather than Aaron, but she continuously made mistakes. Aaron shared with his boss Yolanda that he had trained Rachel and showed her the records, prompting Yolanda to put Rachel on a performance improvement plan. Rachel then quit. When Rachel’s replacement Oliver was hired, Aaron was again supposed to train him and put together a binder of all the information about the job, certain that the binder would be better than how he had trained Rachel. However, Oliver has the same difficulties and ultimately becomes very behind on work, causing Yolanda to again ask Aaron how he had trained Oliver. Aaron feels defeated and wonders if the problem is his training style or if both Rachel and Oliver were just not able to do the job well.

The Miserable Manager

Michelle has worked in sales at a department store for five years, where she initially was supervised by a supportive manager named Amy. Michelle likes her job, which gives her the flexibility to be in school at the same time, and she also likes her co-workers. However, when Amy leaves the store, a new manager named Will is hired. Will quickly develops a reputation for being difficult and providing harsh feedback. During her performance check-in, Will berates Michelle for an email she sent about her schedule for not following a new process and also questions her priorities. Other co-workers have begun leaving the store due to Will’s management style. Michelle wonders if she should stay in her job and, if so, how she should move forward with Will as her boss.

Low Expectations

Sandra is an engineer at a technology company, where she collaborates with the research and development team. Despite her feelings that she is meeting and even exceeding expectations, her colleague Mark has repeatedly made comments during team meetings that Sandra requires extra support. Sandra has confronted Mark about these comments, and he responded that he was concerned she would eventually be overwhelmed by the work. Sandra assured Mark that she felt her workload was manageable. However, on their next project, Mark again made comments about Sandra possibly needing assistance. Sandra is frustrated and wonders what to do next. She also feels that Mark’s comments may be motivated by a bias towards her as a woman.

A Breach of Trust

Frances has worked for a pharmaceutical company for a year, a role which she has enjoyed. She is assigned a new project to create social media content for her company with two colleagues, Andrew and Pat, with whom she has not previously worked. Although Frances is excited to take on the new challenge, she finds that collaborating with Andrew and Pat is very difficult and takes a lot of energy. She takes the lead on the project and is glad when it is finished. Frances tells her boss, Maya, about her difficulties, and Maya reveals to her that actually, the social media project was fake and was intended to test Andrew and Pat, who have been having performance issues at work. Frances feels she has been mis-led and isn’t sure what to do next.

The Accidental Screen Share

Simon is on a sales team with a new colleague, Cheryl. Cheryl has some difficulty adjusting to her new role, and Simon takes on the role of mentoring her. During a team meeting at which Cheryl is not present, Simon sees Cheryl’s boss, Amanda, accidentally continue to share her screen following a slide presentation. Simon reads that Amanda and her boss are considering placing Cheryl on a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) due to Cheryl’s difficulties. Simon debates whether he should share what he has seen with Amanda, Cheryl, or both.

Teacher Tradeoffs: Online Learning during the Pandemic

Majo is a teacher working with primary school students. She relies on her observations in the classroom environment and the personal connections she had formed with her students in order to know and feel she is doing her job well. During the pandemic, her classes abruptly shifted online, and she was no longer able to see students face-to-face. Due to distractions in their home environments, and the reduced attention span of sitting in front of a screen, Majo and her colleagues found that their students were struggling to remain engaged in online learning. The teaching team debated how to handle their new reality with online teaching. Ultimately, they decided to lessen the number of hours that students were spending in online classes with teachers and to provide more suggestions for at-home activities. However, Majo wondered whether her students were being served well by such a decision, or if they might be losing out on learning and community connections that she had worked hard to achieve during the months before the pandemic began.

A Teacher Accused

Majo is working as an instructor at a summer camp with young children. She knew she wanted to be an educator from a young age and is strongly guided by her Christian religious values in her daily practice as a teacher. During the first few weeks of the summer camp experience, she was particularly troubled by twin students who were emotionally upset and disruptive, but Majo tried her best to form a bond with them. One day, the twins’ mother came to the school and accused Majo of having physically harmed her children. Majo knew she was not responsible and would never commit such an act, which would be a violation of her personal values. She was protected by her boss and exonerated by footage recorded inside the classroom. However, she wondered after the fact if she should have stood up more strongly for herself, and it worried her to be so easily accused of something she did not do.

A Chemical Crisis

Joy is a mid-career professional who previously worked in the travel industry. After deciding to switch careers, she recently started a new job at a chemical manufacturing company. Joy set up a process in her new role that helped her get her work done, but she recently discovered correspondence between her supervisor and a vendor representative in which the two discussed a secret deal: the company could dump hazardous industrial waste into the wetland adjacent to the factory in exchange for a discount on raw materials from the vendor. Joy has considered herself a “people-pleaser” in the past, but she also does not want to be complicit in the waste dumping.

Transition Lenses: Good Work and Unlearning Through Changes

Mia is a mid-career professional who worked in a management position at a supply chain logistics company. She enjoyed the practical aspects of her work and found value in helping customers with product tracking. Mia felt fulfilled in her role because she thought of herself as a skilled problem solver, and she enjoyed the relationships she cultivated with various clients. However, her position was recently eliminated. After a difficult job search, she found a new position working in supply chain for a new company. At first, she thought it was an exciting opportunity, but after starting, she worries whether the position is right for her.

Test Inequity: When to Blow the Whistle?

Joanna works for a nonprofit group that develops and administers a test that is required as part of practicing a certain profession. During her second year with the organization, she was made aware that the test is biased: white men on average tend to perform a lot better than other groups, and not by a small margin. Joanna was surprised to find out about this inequity but felt reassured by the determination of her colleagues to fix the problem. As the months and years pass by, Joanna suspects that the only way the issue will be addressed is if this information becomes public knowledge. She is hesitant to “blow the whistle,” as she is worried about the repercussions of her actions for her job. At the same time, she knows that the racial bias of her organization’s test score is directly impacting the career progress of many individuals.

Marketing Misrepresentation

Martha lives with her boyfriend, Cameron, in a small one-bedroom apartment. After Martha’s hours were cut due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Cameron, who works in marketing for hospice care, agreed to take on more hours at his job to supplement his income. One day, while Cameron was working from home, Martha overheard him tell a prospective client's family that he was a doctor. Martha knows full well that Cameron is not a doctor at all, and she was surprised to hear him misrepresent himself in this way. Martha confronted Cameron after the call, and he said that he was just doing his job and getting a new patient to sign up for services. Martha feels conflicted. On one hand, she knows that Cameron is doing his best to be good at his job, and part of his job is to convince more people to sign up for hospice care. Cameron’s success at work is more important than ever because his hard work is making up for the pay cut she suffered earlier in the year. On the other hand, she can’t help but be seriously bothered by the fact that Cameron has pretended to be a doctor to get new patients.

An Appropriation of Identity

Sofia recently moved to a new city to start a new job. She didn’t know anyone in her neighborhood, but she quickly became friends with one of her neighbors, Jenny. Sofia found out that Jenny is very talented at making clothes and jewellery and has a small online store with a modest group of customers. Sofia supported her new friend by purchasing items and even modelled some pieces on her own Instagram account. One day, Sofia noticed that Jenny had added the descriptor “Latina-owned small business” to her site. Sofia was surprised because Jenny is not Latina. Sofia is herself Latina and does not understand why Jenny, a white woman, deemed it necessary to advertise her brand as Latina-owned. After confronting Jenny about the descriptor and receiving an uninspired explanation, Sofia is not sure what to do.

Travel During COVID: Personal vs. Professional Safety

Miranda has worked for a construction company for three years, mostly conducting on-site safety inspections involving lengthy travel. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Miranda started working from home, and inspections for her projects were temporarily paused. As months passed and restrictions eased, Miranda received an email from her boss letting her know that she would be expected to travel by plane to a location for a week to view and survey a construction project. Not only is Miranda worried about travelling and putting herself at risk, but the nature of the project also means that she will be in contact with many people once she gets to the construction site. At the same time, many of Miranda’s colleagues are of the opinion that COVID-19 is “not a big deal.” Miranda is unsure about how to let her boss know that she is not comfortable with travelling for this project. Miranda has also been hoping for a promotion, and she worries that refusing to travel for this project would ruin her chances.

Confronting Coworkers

Cassie is a marketing professional in her late twenties who joined a new project at her firm in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the challenges of working remotely, she is proud of her contributions to the project and feels valued by her new team members. However, after downloading the transcript from a recent virtual meeting, she discovered that two of her coworkers had been badmouthing her appearance in what they believed was a “private” chat. Cassie is embarrassed and heartbroken that her colleagues would speak about her in such disparaging terms. She is torn about whether to confront her coworkers, bring the issue to her Human Resources Department, or simply pretend that nothing occurred.

The Pediatric Protector (*Sensitive)

Eliza is a retired former pediatrician who now works as a private language tutor. She often spends time bringing her grandchildren, ages eight and five, to their nearby playground. Her grandchildren recently struck up a friendship with a new six year old girl on the playground, who told them that her mother had “banged her up” at her home for playing on the stairs, so much so that she was in pain on the playground. After hearing about this from both her grandchildren, Eliza is not sure what to do. As a pediatrician, she was a mandated reporter, required to report any child abuse to the required authorities. But she also knows that children can exaggerate or make mistakes; perhaps the mother was trying to keep the child safe, or she had fallen on her own. Eliza is told by a child welfare hotline that it is her decision whether to report or not. Her pediatrician friends urge her to report, and she feels obligated to as a former doctor. But Eliza worries the child could end up in a foster home where she might not be cared for.

The Protest

Anna is a politically-active middle school teacher. She recently attended a rally in her city in support of progressive causes, including transgender rights. At the rally, a small group of counter-protesters had gathered in opposition, and people were chanting to express hate for the LGBT community. Anna was shocked to see that one of the counter-protesters was a fellow teacher from her school, Claire, who Anna didn’t know well but immediately recognized. Anna decided not to confront Claire but instead snapped a picture of the counter-protestors, including Claire, and posted her photo on social media so that it was visible to her family and friends, including some other teachers at the school. The next day, Anna felt uncomfortable. Several other teachers she was connected with on social media had commented on the photo: some were shocked Claire was in attendance, but others criticized Anna for posting the photo in the first place. Anna wondered whether sharing the photo was the right thing to do and feared that word would get back to Claire.