Welcome to The Joyful Rebellion!

Because setting boundaries, resting well, and building healthier systems is radical.

🧪What's New In the Lab

🛑 Protecting More Than Jobs: Boundaries in Times of Layoffs and Quiet Promotions

This week, I’m writing from New Mexico, where I’m celebrating my birthday, reconnecting with family and friends, and leading a legal epidemiology workshop for public health practitioners. Being here, surrounded by the wide-open beauty of the Ojito Wilderness, I’m reminded that our work is rooted in connection and collective power. Community-based legal epidemiology teaches us that change happens when people come together to name what’s unfair and demand better.

That same lesson applies at work. Whether it’s layoffs or the “quiet promotions” that push employees to take on more with less, the burden often falls hardest on individuals while organizations avoid accountability. Protecting our boundaries—individually and collectively—is how we shift from surviving to thriving.

✍🏽 The Better Boundaries Brief

This week’s post: Quiet Promotions: When More Work Benefits Them, Not You

If you’ve ever said yes to more work hoping it would lead to advancement, only to feel drained instead, you’re not alone. Quiet promotions are more common than you think. This week, take inventory of your workload. Are the tasks you’ve added aligned with your goals, or are you quietly carrying the weight for free?

Read Now

🎧 Work Is Third: Podcast Spotlight

Unlearning, Finding Purpose, and the Liberation of Men with Joshua Jackson

Joshua Jackson, a visionary emotional mastery strategist and founder of Rising Roots, joins Work is Third for a conversation about confidence, worthiness, and the messy beauty of becoming. From “fun-employment” and financial struggles to lessons from elders and mentors, Joshua shares how self-love, grief, and joy are intertwined.

This episode is about shedding old scripts, embracing the full spectrum of our emotions, and choosing love as a foundation for work, relationships, and community.

Listen Now

📊Data That Matters

Link: USA Facts: How many people are laid off in the United States each month?

Why this matters:
Layoffs aren’t just numbers. They affect all of us in tangible and intangible ways. When jobs are cut, the pressure to “pick up the slack” often falls hardest on the people left behind. That’s how quiet promotions, burnout, and inequities spread. The 5.2% jump in layoffs this year is a reminder that protecting your time and energy is necessary to survive and thrive.

🎶 The Rebellion Has a Soundtrack

Don’t forget—The Joyful Rebellion now has a Spotify playlist! It’s a 32-song soundtrack for rebels, rest-seekers, and boundary-builders featuring selections from Work is Third guests.

Listen on Spotify

💬Quote of the Week

“Excellence isn’t about working extra hard to do what you’re told. It’s about taking the initiative to do work you decide is worth doing.” ~Seth Godin

Never forget that you get to decide how to spend your time and energy. Make sure that whatever decision you make aligns with your values and your goals.

📓 Journal Prompt

Where in your work life have you taken on “quiet promotions," or extra duties without extra recognition?
➡️How did it affect your time, energy, or sense of worth?
➡️What boundary could you set to protect yourself going forward?

🌞 Affirmation of the Week

I honor my work, my worth, and my limits. Taking on more without recognition is not my only path to growth.

🤝🏽Let’s Work Together

I help mission-driven organizations build better boundaries, reduce burnout, and create cultures of care. From keynote speaking to strategy workshops, I bring warmth, depth, and a deep belief that change is possible.

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📬 Have a story to share or a collaboration idea? Hit reply—I’d love to hear it.