Hi Astra,

Sorry to hear you are feeling so bad about this experience – especially when you are already dealing with a lot with your on-going cancer treatments.

What sort of Plan B were you expecting from the team when you shared about your health situation?  I’ve been in several ‘warroom’ situations – they are a very different way of working and can be difficult at first. I would be surprised if they purposely excluded you but in those fast-moving war-room situations, it tends to naturally reward people who work best as part of a team, who can jump in, think on their feet and talk/express themselves impactfully. It can leave people who are not naturally that way inclined to feel excluded and not needed.  I suspect these are different skills to the ones you use where you have performed so well to date – it sounds like you prefer to work on your own?  Neither is good or bad, just like everything else, some skills are better suited for the tasks in hand and some companies and teams are better than others at being smart enough to use all the different skills available.  If it helps, at heart I’m an introvert but I learnt how to deal with these situations and with practice be just as influential in them, in my own way.  They’re an opportunity to expand your skill-set, learn different approaches.

I understand you feel like you’ve been delegated to the non-important tasks, though I actually disagree the long-term stuff is shit – it’s fundamental to the strategy of where the company is going but agree it doesn’t get the back-slapping celebrations.  Do the task as well as you can but talk to your boss in the meantime about how you could get involved again and how you could get better prepared to be able to contribute more next time.

You have a lot on your plate just to get yourself better, it must be a tough time and I hope you have some supportive friends and family around you.  Work is just part of the bigger picture. Take care.