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- Gina Cobb was diagnosed with chronic autoimmune disease last year.
- It is a disability that can be debilitating both mentally and physically and interferes with her work.
- That’s why she is doing her job only according to the instructions and she is silent when she is doing nothing more.
When Gina Cobb was diagnosed with chronic autism last year, it completely changed her life – and changed her relationship with work.
Cobb, 26, is a senior marketing strategist who has worked remotely for the past two years at a global marketing firm in Toronto. She asked that her real name, exact immune disorder and company remain confidential, but all were confirmed by an insider.
Cobb told Insider that her autoimmune disease and concurrent ADHD diagnosis made her a completely different employee. She worked extra hours without complaint and before taking on a bigger job, she realized the reality of her situation was that it was time to make a change.
That’s why she decided to join the League of “Quiet Quitting” Workers.
It is sometimes calledApplying your salary“The practice involves doing your job as written for the pay you receive and more. It doesn’t seem new or controversial, but workers are looking for better work-life balances and the 9-to-5 – especially during the Great Retirement and especially for young people, who want Treat their personal life as work And their work as side noise.
For workers like Cobb, quitting is more than a philosophy: it’s a matter of survival.
“Work has definitely been a thorn in my side throughout my life,” she told Insider. “Because while I was neglecting my health, it bled into my personal life… It became clear to me where my pain stopped and the stress of my work began.”
“It was very difficult to separate what was caused by the stress of that job and what was caused by my illness.”
Cobb first got sick when she started her career, and she says her mental health issues added to the stress of trying to navigate both.
“That person is someone who is working long hours trying to impress your boss,” Cobb said of her first start in marketing.
But now, she says she has to make a change because she often has physical ailments.
“When you’re in the middle of a fire, sometimes you’re in so much pain that you can’t get out of bed,” she says.
“It’s something that attacks your immune system and your whole body, from your brain to your stomach to your skin,” she said of experiencing head fog. She is also very sensitive to sunlight during a bad fire, which makes it difficult to work physically when she wants to.
Cobb, for her part, initially attributed her symptoms to the stress of work, which meant she worked long, long hours, sometimes 12 hours a day. Insider confirmed there were mass layoffs at her company last year, meaning remaining employees like Cobb are expected to take on the remaining workload.
“It was a cycle of getting up, working nights, working weekends, and it combined stress and fatigue. And it got to the point where I was really sick,” she says. “It was very difficult to separate what was caused by the stress of that job and what was caused by my illness.”
“If you’re going to compensate me, I’m willing to work harder.”
After receiving her diagnosis, Cobb took a month’s sick leave that helped her retool her work approach. She said that time off helped her manage her symptoms and eased her pain and brain fog.
When she returned to work, Cobb set a boundary: her employers refused her requests for raises and promotions, so she began doing only the tasks clearly defined for her role.
“I said it out loud,” she said. I said, “I want to note that I will not do more than this role at this salary level,” and when they start asking for more, I say to myself, “No, me.” I won’t do it anymore’ and found ways to make sure I was gone at 5pm, making sure I was stopping those quiet things. I had a discussion with my team, and I even said, ‘Look, I’m willing to do more. “You are going to pay me compensation.”
With more money, she says, comes more accommodations — paying for house cleaning or getting tints on her car windows to help her sensitivity to sunlight, which means she can drive to the office more often.
“It’s going to be worth it because there are a few things that will increase your salary, which will probably allow you to put more of yourself into your work life,” she said.
Cobb emphasizes that it’s not a small job she’s doing, but instead, “I speak up when things aren’t working or when there’s a problem,” such as when a co-worker is late.
“And now I send emails and say, ‘Hey team, if it’s before the deadline, I’ll put it in. If not, we’ll do it tomorrow.’
She says being young and not wanting to push back is a huge difference in her career. Similarly, Cobb said that being a woman in a predominantly white workplace made her seem too tempted to get away with saying “no” to things.
“I don’t want to say that young people set themselves up to take advantage, but we don’t know how far back we can go,” she said. “It’s something I’ve had to learn. I have to live up to my responsibilities as outlined, but I’m not apologizing for who I am.”
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