I learned yesterday that a colleague of my husband is also slated to be promoted and relocated (domestically). He has a daughter in high school who, not surprisingly, was very resistant to moving. He and his wife worked hard to get her comfortable with the move: they chose a new house;  they even met with the daughter’s future soccer coach. But now: limbo. Both the promotion and move have been postponed.

There’s a big meeting next week that might bring some more clarity to what will happen with my husband’s and his colleague’s trajectories. We’ll see. Apparently, everything is riding on the mood and inclination of the CEO of a multi-billion dollar company, who is skittish about what another CEO will do.

You can tell yourself that delays and ambiguity are just a function of how slowly and cautiously extremely large corporations (and their extremely stressed CEOs) must move. You can tell yourself that they do not at all reflect the value the corporation places on you and your family.

You can repeat these affirmations over and over again, but doubt remains. Until you realize you’re not alone.

It’s not us. It’s them.