Last weekend, while my teenage son was out with his buddies, we noticed his Find My iPhone pin had stopped moving for quite some time. Then we noticed it wasn't updating. Let me start by saying we're not helicopter parents, but when your teenager is out with friends and you have the technology, you tend to look into things when you can.
After another half hour or so, I decided to text him. No response.
"Hey buddy, you doing ok?" Nothing.
Then I called. Straight to voicemail.
Our minds started to wander, and they usually don't wander to places like, "Oh, he must have stopped off to help old ladies cross the road." No, instead they wander to, "Well, he's either hurt, dead, or doing something he's not supposed to be doing."
Then all of a sudden, I got the text back. "I'm good, Dad."
His phone updated his location. All was well in the world again.
Later on, he said to us, "Why is everyone always so worried about me?"
Our response: "Because you matter and people love you."
I've found the same thing takes place in our careers. It's easy to get frustrated when people have questions about our role, our outputs, what we're working on, and more. It's easy to get defensive and be irritated that people have opinions about what is happening in our world. The truth is, if nobody is asking you questions, nobody may actually care about you, and that becomes a problem really quickly.
There are roles that are in the background, there in the distance, that don't have people asking questions about them.
The roles that are out front, where the money is, where the output is, and where the "this matters" is — those are the roles you want.
If nobody is ever checking up on you, second-guessing your slides in the meeting, and pushing you to be better at every turn, then it's time to find a role that gives you that impact.
Because the truth is, attention at work is rarely random. It follows impact. It follows visibility. It follows responsibility. The people who get questioned the most are usually sitting closest to the outcomes that actually move the business forward. That pressure you feel when someone challenges your thinking or digs into your work is not always criticism — a lot of times, it is proximity to something that matters.
So before you get frustrated the next time someone pokes at your work or asks one more question than you think is necessary, pause for a second and reframe it. You are not being picked on. You are being paid attention to. And in a world where a lot of people are quietly coasting in roles nobody notices, that is a position you actually want to be in.