I generally avoid writing about “work stuff.\u201d This is an exception. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s early November as I type this, but it’ll sit unpublished for at least a couple weeks. A couple weeks ago<\/em>, in late October, I “gave notice” that I intend to resign my role and part ways with my employer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the US it’d be all done and dusted by now. Not so in the UK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Per my employment agreement (contract, even!) I owed the company (and the company owed me) three months<\/em> notice if either side wanted to end the relationship. So notice in October translated to leaving in January. At the time of this writing, only a handful of my colleagues and leadership are aware of my decision. Communicating broadly this early seemed unnecessary and likely counter-productive, hence the delay in publication. As you’re reading this, it means the proverbial cat\u2019s been let out of its bag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The frequently asked questions from peers and leaders were “what’s next?” and “why?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “What’s next?” is the easy one. Nothing, at least for a bit. I’m going to take a break. We’re planning to stay in the UK for a while, and hopefully (all appropriate digits crossed) eventually get the chance to do some of the traveling we moved “over here” to do, before Covid repeatedly dumped cold water on our plans. I figure I’ll start looking around for the next thing in the spring, and we’ll see where that ends us up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Saying “easy<\/em>” is maybe glossing over things a bit. That we can stick around, and don’t face a deadline to get ourselves and the cats out of the UK, comes from a healthy dose of good fortune, a bit of good planning, and help from some good friends*<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So that leaves “why?” <\/p>\n\n\n\n When someone decides to leave a group there are three sets of reasons. There are reasons they keep to themselves, reasons they share with the group, and reasons the group hears. To me, making the reasons I share and the reasons that are heard “the same” is important. And can be surprisingly difficult. I figure the best strategy is to pick one<\/strong> message you want to deliver, state the message as simply<\/em> as you can, and deliver it consistently<\/em>. Even then people, to a large extent, will hear what they want to hear. They’ll focus on the bits of the story that resonate with their world view, their experience, or their biases. And there’s not much you can do to prevent that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The message I’m trying to consistently deliver is rougly “it’s not you, it’s me.” Over four years working in three different parts of the company under different leaders on different projects, I’ve proven to myself that I can<\/em> be effective and impactful in this peculiar<\/em> environment – something I wasn’t completely confident of, having been in my last role and company for over a decade. In that time I’ve also come to realize that I’m not having as much fun as our tagline suggests I should – especially given the energy and time the role demands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the end of the day I’m moving on because, as a friend (and soon-to-be-former colleague) likes to say, it feels like “the juice isn’t worth the squeeze.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n I’ve learned a bunch over these four years. I’ve gained a deeper understanding of how this “really big tech company” does what it does. What it\u2019s good at. What it struggles with. I’m leaving with no regrets and (hopefully) no bridges burned. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I’ve met some great folks who I’m happy to call friends, and who I’d happily choose to work with again. And who I’m definitely going to miss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That reason is true<\/em>, by the way. Which to me is really important.<\/em> But it’s obviously not the whole<\/em> truth. One could ask “why?” again and again, until there are no new answers. I’m not going to bore you with that exercise, but I did do it. It pointed me at root causes that I don’t have leverage or agency to fix. Indeed, “fixing” some of them would mean changing fundamental tenets the company culture holds close, and has been successful following.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, it’s time for me to try something new.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All that’s left now is to figure out what that might be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I generally avoid writing about “work stuff.\u201d This is an exception. It’s early November as I type this, but it’ll sit unpublished for at least a couple weeks. A couple weeks ago, in late October, I “gave notice” that I intend to resign my role and part ways with my employer. In the US it’d … Continue reading “When The Juice Isn’t Worth the Squeeze”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-the-universe-and-everything","category-london-calling"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oubliette.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oubliette.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oubliette.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oubliette.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oubliette.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=936"}],"version-history":[{"count":63,"href":"https:\/\/www.oubliette.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1064,"href":"https:\/\/www.oubliette.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936\/revisions\/1064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oubliette.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oubliette.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oubliette.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}