(I didn't want to actually host my own mail stack, so I just have a custom domain set up with fastmail and point the MX to them. Their UI is great and a breath of fresh air compared to gmail. I guess they could in theory decide to lock me out randomly too, though I trust them to have actual customer support and can just point the MX somewhere else in the worst case)

As a rank and file employee, you get none of that. The investors don't even know who you are. The outcome for you if the company fails is that you're looking for another job while fighting burnout from longer hours and from working somewhere that doesn't respect you enough as a professional to let you manage your own time (which tends to come with other things that encourage burnout). All that to juice an "hours worked" KPI that research tells us is a questionable thing to focus on. You can do better.

I never learned what caused the issue.

It sounds like you're not aligned with leadership or the business on technical direction/prioritization, and the process of coming to the current technical direction has left you feeling underappreciated and judged for prior choices. It sounds like you're also an IC not in leadership and not embedded with the in group, so not likely to change much (especially if the business views this work as successful). I can't tell whether I'd agree with you on which direction would have made sense here, but it seems like you're just setting yourself up for frustration or worse by staying.

Separately, I feel like I'm in a rut. I've done more or less the same thing for a couple years now, and I've done all the growing I'm going to in that function. I'm aware of other opportunities within the org, but the lingering burnout/cynicism/fatalism make it hard to get excited about them.

My first reaction is to take a couple months as a breather, and get a fresh start at a new job; leaving baggage behind, hopefully not working myself to burnout again. Aside from burnout, I do really like my company, though – the people are fun, the product is interesting, the pay is good, etc. If I could confidently address the issues above without leaving, I would.

I'm curious if anyone has managed to turn around a situation like this without getting a new job. What did you do? If you switched projects/roles within the same company, was that enough of a reset? Did you end up staying for a while afterwards, or were you gone anyway in short order?

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31649726

Points: 5

# Comments: 1

A lot of prep is done years ahead of time. Live within your means, save for retirement and for emergencies. Don't buy the most expensive house or car you possibly can – something that's technically affordable on a bubbly senior SWE salary is likely very not affordable on unemployment. With luck and discipline you can end up with enough of a nest egg that you don't have to stress too much about this stuff.

I graduated into the great financial crisis, and lucked into a couple of dead end jobs. A mistake I made was internalizing that the economy is bad, clinging to those jobs out of fear even after the worst of the crisis had passed, and losing out on some years of high earning after things started to get better.

There's a lot that goes into switching jobs, so it's hard to offer as general advice – it's much easier to do for some people than others. Switching into any new job is a reset switch for a lot of what you experience in your current role. You come in with no/minimal reputation, domain knowledge, relationships, knowledge of the code, etc, and you'll have to work to build all that – by itself, that's probably a refreshing change. If you switch into a company with a high talent bar, you'll get all that and also be nearly guaranteed of never being the smartest/most effective person in your area. This can be a big ego check, but also means that there's plenty of folks around to learn from.

I'm primarily a startup guy, and I'm good enough that I usually end up being a key person. I spent some time at a prestigious, trendy company filled with really smart people. I didn't like a lot of things about that place, but I _loved_ the caliber of my teammates. Everyone was above average, everyone pulled their weight, followed along in fast-moving discussions, politely/professionally challenged each other's ideas, etc. Definitely not lonely, and definitely a dynamic I miss in my current team.