I Apologize for the Short Notice

I left my job yesterday. I wish it didn’t end like this, but it was for the best.

I started my job in November 2024. I was quite fortunate to land it, after over a year of unemployment following a major layoff. This was a fully remote position working with great teammates delivering products that provide real value to customers, and everything seemed great. (They’re hiring, by the way.)

So what happened? In short, S*** Happened in my personal life, and it seriously affected my performance.

It started gradually. At first, it seemed like I just had trouble adapting to a different type of collaboration than I was used to, and that was how I presented my concerns to my manager and senior colleagues. The advice they gave was helpful, and things worked out for a while.

But things kept getting worse. The stress, the delays, the missed targets. My last performance review laid it out in simple terms: Quality was good, but throughput was below expectations. It was clear that there were bigger issues at play than just communication style.

It got to the point that I was put on a formal performance improvement plan. This was supposed to be my last chance to turn things around, but ultimately I decided it was best for me to leave on my own. Unfortunately this meant that things went a lot faster than I expected: I went from my initial decision to my last day in less than a week, and I could barely give my team any notice at all. But given that the alternative was failing my PIP and being fired outright, I think I made the right decision.

Well, now what? To be honest, I’m not entirely sure.

One thing I do know is that I can’t go back to “business as usual.” I’ll have to spend a good amount of time figuring out what’s next for me. There are a lot of different paths I can take, and I’ve talked to a few people about this. To those people, thanks for listening. And to all my former colleagues, it’s been a pleasure working with you.