Backing Away From The Burn-Out Abyss

Recently, I made a big career change by moving from being an Engineering Manager (EM) back to being an Individual Contributor (IC). Although not a decision that I made lightly, this post won't go into too much depth about the various contributing factors. Instead, I intend to write about the positives because the change already seems to be helping. The purpose of this post is partly to mark the improvements that I'm seeing, partly to document how I'm reinforcing the change and partly to help others spot potential warning signs of burnout. Context My Pseudo-Blog My pseudo-blog is a crutch that I've leaned on particularly heavily this year, so it probably makes sense to start by explaining what it is. My pseudo-blog is a small, private site where I blog for an audience of one: me. Although only meant for my eyes, I go through much the same drafting process as for www.bentasker.co.uk. I've found that writing things as if I'm explaining to someone else can be incredibly beneficial: not…