Reorganizations are meant to improve efficiencies, but can introduce substantial disruption to people and teams. You’re feeling good about an upcoming project, a breakthrough with your boss, or your team finally getting into a flow. Then you get the email, or you’re called in for an “all hands” — they’re announcing a “reorg.”

One day, all the work you’ve put in will pay off — just not yet. This myth is at the heart of what corporate tech employees hear, breathe, and live daily as they work in the most innovative and cutting-edge workplaces in the world. For many, it’s both a lie and a promise that will never come true, and instead will lead them down a path toward burnout, exhaustion, mental health challenges, physical symptoms, and a stifled joy for the career they once loved.

If work feels like a never-ending shitstorm of urgent demands, shifting priorities, unrealistic expectations and politicking coworkers with no bright spot in sight …

If you can’t remember the last time you felt connected with all the best parts of yourself, but your mind is constantly cycling through everything you’re doing wrong all day….

TAKE YOUR FUCKING LEAVE!

No one at work in corporate America actually wants to know anything about how being a mom affects your work life. They don’t want to know or care if you have a life outside of work. They want to see fit, well-dressed women -- no crumbs of motherhood on them -- LEANING IN, never complaining, on top of their commitments, crushing their goals, never having yucky body things happening to them, and absolutely never talking about them if they do. Those are both real experiences moms have endured while working in tech.

What’s it like being neurodivergent in corporate America? It’s leaving a meeting thinking you’re in agreement with your coworkers about next steps, only to learn that you misunderstood the assignment AFTER you complete your portion of the work. It’s feeling the rising pride of accomplishment, looking outward for approval, only to be crushed with criticism, your achievements twisted into blemishes.

Realizing you’re being performance managed is one of the scariest (legal) things that can happen to you in an at-will job. You’re doing your best in a chaotic environment, focusing on your goals, making sure you tie up loose ends and communicate what you’re doing with your team and manager, yet, something goes awry.