Writing this helped me sort it out.
I left because I needed to fix my work-life balance.
I joined Google in early 2011.
Larry Page was beginning his second stint as CEO.
Everybody was talking about a secret project namedEmerald Sea.
TGIF was on Fridays, and we attended in person.
At the time it was my dream job.
Google was incredibly good to me.
I had some incredible teammates and role models.
My familys financial situation is forever changed.
I got promoted fairly steadily and was set up well to keep advancing.
So why was I unhappy?
Somebody once described balance to me as three buckets filled with water.
One for career, a second for physical health, and a third for social and family life.
At any point, one bucket might be running low.
But as long as the overall water level is high enough, things should be fine.
Importantly: the water represents your level of satisfaction, not the hours you spend.
And this explains how I got caught up in the so-called great resignation.
In 2020, the pandemic destroyed bucket #3 for most people.
We were no different.
Friends from back home in Canada couldnt visit us.
Even meeting up with local friends became hard.
In January 2021, I tore my Achilles tendon playing pick-up basketball.
There goes bucket #2.
Only then did I realize bucket #1 had been running low for a while.
By mid-2021, I was tired all the time.
I know I wasnt alone, because it was an ongoing meme inside Google.
Getting things done at Google can be hard.
But it makes projects fragile.
The rate of this happening kept going up.
There were lots of reasons for it.
Teams fight over scope.
The great resignation is like a fly-wheel in that way.
For most of 2021, I spent my energy protecting my team from the chaos.
I wanted them to be able to finish the projects we were excited about.
My day was spent deflecting potential re-orgs or project cancellations from new leaders entering teams around me.
September brought yet another wave of organizational changes.
I was burnt out, despite working fewer hours than Id ever worked before.
I found Replit in mid 2021, through some combination of Hacker News posts and Paul Graham tweets.
I immediately understood the potential of the product.
Some initial ideas I had for them starting coming out as actual features.
The CEO shared his views pretty openly on Twitter and I found myself agreeing with most of them.
As soon as I realized I was going to leave Google, I reached out to them.
I hadnt been coding regularly for about five years.
But thankfully, their interviews were practical.
I spent evenings and weekends refreshing my skills enough to pass.
I usually advise others to follow their gut on hard decisions.
It was good to hear mine speak so clearly.
So: am I happier?
I work more hours.
Im more likely to be working in the evening or on the weekend now.
But what I do makes a difference that I can see.
Progress feels 10x faster.
Most surprising is that I have more energy.
Its easier to find motivation to get back in the gym.
I have more energy in social situations.
When one bucket fills, it can overflow.
This article wasoriginally published on Scott Kennedys blog.
Story byScott Kennedy
Scott Kennedy spent over ten years working at Google on Engineering Productivity for Search.
Scott now works at a startup called Replit.
Scott now works at a startup called Replit.
