On leaving

I left a job recently. Not the cleanest exit — I was pushed, more than I jumped.

I’m not going to name the company. People who know me know which one. What I’ll say is that there’s a specific kind of toxicity that’s hard to name when you’re inside it: the kind where processes look professional on the surface, where everyone says the right things in all-hands meetings, but where actual decisions are made in small rooms by people who’ve stopped listening.

I raised concerns. About security practices, about how customer data was handled, about the gap between what was promised to clients and what was actually delivered. I documented things. I escalated through the right channels. I was patient.

At some point you realize patience is just what they’re counting on.

I don’t regret the work I did there. I learned a lot, including things I wish I hadn’t learned about how companies can operate while looking completely normal from outside.

What I regret is staying two years longer than I should have.

If you’re in a similar situation: document everything, don’t sign anything under pressure, and know that “loyalty” as a concept has a direction problem in most orgs.