Thread by @ramannoodlez

Everyone tells you to “protect your mental health”. That’s hard when you’re an employee + not in charge of the situation or environment.

Recently I found myself getting anxious about work bc of multiple factors — morale, teammates, mounting expectations.

What worked (so far):

Told my manager early

I didn’t wait till it got really bad, to the point I was burnt out. I told him I was starting to experience anxiety bc of these factors + foresaw it building w what was coming up.

He appreciated the honesty + ability to course correct.

Pinpoint the issues

Instead of just saying “I’m anxious”, I figured out what was causing me anxiety. For me:

- Specific teammates morale
- Upcoming team changes
- Increased scope

Now we could problem solve on each one.

Address the controllable

In my case, we are addressing team morale + pausing some changes bc they’re too much at once.

And I was able to get an extra headcount or two to manage the increased scope.

My anxiety isn’t *completely* gone, but at least it’s being addressed.

I’m approaching this very differently than I have in the past. I used to complain to a few work friends + get frustrated by issues that I COULD fix, but didn’t want to put the work into.

Or, I wouldn’t say anything until my breaking point.

Already this exp is much better.