When the Work Is Wearing You Down, You Don’t Have to White-Knuckle It
For experienced tech professionals, L5+ through VP, carrying a difficult situation — burnout, a difficult manager, a relationship that went sideways, or politics you cannot read. Get steady, then get a strategy.
Imagine…
Energy back: workload and boundaries restructured so the job stops running you.
A considered response to the person or the dynamic, instead of the one you keep rehearsing at 2am.
A clearer read on what is actually going on around you, and on which parts of it you can influence.
Without pretending burnout is just a time-management problem.
Without letting one difficult person define your whole experience at work.
Without torching a relationship — or your reputation — in a moment of frustration.
Steady footing, then a strategy.
Across 17+ years in tech I have been in the middle of the tense reorg, the impossible stakeholder, the relationship that quietly went sideways. As an ICF-certified coach I help you get steady first, then we build the strategy. The order matters: you cannot navigate a difficult situation from a depleted place.
We look honestly at what is draining you — workload, a person, a dynamic, or all three — restore your boundaries and energy, and build a concrete plan for the situation in front of you. Where burnout has a dimension beyond coaching, I will say so plainly and encourage you to get the right support alongside our work.
Much of what gets called politics is influence moving somewhere else — decisions made without you, someone newer asked first, your suggestions landing softer than they used to. Reading that accurately is a skill rather than a personality trait, and it can be learned. We work out what is actually happening, including the part you might be contributing without meaning to, and build an approach that still sounds like you. Not every ceiling in a career is put there by someone else, and the ones we build ourselves are the hardest to spot alone.
A Word on Timing
Difficult situations rarely resolve by being endured. What changes instead is you — your patience thins, your sense of what you should have to put up with quietly drops, and the version of you that gets home at the end of the day is smaller than it was. None of that shows up in a performance review; it shows up a year from now, in what you have come to accept as normal. Worth saying, though: this is usually more workable than it feels from the inside. People tend to be less stuck than they think.
Questions I Get
What does it cost?
What it costs depends on the shape of the engagement and how much ground we need to cover. The work we do keeps paying long after this situation is behind you: steadiness under pressure, and a way to handle hard dynamics, is something you keep. Some clients have their employer sponsor the engagement — if that is a possibility for you, tell me and I will help you put your case together. My coaching requires a significant investment of time and money. I'll send exact pricing before you commit to anything.
What happens after I reach out?
I read every note myself and reply by email within 2 business days. Short email conversation to confirm fit, then details. If I'm not the right coach for your situation, I'll say so directly — and where I can, point you toward someone in my network who fits better.
Ready When You Are
Send me a note and I'll personally reply within 2 business days — or book a free discovery call if you'd rather talk it through first.