January 1, 2021 · 4 min read

An Old Note to My Former Team

I wrote the letter below to my global team of product managers on my old company's Day of Reflection exactly 6 months ago. It still feels relevant as we ring in 2021.

The last 7 months has been a time of change for all of us — more so than many other people in our lives. Not only has there been the global disruption through COVID-19 that has completely changed our day to day non-work life, but on top of that, every one of us is working with a different team than 7 months ago. Some joined a 400,000 company called IBM that had everything figured out (although not really), but all of us are now at this 1,000 person company called Acoustic that at times, it feels has literally nothing figured out. As a team, we've lost family members, we've pushed ourselves more than we've had to in the past, and had more expected from us in the past. But hopefully, we've grown along the way — something that I think it is important to acknowledge.

As most of you know (and hopefully appreciate :)), I tend to be pretty honest about what I think. This offer for a day of reflection came across as insincere to me. I was actually pretty frustrated when we got the invite, but as I thought more about it, I ended up thinking "who cares?". As in, who cares how sincere or insincere I think the offer is? We control how real something is — so I encourage you to make it as real as you want it to be. Make it a point to check in with yourself, check in with your friends, colleagues and ex-colleagues you haven't spoken to in a while, and block off 5 minutes or 50 to just have for yourself — do whatever you need to ensure you're in the right mental place. I've readily admitted to many of you that this has been taxing on me, and while it's important to acknowledge the difficulty, it's equally important to acknowledge (and create) the good things that come out of this as well.

I went for a walk this morning (something I really enjoy doing, especially when it's 73F/23C outside), and I remembered something that inspired me to write this email: humans have this inherent ability to see the bright side in everything. It's evolutionary, in part for times like this — something that may or may not be likely, but is really high impact. For me, although my typical outlets — playing sports (primarily basketball and flag football), seeing friends (in person), and drinking a little ;) – have been disrupted, it's given me an opportunity to read more, get back into my workout routine, and just go outside and walk. Outside of our own personal lives, think about the world: I certainly do not think the Black Lives Matter movement — still going strong in the US, and in Atlanta particularly — would have taken such a big and prolonged stage around the world if it hadn't happened while we were all cooped up looking for a way to do something good. Across the world, it has already inspired a bunch of much-needed change and some inspiring experimentation (from the government of all places!) precisely because everybody is locked up at home and needs an outlet.

When I was at Deloitte, the first project I was on out of college was in Chattanooga, Tennessee — something I was not happy about since one exciting thing about becoming a consultant at age 21 is that you can go work in really cool places. While my friends had projects in NYC and Costa Rica, I was in Chattanooga — a 2 hour drive from my house. In retrospect, it was the best project I was on at Deloitte — the team bonded really well, our days were usually very manageable, and we had this strange routine where, on Tuesdays, we'd play basketball at the YMCA then immediately go in our sweaty clothes to a nice restaurant and eat at the bar there afterwards. No project for the rest of my time at Deloitte came close to comparing. I learned from that experience to make sure we appreciate the teams we have while we have them, because you never know when things will change.

Regardless of what the future holds, I am grateful for the team we have and hope you feel the same; if you don't, or if you need something, or if you see something you think needs to be changed, or if you just want to talk — please feel free to reach out to me, or Dave, or Jay. Not as coworkers (unless that's what you want), but as people who care.

Ankush

PS — during my walk, I was listening to an old Yellowcard album from middle/high school, and this song came on. It was written as a tribute to the 9/11 first responders, but it resonated with me as I thought about what I was going to write in this email. Worst case, maybe you'll be in a punk rock mood after listening, which is never a bad thing in my book :)

Also published on: Medium