Nikolay Abromov blog

Today I had a long chat with an old friend. We hadn't spoken in a while, and somewhere in the conversation I opened up about the burnout (I call it a burnout, not sure what exactly it is)  I've been struggling with. What surprised me was that it wasn't unique — he'd been through something similar a few months ago. We ended up talking for over an hour. After we hung up, I realised something that's been sitting with me all evening: I miss my old friends. I miss those conversations. The kind where you'd talk about the future, about the plans, about how we were going to go out there and kick some serious ass (not physically, of course). Those conversations were stimulating . They left you walking away with more energy than you started with, not less. You felt sharper, more ambitious, more sure of who you were becoming. It's the kind of thing that's easy to take for granted when you have it — and impossible to replace when you don't. Life pulls people...

I keep forgetting I have this blog. But today felt like the right time to write something - something a bit more personal than usual. I want to talk about burnout. A while back I was deep in a very large infrastructure project. What started as a technical role slowly turned into something much broader - I found myself handling bits of legal, commercial negotiations, RFP work, supplier discussions. A lot of moving parts. And somewhere along the way, I realised I was doing most of it on my own. The late nights started adding up. Long calls with suppliers making sure the bill of materials was right, checking the solution actually held together end to end, always that nagging feeling that something had been missed somewhere. It just kept going. And then something shifted in me. It's hard to describe. I'd never experienced anything like it before - burnout, anxiety, call it what you want - but it hit me in a way I really wasn't prepared for. I've always been someone who...

I previously used my Sony XM4 headphones for calls and initially found them versatile for multiple purposes. However, as my meetings extended to several hours, I noticed they became less comfortable. To address this, I upgraded to wireless headphones from Poly, which offer significantly improved comfort. While I don’t plan to use them for music listening, my initial impression is very positive.

  This is the first time I am writing something similar on my blog, but I find it being so relevant to what is happening at that point of time across the world. This post is about a person I never heard of until recently, e.g. Bertrand Russell. He wrote this so well written letter to British Pro-natzi party leader, and I think I could easily call that letter an art. I find myself in conversations with people and feels like exactly what is being described by Russell's letter.                  ------------------- Dear Sir Oswald, Thank you for your letter and for your enclosures. I have given some thought to our recent correspondence. It is always difficult to decide on how to respond to people whose ethos is so alien and, in fact, repellent to one’s own. It is not that I take exception to the general points made by you but that every ounce of my energy has been devoted to an active opposition to cruel bigotry, compulsive violence, and the...

It’s Tuesday, and it feels strange to say that today is my first day of being between jobs. There’s something unsettling about it. I’ve got four days off between my old position and my new one, and I’m trying to figure out how to make the most of it. The last time I switched jobs, I wrapped up on a Friday and started the new role the following Monday, which left me feeling completely drained. This time, I’ve learned from that mistake and decided to give myself a bit of breathing room (though with two little ones running around, it’s nearly impossible to do absolutely nothing—but I’m going to try!). I recently picked up an intriguing book called Crucial Conversations , which caught my eye while I was researching the Five Whys technique. Maybe I’ll take refuge in a coffee shop, enjoy endless chai lattes, and dive into it. Who knows ...  I’ll figure it out tomorrow. On a different note, I reconnected with an old friend today—someone I haven’t spoken to in a while but used to have the ...

Today marked my final day at Three UK . It was a short and reflective day. I didn’t plan a formal farewell – after all, it would have been my second one, and I preferred to keep it simple. My vision for the day was to spend some time with each team member and, of course, enjoy as many chai lattes as possible!  ;-) However, as life goes, several colleagues were on leave, and others were dealing with family matters. So, only a few of the people I work closely with were around. That said, I received a call on Sunday from one of the team, inviting me to lunch, which was a nice surprise. It ended up being a much better day than I had anticipated – a good note to end on.