First, I want to give a huge thank you to both the DEV team and the DEV community -- you all have changed my life over the past few years, and I'm so grateful for that. I've made great friends and received so many professional opportunities all because of this site!
Over the last few months, I've realized a lot about myself.
1) Working mostly alone is really hard for me, I can't break out of anxious cycles easily, and those are exacerbated by the stresses of my life both on and offline. Working remote has been really hard on my mental health, and I've tried a ton to overcome that and haven't made a lot of progress. I also lived alone for a lot of my time at DEV which really compounded the issue.
2) Teaching is my life and career goal and I want to pursue that as much as I can.
I will still be DEV's #1 fangirl and can't recommend writing on here or working for DEV enough (here's more info on DEV if you're new, and here's my writing advice). I just am moving from the core team back to a community member ❤️.
Latest comments (37)
I just found this article randomly and started to read the comments.
As a people leader in technology at my day job, I have to say the exchange here by both Ali and the DEV that worked with her is amazing.
A lot of time we think about the company, the project, the sprint, and we forget about the people. Or I should say, I observe this to no end in corporate environments. I often find that I am in situations to defend these type of actions and try and change mind sets.
People are important. Period. Mental health is important. Period. And we should be supporting our people, even if that means they are no longer supporting us.
It is brave to make this change, my hat is off to you Ali. I am curious where you landed after making this decision. Did you ever write a follow up?
My hat is off to the DEV team for the public response, and the professionalism and humanity in it. Please keep leading my example.
I have really enjoyed being part of this community.
Ali,
I have always enjoyed your posts that I have read (in that Venn diagram of my interests / your post topics). You are a both an excellent writer and are very knowledgeable in our field, and your contributions to dev.to have added immense value to this site as a whole! I am sad to see you choose to move on, but at the same time absolutely understand all of the reasons you give, and I wish you best of luck in your future endeavors.
That being said, it is my most emphatic hope and request that you do not stop at least occasionally contributing articles about things that interest you, as well as commenting on other people's posts to share your thoughts.
All of dev.to is in your debt to you for everything you have done. Take your well-deserved rest, and continue to grace us with your presence and occasional thoughts and observations! Thank you again for everything you do!
You have been a breath of fresh air in the developer community. Thank you. ❤
Thank you so, so much! ❤️
I used to do freelance work, i found the only way i could get my ass up and going was to rent a table at a shared work-space.
And the bonus, it let me meet lots of interesting people.
Working from home i find, even with an office, i get distracted too easily.
Or maybe it's just my work-ethics at home that are horrible.. :D
Best wishes!
Take me with you! 😄
Good luck in your new journey! Thanks for your contributions to Dev; I've gotten a lot from all your hard work. I'm sure whatever the future holds for you, you'll be great at it!
Your great articles have taught me a lot.
Thank you so much :)
Bon Voyage.
Good luck with your future teaching I look forward to hopefully still reading things you write!
Although I like working from home a lot, I do like to also pop into an office from time to time for the same reasons you have above.
Thanks for your openness on how remote working can take it's toll on mental health. I hope the teaching helps the healing 🙂
Bittersweet as you said, but take care of you first. Looking forward to what you get up to next!
Sometimes it’s really hard to realize you need a change. Very brave if you to do it and write about it. Thank you for sharing.
It was great getting to work with you Ali! See you around on the web ✌️
Great working with you too! See you around!
Thank you for all your work in the community. You are the reason why I am here and is made me a better developer by leaps and bounds. Thanks for sharing your struggles and hope you get better. Good luck in your next endeavor!
That's so cool to hear, thank you so much! Will definitely do!
Thanks for everything you've done as a DEV member and good luck for all future endeavours!
P.S. I'll be very saddened if this move slows down the jokes :P
Best wishes in your future endeavors, Ali. It's awesome and encouraging to see someone be honest with themselves (and the internet) about their well being and career goals.