Young Manager Learns Empathy

A reflection from Shaan about how his perspective on managing people changed from being a young single manager to understanding work-life balance with family obligations.

"I look back now when I was 25 years old, single, didn't own a possession in the world, and I was managing a bunch of people who were 10-20 years older than me, had kids, families, mortgages, had all this stuff. At the time I thought I was being super understanding, but now when I look back, I was such an idiot.

I just didn't understand how hard it is for these people to give this much to a startup when they have all these responsibilities and obligations at home. I was just a free bird at 25, and I could waste my time away - it didn't matter. For these people, that extra one hour they were at work threw off the whole dinnertime bedtime schedule for them, their kids, their wife.

I apologize to anybody I worked with then because I didn't truly understand. I thought hustle culture was the right answer, and I didn't realize how much they were already giving and I always wanted more."