Sometimes there's simply no other way…

You love your job, you do it — hopefully — well. You find a kind of mission in it, as do most of your colleagues. You have a great team, you could almost call it a family. And yet you hand in your notice. Why?

After university I was lucky — I had choices. I wanted to work in security, and the newly formed GovCERT.CZ was a challenge I wanted to take on. You come out of school full of ideals, energy, and a drive to change how government works for the better. Which, over those five years at the agency, we hopefully managed to do — even if from the outside, I dare say, it's hard to see. We were a great team, all of us wanting the same thing — to improve how the state functions, to take a better approach to security, to do things meaningfully and correctly. When you have enough equally motivated people around you it runs like clockwork, a well-oiled machine. When someone starts throwing sand into those smooth gears, it's not good. People push on... by force. And force has its limits.

I reached mine. I no longer want to keep putting in effort when I don't see results. Why would I request the same thing for the fifth time... Why deal with the exact same issue again half a year later when the position hasn't changed... I don't want to watch political tasks take priority over the important ones. I want results to stand behind me. I no longer have what it takes — it exhausts me mentally. I don't want to burn out. I want to do my job, effectively. To go home feeling that I improved something today.

That's why I'm leaving — I'm handing in my notice.

We did great things together: we won Locked Shields, we always nailed Cyber Coalition on the first day, we built Cyber Czech, we helped countless organisations... I'll never forget that!

I still care about the Czech Republic being at the forefront of cybersecurity. I just won't be contributing to it as a member of the CERT team. Only as an educated citizen who isn't afraid to point out shortcomings. I hope a volunteer cyber unit of the Czech Army will be established soon — I'll sign up.

Added in September 2018: By the end of the year, 3 more people will leave the team... I wonder why.