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In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:

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   Listener \\xde\\xf3r asks,

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   Dear fellow binary smiths!

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   I\\u2019m a Nordic software developer with about a decade in the industry under my belt who has recently returned back to the office, following a half a year long medical absence during which I helped my partner get through her second tough cancer treatment in as many years.

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   I am now contemplating taking a sabbatical for some months to reset myself, as the ordeal has had a big impact on me in many ways.

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   As sabbaticals are not a common occurrence in my parts of the world, I worry about what impact taking one could have on my future prospects once I start looking around for employment again.

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   How does one frame having a \\u201cmental health\\u201d gap in the career when interviewing? Are they considered a \\u201cbad\\u201d signal by hiring managers?

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   For the first time in my career, I\\u2019ve been given the opportunity to lead a project at work. This was something I really wanted and my teammates supported me. We agreed on the technical design and I recently started implementing it.

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   However, I\\u2019ve been thinking about finding another job for a long time. I\\u2019m demotivated. Each week, I feel bad about how little I get done at work. It negatively impacts my self esteem, a lot. I never acted upon the desire to find another job because I have a great manager and skip level. Recently, my manager and skip level both announced they\\u2019re leaving the company.

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   I\\u2019d like to pursue an opportunity at another company that seems to be a great fit for me but I don\\u2019t want to leave my teammates holding the bag for the project I\\u2019ve been working on. I\\u2019m the only backend developer working on it and my teammates trusted me to take ownership of it. It doesn\\u2019t feel fair for me to complete the more glamorous responsibility of coming up with the technical design and then leave when it\\u2019s time to do the \\u201cgrunt work\\u201d. On the other hand, there\\u2019s probably at least six months left of work on this project and the company I\\u2019m interested in joining may very well not be hiring in six months. What steps should I take to not betray my teammates or myself, taking into account that my manager and skip level leave within a month and probably won\\u2019t be replaced by then?

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