u/Forward-Repair9743

I’ve been at a large tech company for over four years. I started as an SDR and worked my way up to a Mid-Market AE role, consistently performing at a high level throughout my career. About halfway through my tenure, the company was acquired by a much larger legacy tech company. Since the acquisition, the culture I loved has changed significantly, benefits have slowly declined, and there’s still a lot of uncertainty around what full integration will look like long term.

About six months after being promoted to AE, I went on maternity leave. Before leaving, I achieved 81% of my annual quota, and I’ve been fortunate to have around 5.5 months of leave, which is especially valuable since I plan to have another child in the future.

That said, while I’ve been out, the environment has become increasingly cutthroat. Two colleagues were placed on PIPs — one was eventually let go, and the other had just returned from maternity leave and struggled to rebuild pipeline. The expectations on those PIPs seemed extremely unrealistic, especially given the weak territories they were assigned. My territory is probably the strongest on the team, but I’m worried about whether I’ll be able to maintain the same pace and performance when I return. My manager is also very intense and checks in constantly, which has started to create a lot of anxiety for me.

Overall, the acquisition has made the company feel much more high-pressure and unstable, and I can’t shake the feeling that it may only be a matter of time before I’m impacted too. I’ve had a very strong career so far, and I’d rather be proactive than wait until things deteriorate further.

At the same time, I’ve been exploring an opportunity at a start up and am taking it seriously. The benefits may not be as strong, and the role would be SMB rather than Mid-Market, but everything I’ve read about the company and culture has been overwhelmingly positive.

Am I overreacting by looking around?

And does it make sense to leave a big tech company with exceptional maternity benefits for a startup with more uncertainty but potentially a healthier culture?

What would you do?

Hi all, we are getting ready to go to Europe for 2 months and stay with my husband’s parents. We are bringing our baby (3mo) and are packing. We had planned to bring the stroller and the car seat. Our stroller is the chicco corso. The reason I think this is relevant is because while it’s not a small stroller, it does fold nicely. We are counting how much luggage we have to haul around, including putting a bag on the stroller to protect it from damage if we check it at the gate, and we have realized it’s a lot for two adults to manage. Especially since we have the baby. My question is, for those of you who have travelled with children, is it worth bringing the stroller, or are we going to suffer because we have to haul around so many things? Thank you :-)