About Undisguised
Essays on work, ambition, relationships, and what demanding careers do to the rest of life.
Undisguised is where I write about problems that often look professional at first, but rarely stay that way.
Work that does not switch off. A career decision that has been open for months. Motivation disappearing even though performance is still fine. Ambition beginning to affect a relationship. The uncomfortable question of how much of your identity has become tied to being useful, capable or successful.
Some essays are practical. Some are psychological. Some start with something I have noticed in my own life or work and try to understand it properly.
The aim is not to turn every difficult experience into a psychological problem.
Sometimes the job is badly designed. Sometimes the manager is the problem. Sometimes the relationship is genuinely difficult. Sometimes you need a better decision, not a deeper explanation.
But there are also times when the external explanation stops explaining enough. The same problem follows you into another job. More information does not make the decision easier. Time off does not restore you. Success solves the practical problem but changes very little internally.
That is usually where I become interested.
Who writes this
I’m Aggelos Mouzakitis, a BACP-registered integrative psychotherapist.
Before training as a psychotherapist, I spent more than 18 years working in product, growth and technology. I ran my own consultancy for seven years, built two companies, and worked with more than 100 technology businesses.
That background shapes how I think about the subjects I write about here.
I understand the professional environments behind many of these problems: startups, product teams, leadership, growth targets, layoffs, promotions, equity, going independent, trying to build something of your own.
It also means I am careful not to confuse a business problem with a psychological one.
My psychotherapy practice works mainly with men in tech, startups, business and demanding careers. Undisguised is broader than the practice. You do not need to work in tech, be a man or be considering therapy to read it.
What I write about
You will find essays about:
Work & burnout
What happens when work occupies more attention than the working day itself.
Decisions & identity
Career changes, leaving, staying, ambition, uncertainty, and what makes apparently rational decisions unusually difficult.
Relationships & achievement
What work pressure, performance and ambition can do to relationships, self-worth and the rest of life.
I also write about therapy, psychology and the occasional idea I think has been explained badly elsewhere.
If you are new here
Start with Start Here. I keep a small selection there of the essays that best represent what Undisguised is about.
If work has been taking up more space than you want and you are not quite sure where the problem sits, you can take the Work & Life Check.
It takes about four minutes and looks at five areas: switching off, recovery, difficult decisions, relationships and the weight of performance.
And if you want new essays by email, subscribe below.
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