The Damage I’ve Caused: Why Being Always Available Hurts Your Team

Some people call it "being too responsible," others just say "He just likes his job too much." Either way, just like any excess in life, working too much hurts you and the people around you.

I have always enjoyed my work. I am one of those guys who studied and found a job very young in something I felt passionate about. I have been working in IT and Cybersecurity for more than 20 years now.

In recent years, I have dedicated my career to incident response, that's where the fun is, huh? It is always something new, keeping the bad guys out of your company, and why not… just dealing with stupidity, all part of the job.

I became a manager some years ago. In my previous job, I had a team with different seniority levels and skills. Some of them had been in the industry longer than me, which made things easier, besides the usual ego fights you get anywhere.

My last position was very different. I was the senior guy, and everybody else was juniors. For most of them, this was their very first cybersecurity job, with less than two years of experience. As a senior, you've already learned, practiced, and tried different methods. At some point, you know what works and what doesn't.

My Problem

In Incident Response, I am always available, and usually the first person to respond. I care about my company and my team's reputation. Recently, I have been assuming more responsibilities, growing if you will, so it is time to let the team coordinate, design, and think out of the box, just as I have done for myself.

My surprise was that my team sometimes struggled with simple tasks, like writing an executive summary of an investigation, because I normally do that.

Cybersecurity moves fast, and there is no way one person can do this job alone. You need people with different skills and seniority. One of the biggest mistakes I noticed was relying too much on juniors and forgetting about balance. A healthy team needs both juniors and seniors. Not everyone learns at the same speed by reading books or practicing daily tasks. Even though it wasn't my decision, having only one senior in a sizable team is not a good idea.

My Solution

Sometimes you need to leave the world on fire to make a point. I learned that by always responding first and solving last-minute issues from leadership, I was hiding a problem. The lack of seniority, training, and my constant availability harmed the team. It kept them in a comfort zone, knowing someone would always clean the mess.

As a leader, I failed by always protecting my team. That's a common mistake. Good leaders don't protect their team, they help them grow, reflect, and develop by challenging them. Of course, I would never let my team fail in a high-severity incident, but I can give them the chance to fail in minor tasks, monitor them, and let them clean their own mess so they don't repeat it.

I have been trying to be less present. If I really trust my team, I need to allow myself to have a happy dinner with my family, without interruptions. I have two phones, and now I only bring my personal phone when spending time with my family, because my team is there to hold my back.

The Bigger Picture

By no means am I saying that in Incident Response a minor mistake cannot turn into a huge problem. Believe me, a couple of months in IR can teach you very quickly that one single failure can become a newspaper headline. But the fort needs to be held by a team, not by one person. If you are missing people or skills, then you need to make that point to your company.

If you are a good leader and care about your team's development, don't be like Bob!

Originally published at https://cyberesponder.com on July 19, 2026.