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I’m that person in my current team and it feels very lonely. I keep speaking up about our tech debt and poor processes. Management pretends to care but nothing

I’m that person in my current team and it feels very lonely. I keep speaking up about our tech debt and poor processes. Management pretends to care but nothing changes. Meanwhile people keep doing the rituals as you say, as if it were a normal part of life. It’s sad to watch.

Tade0 6y ago
I found that management's incentives are aligned with the majority. Example reply from management: "our clients are not paying for tests" (yes they are - for the lack thereof, and not with money) For years I thought that this is some kind of defect that I must work on, so I tried to fit in, but I just can't. I never had the courage to remain in the role of a "disruptor" for long myself because the resistance I encountered was just too much. It's only the presence of other such people that allowed me to not give in to burnout.
ookookookook 6y ago
You just have to stop caring. Do your hours and work averagely, that is what they expect.
twelve40 6y ago
But that's pretty normal, your vision and your opinion of the situation differs from the powers that be. Instead of getting upset over it, just go through a quick checklist: * The management and most everyone else around me are in fact stupid and incompetent - just leave the place, problem solved * The management in fact "gets" my concerns but doesn't think it's the right time to address them - they may have a point? they may see something that you don't see? * The management doesn't think my concerns are serious enough to invest resources into - they may have a point? * The place sucks but I get paid a lot and don't want to leave - just distance from it and focus on your part Either way seems pretty fixable, not much to get upset about.
jack_h 6y ago
My last job was like this and it was beyond frustrating. They had essentially re-created the C/C++ language feature of a struct. Rather than letting the compiler/linker worry about where to place the data there was a global array of uint16s. Fields of these ad-hoc structs were placed in this array via defines (sometimes spanning more than one element). Rather than passing pointers to an instance of a struct, they passed an enum which was switched on to find the correct defines to index into the global array and wrangle the data back into a proper type. So when we were tasked with adding three new instances of a particular ad-hoc struct it cost us tens of thousands of dollars in engineering time. Oh, and all testing was manual as well. The other programmers didn't see the issue and I was just floored by that. I found a new job, as a sibling comment points out. Sometimes there's no other option.
- Tade0 6y ago
  Ok, so I had a few stories in mind when I was writing that comment, but mine don't even compare to yours. I'm sorry you had to go through all this.

Tade0 6y ago

I found that management's incentives are aligned with the majority. Example reply from management: "our clients are not paying for tests" (yes they are - for the lack thereof, and not with money) For years I thought that this is some kind of defect that I must work on, so I tried to fit in, but I just can't. I never had the courage to remain in the role of a "disruptor" for long myself because the resistance I encountered was just too much. It's only the presence of other such people that allowed me to not give in to burnout.

ookookookook 6y ago

You just have to stop caring. Do your hours and work averagely, that is what they expect.

twelve40 6y ago

But that's pretty normal, your vision and your opinion of the situation differs from the powers that be. Instead of getting upset over it, just go through a quick checklist: * The management and most everyone else around me are in fact stupid and incompetent - just leave the place, problem solved * The management in fact "gets" my concerns but doesn't think it's the right time to address them - they may have a point? they may see something that you don't see? * The management doesn't think my concerns are serious enough to invest resources into - they may have a point? * The place sucks but I get paid a lot and don't want to leave - just distance from it and focus on your part Either way seems pretty fixable, not much to get upset about.

jack_h 6y ago

My last job was like this and it was beyond frustrating. They had essentially re-created the C/C++ language feature of a struct. Rather than letting the compiler/linker worry about where to place the data there was a global array of uint16s. Fields of these ad-hoc structs were placed in this array via defines (sometimes spanning more than one element). Rather than passing pointers to an instance of a struct, they passed an enum which was switched on to find the correct defines to index into the global array and wrangle the data back into a proper type. So when we were tasked with adding three new instances of a particular ad-hoc struct it cost us tens of thousands of dollars in engineering time. Oh, and all testing was manual as well. The other programmers didn't see the issue and I was just floored by that. I found a new job, as a sibling comment points out. Sometimes there's no other option.

Tade0 6y ago
Ok, so I had a few stories in mind when I was writing that comment, but mine don't even compare to yours. I'm sorry you had to go through all this.