5 ms·

I'm still early in my career (around 32, 8 years in), and I can heavily relate to what you said at the beginning. The company I work for recently got acquired

by diob 6y ago

I'm still early in my career (around 32, 8 years in), and I can heavily relate to what you said at the beginning. The company I work for recently got acquired and the entire culture changed to one of "fuck the engineers, only contracts matter, engineers are just butts in seats, the more the better (quality not required)". My boss is constantly turned down when he tries to advocate for me, or say that I deserve a slight bonus. At this point, I have had all productivity beaten out of me. I really don't understand the mindset. It's been a crash course on how to take a wonderful company and burn it to the ground in a matter of less than 2 years. Most of my coworkers have moved on at this point, and each contract they got out of it has now failed. So what the fuck was even the point? How do you have 40% turnover and not think "Am I the problem?"?

foogazi 6y ago
Shit happens, why are you still there?
- Gene_Parmesan 6y ago
  When you are working for a good company that values you, and embedded in a good team that also values you, there is a bonding that occurs that goes deeper than your average commercial exchange. If you have never been in this position, you may not understand the emotional difficulties involved in watching such a place slowly burn to the ground. Old timers usually still feel loyalty to those of their coworkers who are still sticking around; if the poster's boss is a good leader and strong advocate for them, which it sounds like they are, this can be even harder. People build a lot of loyalty towards good leaders. Sure, it's emotional stuff, and the purely rational actor would dip without question. But having emotions is healthy and normal, even if it means they sometimes lead you to somewhat suboptimal situations. Of course, it can reach a point where people get locked in out of fear of the unknown, just like bad relationships. But it's rarely as easy as just saying "Okay, time to leave."
  - pdimitar 6y ago
    I can't find a single thing to disagree on in your excellent comment but there's one more nuance: "When is the time to let go?" This goes for all areas of life: intimate relationships / marriages, employment, being part of a hobby club that's not the same anymore, local community help (donations, voluntary labor etc.). We the people are extremely bad judges of when is the right time to leave -- and 99% of the time we leave way too late. Usually after getting some deep emotional scars as a bonus. In hindsight (which as they say is 20/20) every time in my life after I left any kind of interaction between me and other people / companies, it was well after I should have. But only in retrospect. I gradually learned to recognize the signs and started to escalate problems early. And if they aren't addressed, leave early. Life is too short to keep a death grip on things that are poisoning you. It seems every one of us learns this lesson very late in life.
    - ah69 6y ago
      This is all a story. How do you know when you should and should not leave? Everything happens on time. You always leave at the perfect time. You can create a false narrative in your mind and say “I should’ve left two weeks or two years ago;” Or, you can be thankful for the way things are and have the attitude that everything always happens the way it is supposed to.
      - pdimitar 6y ago
        At least in the context of my life experience I will disagree somewhat. I have this way of intuiting when I have made the most out of a situation or an interaction (especially when it comes to paid work) and time and again, without fail, I have noticed that due to emotional immaturity I have stayed well after the point at which I stopped learning and thriving and started getting poisoned by various bad (new) conditions. But don't get me wrong: I am doing my very best not to live with regret and make myself better utilizing those past lessons -- as you said. But analyzing it back in time, I know that I actually had the right mindset but was too weak to utilize it.
        6y ago
- diob 6y ago
  Honestly, I was lucky enough to negotiate my total compensation around 3 years ago before the acquisition using an offer I had. So while I'll never see another raise again, I have very decent overall total compensation, especially for the cost of living where I'm at. The other side of it, is that I have about 3 months of vacation built up. The TLDR on that though is they tried to take it from me about a month ago (carry over policy that I was told I would be exempt from). I told them straight up I would leave that day, so they reneged in the end. But I have no clue how they wouldn't assume I'm going to just take it this year and look for another job. So my play now is to enjoy the compensation while looking for another job. I'm also pulling back heavily in my support to the organization, which is tough because I'm not used to putting in less than 110%. I'm trying to look on the bright side though. I think this experience may have cured me of my tendency to be a workaholic.
  - tharkun__ 6y ago
    I obviously don't know what company you are at or what 110% means in that context. However unless you're Ar a FAANG type company I would venture that 110% is waaaay more than your regular coworkers put in. Probably at 50% levels if you are lucky. Personally I am lucky to work with lots of bright people that put in their 100%. But even there we have 50%ers. So my advice: put in your 110% for 90% of the time (or something like that :)) I do this periodically. When required I'm there 110%. Done with something at 2pm Friday? Yeah well today I'll just call it a day instead of fixing yet another bug from the backlog that wasn't even in the sprint.
liamwire 6y ago
I think this thinking is, at least in part, a result of assuming that the decision makers are optimising for the same outcome as you might expect them to, eg. long-term growth, profitability, etc. rather than, say, bleeding the company of its human equity for short-term increases in monetary profit, that otherwise wouldn’t be attainable, and likely as a result likely furthering that decision maker’s career, assuming they exit before implosion.
- diob 6y ago
  You're exactly right, and I actually called them out on these tradeoffs early in the acquisition. They were talking about how they were surprised we were able to charge so much for our engineers on our contracts, when all of theirs had much tighter margins. I told them it was probably because they optimized for winning contracts at any cost vs winning contracts that were worth it.
tjalfi 6y ago
That reminds me of a job I had in the early 2000s. I was there 9 months and at the end I ranked 5th in the company for seniority.
sokoloff 6y ago
Get out. Now. It won't get better no matter who promises what. If you have one more major vesting date nearby, maybe arrange your departure around that. I left one place where there was literally a line of 6 of us who all resigned one after the other the afternoon when our annual vesting hit our accounts in the morning. I can't imagine the day that Director had hearing the same story from all 6 of us back-to-back.
- diob 6y ago
  I hear you, and I appreciate the advice. There is a vesting cycle that's yearly, but ultimately it all depends on them selling them the company a few years from now (2023 or so). While I fully expect them to sell, I expect them to stab me in the back so hard that the shares are effectively worthless. I've been learning ruby in my spare time, so hoping to transition to a job that uses that in their stack eventually. I think I'm going to take a long break though, I'm very burnt out from the entire experience.
  - throwawayboise 6y ago
    If your vested shares don't have a market now, don't wait around. Chances are they never will.
wikibob 6y ago
Why aren’t you interviewing to go somewhere better? HTTPS://Levels.FYI/2020
rhizome 6y ago
>The company I work for recently got acquired and the entire culture changed There is only one thing to do after your company is acquired: get out of the company that got acquired. Full stop: get out. You can do this one of two ways: via the org chart, taking a lateral promotion into the acquiring company, into a part/division/product team/group that existed before your company was in the mix. The second is to leave and get another job elsewhere. Everything else will eventually be discarded. Acquisitions are always bad for the acquired company. If you aren't laid off in the first year, you'll be pushed to attrition yourself, but make no mistake: the old company is dead and its people and their brains are the least valuable asset to the parent company, so get out of the small company. >My boss is constantly turned down when he tries to advocate for me, or say that I deserve a slight bonus Just so it's said plainly: this feeling always means to get another job. Listen to it: you want more money, you deserve more money, and that's a perfectly good reason to leave. You can come back to this company after you bounce your salary up, or not, it happens both ways, but they aren't going to give you nearly as much as you get by changing jobs. Ever. >At this point, I have had all productivity beaten out of me. I really don't understand the mindset. You are in an abusive relationship with the company you work for, this is natural.
- diob 6y ago
  Yeah, you're definitely right, it helps to see you put it so plainly. I'm going to do my best to focus on what's right for me, thanks.

by diob 6y ago

foogazi 6y ago

Shit happens, why are you still there?

Gene_Parmesan 6y ago
When you are working for a good company that values you, and embedded in a good team that also values you, there is a bonding that occurs that goes deeper than your average commercial exchange. If you have never been in this position, you may not understand the emotional difficulties involved in watching such a place slowly burn to the ground. Old timers usually still feel loyalty to those of their coworkers who are still sticking around; if the poster's boss is a good leader and strong advocate for them, which it sounds like they are, this can be even harder. People build a lot of loyalty towards good leaders. Sure, it's emotional stuff, and the purely rational actor would dip without question. But having emotions is healthy and normal, even if it means they sometimes lead you to somewhat suboptimal situations. Of course, it can reach a point where people get locked in out of fear of the unknown, just like bad relationships. But it's rarely as easy as just saying "Okay, time to leave."
- pdimitar 6y ago
  I can't find a single thing to disagree on in your excellent comment but there's one more nuance: "When is the time to let go?" This goes for all areas of life: intimate relationships / marriages, employment, being part of a hobby club that's not the same anymore, local community help (donations, voluntary labor etc.). We the people are extremely bad judges of when is the right time to leave -- and 99% of the time we leave way too late. Usually after getting some deep emotional scars as a bonus. In hindsight (which as they say is 20/20) every time in my life after I left any kind of interaction between me and other people / companies, it was well after I should have. But only in retrospect. I gradually learned to recognize the signs and started to escalate problems early. And if they aren't addressed, leave early. Life is too short to keep a death grip on things that are poisoning you. It seems every one of us learns this lesson very late in life.
  - ah69 6y ago
    This is all a story. How do you know when you should and should not leave? Everything happens on time. You always leave at the perfect time. You can create a false narrative in your mind and say “I should’ve left two weeks or two years ago;” Or, you can be thankful for the way things are and have the attitude that everything always happens the way it is supposed to.
    - pdimitar 6y ago
      At least in the context of my life experience I will disagree somewhat. I have this way of intuiting when I have made the most out of a situation or an interaction (especially when it comes to paid work) and time and again, without fail, I have noticed that due to emotional immaturity I have stayed well after the point at which I stopped learning and thriving and started getting poisoned by various bad (new) conditions. But don't get me wrong: I am doing my very best not to live with regret and make myself better utilizing those past lessons -- as you said. But analyzing it back in time, I know that I actually had the right mindset but was too weak to utilize it.
      - 6y ago
diob 6y ago
Honestly, I was lucky enough to negotiate my total compensation around 3 years ago before the acquisition using an offer I had. So while I'll never see another raise again, I have very decent overall total compensation, especially for the cost of living where I'm at. The other side of it, is that I have about 3 months of vacation built up. The TLDR on that though is they tried to take it from me about a month ago (carry over policy that I was told I would be exempt from). I told them straight up I would leave that day, so they reneged in the end. But I have no clue how they wouldn't assume I'm going to just take it this year and look for another job. So my play now is to enjoy the compensation while looking for another job. I'm also pulling back heavily in my support to the organization, which is tough because I'm not used to putting in less than 110%. I'm trying to look on the bright side though. I think this experience may have cured me of my tendency to be a workaholic.
- tharkun__ 6y ago
  I obviously don't know what company you are at or what 110% means in that context. However unless you're Ar a FAANG type company I would venture that 110% is waaaay more than your regular coworkers put in. Probably at 50% levels if you are lucky. Personally I am lucky to work with lots of bright people that put in their 100%. But even there we have 50%ers. So my advice: put in your 110% for 90% of the time (or something like that :)) I do this periodically. When required I'm there 110%. Done with something at 2pm Friday? Yeah well today I'll just call it a day instead of fixing yet another bug from the backlog that wasn't even in the sprint.

liamwire 6y ago

I think this thinking is, at least in part, a result of assuming that the decision makers are optimising for the same outcome as you might expect them to, eg. long-term growth, profitability, etc. rather than, say, bleeding the company of its human equity for short-term increases in monetary profit, that otherwise wouldn’t be attainable, and likely as a result likely furthering that decision maker’s career, assuming they exit before implosion.

diob 6y ago
You're exactly right, and I actually called them out on these tradeoffs early in the acquisition. They were talking about how they were surprised we were able to charge so much for our engineers on our contracts, when all of theirs had much tighter margins. I told them it was probably because they optimized for winning contracts at any cost vs winning contracts that were worth it.

tjalfi 6y ago

That reminds me of a job I had in the early 2000s. I was there 9 months and at the end I ranked 5th in the company for seniority.

sokoloff 6y ago

Get out. Now. It won't get better no matter who promises what. If you have one more major vesting date nearby, maybe arrange your departure around that. I left one place where there was literally a line of 6 of us who all resigned one after the other the afternoon when our annual vesting hit our accounts in the morning. I can't imagine the day that Director had hearing the same story from all 6 of us back-to-back.

diob 6y ago
I hear you, and I appreciate the advice. There is a vesting cycle that's yearly, but ultimately it all depends on them selling them the company a few years from now (2023 or so). While I fully expect them to sell, I expect them to stab me in the back so hard that the shares are effectively worthless. I've been learning ruby in my spare time, so hoping to transition to a job that uses that in their stack eventually. I think I'm going to take a long break though, I'm very burnt out from the entire experience.
- throwawayboise 6y ago
  If your vested shares don't have a market now, don't wait around. Chances are they never will.

wikibob 6y ago

Why aren’t you interviewing to go somewhere better? HTTPS://Levels.FYI/2020

rhizome 6y ago

>The company I work for recently got acquired and the entire culture changed There is only one thing to do after your company is acquired: get out of the company that got acquired. Full stop: get out. You can do this one of two ways: via the org chart, taking a lateral promotion into the acquiring company, into a part/division/product team/group that existed before your company was in the mix. The second is to leave and get another job elsewhere. Everything else will eventually be discarded. Acquisitions are always bad for the acquired company. If you aren't laid off in the first year, you'll be pushed to attrition yourself, but make no mistake: the old company is dead and its people and their brains are the least valuable asset to the parent company, so get out of the small company. >My boss is constantly turned down when he tries to advocate for me, or say that I deserve a slight bonus Just so it's said plainly: this feeling always means to get another job. Listen to it: you want more money, you deserve more money, and that's a perfectly good reason to leave. You can come back to this company after you bounce your salary up, or not, it happens both ways, but they aren't going to give you nearly as much as you get by changing jobs. Ever. >At this point, I have had all productivity beaten out of me. I really don't understand the mindset. You are in an abusive relationship with the company you work for, this is natural.

diob 6y ago
Yeah, you're definitely right, it helps to see you put it so plainly. I'm going to do my best to focus on what's right for me, thanks.