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Ok sorry to hear. I don't know that tech but hopefully something will pop up eventually. Is your whole org like that or just your current manager? Cos you can a

Ok sorry to hear. I don't know that tech but hopefully something will pop up eventually. Is your whole org like that or just your current manager? Cos you can always try switching teams

giantg2 5y ago
I have switched teams/departments a few times. The policies are supposed to be standard across the enterprise (set by HR). The processes that HR get directly involved with tend to be pretty consistent. Promotions are one of those processes, and they strictly set a bunch of parameters like the raise being 7%. There are a bunch of policies that don't directly involve HR in the workflow and those tend to vary from department to department. An example of this would be how you're evaluated at year end - they set policies like not allowing story point comparisons between developers, but there's no enforcement. So far 2 of 3 departments have directly violated HR policies in one or more areas, usually related to performance management or setting requirements that conflict with HR policy. The third department is fairly new to me. I haven't noticed anything like policy violations yet. Unfortunately, there's very little opportunity. Context switching, expectations to be full stack in multiple stacks, and managers playing musical chairs with which team owns which system has been tough. Basically, I'm told I'm off track because I'm slow. They agree that I'm slow because of the constant context switching which also doesn't allow me to build expertise. They also said that there's nothing they can do about the context switching. So I take this to mean that I should switch to a team with less context switching so that I can build the expertise and get faster. The problem is they won't let me go now. We have 4 open positions on the team. Some of them have been open for over 2 months and they can't fill them (not really a surprise based on the type of work). When our tech lead leaves in the next week or two, that will make me the most experienced and highest grade dev on the team - I've only been in this team for about 1.5 years (normally a lot of time, but not for juggling stacks and systems - like half the systems I knew for the first part if my stint are now owned by other teams) and I'm only a midlevel. There's only two other devs - a junior who has been here for a year fresh out of college (performs well though) and a contractor whose term is up in about 2 months (and can't be extended). So I'm literally being told by my boss that the team environment is not conducive to my growth as a dev or for my career development, but that I'm not allowed to go to another team because our team is in crisis. That I'm too valuable to lose, but that I'm deserving of a less than average rating.
- ebiester 5y ago
  So, you are in a place where you have very niche experience, and if you were laid off you would have significant work to find another job. And your manager is unable to put you in a position to succeed. So, it may be time to take a step down, or when the next set of layoffs come, you might be in a bad place when you least expect it and when jobs are the most difficult to find. This is the best time in the last 10 years that I've seen in getting new jobs.
- Viliam1234 5y ago
  > That I'm too valuable to lose, but that I'm deserving of a less than average rating. Good that you noticed the paradox! It is surprisingly easy to believe each half of that sentence separately, without noticing how they contradict each other. You simply believe one part in one context (trying to leave), and the other part in another context (asking for a raise or better working conditions). Here is the pattern explained: https://issendai.livejournal.com/572510.html https://issendai.livejournal.com/572510.html

Ok sorry to hear. I don't know that tech but hopefully something will pop up eventually. Is your whole org like that or just your current manager? Cos you can always try switching teams

giantg2 5y ago

I have switched teams/departments a few times. The policies are supposed to be standard across the enterprise (set by HR). The processes that HR get directly involved with tend to be pretty consistent. Promotions are one of those processes, and they strictly set a bunch of parameters like the raise being 7%. There are a bunch of policies that don't directly involve HR in the workflow and those tend to vary from department to department. An example of this would be how you're evaluated at year end - they set policies like not allowing story point comparisons between developers, but there's no enforcement. So far 2 of 3 departments have directly violated HR policies in one or more areas, usually related to performance management or setting requirements that conflict with HR policy. The third department is fairly new to me. I haven't noticed anything like policy violations yet. Unfortunately, there's very little opportunity. Context switching, expectations to be full stack in multiple stacks, and managers playing musical chairs with which team owns which system has been tough. Basically, I'm told I'm off track because I'm slow. They agree that I'm slow because of the constant context switching which also doesn't allow me to build expertise. They also said that there's nothing they can do about the context switching. So I take this to mean that I should switch to a team with less context switching so that I can build the expertise and get faster. The problem is they won't let me go now. We have 4 open positions on the team. Some of them have been open for over 2 months and they can't fill them (not really a surprise based on the type of work). When our tech lead leaves in the next week or two, that will make me the most experienced and highest grade dev on the team - I've only been in this team for about 1.5 years (normally a lot of time, but not for juggling stacks and systems - like half the systems I knew for the first part if my stint are now owned by other teams) and I'm only a midlevel. There's only two other devs - a junior who has been here for a year fresh out of college (performs well though) and a contractor whose term is up in about 2 months (and can't be extended). So I'm literally being told by my boss that the team environment is not conducive to my growth as a dev or for my career development, but that I'm not allowed to go to another team because our team is in crisis. That I'm too valuable to lose, but that I'm deserving of a less than average rating.

ebiester 5y ago
So, you are in a place where you have very niche experience, and if you were laid off you would have significant work to find another job. And your manager is unable to put you in a position to succeed. So, it may be time to take a step down, or when the next set of layoffs come, you might be in a bad place when you least expect it and when jobs are the most difficult to find. This is the best time in the last 10 years that I've seen in getting new jobs.
Viliam1234 5y ago
> That I'm too valuable to lose, but that I'm deserving of a less than average rating. Good that you noticed the paradox! It is surprisingly easy to believe each half of that sentence separately, without noticing how they contradict each other. You simply believe one part in one context (trying to leave), and the other part in another context (asking for a raise or better working conditions). Here is the pattern explained: https://issendai.livejournal.com/572510.html https://issendai.livejournal.com/572510.html