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Yes, that is the worst part to me. I worked at a place once, many years ago, where a Lead software engineer came in and started what I could only equate to a t

Yes, that is the worst part to me. I worked at a place once, many years ago, where a Lead software engineer came in and started what I could only equate to a turf war. He'd set people up to get them fired, call competent engineers who made a mistake out as being idiots, etc. One time, he assigned me work - and never mentioned that someone on another team had been assigned the exact same work. He wanted to see me do it faster than the other guy so that he could fire the other guy. So when I completed it, and he used it as ammunition against the other guy (even though the other guy had done a perfectly good job it turned out). I stood there helpless and ashamed that I'd been used as a weapon for someone to tear another good programmer down. A couple of months later, the company began to lay people off and that lead bolted for the door. I did too, but I was just glad to not have to work in such a hostile environment anymore. So much anxiety.

curiously 12y ago
That is revolting. I hear a lot of nightmare stories like this. Unfortunately, I think as engineers, we are forever doomed to be treated like peasants, unless you know how to play politics, kiss ass, and move up into a manager position. The concept of manager seems so old fashioned and backwards especially when we are now dealing with a manufacturing industry that produces nothing physical, where the concept of a product is actually just a vote of minds of all the stakeholders, engineers, customers. Having traditional managerial that were suitable for overseeing factories and suppress workers from rioting and maximizing labor output in an information based product is nothing short of censorship. My idea of a dream team of software engineers is one where we have as little technical and business censorship as possible. It would be sort of like how day trading desks operate but we end up building one product that reflects the demands of the customers, the future market. Instead of having a manager telling you what to do or what to build, you act on information from a customer directly. This might be a tougher hybrid to find but I reckon we'll see more and more entreprengineers as traditional manufacturing corporate structures lose their appeal. Wishful thinking but I hope some people share the same ideas and values.

curiously 12y ago

That is revolting. I hear a lot of nightmare stories like this. Unfortunately, I think as engineers, we are forever doomed to be treated like peasants, unless you know how to play politics, kiss ass, and move up into a manager position. The concept of manager seems so old fashioned and backwards especially when we are now dealing with a manufacturing industry that produces nothing physical, where the concept of a product is actually just a vote of minds of all the stakeholders, engineers, customers. Having traditional managerial that were suitable for overseeing factories and suppress workers from rioting and maximizing labor output in an information based product is nothing short of censorship. My idea of a dream team of software engineers is one where we have as little technical and business censorship as possible. It would be sort of like how day trading desks operate but we end up building one product that reflects the demands of the customers, the future market. Instead of having a manager telling you what to do or what to build, you act on information from a customer directly. This might be a tougher hybrid to find but I reckon we'll see more and more entreprengineers as traditional manufacturing corporate structures lose their appeal. Wishful thinking but I hope some people share the same ideas and values.