IT/Software career thread: Invert binary trees for dollars.
- Thread starter Traak
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Seriously, I don't know how you could even handle two jobs worth of management.
I don't know if it's only me, but the older I get, the more office politics and management bullshit creeps into my job. I had five meetings today--because my sixth was canceled at the last minute. But the longer I do this shit, the more I lose patience with it, because it keeps me from doing actual, meaningful work. You know, the things I signed up for, where I can feel like you achieved something at the end of the day.
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TJT
Mr. Poopybutthole
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Reflecting back on it for the first 3 years it was easy to do. I was mid-level and had a lot of under the hood impact at both places but minimal visibility to anyone. For whatever twist of fate I designed billing and invoicing systems in two different companies in two completely different industries and at no point was that in the job description. Just sort of happened. This left me with most of my time being spent on what I like doing. Being heads down coding and figuring stuff out.
As billing is extremely important to any organization and I was the sole person who knew it in and out and automated all of it this left me in a position where I was mostly left alone unless there was an issue with the above that I had to resolve. Low visibility but high impact.
A year ago a number of things changed:
As billing is extremely important to any organization and I was the sole person who knew it in and out and automated all of it this left me in a position where I was mostly left alone unless there was an issue with the above that I had to resolve. Low visibility but high impact.
A year ago a number of things changed:
- My old manager at 1 got let go for a dumbass self inflicted reason.
- I got promoted at both places (lol).
- Manager at 2 is well meaning but a micro-managing woman who wasted lots of my time in general.
- Not a RTO but a soft RTO requiring me to be in the office for 1 more than once a quarter.
- Manager at 1 got replaced and while I like him a lot he requires my direct involvement a lot so I am in meetings more than I used to be.
- I don't mind working a lot but I genuinely felt like a dickhead shrugging off one responsibility to do another.
- Also have two small children so this meant I had zero free time for anything.
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Noodleface
A Mod Real Quick
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Feel this myself.
I became too important and what that means is lots of meetings. It's tough for me to commit code and even tougher to do it on any sort of decent timeline.
I suppose it's nice being at the top sometimes, but my work involves a lot of shuffling priorities around and setting people straight in meetings.
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DickTrickle
Definitely NOT Furor Planedefiler
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I feel that. I kind of just want to be a code monkey, even if maybe that's not as valuable. Beyond just meetings, I'll extend that to stuff that includes ops. Sometimes I just want to write a bunch of business logic related code.
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Noodleface
A Mod Real Quick
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I got pretty burned out on writing code so I'm ok with it EXCEPT the expectation that I'm still a developer
TJT
Mr. Poopybutthole
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The second was definitely aware. They just never once mentioned anything about it. The first I told my old manager and he got fired so it never came up again. More or less a Don't Ask Don't Tell policy.
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moonarchia
The Scientific Shitlord
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Kuro
Naxxramas 1.0 Raider
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9 months into my first IT job, got the news from the owners that the city is eminent domaining our campus sometime in the next two years, so they are cutting all of our infrastructure upgrade plans and want repairs to be done as cheap and band-aid as possible. So, basically no more learning opportunities, just keeping the lights on until the doors get shuttered sometime Soon.
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Control
Bronze Baronet of the Realm
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Oh look! It's time for the periodic this thing again!
"Hey, here's this thing that's working. We should probably upgrade it, but we don't wanna."
"Who's using it?"
"Dunno, lets just turn it off and see who complains"
<complains>
"Ok, it's mostly back on again for a week. We need to move everything that's needed."
"Mostly? What about the rest?"
"We never liked that part anyway"
"Well, do I have access to do the things?"
"No"
"Hey, here's this thing that's working. We should probably upgrade it, but we don't wanna."
"Who's using it?"
"Dunno, lets just turn it off and see who complains"
<complains>
"Ok, it's mostly back on again for a week. We need to move everything that's needed."
"Mostly? What about the rest?"
"We never liked that part anyway"
"Well, do I have access to do the things?"
"No"
TJT
Mr. Poopybutthole
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moonarchia
The Scientific Shitlord
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Rezz
Mr. Poopybutthole
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Hard no on staying employed if discovered. And it has nothing to do with productivity or anything; it's the idea that your dedication is split vs. actually being split. I think it's dumb but I also think it's dumb to have roles where someone can effectively do another job while doing it in the first place. Are there not enough check ins/escalation of duties to match output? Sounds like at least two bad managers in the wrap.
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Noodleface
A Mod Real Quick
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There's also the question of conflicts of interest. Even if the fields aren't related.
When I was in defense we had to disclose any alternate employment and they could ban any of it for any reason.
When I was in defense we had to disclose any alternate employment and they could ban any of it for any reason.
TJT
Mr. Poopybutthole
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I will say this.
In my specific area of expertise I am very proficient at developing solutions. That area being data infrastructure. I was promoted at both of these jobs. In the primary one I have been promoted 4 times. Clearly I have been doing something right. I mentioned a bit ago but for whatever twist of fate I designed invoice systems at both places. These were directly responsible for hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue processing and I built them almost entirely alone. I feel this was a big reason they never considered getting rid of me.
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Phazael
Confirmed Beta Shitlord, Fat Bastard
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Developers can get away with this shit because there are a lot of useless meetings they can just ghost and tons of dead time because management cannot organize time for shit. And at the same time, companies are loath to let someone go who knows how the shit works, because letting a Dev fuck off and half time it (or a senior sysad) is cheaper than trying to bring a new one up to speed. Break Fix/Junior Sysads do not have that luxury, mostly because the moment a bean counter thinks they can get away with cutting you to cut costs they jump at it. Plus even during dead periods you have to be ready to respond to unexpected problems, so you can't just fuck off to another job.
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TJT
Mr. Poopybutthole
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It can very easily take a year or more to train up a developer on where stuff is in your proprietary infrastructure. Even more to know exactly how to fix certain critical issues with processes that run the business itself. This creates an incentive to not let people go even if they have, sometimes lots of, dead time.
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Phazael
Confirmed Beta Shitlord, Fat Bastard
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Another thing I have discovered in the current year environment is that if you are the one white dude who snuck in the door and are even remotely good, you are mostly bulletproof. Reason being is many companies have so many DEI hires who checked a box while having zero skill (or H1B1 Poo Invaders) that you basically are there to support the existence of the oxygen thieves in the department. Cutting the one guy producing means exposing the diversity hires to scrutiny. That developer diversity chart is real.
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