IT/Software career thread: Invert binary trees for dollars.

Nija

Nija

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Noodleface said:
Getting so monumentally burnt out recently. It's been coming for a couple years I guess but even more so recently.

I've mentioned it but I am the tech lead for a very large piece of a business critical product. For several generations we were a nice commodity that was supported in a limited number of SKUs, but this generation our support expanded ten-fold (or more, they keep adding SKUs). About 90% of our code is common, but the last 10% can't be due to CPU/chipset differences and hardware differences. The absolute braindead PMs don't talk to each other so they scheduled all of these on top of each other. But that's only a part of the problem really. .
The bigger problem is no one in the company seems to know how to debug problems or get the right people involved. I feel like I am the only person that actually understands the product, what the error conditions translate to, and who should own the fix. Sometimes it's my team, but a lot of times it's not. And debugging this product is very complicated because it's an end-to-end product with pieces in all aspects of the hardware and software. Valuable skill for me, but I'm absolutely drowning.

Even just today I asked a team member to take a ticket because I am overrun dealing with issues. They just floundered and couldn't even be bothered to read release notes to check when a certain fix had been introduced. Threw their hands up in the ticket and told the reporter some bullshit that was way off base. So in the end I just said fuck it give it to me, and I transferred the ticket to our sustaining team. Meanwhile the dude is throwing up constant code reviews made by Claude that I simply do not have enough time to handle.

Even then .. the changes the team makes are so low impact. I asked another engineer if we could investigate some huge improvement I thought of in my head, a new architecture for our stuff that I think could solve many issues we saw. They simply said it can't be done. So I said fuck this, implemented it myself (and got it patented), got business unit buy in and got praised for such a great idea.

I know a lot of people think without them a company will fail, but this is the first time in my career I've felt both completely overwhelmed and drowning and also uniquely in a position where without me we'd actually lose business.

I don't know what the solution is here, so I'm mostly bitching. Had to write this shit down. I have a 1x1 with my manager next week where I need to at least make him aware. I actively feel like I'm drowning.
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This is pretty much my life. For a long time. Which shows how ineffective I am at dealing with it.

Unfortunately, at this point with the job market, I haven't seen any option other than Just Doing It, until I have an signed offer in hand from somewhere else. Which I haven't had much success with at all.
 
Control

Control

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Noodleface said:
this is the first time in my career I've felt both completely overwhelmed and drowning and also uniquely in a position where without me we'd actually lose business.
Click to expand...
If you're right, demand enough money to make the drowning worth it. And right or wrong, it sounds like it's probably time to start poking at the industry competitors. Any spiteful rivalries to leverage? Someone might be happy to take you on just to stick a thumb in your company's eye.
 
moonarchia

moonarchia

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Noodleface said:
Getting so monumentally burnt out recently. It's been coming for a couple years I guess but even more so recently.

I've mentioned it but I am the tech lead for a very large piece of a business critical product. For several generations we were a nice commodity that was supported in a limited number of SKUs, but this generation our support expanded ten-fold (or more, they keep adding SKUs). About 90% of our code is common, but the last 10% can't be due to CPU/chipset differences and hardware differences. The absolute braindead PMs don't talk to each other so they scheduled all of these on top of each other. But that's only a part of the problem really. .
The bigger problem is no one in the company seems to know how to debug problems or get the right people involved. I feel like I am the only person that actually understands the product, what the error conditions translate to, and who should own the fix. Sometimes it's my team, but a lot of times it's not. And debugging this product is very complicated because it's an end-to-end product with pieces in all aspects of the hardware and software. Valuable skill for me, but I'm absolutely drowning.

Even just today I asked a team member to take a ticket because I am overrun dealing with issues. They just floundered and couldn't even be bothered to read release notes to check when a certain fix had been introduced. Threw their hands up in the ticket and told the reporter some bullshit that was way off base. So in the end I just said fuck it give it to me, and I transferred the ticket to our sustaining team. Meanwhile the dude is throwing up constant code reviews made by Claude that I simply do not have enough time to handle.

Even then .. the changes the team makes are so low impact. I asked another engineer if we could investigate some huge improvement I thought of in my head, a new architecture for our stuff that I think could solve many issues we saw. They simply said it can't be done. So I said fuck this, implemented it myself (and got it patented), got business unit buy in and got praised for such a great idea.

I know a lot of people think without them a company will fail, but this is the first time in my career I've felt both completely overwhelmed and drowning and also uniquely in a position where without me we'd actually lose business.

I don't know what the solution is here, so I'm mostly bitching. Had to write this shit down. I have a 1x1 with my manager next week where I need to at least make him aware. I actively feel like I'm drowning.
Click to expand...
Time to retire to the minivan?

Seriously though, where are you on your plans to retire? If this work is mission critical to the company, tell your boss what your new salary is so you can retire in 5 years or less. Tell him you will need the contract with 5 years built in or you will be reevaluating your current role. Your knowledge and skills are flexible enough that you can walk into any competitor's office and start doing the same level of work there for more money and probably a lot less stress.

Talk to your wife. Go through the numbers. Make it happen now while your product is a line item with $$$ riding on it. Best case they smarten up and start getting you competent help so you can knowledge dump onto them before you peace out. Worst case they kill the product off and fire you, which means you can go get something less stressful, and since they still have to support the product for a few more years, they aren't going to fire you before then. You can also stop going above and beyond, though, and let your manager eat any blow back, since it will be the result of his own decision.

You are in an untenable position, and need to change it. So use your leverage to change it.
 
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Noodleface

Noodleface

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Nowhere near retiring. Don't know how old I sound on discord but I'm 42 haha.

Competitors is an interesting thing because while our product is very much our IP, other companies have a similar feature.
 
ShakyJake

ShakyJake

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Noodleface said:
Getting so monumentally burnt out recently. It's been coming for a couple years I guess but even more so recently.

I've mentioned it but I am the tech lead for a very large piece of a business critical product. For several generations we were a nice commodity that was supported in a limited number of SKUs, but this generation our support expanded ten-fold (or more, they keep adding SKUs). About 90% of our code is common, but the last 10% can't be due to CPU/chipset differences and hardware differences. The absolute braindead PMs don't talk to each other so they scheduled all of these on top of each other. But that's only a part of the problem really. .
The bigger problem is no one in the company seems to know how to debug problems or get the right people involved. I feel like I am the only person that actually understands the product, what the error conditions translate to, and who should own the fix. Sometimes it's my team, but a lot of times it's not. And debugging this product is very complicated because it's an end-to-end product with pieces in all aspects of the hardware and software. Valuable skill for me, but I'm absolutely drowning.

Even just today I asked a team member to take a ticket because I am overrun dealing with issues. They just floundered and couldn't even be bothered to read release notes to check when a certain fix had been introduced. Threw their hands up in the ticket and told the reporter some bullshit that was way off base. So in the end I just said fuck it give it to me, and I transferred the ticket to our sustaining team. Meanwhile the dude is throwing up constant code reviews made by Claude that I simply do not have enough time to handle.

Even then .. the changes the team makes are so low impact. I asked another engineer if we could investigate some huge improvement I thought of in my head, a new architecture for our stuff that I think could solve many issues we saw. They simply said it can't be done. So I said fuck this, implemented it myself (and got it patented), got business unit buy in and got praised for such a great idea.

I know a lot of people think without them a company will fail, but this is the first time in my career I've felt both completely overwhelmed and drowning and also uniquely in a position where without me we'd actually lose business.

I don't know what the solution is here, so I'm mostly bitching. Had to write this shit down. I have a 1x1 with my manager next week where I need to at least make him aware. I actively feel like I'm drowning.
Click to expand...
Everything you've said in this post mirrors what I see at my work. Honestly, I think a lot of the problems we bemoan are simply "the way it is" and are common everywhere. It doesn’t reduce the frustration we experience, but the truth is that going somewhere else won’t change a thing.
 
moonarchia

moonarchia

The Scientific Shitlord
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Noodleface said:
Nowhere near retiring. Don't know how old I sound on discord but I'm 42 haha.

Competitors is an interesting thing because while our product is very much our IP, other companies have a similar feature.
Click to expand...
Previous post still stands. You and your wife need to talk and decide how much you would need to retire in 5 years. Divide by 5, and that is your new salary requirement if your boss wants to keep your product running as is. Otherwise you dial back to whatever amount of work you are comfortable doing as 1 person. If that's not enough for the c suite, too fucking bad. You are doing the work of an entire team, so they need to pay you for it, or pay whatever it takes to get you those coworkers so you can have a sane work/life balance.
 
Noodleface

Noodleface

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Control said:
If you're right, demand enough money to make the drowning worth it. And right or wrong, it sounds like it's probably time to start poking at the industry competitors. Any spiteful rivalries to leverage? Someone might be happy to take you on just to stick a thumb in your company's eye.
Click to expand...
For awhile I thought one of my devs could replace me, but after today I realized how far behind me he actually is. Guy can code like no ones business but:
1. He hasnt embraced AI, he simply thinks he writes better code than it.
2. He cannot communicate with people at all. I suspect high functioning autism.
3. He's not willing to put in time to properly diagnose and triage issues. To him I think it's a waste of time because he's not outputting code.
4. His soft skills beyond just communicating are abysmal.

I find my worth is way beyond what code I can output, my impact is at a way bigger almost nebulous scope. Highly intangible from an individual contributor, but very noticeable on the big scale. This has been backed up by management.

Just had this sudden realization today that there is no backup for me, I am the single point of failure. Maybe if I were gone someone could pick up the pieces but I think it would cost the company time and money.
 
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