Zabardasti ke levels hain, kal Tak vo mera L1 tha, aaj L2. Ho gaya,

Software Developer

See if you can become his L2 by next week. 🙂 
  
 Jokes apart, if you have decided to leave you can be ignorant about petty little things. Do what keeps you invested, and say no for other things.

Growth Manager

Fellow engineers, as the title suggests, here is some brief : my L1 has the same exp as me in terms of total yoe, just that he is an older employee of my current company, writes shitty code, is an ...

Welcome to Software Engineers's Private Community

Fellow engineers, as the title suggests, here is some brief : my L1 has the same exp as me in terms of total yoe, just that he is an older employee of my current company, writes shitty code, is an average engineer, same with L2, average engineer, even worse manager, and I am kind of stuck beneath them and I think my growth and learning is stagnated now.

I do understand that switching the job is one way, but I gotta survive meanwhile.

I just had a one on one with my L2, it brought out no outcome.

Please guide me,

How do you deal with incompetent managers ?

How do you deal with incompetent managers ?- Grapevine

I am working as a Software Engineer and aspiring to get promotion to Senior Software Engineer.
My manager who use to support me went on a sabbatical, now my team is getting changed for second time in 3 months and the team I was working in from 1 year and wanting to be Team Lead of is sidelining me as I will be moving to new team now. It’s getting tough for me to take lead of anything and people around are not supportive of me being Team Lead even after knowing I am capable of it.. What should I di, should I just keep head down and wait for manager to return and rant to him or just keep poking everyone and snatch ky rights of Team Lead and stay in same team and refuse to change team

What to do when getting sidelined as an SSE?

Welcome to Office Gossip's Private Community

Currently working for Foreign Startup, under a Indian Engineering Manager.

Manager is incompetent, doesn't like disagreemets. If you disagree with him, then he goes to length to make your life diffult. Already seen few examples in the team. 

There are red flag all over the place. I'm not sure how upper management is not able to catch him. He does the politics, favoritism, etc...

List goes on and on. Any help would be appreciated.

P.S Don't want to leave the company in this market.

How to Deal with Toxic Manager

Software Engineer

My story -
So I switched to a startup last year. I was initially super excited in solving problems. Asking questions and just being curious about everything in general.
   Then, some incidents of my manager's behavior and team folks has turned me into a person who is so fucking afraid of now asking questions, doing tasks. My stakeholder communication sometimes I miss on, some things that seem to be pretty obvious had I been my competent self of previous organization, I am missing out on.
   I don't communicate well simply because I don't want to face my current manager and team. There's huge disconnect as well. I am not at all excited to work everyday. 
 
My friend was miserable in my previous org but now after switch he's damn happy and doing good!

I want to know if this is something that happens with you all? Or are you all like you fit in everywhere?
Or is it just My problem and my incompetence? Because I am always reminiscing my past org and my performance there was exceptional!

Has anyone ever faced a situation where you perform excellent in some org but not in another?

Consultant

What to do if your manger is incompetent??

Welcome to Indian Startups's Private Community

As the title suggests, does it make sense to talk about a colleagues’s inability to deliver to my manager. The colleague’s incompetence to take ownership is very evident now to everyone and the manager is not taking any steps on it. Others have to basically cleanup and babysit him. Worse part, this colleague gets paid the highest in the team. At this point it’s just breeding resentment across the team. How to handle this situation? Any tips. Early stage startup, the manager is part of the founding team.

Should you confront your manager about a colleague’s incompetence?

Do not get involved. Try to minimise your own additional work due to that colleague. In one-to-one meeting with manager, let the manager know. Use the words: I just wanted to bring your attention to one more matter. Then describe the challenges that you face. Not your team. Do not gang up, do not conspire or collaborate. Do not mention about how other colleagues feel the same way. If your manager takes a negative opinion of these activity, you'll be fucked, because such a thing would create a negative impression. If the manager is not inclined to go by your judgement of your colleague's competence, you'll lose face. But it's much easier to control the narrative and restore your manager's confidence in you in a one-on-one conversation, than when it's a group mutiny. No matter what others tell you, do not get encouraged. People often sound like they're with you, but they often are not. They won't back their statements, and you'll be alone holding the bag. And moreover, if you stay out of it, you'll be able to carry the high ground of being above the fray, out of politics, and being balanced. Don't do netagiri of this sort. Conserve it for initiatives for which getting consensus is harder. It might be possible that you're the only one feeling so strongly about it. Then you may be in need of a weekend, or someone to vent to, or even therapy. But get your hate in check.

Product Manager

Generalist

Working as an SDE2 right now. Got promoted recently. Motivation to work is at an all-time low. Feels like I am stuck in a rat race. Is this normal? I see senior engineers in my team and frankly, I don't want to end up like them in the next few years. Immense respect for their skills and what they bring to the table, but I don't see myself doing that. I have a few options to consider:

Bucket 1
Keep grinding at my current role
Decent growth (career and money)
Stable life, certainity
Low Risk, Moderate Reward

Bucket 2
Coast at current role
Look for a switch (preferably outside India)
Make a lot of money
Basically, follow this and keep climbing the ladder
Boring AF

Bucket 1 and Bucket 2 can probably be merged, keeping them separate as it is very different in reality.

Bucket 3 (The Interesting Bucket)
Coast at current role
Build micro-SaaS solutions, contribute to open source, build problem solving attitude
Startup someday
Could result in slow growth, might end up wasting a few years.

The real constraint? I have to support a family. All expenses. We have no other income source at this point. Taking any risk with income is a big deal for me.

Just ranting here. I am not expecting a clear pick. Just looking for more opinions on what I am thinking, and maybe understand if I am overthinking.

What should I do next?

Welcome to Product Managers's Private Community

I’ve been insufferable at work since 2-3 months now. Total time at my company- 6mo 21 days. Profile - Product Management 
My engineering team seems to be taking no ownership and always have their brahmastra ready that it didn’t come from product’s side. QA again is so great that I have to sit and thoroughly test each release end to end. 
My manager- he’s quite interested in taking my career fwd as a project manager. (I am not) He’s a total asshole and is quite concerned with start dates and end dates of tasks ( mind you, I am not the one actually writing the code but somehow the dates are my responsibility). He totally micromanages and somehow keeps blaming me for each small thing.
Examples:
- My engg team isn’t taking ownership: “you aren’t keeping them motivated enough”
- This isn’t a last minute change : “Do you attend standups? You aren’t communicating well”
- The QA tested and approved it, hence we released it. : “But did you test it? “
- Here are the release notes. : “This looks too jazzy, did you copy from GPT”
- Here are the release notes. : “This looks too basic, did you not copy from GPT”

I could go on forever. 

Gust: I am quite unhappy and is causing me unnecessary stress everyday. Also I don’t feel there’s a solution possible

Should I rage quit?

So I’ve been working as a Backend Software Engineer. Recently, my manager left the company and I’ve been assigned a new manager. Not to boast but I’m decent at my job and able to find better solutions than my peers, my old manager ignited this passion for problem solving in me. This new manager is really toxic he pass comments on my colleagues (Same level as me) you have short term memory loss, badam khaya kro and shit! He’s always chasing girls in office. There is one girl in my team he acts like a different person in front of her (although she treats him really bad because she thinks he’s a creep). So a few days back, I was working on something with some other manager who knew the context to the problem (there is an internal npm package my company has which only few developers have contributed to, I recently made my contribution to that package) and this new manager has never made any contribution to that package so he started telling the other manager that this guy(Says my name) is very slow and the other managers defends me instantly saying he’s the fastest in the team. I’m really pissed tho.

I want to do something about this guy. He has been doing such things for past month and always tells the sob story of how much he has struggled in life.

Need suggestions on how to tackle this?

PS: I’ve asked my parents if I can resign they are fine with it but I don’t want to resign in this bad market without an offer

Toxic Manager…Need Suggestions?

I kind of like the job but not my manager. Bcoz of that I am not able to work properly and my performance is also getting affected. What to do? Any ideas

Job or Manager??

The one who
- Keeps nagging with status updates
- Pushes you to achieve a goal which is merely quantitative & not qualitative
- Appreciates employees that show ‘first-benchers’ trait
- Junks your ideas to satisfy his own ego
- Pretends busy all the time

Comment your experience dealing with such Managers.

Narrate your story dealing with Micromanagers

Software Architect

Hey, 

I am a SWE with 2 yrs exp. recently I found out that juniors in my team are being paid atleast 10% more than me. This thing has been bugging me so much that I setup a meeting with my manager but here’s the thing- I have no idea how to talk about this to my manager. I obviously think it’s unfair given how much more work I am doing. 
Can experienced people here please guide me on how to approach this meeting?

Thanks!

Junior coworker getting paid more than me.

Just break the ice. Start by, “ Hi…. Sorry for the unplanned meeting but I want to talk about my compensation.”

UX/UI Designer

So I interviewed with a company two months ago, after all the formalities were done, I received a response from the HR that I have cleared all the rounds. But the requirements for the position they were hiring me for suddenly changed and they asked me to wait for a while until a new position positions opens up matching my tech stack. At that time I was about to be released from a project in my current company so getting the notice period reduced to 2 months was not that much of a hassle. 
Today, the HR called me again telling me that a new position has been opened up and if I am available to join I can join. My official period is of 90 days and now I have been allocated to a new project in my current company.
I have been wanting to switch since so long because of variety of reasons. But the problem now is the notice period in my current company. The HR is very strict about joining within the 60 days but I am not getting any vibe that my current manager is going to reduce my notice period.

Please suggest if there are any ways out of it.

Thanks in advance!!

How to get the notice period reduced?

For the past two years, I have been working as a software engineer at a service-based company. In this type of organization, employees are often assigned to different projects over time.

Currently, my manager, who also serves as the team lead, has been engaging in excessive micromanagement. They seem to be nitpicking and closely scrutinizing nearly every aspect of my work, which I find to be a very frustrating and stifling experience.

This level of micromanagement has made me feel uncomfortable and hindered my ability to work effectively. I am now considering changing jobs, as I believe this working environment is not conducive to my professional growth and development.

Given the challenges I'm facing with my manager's approach, I am wondering if it would be a good decision to seek employment elsewhere. I am contemplating this move in order to find a work environment that is better aligned with my needs and allows me to thrive as a software engineer.

My manager is overly focused on minor details and nitpicking my work.

As everyone knows that zomato is now hiring 800 employees after two months of a mass layoff, and exit of senior profiles like VP and CTO.

Let me tell you the truth about the founder. He is an opportunist. He doesn't give a shit about the culture or any employee. The company is built on the death of many riders and cheating with low-wage workers.

Timing- Isn't it a bit weird that a company that did a mass layoff two months back is now hiring? Seeing that many employees got laid off from the top-tier company. It is a great time to employ smart folks as the hiring competition in the market is at its lowest. Or the mass layoff that happened previously was planned with the thought of hiring again next year with very little competition and desperate candidates. 

Layoff: In zomato, it's hire and fire culture. I have seen many of my friends leave even after performing well. Honestly, sometimes I don't even feel human. It's expected from employees to start their day early and go late at night. If you want to leave early (around 6 or 7), you should have a solid reason for doing that. Here code release happens late at night due to less traffic. So it's expected of you to be available all the time.

Incompetent Managers- I have worked with two managers here. Both know the existing system as they were once an IC building that system. The issue with these people is that they grew up the ladder because they were the only ones left behind in the team. They lack real-world system knowledge. I have previously worked at amazon, and I know the team lead level there. But here it's like jo ruk gaya vo raja hai. It's hard to work with these people as they lack proper estimations of the projects and at the end of the day. The ICs have to face the wrath of the product teams.

People who are planning to join the company. Please do join, as working 24/7 you would learn a lot in a very short period of time. Also, the culture is team dependent, so you might get a team with chill environment.

Reality check at Zomato

Founder

Currently have 10years of experience and am at cross roads of next steps in career. Need help from senior folks here to know pros and cons on either directions I have a chance to move up the ladder

Want to know career opportunities say next 10-20 years and pay as well. 

As for me, love hands on tech but scared how long can I sustain the mojo. 

People management wise not bad but need to learn many steps in there to become great.

If it’s of any help current TC: 60L

Engineering Manager route v/s Staff/ Principal Software Engineer

I'm feeling really stuck and frustrated at work lately. Despite putting in my best efforts and consistently performing well, it seems like my manager is feeling threatened by my progress. He’s been rejecting my ideas and work without even reviewing them, and calling me out in meetings for not completing non-priority tasks. The environment has become really toxic and it's taking a toll on me. Has anyone experienced something similar? How did you handle it? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Feeling frustrated at work

Hey guys
Got Piped and laid off by my toxic manager giving bullshit reason. The manager was giving random excuses when i asked in details. Anyways toxic people will do toxic things only. On the top of that phonepe was giving PIP to reduce experienced people and was hiring junior engineers to reduce costs.

Finally got a job after few months of efforts. Not that great but I am feeling great to get out of that toxicity. I am feeling better since I left phonepe. When I call my friends back at phonepe, I see them casually mentioning there is too much work I will do on weekend, will sit at night. That's how overworking in normalized. I was also doing the same before and didn't think twice how much I am working.

I Will keep on preparing and would not leave my future in hands of my future or any manager from now on.

Got Laid off. Got a job. Fu** off Phonepe

Though it’s great you got rid-off toxic manager, I would suggest you to reflect back if there were any short comings on your side. If not, it can become a chapter for you to identify toxicity early. If yes, learn from mistake and never to repeat it again. Sometimes, we miss the opportunity to learn from experiences.

You know those type of people? The ones who believe they know everything, everyone else is beneath them, but in reality are extremely stupid?

The ones who will never admit they are wrong even if you show them why? The ones who will try to demean you at every step of the way cause it gives them pleasure? The ones who you just want to punch as soon as you see them in office?

Yeah, I know you’re thinking about atleast one person while reading this. My question is what has your strategy been in dealing with these people? 

So far in my journey, I haven’t faced any sadistic manager, so that has been great, but the people, my god, some of the tech guys in my teams have been absolutely the most frustrating human beings I’ve encountered.

Ofcourse the first thing to do is to take a step back and reevaluate whether if it is you who has been the actual asshole all along, but after that, if you are still convinced that the other person is nothing but the living embodiment of satan, how do you guys go about dealing with them?

How do you guys deal with annoying assholes at work

I'm not sure who needs to hear this, but I’m briefly sharing my experience! I have around 3YOE in software development. Previously, I worked at a large product-based company, where everything was fine except for the salary and hikes, which didn't meet my expectations. So, I decided to switch jobs and ended up at a consulting start-up-like firm with a small product development team (about 15 people inc myself), receiving a decent 50% raise. This is my first job switch. The working style between the two companies is significantly different (5 days WFO, only formal attire, 10 hr working as the norm, etc.). I've noticed a few odd things.

->It’s my third month in this company, and I admit I’m a bit of a slow performer. It’s taking me time to understand their applications, pick up the pace, and get up to speed. My assigned tasks are falling behind deadlines, while my co-workers are able to complete theirs on time. I acknowledge this, and I’m working on improving and catching up.

->In meetings and scrum calls, I’m getting yelled at when my tasks don't progress. If I hit a roadblock and ask my manager or the lead for help, instead of getting the support I need, I’m hit with questions like, "We've implemented the same feature in other applications without any issues—why are you the only one facing these doubts or blockers?" or "If xyz (a colleague who joined with me but has less experience) is getting their tasks done, why are you the only one struggling with these doubts or blockers?"

->Frequent UI-UX changes and sudden shifts in implementation, whenever they feel like it, are quite confusing for me and result in a lot of rework. However, these ad-hoc changes are never acknowledged, and the effort spent on reworking isn't captured anywhere. When I mention that I've worked on these changes, they respond by questioning why I need time for them, as if my code will magically handle everything on its own,apne ap hojayega!

-> I am questioning my abilities after coming to this team, whether I am the right fit or not. Very harsh comments are passed right in front of my face: Other team mates say to me that "You are Lucky in this team! This much leverage the management has never given to me or others, they are baring you even if your tasks are not moving ahead!", In 1-on-1 my manager is saying ki "I don't know, this much leverage and patience we have never shown to anyone"(its hardly 2.5m after joining), "I don't know what to say, other team mates are asking me(to my manager) if he(ie me) can do lesser work ,we are performing way higher why do you have problems with us! This creates problems in teams". He further added "Comparison shouldn't be made, but xyz is also newly joined but he picked up, but I don't have confidence in you to give any task and feel you will accomplish it!"

->When I ask my co-workers casual questions or try to have a small interaction, their responses are things like, "Oh, do we really have to explain all this?" or "What do you want this time? Why are you eating my head?" It's a small team of 14-15 people, and they all sit together and go for coffee or lunch, but no one includes me or talks to me. I know this isn't directly related to work, and it shouldn't matter, but I just wanted to express how uncomfortable the air is around me.

-> Even though xyz’s work has several bugs and coding standard mismatches, it’s brushed off as normal. But when it comes to my work, it’s heavily scrutinized. My manager even created a group with a tester where, every day, I have to update what feature I implemented and log the hours I spent on it. The tester then immediately tests it and flags bugs on the same day. This testing happens alongside my development, even before my code is pushed to production. It feels like my manager has completely lost trust in me, and now, every hour of my work is under a microscope.

Some of you might be managers—how do you handle folks in their first few months of joining? How do you handle someone who performs slow? I’m constantly improving, and compared to previous sprints, my tasks are getting better, but before I can even take a breath, I’m hit with these comments that make me feel dumb. The phrases I’ve included in quotes are actual words I hear daily, and I've only mentioned a few of them. Is this how corporate life works? Is it normal to be treated like this, or should I feel privileged that I haven't been fired yet? Should I be setting boundaries when it comes to receiving such intense criticism? I’m not sure what to do. No matter how much I push myself to improve, it feels like they expect me to perform at 200kph, and I just can’t keep up. I feel completely inadequate and dumb.

Thanks for reading all the way through...

Can I get scolded in corporate? Or set boundaries. Long post but if you read till end i would be happy!

fck this culture. this is a definition of a toxic startup, which most Indian startups are

How do you deal with incompetent managers ?

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