In the two years I've been here, this company has gone through lots of turnover not only at the individual contributer level, but at the upper management level also. So many people have come and gone, it's hard to grasp. This has led to lots of changes conceptually, technically, and at the product roadmap level. It's been a whirlwind, to say the least.
Shortly after I started, I was told by a manager that the work I was hired to do wasn't going to provide any value (fortunately this person has long since left the company). I was embedded on a team that had little interest in the work I was doing or how I could contribute (fortunately I'm no longer on this team). I've had to abandon work due to initiative changes and lack of interest. Overall I've felt like an outsider that doesn't belong.
I specifically remember one day where all I did was stare at my monitor trying to figure out how to provide value to a team that didn't seem to want my help. Day-to-day was an exercise in anxiety. Imagine not knowing what the next day would bring, or what you'd be doing?
It's been very, very challenging at this company. I've had a lot of sleepless nights (seriously) thinking about my future here, and whether I should quit and move on. But after two previous roles that didn't last more than eight months, I didn't want a third. I had a family to take care of.
Onto current events:
The constant reactionary changes are tiring and lead to a lot of accumulated tech debt. I get being "agile", but we need to focus on longer term goals and actually get time to achieve them. As an engineer there's probably few things worse than working on something and not being able to ship it.
The work is super fast-paced. Everyone seems slammed all the time, to the point where the debt piles up faster than it can be burned off. I'm generally exhausted at the end of the week.
Meetings: Lots of them. Sprint ceremonies, epic kickoffs, design jams, technical design meetings, architecture meetings. I think some weeks I spend about 80 percent of my time in meetings. As an engineer I want to write code and solve problems.
No bonuses of any kind. You get your salary, and that's it. And with the COVID-19 cutbacks in place, you're not getting any raises or promotions.
No real perks right now. We're all remote because of COVID-19, so the fully-stocked kitchen perk is not used. They don't comp your parking or TriMet/mass transit passes. No 401k match currently due to COVID-19 cutbacks.
Our COVID-19 related cutbacks are a bit excessive at this stage in my opinion. It's pretty clear that the legal sector is not facing the same financial issues as other sectors, e.g. hospitality or travel, and the financial outlook is quite good, but we're keeping the cuts in place. These cuts were originally tied to COVID-19 financial fears, and rightly so, but are now being kept in place until we're profitable. With the amount of work that we're all doing and what we're achieving, having these cuts in place really hurts. I imagine it's making it quite challenging for the company to keep people, as well as replace them.
Turnover continues to be high. We've been shown graphs that indicate we're about on par with other tech companies, but it just doesn't feel right. I've never worked at a company where so many people come and go. The turnover basically stopped once COVID-19 hit, but when we were told the cuts we have will remain in place for the foreseeable future, people stated bailing again.
Product seems to have a stranglehold on engineering time. If it's not producing a customer-facing improvement, product is not inclined to take the work on. This has long been a habit here, and has at least partly contributed to the mess that our current applications and infrastructure are in (turnover is another factor, in my opinion). Engineering needs to be able to make its own decisions on how to allocate some of its time and burn down tech debt. Sometimes engineering problems just need to be solved for the sake of engineers, not customers.
