Where to begin?
-Senior management in Cape Town are incredibly immature, often seeking to solidify their own careers at the expense of juniors. Some senior developers have never actually been in sprint and only spend their time pointing out mistakes instead of assisting. They often end up holding grudges against the junior in the process. Public displays of anger are very common and normally followed by loud, aggressive, very public reprimands.
-With the exception of a few, senior developers in the US are a nightmare to deal with. Do not respond to emails or IMs, do not perform code reviews on time so you have to work late consistently to meet deadlines.
-Promises are made to clients but somehow do not filter down to the engineering team until a few weeks before deadline then everyone needs to scramble to get things done.
- There is the problem of tech decisions being made in the US and everyone present failing to loop in the Cape Town team who must either implement,maintain or uphold such decisions. These things normally come as a surprise as you work on something that consistently breaks for a reason you cannot find out.
-There is the consistent comparison to other developers and the consistent fear for the security of your job. It is not uncommon to be asked why you don't code more like so and so. No attempt is made to actually help you to get to so and so's supposedly superior level. Note that after I decided to interview with other companies, two of them said I was so good they doubled my starting salary.
-There is the problem of too few Indians and very many chiefs. Transitioning to a different project involves multiple stressful disputes at the managerial level that often unnecessarily include the developer.
-HR policies to protect minorities are not enforced. E.g there was an employee who refused to learn the names of black employees but consistently "mistook" them for the other black employees.
-A large body of knowledge about the system is concentrated in the US and often one must slay giants to get the information they need to successfully complete a task. Generally, the US office employees cannot be bothered with sharing the necessary information and maintain a "superior" attitude towards the Cape Town office employees.
-Salaries are below market standard and the advantageous-sounding OKR bonus is heavily taxed and does not equate to having a market standard salary.
