11–20 of 46 posts
Definitely gonna be finding a new job soon. But for now, it pays the bills and I have other stuff to keep my mind off it when I'm not here.
I was never really a fan of working in general. Like why would I want to have to be at a certain place every day (even if that place is my home office) and have to work on my employers problems? And even if I enjoy programming to some extent, 8 hours a day for 48-50 weeks a year is just way too much. That said, I'm thankful my job pays decently and that allows me to do the things I enjoy.
Same, I like programming and its alright helping others solve their problems, but 8 hours per day is just too much if I’m being honest. If it didnt pay well, I would be doing something less complex and more tactile.
(no affiliation, shorter work week advocate)
Nah. Coworker gave his two week notice today after being out for 2.5 months (and only actually being in the office for like 3 weeks after being hired) and my boss is a lunatic with no management or communication skills. I've been told a "moral lesson" of going ahead of schedule being a bad thing too many times to count. Definitely gonna be finding a new job soon. But for now, it pays the bills and I have other stuff…
What kills me is the relentless manner in which work attempts to make inroads into my personal time. I hate late-night meetings, especially those that start beyond 11 pm. I hate the fact that most of my co-workers are online and working well past bedtime, and on most weekends. I hate that most think nothing of installing the office messenger app on their personal phones to "be more available". The (pre WFH) office commute, while it was a pain, was an effective moat between work and home. WFH has since brought down that moat.
The other thing that gets my goat is the "peg yourself at 100% CPU all the time" culture that Agile has fostered. Before Agile took over my world, I found that my best ideas came during downtime, when I was able to explore the codebase and play with it. There's no downtime at work anymore.
What keeps me going is the fact that I need the money.
I can give the most basic instructions, describe exactly how to do something, even go so far as to show how to do it, and yet I still have key individuals who will stare at me blankly and then ask me to repeat myself multiple times... And then when I come back to check up on them, they've messed everything up, totally disregarding everything I've said/showed them.
My boss expects me to hand-hold, but this is not doable. I can't hover over people 24/7 when, even with no regard as for how they do things, they still can't manage to get things done in a timely manner. They've all been trained time and time again, so it's not like they haven't been shown how to do things and what the expectations are. Most of the freight has been run by management for months now because of this, and I'm almost at wits end. But with the current state of things, finding competent workers is nearly impossible, and keeping them is even more difficult when they see the absurdities around them.
So far I've managed to cope by living moment to moment. When I work on something, I do my best to tune everything else out. I try to get in the 'flow', losing myself while I work mindlessly. Each day is still getting harder, however.
I feel very fortunate, after having worked for many years in less satisfactory positions. I am motivated by a connection with my colleagues, and our shared commitment to the success of our company. I am grateful that I can be part of something I believe in and provide for my family.
It helps that our company is transparent, equitable, and trying to be a force for good in the world while also running an effective business. We are geared toward long term sustainability much more than short term benefits, and it seems to be paying off.
I've been at my current job for over a year and a half, and it hasn't felt like a grind at all. Any time I am not in the mood to work, or have familial obligations, or I'm tired, or not feeling well, it is strongly encouraged that I take a break. Everyone brings their best and whole selves to work, and I see myself working there for years to come.
I started out as a developer. I learned how to build web stuff, I built massive global systems, I designed and built a successful product, then I got bored.
I then became a team lead, then led multiple teams, then defining company wide engineering processes, then I got bored.
I then became a product manager. I grew a product to success, moved into growth marketing, and then got bored again.
I then led an innovation group, a cross functional team of developers, designers, marketers, customer service, etc. We did some cool stuff, then I got bored again.
I became convinced I could no longer work a corporate job. I started a few solo tech businesses with some success. I developed the MVPs, talked to customers, got some initial growth, and then I got bored.
I haven't worked at all in about a year. I've been focusing on my personal well being. I've been investing in hobbies and other personal things. It was a nice change of pace. I'm starting to get bored again.
Now I'm thinking about going back to corporate life, getting a product manager or engineering leadership job, and just half assing it like everyone else, so I have energy to also devote seriously to myself.
Who knows how that will go.
What really keeps me interested in this job is the field work. Periodically I'll need to travel to the customer's facility, and that work is much more hands on. I'll often be "debugging" with a multimeter and screwdriver, on my knees or back in an electrical panel, or making code fixes that I can see affecting moving machine parts right in front of me.
It's one thing to work on something like traditional software which only directly changes stuff on a computer screen, but I get I get awfully bored and disinterested without some "real", physical results of my work. From what I've learned speaking to others and reading here, I'm not alone. To be honest I don't think I would last for very long at any job without being able to work with my hands.