41–50 of 74 posts
- immoral projects I didn't want to work on
- personal life decisions (long leave) and boring project
- company closed
- couldn't stand being oncall and had a lot of pressure outside of the job, leading to fast and bad choices
- ah, and yes, Ar$eholes, I had those too, but only once out of 7 jobs.
I nowadays don't even care that much about the technology I am dealing with, but things like a hostile environment (not only to me, but even if it is only affecting the cleaning lady), stupid jokes, misogynistic behavior, etc. from co-workers make the time at work a drag and I start to fight it involuntarily.
And some behavior from levels above me, e.g. irrational or unpredictable behavior, egoistic actions, taking credit for other's achievements, or double standards, etc. can break the sweetest deal for me. I can not take this anymore, it stresses me out and makes me hate my life so I need to go.
The simplest yet hardest thing is to understand that the culture at a company won't ever change, even if most people change. You would have to swap the whole org. It is simpler and faster for you to move on and find a better place.
I've been at this longer than you and the consistent fault of most tech-minded is they 2x the value of technology over people / team / leadership. It's the other way around, at least. Tech and associated skills are easy. People? That's the hard part.
Once the understanding of reality is off-target everything that follows is misguided. And there is a lot of misguided efforts in tech.
1) You not alone in your experience and how you feel. So don't worry about that.
2) Read up on leadership. Become the leader you wish you had.
3) Read up on comms. Even if those around don't do it well, sharpening your communication skills - including listening - is a life skill that will never go bad.
Relationships are governed by faith. Corps hire random people from different faiths, religions, families, country backgrounds, different individual goals and different abilities. There's no corrective mechanism to make people see the same destination, the same dream, eye-to-eye.
A corp of mercenaries isn't united around anything, except the dream of getting paid. The fastest way to sink a competitive team is to turn on one-another. Just turn the other cheek on assholes and go straight for the target.
Otherwise management can try and fake unity/peace with a code of conduct.
Not in my experience - any time I've wanted to move it's been because I've felt that I'm underpaid, or that I'm not learning / making any career progress, or because I wanted to work on different kinds of problems. It's never been the people, people have been great, it's mostly [job description / organisational problems / lack of progress / lack of learning / salary].
don’t those problems come back to people though ?
HR always say "People don't leave jobs; they leave managers." That is, in my opinion, a cop out. I've worked for brilliant managers in great teams - and left because the business wasn't able to support my growth. Or because the company was ethically dodgy. Or because they just couldn't pay enough. And, yeah, sometimes I've left because of a bad boss or grim team members - but that's been a rarity. But, at the end of…
That is, pretty much everything you mentioned - in the context of a team / company - traces back to your manager (directly or indirectly).
Perhaps some of your managers weren't as completely good as you think? That's not a knock, just a question.
HR always say "People don't leave jobs; they leave managers." That is, in my opinion, a cop out. I've worked for brilliant managers in great teams - and left because the business wasn't able to support my growth. Or because the company was ethically dodgy. Or because they just couldn't pay enough. And, yeah, sometimes I've left because of a bad boss or grim team members - but that's been a rarity. But, at the end of…
Nihilist by day, family man by night?
Come on.
Genuine question: What else would it be? Companies are just groups of people. Anything you like or dislike about a company is always, ultimately, about people (whether that is management, peers, clients, support staff, etc).
There are loads of things other than people being arseholes. You're probably already typing "but all those things are because someone is an arsehole!". That's not what OP is talking about.
It's usually people. Sometimes it's opportunity. But it's usually people.
I've ended up with a lot of thoughts on the topic, but I'm not sure how best to convey them, so I'm doing to rant in dot points:
- People rarely leave because of technical decisions. Most people are appeased when you can explain the rationale, even if they disagree
- Good leaders make or break an organisation. They inspire people, they give them a cause to rally behind. A lack of good leaders will kill culture within a year
- Good leaders own problems and will find a way to solve them, they won't accept the status quo
- Bad leaders will tell you why a problem is not their fault, and do nothing to fix it
- Good leaders need good leaders - it starts at the top. A good CEO will change your worldview
- Good leaders-of-leaders know everything is kind of fucked, and appreciate leaders who are actually trying to improve things, without expecting they're going to get everything right
- Leaders need to really believe in their cause. People know when you're faking it
- Culture is not a by-product. It's the product. You work hard to create a good culture, and it can disappear very quickly. Building good culture is how you build good teams. You can't work around a bad culture
- Most of being a good leader is just turning up. Be there for your people, listen to them, try to make their lives better. Make time for them. Show them you care
- Regardless of all of this, people will leave. Sometimes because the company isn't a good fit, sometimes because they're at a different point in their career. Attrition is healthy, you just need to keep a pulse on whether it's happening for unhealthy reasons
In summary: yes, it's pretty much always people. Building software is easy. Building a healthy work environment is hard. Most people focus on the easy problem.