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Wow... this is the perfect week for this topic.

Thursday, is the most fucked off I’ve ever been at work.

I’ll preface this story by saying that I won’t name names in the public domain to avoid anyone having something to use against me in court. But, I’m all for the freedom of information so please DM if you want to know who I’m talking about.

Yesterday I handed in my resignation, to the company that looked after me for my first 5 years out of university.

Thursday was my breaking point but to understand why I resigned you need a little back story.

I’m a developer for a corporate in a team of 10 or so.

The company that I work for is systemically incompetent and have shown me this without fail over the last 6 months.

For the last year we’ve had a brilliant contracted, AWS Certified developer who writes clean as hell hybrid mobile apps in Ion3, node, couch and a tonne of other up to the minute technologies. Shout out to Morpheus you legend, I know you’re here.

At its core my job as a developer is to develop and get a product into the end users hands.

Morpheus was taking some shit, and coming back to his desk angry as fuck over the last few months... as one of the more experienced devs and someone who gives a fuck I asked him what was up.

He told me, company want their mobile app that he’s developed on internal infrastructure... and that that wasn’t going to work.

Que a week of me validating his opinion, looking through his work and bringing myself up to speed.

I came to the conclusion that he’d done exactly what he was asked to, brilliant Work, clean code, great consideration to performance and UX in his design. He did really well. Crucially, the infrastructure proposed was self-contradicting, it wouldn’t work and if they tried to fudge it in it would barely fucking run.

So I told everyone I had the same opinion as him.

4 months of fucking arguing with internal PMs, managers and the project team go by... me and morpheus are told we’re not on the project.

The breaking point for me came last Wednesday, given no knowledge of the tech, some project fannies said Morpheus should be removed and his contract terminated.

I was up in fucking arms. He’d done everything really well, to see a fellow developer take shit for doing his job better than anyone else in [company] could was soul destroying.

That was the straw on the camels back. We don’t come to work to take shit for doing a good job. We don’t allow our superiors to give people shit in our team when they’re doing nothing but a good job. And you know what: the opinion of the person that knows what they’re talking about is worth 10 times that of the fools who don’t.

My manager told me to hold off, the person supposed to be supporting us told me to stand down. I told him I was going to get the app to the business lead because he fucking loves it and can tell us if there’s anything to change whilst architecture sorts out their outdated fucking ideas.

Stand down James. Do nothing. Don’t do your job. Don’t back Morpheus with his skills and abilities well beyond any of ours. Do nothing.

That was the deciding point for me, I said if Morpheus goes... I go... but then they continued their nonsense, so I’m going anyway.

I made the decision Thursday, and Friday had recruiters chomping at the bit to put the proper “senior” back in my title, and pay me what I’m worth.

The other issues that caused me to see this company in it’s true form:
- I raised a key security issue, documented it, and passed it over to the security team.
- they understood, and told the business users “we cannot use ArcGIS’ mobile apps, they don’t even pretend to be secure”
- the business users are still using the apps going into the GDPR because they don’t understand the ramifications of the decisions they’re making.

I noticed recently that [company] is completely unable to finish a project to time or budget... and that it’s always the developers put to blame.

I also noticed that middle management is in a constant state of flux with reorganisations because in truth the upper managers know they need to sack them.

For me though, it was that developers in [company], the people that know what they’re talking about; are never listened to.

Fuck being resigned to doing a shit job.

Fuck this company. On to one that can do it right.

Morpheus you beautiful bastard I know you’ll be off soon too but I also feel I’ve made a friend for life. “Private cloud” my arse.

Since making the decision Thursday I feel a lot more free, I have open job offers at places that do this well. I have a position of power in the company to demand what I need and get it. And I have the CEO and CTO’s ears perking up because their department is absolutely shocking.

Freedom is a wonderful feeling.

Comments
  • 8
    Geez, glad you got out of there! Onwards and upwards! This is why as time goes on I increasingly get the feeling that all dev work should be handled on an outsource basis to local development houses instead of having in house guys being managed by people who have no idea how the job is supposed to be done.
  • 6
    Though I feel with you, I also really enjoyed reading this. Your writing is good and I hope (and very much think) everything will work out for you. Fuck the corporate world ✊🏻
  • 2
    We are lucky to work in a sector where our skills are in demand and (assuming its the same in your country) there is no reason to stay in a job you don't enjoy. There is no thing as job loyalty or a job for life anymore so we shouldn't pretend there is. Maybe if more devs left when management treat them like dirt companies would realise where the problem really is...
  • 2
    Very well written, sometimes you just have to leave. Judging by what you shared, it sounds like you made the right move!
  • 2
    @zt0ne thanks Bossman, I appreciate it. Definitely, sometimes it’s just time.
  • 2
    Thanks to everyone who’s commented.

    I appreciate all your kind words, and agree with every point made. You’re all awesome and I wish you the best of luck in all of your careers.
  • 2
    Finally found the time to reply to each individual comment.

    @TheCapeGreek I’m of a similar feeling... putting users who don’t know the impact of the decisions they’re making in a position of power is like giving a gun to a babby. They always make the choice that suits their cause.

    I’ve increasingly heard the phrases “I don’t know” and “I don’t see why we cant” from these people but they’re chronically incapable of deferring to the greater knowledge of a lower level employee.

    The ESRI thing is legitimately scary, the whole IT dep have said “nope” but this handful of users and one rat faced, smirking, bellend are continuing to use it because they’ll be in the shit if they stop.

    It has a €20m potential impact on our company.... they’re fucking idiots.
  • 1
    @hash-table cheers brother. If we don’t look out for each other nobody will.

    I’m glad you’ve also taken a strong move to look after someone being mistreated.

    The state of the workplace nowdays is horrific. University lecturers tell me we’re breeding a generation of middle managers and I can see that happening. It sucks.

    Mad respect for yourself taking a stand as well.
  • 2
    @zshh thank you! I grew up ranting about the wrong in the world and still have that skill somewhere in the back of my mind.

    Much respect my friend.
  • 2
    @Jonnyforgotten spot on man!

    I’m in the UK and it’s a developers market just the same as out west where I’d like to be working soon.

    There is no such thing as company or brand loyalty anymore. I see it like stocks and shares, if you don’t diversify you end up potless.

    A few years ago they had a mass layoff event that saw a bunch of cobol devs leave... but they were the guys that actually knew what they were doing. A company only gives value to the word not the decades of experience and knowledge.

    They got out early, I’m jealous but I know that caused them trouble finding work and looking after their families.

    All the while [company] had a smile on their face, trying to spin it as a “streamlining” event which essentially ended up as “saving enough of the budget to keep middle management in a job”.

    Eventually it will be a company of middle managers and no value, someone will undercut them and kick them all out of the market.
  • 2
    I'm updating =] Check here if you're interested in what's happening since:
    https://www.devrant.io/rants/878300
  • 2
    For fucks sake the world is dominated by fucking stupidity, clinical egoism and assholes trying to step on top of others. When I was a kid I thought adults were at least capable to maintain society. Now I'm fucking wondering how is all this mess working out? I mean, almost fucking nobody in management positions actually care for their products, clients, workers and all stuff of real value: all these fuckers want is a higher fucking job position. Omg how could these guys be so retarded? Those mother fuckers ruin everything for fucking nothing of real value. I hope, someday, they end up realising what a shitty life they've been living, and the waste of space and air they've been.
  • 3
    @gitcommit

    So right man, thanks for your support.

    I’m genuinely scared, this generation Lecturers have said there’s been a big shift... most people just want to go into middle management. I think the quote I heard was:
    >you can no longer expect students to learn things for themselves, you have to teach them the absolute basics.

    It sucks, hopefully this wave of fucktards is over soon... if not I’ll be the guy wearing a mask with a dick for a nose in the apocalypse, watch out for me.
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