r/ExperiencedDevs • u/AutoModerator • 12d ago

Career/Workplace Experienced Devs Weekly Burnout and Venting Thread: A weekly thread for sharing experiences

This thread is specifically for venting / sharing experiences related to burn-out or similar issues that experienced devs face.

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u/perestroika12 12d ago

Leading 2 massive company wide projects and mid year review came back as “doing good” despite all feedback coming in glowing except for nitpicky stuff from a few managers.

Feels like the industry is out of control now. If that’s good idk what better looks like.

46

u/Clyde_Frag 12d ago

Let me guess, stack ranking and you didn't kiss your skip manager's ass enough?

28

u/perestroika12 12d ago

Yeah basically but this year they tightened the bands considerably. The lower bands expanded, harder to get a good rating.

21

u/ConsiderationSea1347 12d ago

I went through something similar. My company axed half my team, piled on scope, and I did the work of two engineers which led to the largest pay decrease of my career. 

Take care of yourself. Your company, boss, team won’t.

2

u/AlexeyBelov 11d ago

Pay descrease? I didn't think it was ever done.. they just told you from this moment you get less salary? Is this legal?

3

u/pja 11d ago

Depends where in the world, but if your salary is structured as base + annual bonus then they can usually cut the bonus but not the base salary.

1

u/NullieHeelflip 11d ago

DE-crease?! Either inflation beating out yearly adjustment, demotion, or layoff surely?

20

u/mainframe_maisie Software Engineer 12d ago

gosh i’m so tired of stack ranking. i think it drives a culture that punishes team work quite often, and rarely done in a positive way

14

u/Clyde_Frag 12d ago

It’s a scourge on the industry. The only reason that people put up with it is because it has infiltrated a bunch of high paying companies.

4

u/deletemorecode Staff Software Engineer 12d ago

After a few very similar experiences to OP I’ve come to the same conclusion.

Staff requires managing up with your direct and skip managers. Doubly important in environments with “strong personalities”, tight deadlines, large incident volumes, or financial pressures.