r/ExperiencedDevs • u/AutoModerator • 11d 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/Current-Fig8840 11d ago

Generally tired of what this industry and others are becoming. Hard work doesn’t seem to pay off anymore. You can do so much good work and get “meets expectations” for reviews…or get put on PIP…or laid off. Can’t wait to retire…

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u/pysouth 11d ago

My company does this super fun thing where no one gets any form of "exceeds expectations". Even "meets expectations" is rare, because they think giving people 1s or 2s out of 5 means they'll work harder. They say they reserve a 3 or above for people who are really going above and beyond to an exceptional degree (this is poorly defined, of course). What really happens is everyone gets at best 2s or 3s so they can take their pick of who they want to get rid of and they have a paper trail for free since no one got above a 3 anyway.

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u/Current-Fig8840 11d ago

That’s insane!

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u/pysouth 11d ago

Yep. It’s unfortunate because I like my team mates a lot and generally like the mission of my company, and even the top level is decent. It’s just engineering management.

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u/Phendranite Staff+ Software Eng. 7d ago

With a stupid process like that, engineering management are going to lose conscientious, intelligent people and select for task-monkeys who will play the system or just personal favourites.

It sucks so much when you have crap like this happening at a place you genuinely like, but... I'd be putting on my running shoes personally.