10
GXGOW
4y

It's been two months since I've left my previous job, after 1.5 years. I never had the feeling my boss trusted his dev team, since he was checking up on us regularly, even though we had planned out a sprint and work for us was "clear". I say "clear", because every single feature on this project was pretty much half-baked, since they were just ideas our boss/PO (same person) on the spot and were labeled as "the next big thing" without every properly writing them out as user stories. Every demo came with a bunch of criticism, because features weren't implemented "as he imagined", because what do you know, the user stories weren't properly described anyway. Bringing that up as counter-argument also made him angry every time, so that didn't help much either. The launch of the platform was also postponed every time because of vague reasons, so that didn't make the project any more interesting either.
It took a while before I got sick of this of this pretty hopeless situation and toxic environment. Mind you, it was my first job since I graduated, so I was a bit naive thinking the working environment would improve and aforementioned company issues would be resolved over time. Eventually, I ran out of patience and motivation, so I finally bit the bullet and handed in my resignation letter.
From that moment, I at least had an end in sight, since I was still obliged to do my four-week notice period, which felt like an eternity. The borderline childish and sociopathic behaviour of my boss didn't make it any better (e.g. checking up on me even more, more mistrust, randomly accusing me of ruining the working atmosphere because I shared a meme with a colleague of mine and didn't involve him, going lunching with all of my colleagues but explicitly asking me to stay at work, ...). Being forced to work from home the last 2 weeks as part of the country's lockdown measures at least helped my sanity a bit, since I had the comfort of my home office and not the frequent "looking over your shoulders to check if you're still working".
By the last day of my notice period, I was bitter, exhausted, lost confidence in my skills and had completely lost my joy of being a developer. I had to physically meet with my boss one more time to hand in the company laptop. He thanked me for my service and said that we'd keep in touch. I hope I won't keep that promise (he made a lot of false promises before, too), because I'd rather never encounter him ever again. It felt like a huge relief to finally close the door of this bad experience behind me for good.

Now, 2 months later, I've got a new job and rediscovered my joy for coding, mostly thanks to the complete opposite of a toxic environment here, management which actually has respect and faith in me and a challenging but fun project. My mental state has made a complete turnaround compared to two months ago. I have absolutely no regrets of switching jobs. If only I had made that decision sooner.

Comments
  • 4
    Man, this gives me a lot of hope. I've been dealing with the same from my company for over 3 years. This is the first major job I've had where I could climb the ladder and actually make a respectable living, but it has made me jaded and cynical, and I even wonder sometimes if I have the skills to cut it at another gig because I feel like I've been pigeon-holed within an outdated stack for a while now.

    Happy you moved on to greener pastures! I think this inspires me to look to do the same!
  • 2
    Glad to see the happy ending

    Congrats on the new job!
  • 1
    Glad you made the choice to leave that environment! Never underestimate the impact of a bad work environment on one's mental health.
  • 1
    @T0D0 I know that feeling, I also wasn't that confident in my skills when I started looking for a new job, but you'd be amazed at how some companies are eager to hire you when you're willing to learn new skills, frameworks, etc.
    So don't be afraid to bite the bullet, your situation can only get better. I could've made my decision six months earlier too, if only I stopped deluding myself that this situation was fine and was what I wanted.
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