18
bahua
2y

My old job was great. I was writing automation software for one of the world's biggest storage deployments, and there was always a new challenge. But over time, I was asked to lend a hand with the tedious task of corresponding with procurement vendors and on-site technicians. At first it was one site, then it was two, and then it was an entire region of the US, spread across two time zones I'm not in.

I hated that work, and I found that I didn't have time anymore for software development, because of the time commitment the logistics work was. I was never hired to do logistics work, I was never trained, never qualified, and as I said, I hated it. I agreed to it to temporarily help out a weakness due to a shortage in staffing. But it never got taken off my plate, except for a short stint toward the end, just before I was placed on a PIP, because surprise surprise-- I'm bad at logistics.

About halfway through the PIP, I told my boss I wasn't doing it anymore. I said he could either put me back on software development or let me go, if ticket-monkeying and phone calls is the direction the wind is blowing for our team. I told him I had no intention of resigning, as you are not eligible for unemployment or severance if you resign, so their choice was to let me go. I'm told by people who are still there that everybody on the team is a ticket-jockey button-pusher now. Bleh.

My wife and I sold our old condo in Kansas City earlier in the summer, so we had about a year's worth of cushion, which was why I was willing to be let go. I was profoundly unhappy in my work, and it was bleeding through to my relationship with my wife and kids. So I took advantage of the time between jobs by spending more time with my family and just generally becoming a happier person again.

Meanwhile, I was in no desperate hurry to find a new job, so I got on linkedin, and had no more than two irons in the fire at a time. After just over two months I got an offer for a better job than before, which I accepted. There wasn't anything remarkable about that process though-- it's just something I've gone through recently.

Comments
  • 3
    Nice story. Good to hear you are in a better place now. I had a similar experience. Lots of support and internal consultations. Hardly got any development done.

    What is a PIP by the way?
  • 7
    @hjk101

    It stands for Performance Improvement Plan. It's designed to create a context against which firing an employee appears reasonable and justified, to mitigate the legal damage from what could be called a wrongful termination.
  • 1
    Nice. Sometimes getting fired can be good!
  • 3
    By purely greedy reasoning, it is very weird that companies would shift hard-to-find dev employees to a very non-dev position. I mean, it makes a wee sense since we are trained to identify and optimize routine activities, but there are thousands of bussAdmin graduates that could do it just as well. And they love to tediously talk to analog people all day.
    Seems like the company just did not want to improve anymore and was too lazy to just fire you. Is that a fitting short version of the story?
  • 4
    I think it was an effort to reduce headcount. Because yes, I was paid far more than what the position became would reasonably demand.
  • 1
    @JsonBoa I suspect not that uncommon. Been at two places that have done the same.
    And a place I’m at now, I’ve not seen anyone do more than a mornings worth of code over almost 3 months, it’s ridiculous.
  • 0
    @TrevorTheRat , if you're staying for the money, invest it all on improving your tech and stay alert for a better opportunity. If money is not a life-or-death situation, GTFO. You can improve yourself and ba paid for it elsewhere. Just be sure to plan your exit beforehand.
    Those dev-snuffing companies exist mostly because people are scared of change. We can smack them back by getting bolder and moving shamelessly.
  • 1
    @JsonBoa I’m not that interested in the money but it is a lot so I want to move without too much of a cut.
    I’m looking for options. Massively disappointed but if this first three months is an indication of working here then it doesn’t suit me and I’ve made a very bad move.
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