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I don't understand how my managers suddenly forgot that my "down weeks" we're due to technical debt I inherited. The whole on boarding hasn't been in my favor. I've stayed at work everyday til long after work hours, digging through code, trying to get JIRA tickets done, encountering issues specific to our code base that no one would ever discover on their own without docs/help from the original dev. The whole time, I was told that they know what's going on and apologize. I constantly expressed that plenty of what we were doing was building on antipatterns. They acknowledged. When a ticket wasn't done, they always knew the very specific reason and I wasn't faulted. 6 months in, I receive a great annual review. 7 months in? I receive an email titled "Performance Discussion," detailing 4 of those incidents where a ticket was pushed back -- with inaccurate depictions of what actually went down. They actually wrote that I didn't communicate. One part of the report expressed that there were "bugs found in production due to inadequate test coverage." WTF!! Everything made it past code review and QA. What are you talking about?? In fact, the person who wrote that merged my code in each time!!!! Insane!! Anyway, Q2 is partly about cleaning up technical debt, which is a responsibility I have been vested (fantastic). I've deleted about 800 lines of code in the last 2 weeks and added plenty of doc strings. Two of the most important modules our application works from are about 1000 lines of JavaScript each without any comments/docs. I'm changing that, but I don't know if my managers truly know the significance. Someone was recently promoted to my position but manually wrote out a sorting algorithm (specified numeric indexes and all); didn't do shit to earn it but breathe. And while they get more and more praise and responsibility, I'm over here stuck trying to prove myself and live up to why I assume they hired me. It's ridiculous. I love the company, but I'm not getting any sleep and I'm stressed out. It's only been about 7 months and I've been doing everything I can. Why is this happening? What am I doing wrong? I've been developing a recurring (physical) headache and ticks. My heart/chest area sometimes feels like it's lifting weights. I sound like an idiot, pushing so hard for a company that isn't mine, but I take so much pride in being in this position, and I'm so set on proving myself this early in my career (I'm 25).

Comments
  • 5
    tldr;

    J/k I feel you.
  • 5
    What you wrote in your detailed post already proved yourself. They are the problem - not you.

    I know it's difficult going through it and easy for me to say 'don't let it stress you out' but don't let it stress you out. That is the worst thing. Keep your ears open to better opportunities. They are out there. Continued...

    Never speak negatively about your employer on an interview. devRant is for being totally honest as you are being so here it is fine. Continued next post...
  • 4
    more..:
    Never speak negatively about your employer on an interview. devRant is for being totally honest as you are being so here it is fine. Take your experience as a positive. I once went through an extremely stressful period shouldering an entire program but took it as a positive and it paid off in my later career.

    Relax and you will figure out the next steps. Please let us know progress and ask questions. It will all work out.
  • 4
    I wish I could +100 jumpshots comment about not speaking negatively of a former employer in an interview. as a hiring manager, when people complained about their former jobs I was skeptical of if they would do the same at my employer. there are 2 sides to every story so hiring managers have to be skeptical. even if you are 100% in the right. good luck but sounds like you need to switch companies asap
  • 2
    switch jobs. seriously.
  • 2
    I know that feeling all to well. Hang in there, chill, don't take it personally, do your job without overtime, search for a new job, don't speak bad about current work situation and take it as a learning experience.

    There are tons of bad employers, and a lot of new opportunities. Next place might fit you better :)
  • 3
    When technical debt is addressed, adding that in JIRA as a side ticket could be a good idea. If you track hours spent oer ticket in JIRA as well, it will start to show clearly how much effort is put into it.

    Always make sure that your discussions are put into print, via email preferably. If you've had a verbal discussion, follow up with an email highlighting the points you've discussed.
  • 3
    same boat here. I worked relentlessly (60h weeks) on the project due to upper management negotiated deadlines, hitting milestones for months. I thrn ssked for a couple of days of Time-in-lieu, was told sorry we don't have a TIL policy and all overtime is unpaid.
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