No Tech Manager? You’re Kidding Me

Photo by Vincent LaVigna on Unsplash

Picture yourself joining a company where the onboarding process fails to provide the necessary tools for you to perform effectively.

That’s the world I entered when I started my current job.

My greatest regret? That I didn’t take these as warning signs and quit immediately

When I saw the code, I definitely should have quit.

The Welcome Pack

It’s hard to imagine it’s that bad. However, part of the dress code is that you are required to wear a company badge on Friday.

Because it’s Friday, I guess? What could be more fun than a badge in the company colors?

Fortunately, it seems that no one else actually follows this practice. This company might be a cult with family fun days and a song when you are inducted into the company but nobody other than the CEO wears that badge.

So, when we get together in the office, I mention that I’d love to wear the badge on Fridays (the Secret Developer is nothing if not a rule-follower).

Didn’t you get one in the welcome pack?

My welcome pack included a MacBook Pro with a dent in the lid and a power supply (dirty).

I’m guessing there’s more of a fully loaded welcome pack that I’m not familiar with?

I don’t know what else might have been in that pack.

I hope it wasn’t anything useful.

Your manager is leaving

It’s upsetting when your manager is leaving.

Make that double when you joined to move the team forwards, and signed up for the mission with the boss who interviewed you.

The first sign of trouble is that the boss doesn’t engage in 1:1’s. From the beginning.

Any questions direct them to your buddy.

That was given, of course, over Slack.

The HR-mandated weekly and monthly 1:1 meetings? Go by without happening.

The buddy tells me what is going on.

The boss is already leaving and has already mentally checked out.

Which is, you know, fine. However, you might have joined a company to work with that particular manager. 

Just so you know, the manager never told me personally that they were leaving.

The notification came from their boss (with an account number for the donation to the leaving gift). It was mentioned in a meeting.

If you didn’t already know, I’m leaving.

Yeah. Thanks.

The Lack Of HR

I’m in a position where I need to stay at this company for a couple of months, and it wouldn’t be wise to change. 

Thinking about it though, I’d have nobody to resign to.

That says kind of all that needs to be said about this situation.

I’d complain to HR, but I don’t have the name of anyone to share my thoughts with. I love complaining (see my other blog posts), but the right place for HR complaints is HR. Their solution is to inform your manager, but I’m caught in an infinite loop trying to do that.

I call this disorganization a poorly organized organization.

Conclusion

I can’t be the only one who is depressed by the lack of engagement of human resource departments in engineering. 

Although it does aptly express the state of recruitment in the industry.

If I’m the only one disheartened by the disengagement of human resource departments in the engineering field, I think that would actually give me some hope. Let me know in the comments.