This is an anonymous post from an Elpha member.

Manager offers lateral move

Posted in:Advice Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Tech Career Growth

Hello,

I am a front-end leaning full-stack engineer with 4 years of experience (React, TS, Node, GraphQL). I have been leading one of the largest revenue-generating pillar's internal tooling at my organization with very limited resources. My team went through a reorg and was promised more support. But the new team's manager left for paternity leave soon after and a wonderful new manager (woman) stepped in place. Over the past few months, I noticed that the team has knowledge silos and has very poor code quality, resistance to collaboration, and a defensive culture when reviewing PRs. But considering the work we brought has high visibility, the new team members are eager to claim ownership without doing the work and displaying any sense of accountability when incidents occur.

It's nearing 6 months of onboarding and there is minimal improvement and I am exhausted and burned out.

One of my former teammates left the new team (for similar grievances).

I have a great rapport with the step-in manager and current director, but upon my previous manager's return from paternity, I noticed a quick and heavy cultural shift to bromance-ing that is very forgiving of poor work ethic and a lot of shit-talking and blaming non-descript (backend and product) people.

A bromance that is not only felt by women but men as well.

I spoke to my director and manager about code quality and work ethic. My manager's suggestion is for me to explore a lateral move, either to a backend team (golang which I have limited experience) or move under the manager who stepped in his place during his paternity leave. The latter does not have products/projects that interest me.

Is this the notorious quiet firing I've heard of late?

I know I can work to turn it around and make the lateral move into an opportunity to learn more backend technologies and familiarize myself with system design at production capacity. But wanted to reach out and see what people had to think!

Should I make the lateral move to the backend team as a front-end leaning engineer? Or should I stay on the team as I am well versed in my current work and start looking outside the company for a fresh start?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Iynna·Feb 23

Thank you so much for sharing with us, OP. First off, congrats to you on crushing it on the role! Sounds like your team and you have added so much value to the org 🔥I ultimately am not technical so I can’t give you advice on what your next JD should look like for your career however what I’ll say (as someone who has more YOE than you) is that prioritising people and the right mentorship will take you far in life.So if working with the step-in manager was incredibly pleasant, rewarding, and you know you can learn and be mentored by her, then I’d seriously consider that move. I think projects come and go so maybe the projects today aren’t amazing but who knows what things will look like in a few weeks, and you can always learn something new. If your worry is that you’re working on projects that might set you back in your career, i think this is potentially overthinking things, and there’s always ways to present your experience when pitching yourself.

jessicap·Feb 23

Dev-y PM here. I hate doing this but if you could magically create the right experience / role for yourself. What is it / what would you be working on & what skills would you develop?you're either earning or learning preferably both and the lateral moves wouldn't get you more $$, right?. Do the 2 options presented to you fit the above criteria? Make a pro con list and compare them.it sounds like neither option interests you and you're beginning to have a big issue with the environment and culture (understandable).I'd start looking outside the org to get a better feel for what type of work you LIKE to do in the near future. I would begin to interview elsewhere even if it is to just understand what you want to do and not do - even better if it lands you a new role that checks more of your boxes.and in the interim take the lesser of evils in your current org - preferably one that you can spin into good interview experience without being destroyed by the culture issues.

Iynna·Feb 24

dropping gems as per usual!!

annlewandowski·Feb 24

I'm thrilled you have the opportunity to move. I'm a bit cautious that a move will mean a better environment. My personal experience is that if sexism, favoritism, and bullying are allowed in one group that they'll magically disappear. Personally, lateral moves can be wonderful. They are a way to develop your skills and gain experience in other ways. Please make sure you document everything in relation to preferential or sexist behavior. I'd also speak with a lawyer to get their insights. I say this as I am going through legal trouble. Ultimately, you need to make a choice about what's important to you and what you are willing to tolerate. Maybe a leave of absence would allow you to gain a bit more clarity?

Deena187·Feb 24

To assess your next step or role, you should figure out how to take your accomplishments to the next level and what you are looking for in the next role. Is it not being burnt out? Or is it next level but with more support? Then inquire about what’s happening in the organization at the top level. You said that what you work on is revenue generating, but is the company slowing down on hiring and moving too fast as they resolve issues?

Gaye139·Feb 26

Thank you @iynna @jessicap @annlewandowski @deena187 Thank you for all your insights. I have yet to make my decision but it is super helpful to get perspective cross-industry from women.

Iynna·Feb 26

Absolutely!! Please do let us know how things progress and what you decide! Rooting for you

kateshastakova·Mar 03

Hi there 👋 Leading the team that generates revenue must feel rewarding 😌 Building the culture is something that people lead and engineering manager would do so I am wondering if you can cooperate with your new woman manager and help her fix issues you describing. But actually what I wanted to say is the choice to do a lateral move could be considered from these perspective: 1) Does “go” team has a capacity to mentor you 2) What are your managers expectations on you in that role. If they want you to start contributing fast and you don’t have a mentor there, it may be a stressful experience 3) What is your long term career goal? I would say if you eventually want to be an engineering manager then it’s very valuable to know how backend works. I have a front-end background and I regret now that I didn’t spend more time in that field. Now trying to keep up :))