I used to work in app development software for a large finance company. I inherited a massive debt of applications with a shitty codebase and no documentation. I figured these apps out as I went along as a junior developer on a small team which I built up over the course of 4 years. I guess you could say I became the SME for the area I worked for but was not senior level and massively micromanagee. Please also bear in mind that the last two years of this job occurred over COVID which is why I was slow to leave as well as being my first job in SWE out of university.
My team lead left my team for another internal department. I was naturally worried as our team was not very senior, but wished him well. I was casually asked if I wanted my team leads position by my boss's boss. I rejected the position as it's was a role where the parent departments manager was a total micromanager and didn't trust a single thing we did. Basically set up to fail. I also wouldn't see any pay increase until the following year +10 months time – company has a very structured pay/bonus cycle. There seemed to be no clear plan as to who was going to take over and my temp boss was very blasé about the whole thing. My boss's boss agreed to step in temporarily until a replacement was hired which sounded good from the outset…
Following on from this I was piled up with my old team leads work and another team members work who went on mat leave. I questioned if I was wrong for not taking on the “promotion” with no pay increase attached. My boss's boss was negligent in his management and avoided me whenever I rasied any issues or asked for any support in 1:1s. I was told this was temporary and would be resolved soon which I naively half believed. My team members did not help at all and played dumb to the issues I had to resolve.
Eventually a permanent replacement for my team lead was hired – let's call him John. John and I did not see eye to eye from the beginning. John's manager also disappeared overnight to us with no lead in perood. John was quick to criticize our procedures and technologies we use which I have no control over (very restricted IT environment).After a 1:1 with John I asked him where he expected to go with the team in which I was told I would be maintaining the sh*t show of existing applications while John and remainder of the team developed brand new apps. I had voiced feeling pigeonholed and that I wanted to work on new things as my career development was being stifled. I pushed back and questioned a lot of things and laid out all the issues bare in front of John.
At this point I was beginning to see I was being taken for a ride. I trained John up to our applications anyway. When I took any time off (less than a week), I would return to a hellfires of issues that my team refused to deal with. The stress also began taking a toil on my physical health and it was at this point I knew I had to jump ship. Whenever I googled toxic workplaces, or if you should leave a job, 90% of the points applied to me.
When it became crystal clear I was checked out my boss's boss – John's boss returned asking me what the problems were. Even after laying out all the problems bare to him previously. It was as if it was the first time this snake heard of these issues. I also had the impression John was sold a lie in his job description so my beef did not lie with John. My boss's boss accosted me everytime I was in the office to look at internal positions. I was applying for jobs externally at the time as I was getting quite low and depressed with the situation at work. Chances are if I took an internal position, I'd still be doing my old job too on top of my new one.
Finally after a couple of months of more disrespect and nonsense I got an offer for a new job. I handed in the notice which led to a hellfire of meetings/counteroffers persuading me to stay and move teams. Some of the conversations were down right nasty and personally targeted. I feel I wasnt assertive enough to push back.
I signed the contract for the new company, used two weeks holidays against my month long notice and conducted multiple handovers and skipped out the door on my last day.
Just a reminder, please don't get taken for a ride or pigeonholes in your jobs. You deserve more than that and they aren't going to look out for you. Don't be naive like I was. I will put this down to a learning experience and will not be condoning it ever again.