Yeah, I know it sounds obvious, right? I had to learn the hard way.
I work in IT. I was the sole developer on my team. I worked on both frontend and backend work. I was promised at every annual discussion that “good things were in the pipeline”. This was my first job in a new industry so I stayed because I needed the experience those “good things” would give me. I also got along well with my manager and he always fought for us so I trusted him when he said that.
Instead, over the past few years, I have been made superfluous. My team hired another developer part time because we are in different time zones. Initially, it was ok. The small things went to him but the major changes still came to me. Slowly but surely, he was promoted to full time, and now, he is the main developer and I've had pretty much an empty plate for a year.
None of this is my fault. I was enjoying my work before this guy came on, so it is all on my clients who reassigned everything to him. To top it off, my manager was let go last year. That was the last straw and it was clear my team was dying a slow, drawn out death.
So I was looking at other options. Recently, I got a great offer elsewhere, so I put in my papers. My new manager set up an exit interview as is the usual procedure.
We got on the call. It felt so good to tell him exactly why I was leaving and the horrendous management issues that existed.
What was his response? Address my issues? Offer me a raise? Or a promotion? No, he brought up his plan for the year about how the team would be reorganised and how everyone would be asked to specialise in either frontend or backend. About how the team had more work than they could deliver. He finished by mentioning that all the clients had had bad experiences with me 🤦️
I was astounded. What was he trying to prove? That I should be grateful I hadn't been fired yet after client complaints? That a team reorganisation would fix everything? If I didn't know any better, I'd think he was actively trying to drive me away, but no, he was dead serious, complete with a presentation deck to demonstrate his great vision.
Then he actually asked me what I wanted to do. I told him I wanted to do precisely what he wouldn't let me, i.e. be a jack of all trades and not specialise. I told him specialising was good for him since he'd have redundancy, but it was bad for employees since they'd only be doing one kind of work when every opening asks for experience in multiple kinds of work.
This guy basically did the worst possible job in trying to convince me to stay. His pitch amounted to, “You feel you aren't busy. I can keep you very busy while not offering more money or visibility or even appreciation. Oh, and you're on thin ice since everyone hates you.”
If that wasn't enough, one of my clients reached out to me personally before I left and told me in very clear terms that neither they nor any of the other clients including the one my new manager supposedly spoke to had any negative views of me or my work. So this guy lied as well. For what? Leverage? Who even says such things to their employees? My client said he was the worst people manager they had ever worked with.
Most of my team colleagues left years ago. Heck, we've had multiple departures in just the last year. I always used to tell everyone that companies like seeing extended tenures at one place on your resume. Now I just think they're a waste of time. Get what you can from your job, and when it isn't working for you, quit and move on to the next one. Life is too short. Don't waste eight years doing nothing like I did.