Getting overshadowed in tech team
I work in a small startup, we have 10 people in Frontend Team. 2 SDE-2, rest all SDE-1. I joined as Sde-1, when I joined them, we were 4(2 SDE-2 and 2 SDE-1).
At the time of joining, they had a messy codebase, nobody cared about writing good, optimized code etc.
Whenever I got chance to work on old feature, I used to re-write entire code from scratch, made reusable functions, components and moved common functionalities there, all these made the UI better, platform stable. Worked on optimization and performance. These folks never cared about all these things.
Also started peer reviewing everyone's PRs, explained them various design patterns and made them write re-usable components, optimized, bug-free code and other things.
Now I came to know, all these efforts of my mine never reached my manager to due manipulation by one of the SDE-2.
My manager likes this guy and allowed him to handle the FE team. This guy has shown that he's the one who took all these initiative and he got all these things done by the team. He involved the other SDE-2 in this game.
Fast forward 1 year, I see most of my code has been slightly modified by him, moved to new file and my actual file is deleted. He has done this in order to remove my GitHub history. I'm now getting frustrated and don't know how to handle this.
Resigning is not an option and raising with manager won't help as he's slightly biased and won't believe me.
Any help would be appreciated. TIA
Talking product sense with Ridhi
9 min AI interview5 questions
Don't you ever have one to one with your manager at that time? Neither you ever notified him what you are doing? I think you did the half part that is only doing things and missed a bigger part letting your manager know. This is learning for you. Keep in mind it's your responsibility to let your manager and skip manager know what you are doing and how impactful these things are. Have some metrics which back your claims.
TBH I thought this SDE-2 guy is a nice and good person and he would mention all these efforts of mine to the manager.
I explained him each and every single thing I did, the concept and reason behind what I was doing. He used to get curious and say good things to me.
Now I understood the game.
My manager really likes him, this guy knows this and he too has very good terms with the manager.
I now think, I'll raise this with the manager but like I said I'm sure he'll not believe me.
He might ask the other SDE-2 but that guy is already supporting this guy.
What happened happened, don't bother much. Remember that you and your manager are responsible for your growth. So, help others but don't disclose everything. And always communicate with your manager about what you do. At least once a month have one to one with your manager. Also, don't be a complainer. Nobody likes complainers. Find a better way to communicate what you did. The more you complain the less your manager will have trust in you.
Its a toxic place. RUN FROM THERE.
I wish I could 😔
Few things you should do. Performance oriented architecture.
- Always be present. Improve your visibility.
- Deliver more than you commit, but account everything. Pick some projects of significance and deliver.
- Don't pick someone's work. Don't share your work. Take full credit of things you do.
- Be patient. Identify each character in this game. Always be the happy easy going guy without complaints.
Purposefully ask him for help and involve the manager. Purposefully leave subtle bugs in your own code. (Very subtle) when he can't solve, pretend to come up with the solution. Sooner or later manager will realise who's who!
#stayToxic
😅
Mazak nahi kar rha 🥰🥰
Hide bugs in the code you give that he takes credit for. Then once he’s made it live, point out those bugs
In such scenario, he'll point out that it was initially written by me and raise it with the entire team and manager. The rest of the folks in the team never counter question him when he suggests something. Most of the time it's me who raises questions and discuss about pros n cons and limitations of his approach. He dislikes this and never took into healthy way.
Well then we ask for the changes he did in this one, and why did he have to delete your file instead of suggesting you changes / commenting on your code. Then extraopolate to all things he’s done
On to top of this, I came to know that I'm heavily underpaid and these SDE-2 guys are drawing hefty salaries.
How did you find out their salaries ? Just curious
Don't you have daily standup and retro? Your work should be communicated in these meetings
Do you discuss every single thing, in details during standup?
Not every but if i'm refactoring or improving the codebase then i definitely mention it
I am also in the frontend role. If you don't mind then can you suggest from where I can learn design patterns because I am struggling with using them into real-world project.
Tbh there is no particular rule when to use what.
I learnt all these on my own by reading different blogs and articles and trying different things.
Also, working with people who have knowledge and idea of all these helps a lot.
thanks!
F**k this shit, move out.
I too have been played like this. But thank god, I always communicated everything to my manager (AVP). So he knows what I did. However, he was always biased towards other senior guys. Anyway, I left the company because of too much politics and toxic culture.
That's the reason you should always communicate to your reporting manager rather than explaining it to SDE-2 . You still have other SDE 1s to support your statement if you have to tell all the efforts done by you to your manager. Be aware of people who doesn't count your efforts!! ...All the best budy