Comment by horsellama

OP, are you my manager by any chance? /s

This resonates with me a lot, I can try to show you my perspective.

Been there 10+ yrs, started as “graduate” and never officially got a promotion but I’m now considered principal. This is mostly because I own responsibilities for a big chunk of the core technology. I used to put in 60+ hrs/week and implemented the shiny new products we’re basing our revenue. Salary wise I’m in a mid tier (lower bound) and thanks to our flat hierarchy I don’t have anywhere to go on my career path. More senior engineers to learn from left and we don’t hire juniors to mentor.

I used to be a 10x engineer, delivering 10x. I still am but now I work 1/10th to deliver 1. Pay isn’t great but it’s amazing for how much I work. I think I have golden handcuffs after all. You know, life gets in the way and all of a sudden pushing configs for a saas becomes way less important (and interesting) than, say, spending time with family.

Add all those useless bureaucratic wrapper around any process (I spend 50% of my standing desk time on meetings) and the infinite friction against any new proposal from my side. It’s like they want to kill instead of fostering innovation.

Sorry for the rant, but while looking for a way to sac the guy, you better look also at your organization.

ps the market is horrible at the moment, I’m not leaving just because it’s not that straightforward