time to move on?
I have given multiple chances to my work environment -- have been more than fair in my opinion -- yet I am in general in disgust with the job I "get paid for". I love software and the power it provides. That "good" software or its value is not really understood at my employer shows up in evidence all over the place in internal projects. And I can only really derive any satisfaction nowadays from supporting users and providing great tools for them to get their jobs done. Hiring in software-related jobs (that I have personally observed) can be viewed to a large degree as cronyism or nepotism. This is disgusting, and while 60% margins may support this, it is not what I am looking for any more. THIS COMPANY IS TOO "OLD".
Google and web services are changing the world, and the corporate PR at my current employer pays it plenty of lip-service, but internally the _fighting_ to just to try to use some of the innovative technologies within makes you take a step back and wonder. THIS COMPANY IS TOO "OLD".
I think I really do contribute to making a group of fellow employees as a whole perform better. However, the reward system my employer uses does not really take that into account. It never has. It is all about getting your name associated with "something important" and having those important items being by-and-large successful. The company culture evolved much before there was a network culture and the territorial aspects of non-networked domains and making the network link bottlenecks valuable persists. There is little embracing at the upper levels of new networked mediums and the internal small employee groups who do endeavor to try to proliferate the new approaches like wikis or blogging or webservices are branded as mavericks. I understand the response. Flattened organizations can be threatening to some not ready for it. I just am not sure whether I want to spend any more time to change it or whether I can. THIS COMPANY IS TOO OLD.
I think the yearly review system if horribly broken from my job satisfaction viewpoint and I do not think I can change it. The so-called leaders (this term is largely referring to their position) in the institution are much too attached to it and the status quo to evolve. Half-truths that are sold well can get someone ahead and it is really hard to compete with that when you have integrity and base personal assessments on honesty rather than telling a large collection of small lies in order to sell yourself. Trampling down your colleagues actually can get rewarded. You do not have to have been at all responsible for any or most of the work in your line items. The important thing is to have a number of "important things" attributed to you in line items in the yearly review. It does not really matter much (unless you have an enlightened manager) whether you actually did those things or whether the tasks were necessary to do. THIS COMPANY IS TOO OLD.
I have not received any long-term Retention Seeking Units (RSUs) lately so I think
that is a hint that it is time for me to head somewhere else and try out a new culture. The previous work culture I enjoyed when I moved into the area of an empowering and enabling environment does not exist. Small pockets may still be found, but I think most of us that find ourselves in these small pockets are slowly running out of air. I think most of the satisfaction for me at work comes from being able to work with a group of smart, unselfish, helpful co-workers who in the end really care about project success, not about how to leech off the system and their employer. THIS COMPANY's PRACTICES ARE TOO OLD-FASHIONED. Should i try something else?
