Canva

• Smart people.
• Free lunch, snacks, and dinners on Friday.
• Flexible working hours.
• Tech.
• Owning components serving millions of people worldwide.
• Events and vibe.

• Toxic positivity.
• There are too many people trying to undermine each other.
• Recently, expectations have become unrealistically high in an effort to avoid layoffs.
• To keep up with the AI trend, they seem determined to attach AI to every feature, whether it adds value or not.
• The work-life balance is terrible. Many people feel they're falling behind unless they work an extra two or three hours every day.

Expectations for Engineering Managers are incredibly high. They are expected to handle people management, project management, delivery management, capacity planning, team performance, individual performance, reporting, and even administrative and social tasks like remembering birthdays. Each responsibility is reasonable on its own, but together they create an unrealistic workload.

Be transparent about the expectation of working extra hours. Many people regularly work beyond their normal schedule, but this often goes unacknowledged and is treated as if it's simply expected.