Docusign

It is a golden handcuffs situation. The benefits are competitive, including partial internet and mobile reimbursement, a fitness allotment, in-office snacks, and a weekly catered lunch day.

Culture and values have largely become lip service. The values stated to employees aren't reliably reflected in the actions of management, largely due to management being increasingly hired externally. New-hire management lack knowledge of company tools, processes, the internally developed code base, and internal tools. This means their ability to manage, plan, and/or judge work tasks is rarely reliable. This can surface in them being less motivated to advocate for the team or product, and they likely won't directly contribute to the product, but instead will likely only look out for their own personal self-interest.

Additionally, there's a disconnect in the understanding of the professional maintenance of code quality. Upper management understands there is an increasing gap in quality from what customers previously experienced versus what is delivered. Yet, software quality professionals are no longer valued by upper executives, resulting in a culture where quality perpetually takes a back burner to code quantity.

Management also demonstrates a worrying lack of appreciation for employee loyalty. Existing expertise and knowledge of the product is often lost due to an inclination to cut costs through layoffs. Senior employee company subject-matter experts are not valued, but are increasingly seen as replaceable to the detriment of product knowledge and work-environment quality.

Questionable management redundancy is also an issue, with managers who don't contribute beyond running meetings, as well as managers or executives listed as their own employees.

Employees also are subject to being treated as a mere headcount to be shuffled between managers just to maintain minimum direct-report numbers to maintain management roles. This results in a failure to recognize individual contributor productivity and achievements, and there are no advancement and/or promotion opportunities for ICs.

Upper management should advocate for team members, not managers.

Scrutinize management more than ICs. ICs literally build the company.

Don't hire management roles externally.

Prioritize code quality over quantity.