(Programmers) Thoughts on getting more and more responsibility but no extra pay? | Hacker News Reader

(Programmers) Thoughts on getting more and more responsibility but no extra pay?

2 pointsDanUKs3 comments

I'm a mid-level software engineer, with both junior and senior developers in the team.

Our new manager is super keen on delegating work to the rest of the team. I keep finding myself being dragged into a random meetings that I have no idea about, where I'm expected to wing it, all because she invited me along without me knowing.

She's decided to make the developers run stand up each morning, along with other regular meetings, to free up her time, as if it wasn't degrading enough for us.

I've also been dragged into teaching other teams how to code, along with other "confidence gaining" objectives, all whilst still doing my actual work.

This is all being disguised as "personal development", that will help us "gain confidence" but we're really just being taken advantage of.

I can see this quickly becoming an issue. I know it's not a good mindset to have but I should just be nailing tickets and writing code, yet I'm slowly but surely taking on the load of a senior / management position. How tf do you handle this?

I worked at a place that would often take me off whatever I was working on and put me on something entirely different. In my case some of my fellow employees got riled about that. They thought I was getting some sort of special treatment and getting to "work on the fun stuff".

The real reason they put me on those projects is because I didn't complain about it, whereas my fellow workers always complained about it because "that's not what I was hired to do". It wasn't until the owners quit asking them that they thought I was getting to do the all the "fun" work.

The reason I never complained is because I got paid the same no matter if I was sweeping floors or designing a new product.

So my advice it do whatever they ask you to do and do it as best as you can. You do that and you'll become invaluable to them, and when you do you can tell them "You need to start paying me more" and they either will or won't, but they probably will because they'll know it's hard to find someone who jump in to get what they need done without whining about it, like all my fellow employees did.

Someone told me you should always be looking for another job. Job-switching increases your salary -- and in this economy, programmers are in high demand, so it's never been easier.

Your other option is to speak up and say "I don't want to do this" -- maybe to your new manager's own superior. (You could try working it out directly with your manager first -- maybe arriving with a group of other employees who share your feelings.) That may just get you pegged as troublemakers, but the other option is waiting until some later date, and then saying "I have an offer from another company, and unless you let me stop doing these things I will leave."

This is bullshit, and you shouldn't tolerate it. But use it to pad your resume and get the promotion you've earned at another company -- and get a raise in the process. And in your exit interview, tell them you were being exploited, name names, and tell them point blank that they weren't paying you enough for this shit.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com