Ask HN: Software Engineer Role Abuse?
This is not my first job as Software Engineer. I currently work as a solo Software Engineer for company, developing internal apps. This is a company which provide Network and Security services, so not primarily software. I'm not a freelance, so I'm their employee. I work for them part-time (60%). But the things I'm concerned about don't apply only for this situation, it has happened to me as a freelance too. The following could just be my impressions. So, I'm happy to be corrected if I'm wrong.
I'm worried that the Software Engineer role is getting abused in so many ways. What I mean by abused? The expectation people have that I have to do things not related to my job as Software Engineer. The current company I work expect me to (ordered, according to me, form the most unrelated task to the most related for a Software Engineer)
1. Design UI
2. Design UX and interaction design
4. DevOps from production, development and testing.
5. Project management for the software I write. From gathering requirements, give priority, estimation, deadline, sprints, gather user-feedback, schedule meeting...
6. Training for the software I write.
7. Customer support, help-desk, 100% of the time on call support for the software I write.
8. Write User Manuals, Administrator Manual.
9. Write Technical Manual
10. Design, Develop and Test the actual code, database...
Sometime I feel like my role would be just 9 and 10, maybe 8 also. I'm burned out. I feel people doesn't appreciate what I'm doing. Just today the CEO of the company messaged me in slack "Does't work shit" because the browser was somehow unresponsive. He didn't give me the time to look at the logs and see what was causing the hang-up. I don't know what to do honestly. One of the reason I choose SE because I don't like dealing with people. They don't know what they want from the software they want me to build for them, and I don't want to think for them (sorry if this appear insensitive). And I honestly don't want to participate in that kind of decision making roles. The company is not toxic or bad, but I feel like they don't truly understand how software development happens. There isn't a clear process from issue tracking to finished product.
Maybe SE is not a career I like, even though I spend my free time reading and learning new things about SE.
I hope to get some feedback from HN, because I don't know where else to discuss about it.