The worst part is when the whole architecture has to be designed around the frequent demos.
There's never enough time to actually design anything, you have to make sure you have something to show by the end of the day.
There's never enough time to actually design anything, you have to make sure you have something to show by the end of the day.
It would be like an architect and builder assembling a shoddy movie set facade of a house without a proper foundation or framing, just to please a client who expects to see visible, street-facing progress on a steady and consistent basis.
Perhaps it falls to engineering to educate management on setting proper expectations, and creating a proper timeline with milestones.
But much like an employee at Tim Horton's isn't often in a position to tell the boss that time spent physically recovering will be far more useful than cleaning an already clean floor, we're often put in a position of enabling improper client and management expectations, with an implied "or else".
This has been a consistent recipe for burnout for me. Don’t do it. Nothing will change because “you’re not paid to think about these things”. You’ll spend your energy talking to a wall and become a target because you’re threatening the status quo.
Better spot this kind of environment early and leave as soon as you get a whiff. It’s not worth your health and they’re not interested in improving anything.
Things usually get that way for a reason and that reason is that no one who matters is interested in fixing things. And those who suffer these inefficiencies usually have learnt helplessness and made themselves ok with the situation (or left after the polite amount of time, 6–24 months depending on the country)
Even then, the chances of the org being open to change are very slim as we both seem to have experienced. Do you really want to put your health on the line for a small chance at fixing a company that’s not even yours and isn’t very likely to reward you for the waste reduction anyway? I know I don’t and quit rather than try to fix.