Hi everyone,

Here's some background info before I go on to the situation:

1.) I work for a government agency (yeah I know -- most of you will say, "well there's your problem right there!").
2.) I've worked there for 3 years and have worked my way up from junior developer to senior developer fairly quickly. I actually started off here as an intern fresh out of college, and they offered me a junior developer position 1.5 months into my internship. I promoted to a senior level position about 6 months ago. I've progressed fairly fast.
3.) Our IT shop is about 35 developers, 5 business analysts, and 40 folks in the infrastructure crew (networking, mainframe/server maintenance, acquisitions, help desk)

Anyway, on to the story.

We've had various organizational changes take place in the past 6 months or so. We lost our lead developer 6 months ago and she was transferred to another team to pick up the slack, so our team was officially without a lead developer. Because of the fact I generally work my ass off (for no good apparent reason) I started to volunteer to take on more of her duties and to attempt to fill her shoes to a degree. I've attended more requirements meetings as a technical lead for our applications, I've helped out my team members with development and domain specific problems, and I serve as a general point of contact for our customers and the other teams when our manager is busy or not around. I come in on weekends to do nightly or early morning deployments when necessary. And I do all this... for no increased compensation. I don't even have the most seniority on my team.. I'm arguably just the most motivated, forward thinking member of our team and I genuinely care about our customer service. Anyway, enough of that, I didn't come here to toot my horn.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago. The management team decided they want to fill our vacant lead position. Naturally, I apply. I interviewed and did extremely well. They interviewed a few other internal candidates as well, all of them very capable of the job. I was told they will follow up with a second interview in a few weeks.

And then, today, my manager's manager (we'll call him the super manager) pulls me into his office. Sits me down and informs me that they are pulling the lead developer position from our team roster.

Uhhhh.. what?

I receive some spiel about mission, direction and/or "we've upgraded our hiring practices in an effort to build a more effective workforce" (some garbage I think HR gave to him). This guy's a master of spin so I generally take most everything he says at face value -- I find it hard to get a clear answer out of him. Sometimes when speaking with him it feels like I'm talking to a politician.

All that is whatever -- what's concerning to me is the fact that they would decide that our team DOES NOT NEED A LEAD DEVELOPER. I can understand if for some reason they would not want me in the lead developer position, but removing it entirely just.... doesn't make sense. Not in the slightest. And what a horrible waste of time and money, to go and review candidates, conduct interviews, and all of that, but ultimately discard the position.

But what they ARE doing.. is hiring one more junior developer on our team. So they are removing our lead developer position, and adding a new junior developer position.

After I showed a puzzled look and mentioned my disappointment, he says: "I assure you though, there will be more promotional opportunities in the future".

Right.

After speaking with "super manager", I talked to my manager and he seemed just as clueless on the situation as I was. He couldn't really give me an answer, just said that we'll have to "hang in there".

And it's got me thinking. Maybe the fact that I've extended myself so much, and shown that I can take on lead duties without additional compensation has actually hurt me more than help me. I suspect they may be trying to use me as a lead even though I am not paid as a lead. I didn't mind at first (because they had said that eventually they will be filling our lead position) but now that they aren't, a million red flags are getting raised in my head.

I mean, why else could it possibly make sense to strip a development team of their lead developer position? It just makes no sense to me whatsoever.

Obviously -- this has some serious signs of being a poisonous work environment. I recognize that and I am applying elsewhere. But it's still a tough market out there, and finding a new job will take some time. And I really feel like I can only tolerate this work environment for so long... I can keep a smile on my face and pretend everything is OK for a while but eventually things are going to blow up.

So I'm not quite sure what my course of action should be here. I'm still quite new to this whole game (just a little 24 year old boy) and my skills are predominantly in software development and not necessarily office politics.

Do I...

A.) Suck it up, and deal with the BS of being a "temporary lead" until I get a new job.

B.) Attempt to talk it over with my management team again to get an idea about their motivation behind removing the lead position from our team and understanding their intent.

C.) Refuse to do the lead type work that they're accustomed to me doing and focus on only working at a level that matches my pay grade.

D.) Your option here



'A' sounds the least appealing. While I enjoy being a lead, I want to be compensated for it.

'B' sounds like the ideal option but I'm not quite sure how much information I can get out of them or how much good it would do. They preach transparency but in all reality a lot of things are being hidden from us.

'C' might be difficult to pull off, because I have ingrained myself as a point of contact for all other teams and our customers, so they come to me with all of their questions/concerns about our systems. It would be difficult for me to say: "Sorry, I don't deal with these requests anymore, go talk to <my manager's name here>", when I've handled their inquires/concerns/bug reports on my own in the past.


I know in the back of my mind that I need to do C, I'm just not sure how to approach it.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated... I know we have plenty of professionals here who have tons of years of experience in not only software development, but also typical office and organizational BS. I have hard time dealing with excessive amounts of BS and I know if I swim in this pond for too long I'll eventually blow a fuse.


Thanks

If it was me I would ask for a raise for the extra work your doing.

If that doesn't work, you'll need to use ultimatums. At that point I'd just keep doing business as usual until I found something else and told them I was leaving without a promotion or pay raise. That being said, I wouldn't try it until you have another job lined up.

If that doesn't work then I'd do option C.

This just sounds like "big org" stuff. Your senior req went away and was replaced by a junior req. Someone, somewhere up the chain probably swapped the reqs out in exchange for something else. You might have a team nearby which just desperately needs headcount, so they swapped a senior for two juniors -- one for your team, one for the other one. Or maybe someone in HR got their hair on fire about the number of senior reqs floating about and so they downgraded a bunch at random.

Do the lead dev role. If you enjoy it, go do it. Hell, at least you're doing something you enjoy. Record that you're doing it -- when a req comes up for a senior slot, you'll be placed to move into it and you can point to a track record of doing it.

Meanwhile, you're gaining the exp.

And yeah, you can shop around if you like. Look at this way -- you can put on your CV that you're covering the lead role in your team. If anyone asks why you don't have the title, you can honestly answer that your boss couldn't get reqs for it. You can upsell yourself into a team lead role somewhere else.

I'm tempted to write 'All of the Above'...

In order:
B) Try to talk to your management to discuss why the senior is not replaced. Talk to your co-workers, too. Let them see that removing that position from your team means you have to work differently, and that they need to show you how they think that should work.
C) When management cannot convince you that the senior's tasks are no longer necessary (which they can't), inform them that you were happy to fill in, but you think it is unfair to expect you to do more streneous, responsible (and basicially just more) work without appropriate compensation. Keep doing the senior stuff for a while, but attach some kind of (fair) end-date to it.
A) Continue to 'shop around'. There may very well be some position available for you where you can combine doing the work you like AND be appreciated for it.

Thank you for the responses everyone.

If it was me I would ask for a raise for the extra work your doing.

If that doesn't work, you'll need to use ultimatums. At that point I'd just keep doing business as usual until I found something else and told them I was leaving without a promotion or pay raise. That being said, I wouldn't try it until you have another job lined up.

If that doesn't work then I'd do option C.

I would if I could. Unfortunately in the government (at least where I'm at) there are no bonuses, and raises occur at regularly scheduled intervals, unless if you get a promotion (like if I got promoted to lead).

I actually talked to my manager today, I more or less told him that I am no longer feeling the motivation to take on the lead duties I voluntarily took on these past 6 months. He understood. I made it known to him that the reason I voluntarily took on the extra duties was because I am always seeking a challenge and I am very ambitious, very driven -- but while I enjoy the process of tackling a challenge, I need proper incentive to continue. The fulfillment of being more challenged alone isn't enough for me to sustain the level of work I've been operating at. I inquired about his promotional plan for me in the future and he couldn't really give me any details.

He must've gotten the vibe that I have been looking for other jobs -- because 15 minutes later he asked me back into his office and was begging me not to leave . And I didn't even say that I was going to leave, just sort of dropped the hint that I'm not quite as fulfilled as I would like to be. But even so, he couldn't give me a solid answer as to what they are planning for me, so I'm still going to continue my job search outside of work.

This just sounds like "big org" stuff. Your senior req went away and was replaced by a junior req. Someone, somewhere up the chain probably swapped the reqs out in exchange for something else. You might have a team nearby which just desperately needs headcount, so they swapped a senior for two juniors -- one for your team, one for the other one. Or maybe someone in HR got their hair on fire about the number of senior reqs floating about and so they downgraded a bunch at random.

Do the lead dev role. If you enjoy it, go do it. Hell, at least you're doing something you enjoy. Record that you're doing it -- when a req comes up for a senior slot, you'll be placed to move into it and you can point to a track record of doing it.

Meanwhile, you're gaining the exp.

And yeah, you can shop around if you like. Look at this way -- you can put on your CV that you're covering the lead role in your team. If anyone asks why you don't have the title, you can honestly answer that your boss couldn't get reqs for it. You can upsell yourself into a team lead role somewhere else.

You're right about the "big org" mentality.

I see where you're coming from and while I can do the lead thing with zero extra pay for 6 months, I'm afraid I can't do it any longer. I need some sort of incentive, and as I said above the challenge alone isn't fulfilling enough at this point.

I'm tempted to write 'All of the Above'...

In order:
B) Try to talk to your management to discuss why the senior is not replaced. Talk to your co-workers, too. Let them see that removing that position from your team means you have to work differently, and that they need to show you how they think that should work.
C) When management cannot convince you that the senior's tasks are no longer necessary (which they can't), inform them that you were happy to fill in, but you think it is unfair to expect you to do more streneous, responsible (and basicially just more) work without appropriate compensation. Keep doing the senior stuff for a while, but attach some kind of (fair) end-date to it.
A) Continue to 'shop around'. There may very well be some position available for you where you can combine doing the work you like AND be appreciated for it.

Thanks for the response. I am indeed continuing to shop around .

What exactly do you want? For emphasis: What exactly do you you want?


This was a big change, it was offered, it looked like it was going to come to you and give you something you wanted. But then it didn't. And you have no evidence to why that happened, or how to get what you want.

I can see why you are disappointed and angry.

I've been on both end of that in similar situations on several occasions, and I hate them. I've seen it happen with others, and have seen them resolved well, where everybody gets amazingly good results. I've also seen them resolved in passive aggression, and even seen some fireballs. The most exciting (and frightening) to watch ended up with three people quitting and two getting fired, including the man who managed the team who refused to see the problems coming despite warnings from his subordinates and peers.


But now you need to handle the consequences. So you need to figure out exactly what you want.

Ultimatums and threats are almost never the way to go. That's the fireball route. They put everyone on the defensive, they put you on the short list of trouble-makers and it takes a while for the problems it creates to go away. They are often used as reasons to fire employees. They make it hard to work with those same co-workers again for a very long time, and the stigma can follow you for years; you may interview at a company 20 years from now and someone remembers you were the trouble maker years ago. It certainly is an option for extreme cases, just be aware there are serious consequences. I've watched about one fireball every five years or so that turn out well on the surface where the person gets ahead in the company, but I always wonder what scars are present that I don't see.


Yes it is hard, but work very carefully to be positive and keep a positive spin on everything you say and write. When it comes to email, this is a bad time for it; prefer face-to-face communications behind closed doors with your boss.


It reads like you have put in a lot of effort and feel you deserve some commendations. But what exactly do you want?

Are you looking for positional power? Do you want the job title? Would you be happy with job title and the extra responsibility, even if it came without additional pay? Are you looking for recognition? Are you asking for a one-time recognition, or a longer term recognition? Would you be content with that if it didn't have other benefits? Do you want to keep working with this team? Are you looking for a change in teams, or a change in environments, or a change in management? Are you looking for a change in responsibilities? Are you sure you can handle them consistently?


What exactly do you want? You need to know it.

Spend some time doing serious soul-searching. List everything. Come up with a list many pages long of things you want and why you want them.

After you've come up with the list, do more soul searching. If you could change only one thing, this one time, and this was the only time you could cause the change, what ONE THING on the list would it be? Would you be happy with a job title with no change in pay? Would you accept a change in pay without the job title? Would you be content with public recognition, and neither a promotion or raise? Or do you need to move on with your career on another team? This one thing is important. It is very important you figure out the single critical item that would give you the desired goal.

Once you've figured out what you want, let it simmer for a few days, soul search every day, and make sure you truly do understand what you want. It looks like you are still young, just a few years out of college. This is an age that many people figure out what they want and leap ahead in a new direction. It is also an age where many people lose faith in their career and enter doldrums, or when they realize what they thought they wanted really doesn't matter, preferring the stability of a comfortable rut along with a reduced level of requirements.

At some point in their career, most people hit a comfortable spot. Rather than running the rat race and trying to climb the career ladder, they realize that they are in a good spot. They know everything they need at their current job and could easily coast along in their job for five, or ten, or even twenty years. At that level of responsibility and workload they can take it easy on the job and still are better at it then their peers; they hit the point where they can still stand out as above average while basically slacking off at work, having a good time. And that is also an option.


Once you know what you want, tell your boss you want to schedule a meeting with him for probably an hour to talk about your career, but make sure it is a few days out. Those few days will give you a chance to settle down, and also him a chance to think about it. Perhaps ask on a Thursday or Friday, and schedule the meeting for the following Tuesday or Wednesday.

Over those days go over the list of things you want with the one single thing you want most. Refine it. Talk about it with family and close friends who know you well. Make sure you know what you want and why you want it.

Then go talk with him. Tell him your frustrations as you described them above. Share the list, and ask him to help you get what you want. Ask how he can help you reach your goals. Keep it positive. Don't blame him for the problems, it seems as though they came from sources outside his control. Instead explain your frustrations and ask for his help.


After that meeting, give him a chance to talk with his boss and with other team managers, and let him help you out of he can.

Treat it as a positive thing: "I want to have such-and-such in my career. I feel like I'm not at my potential. I'm feeling frustrated because I'm struggling to get what I need while working here. If I only get one change out of this, I want to have this one, but I'd love to get as many as I can. You're my boss, please help me reach my full potential."

Every manager I've worked with, even the crappy ones, are smart enough to be able to help at that point. By scheduling a meeting and having a list he can very clearly see that you are frustrated and that you have put serious effort into finding a solution. If it is important enough for you to basically demand that much time scheduled in advance just for that one thing, it will be important to the boss.

Follow up one week later, and again a week after that, and a week after that. Almost certainly your boss will help you reach those goals, if you can help it happen in a positive way. You will almost certainly get a follow up with a list of specific things you can do. Make sure that list is in writing so you can follow up with your boss every week to ensure both you and he are following the plan. If you don't get a list of specific things you can do, it will be either because the boss cannot do it for reasons outside their control, or because he chooses not to for reasons within his control. By following up you can quickly discover which it is, and remove the roadblocks in your career. Sometimes the boss is fighting exactly the same battle and struggling with exactly the same thing, but it is his boss, or the level above them, or "The System", that refuses to budge.

If you STILL don't get a list of things to improve, or if you have a list and several weeks of focused effort on those items hasn't helped, then pay very close attention to his language to see if this is a larger issue at the organization. If he agrees that you deserve the things you want but is still unable to help, that would be a good time to (carefully) ask for a glowing letter of recommendation from your boss. Perhaps: "I love working with this team, and I love all the things I've done, and this hurts that I can't grow any more. I know you're doing your best to help me out. It's painful to ask but could you write me a letter of recommendation I can give to other companies?" Hopefully the conversation will never happen, but if it does then it shouldn't be for another few weeks at the earliest, after giving everyone a chance at the positive constructive route.


Act positive, even if you don't feel it. I know it is hard, I've been there a few times. Keep your mouth shut and watch your actions to make sure everything is positive. Put out a positive mood on everything you say and write and gesture, make sure your boss sees that even though you are frustrated you still want the best for yourself and for your team, and enlist their help. It can be a painfully hard exercise, but done well it can have enormous benefits.