If you're too good at your job, they'll never move you up. Do enough to stay safe. That's how you ensure you have a career here.
16 replies (most recent on top)
@1d2 it's from a movie called Office Space. The company in the movie brings in consultants. Their only job is to "review" employees by interviewing them. It's all designed so they can know who they can remove safely from the company
@11v wtf are you trying to say? You first compliment the India management then talk sh-t…what the he-l does bob and bob review even mean???
India management is the worst. I'm in America, but work with some great talent in India. They are dealing with pretty complex code that their stupid managers could possibly understand. And all their managers tell them is to work faster. I just want to scream, get the fuc_ out of our business! If OT was smart theyd do a bob and bob review of all the usless India management and get rid of 80% of them.
@p7 That’s me.
The only difference was that I worked a very handy severance package into my departure.
One day, my boss told me something...
"Good employees don't create big arguments... they simply leave quietly."
Those words have stayed in my mind ever since.
Because most good employees don't suddenly quit their jobs.
First, they...
• Stop sharing their ideas.
• Reduce the extra effort they put in.
• Stop emotionally connecting with their work.
• And finally... one day, without creating any fuss, they submit their resignation.
Many companies recognize this change very late.
Because employees don't stay only for their salary.
They want...
✔ Respect.
✔ Appreciation.
✔ Growth opportunities.
✔ To feel that their work has meaning.
When a person feels that their value is no longer recognized... they mentally leave the job first.
That's why, whether you are an employee or a leader... understanding people is much more important than simply managing them.
Strong teams are not built through fear... they are built through trust.
Oh God ! I am experiencing this exactly right now. Our team went from 5 people to 2 in last two years. My colleague and I keep getting dumped with more work :( because we’re id--ts who actually know the job.
Also, we’re on our 3rd manager this year! Manager 1 (best guy) was let go in March, Manager 2 (good guy who tried to be best) and now Manager 3 (nut job who asked us to only escalate a problem now if we ourselves had a solution ready!).
I was done a long time ago but can’t leave until I have a better plan lined up.
My days, there is actually someone who thinks a career in Openjoke is a good thing and possible and wants to stay. Haven't you been reading the threads or been to the office ?
This wreck is slowly sinking.
@gq Vulture
It is pretty funny on the backend, to see the ELT completely aware that the miracle GTM change is making zero difference and Ayman is watching them like a hawk.
@ge The past tense of seek is sought.
@g8 Kudos! I hope more people take the time to read through your post. The level of managers, especially these hired more recently (read in the last year and a half) is absolutely atrocious. A bunch of dimwit paper pushers who'd have a hard time pouring water out of a jug with the instructions written on the bottom. All my manager does is take information from one of the 50 meetings he has with senior management over the week and then transcribe their words verbatim to us. Any time there is pushback and the team actually tries explaining to him that things can't work in such a way he starts parotting corpo points until he realises he doesn't actually have any way to respond validly to your criticism and just digresses to another topic. He (and all of the other developmentally delayed kids leading the other teams) have zero technical or product knowledge and, most importantly, thats literally why they were picked. The company WANTED someone who will just eat the sh-t handed to him and not even ask for mustard to go with it. They wanted someone who will willingly feed that sh-t to his subordinates because he realises every day in which he looks in the mirror if he gets fired the only place they'd hire him as a manager is the gas station nightshift, so he's willing to eat as much sh-t as needed just to keep his pathetic existence afloat. My manager even hates his wife and children - the absolute best of OpenText, he was willing to do 5 days from the office before it was even mandatory just so he can not have to spend time with his family.
So tell me, how is a company where this is the people seeked out to manage the employees actually running the show going to survive, let alone thrive? We all know it won't.
Sometimes I wonder if shareholders read this site as well - if any of you do, take it from an employee in the company - better sell this sh-t fast, because the way its going, the 25 dollar stock price is going to be the good old times if you don't hurry.
@e5 I can relate to this. There was a time when managers and leaders were respected because they had deep expertise in the domains they led. Over the last few years, especially after the Rogers leadership transition, many experienced technical leaders were replaced with coordinators, administrators, and "yes-madam" who are strong at PowerPoint, Excel, and status reporting, but lack the technical depth to lead complex engineering organizations.
Today, look across Product, IT, Cloud, and even Architecture. It's increasingly difficult to find leaders who truly understand the systems they're responsible for. Without that understanding, they can't identify root causes, remove blockers, or propose practical execution models. Their role often becomes collecting stand-up updates rather than enabling teams to succeed.
Finance and parts of Muhi still have technically strong leadership, but many engineering organizations have become management-heavy and engineering-light.
AI has made this gap even more obvious. Anyone can generate impressive-looking presentations and project plans in minutes. But AI cannot replace years of hands-on engineering experience. Without understanding infrastructure, architecture, dependencies, security, and implementation realities, those AI-generated strategies remain generic and disconnected from the real challenges teams face. Leadership still requires technical judgment, not just polished slides.
I understand that technical leadership comes with its own challenges, and not every manager needs to be the best engineer. But in Product Development, IT, Cloud, and Platform Engineering, leadership still needs enough technical depth to understand complexity, challenge assumptions, remove blockers, and guide architectural decisions.
As for "yes-men" (or "yes-ma'am" culture), history shows that organizations where disagreement is discouraged and difficult questions are unwelcome rarely innovate. They may survive for a while in environments protected from market competition, but in competitive technology businesses, long-term success comes from leaders who encourage constructive debate, value technical expertise, and are willing to challenge assumptions—not simply agree with them.
It does not take a time for a wise man to know, where this company is heading.
Why would I want to move up, instead of out?
@f0 I don't know which team you are in but most of the managers are non technical but the title and their role is technical Manager and they don't know technicalities of the tasks.
@e5 are you in my team? that's exactly how it goes
@OP I am in the same situation exactly, this hits me hard. Managers never know about the complexity of work just they are here to take stand-up updates, the funny part is they can't resolve any blockers after taking updates.