Thank you so much for this post. You summarized very well what happens to so many of us out there.
Just to share my experience: I too had endured a very similar situation here in San Francisco for many years before joining my current company, which focus a lot on the human side of things.
At my previous company, like so many people here, I was a contractor, and worked for clients, so there wasn't really a strong bond between me and my company manager. Hence, there was no appropriate way to observe and reward success and growth.
That distance created a big emptiness and lowered the company morale, so everyone is really disconnected, except for the group of folks that work on clients near each other and hang out more often.
Hence, to your words, there was no culture, poor social interaction and lack of curiosity. Even worse, there was almost no empathy present, and the company tried to remediate that with optional, non-inclusive parties which always happened outside office hours.
I would raise these things with my manager and he would try to convince me these things did not exist and were fallacies. Also, he would refer to people as resources, and he really viewed us all as pegs in a gear.
I knew it wasn't my place. I worked hard on interview prep, waited for a good opportunity and moved on.
Only after I left I realized how bad that environment was and how toxic it had been for my mental health.
Nevertheless, @adsiera I would like you to know that you're not alone, and you came to the right place where people typically demonstrate empathy towards each other.
My advice: take it all in and just silently make your move. And look for inclusive places as dev.to for support on your journey. It might be a long journey, mine took 9 months, and many more before I started to act towards this.
On the bright side, your past experience will enable you to ask excellent questions to your new employers when doing interviews, from your own experience.
Hey, Tiago! Thank you for your words! Well, yes...we do not have much of an option, do we? Just get more prepared and move on to another company. Eventually it will be the right one, I am convinced of it :)
Thanks again for your support and kind words, so very very much appreciated!
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Thank you so much for this post. You summarized very well what happens to so many of us out there.
Just to share my experience: I too had endured a very similar situation here in San Francisco for many years before joining my current company, which focus a lot on the human side of things.
At my previous company, like so many people here, I was a contractor, and worked for clients, so there wasn't really a strong bond between me and my company manager. Hence, there was no appropriate way to observe and reward success and growth.
That distance created a big emptiness and lowered the company morale, so everyone is really disconnected, except for the group of folks that work on clients near each other and hang out more often.
Hence, to your words, there was no culture, poor social interaction and lack of curiosity. Even worse, there was almost no empathy present, and the company tried to remediate that with optional, non-inclusive parties which always happened outside office hours.
I would raise these things with my manager and he would try to convince me these things did not exist and were fallacies. Also, he would refer to people as resources, and he really viewed us all as pegs in a gear.
I knew it wasn't my place. I worked hard on interview prep, waited for a good opportunity and moved on.
Only after I left I realized how bad that environment was and how toxic it had been for my mental health.
Nevertheless, @adsiera I would like you to know that you're not alone, and you came to the right place where people typically demonstrate empathy towards each other.
My advice: take it all in and just silently make your move. And look for inclusive places as dev.to for support on your journey. It might be a long journey, mine took 9 months, and many more before I started to act towards this.
On the bright side, your past experience will enable you to ask excellent questions to your new employers when doing interviews, from your own experience.
Wishing well to you!!
Hey, Tiago! Thank you for your words! Well, yes...we do not have much of an option, do we? Just get more prepared and move on to another company. Eventually it will be the right one, I am convinced of it :)
Thanks again for your support and kind words, so very very much appreciated!