After 15 years at one position, my salary was still lower than a starting salary for that position, according to Robert Half Technology’s salary report for my job title, even after considering location variance from average..
After five years employment, vacation does not increase at all, now sick time/personal days.
My team was understaffed and always overwhelmed. It stayed that way even after new hires. We also had three distinct teams with roles that clashed for time and the balancing act meant you had little help from overworked colleagues.
There is very little accommodation for people with mental or physical issues, trying to fit all specialist appointments into the same 7 days sick leave and 21 vacation/personal days.
Stress leaves were common in my team but the stress from work never abated. You just had to recuperate as best you could until it overwhelmed you again and keep arguing for more people on the team, more specialty instead of hybrid positions and better management.
No compassionate response to COVID that allowed temporary extra time off, just “rah-rah, we are the best” pep talks.
Too many times my team’s scripting work covered a gap in other team’s application’s logic and those gaps remain, decades later, with the issue fixed in those applications, making our work like spaghetti code and increasingly difficult to update.
No career path in most tech jobs, unless you leave, and hopefully you leave with a comprehensive knowledge that is recognizable to other companies doing similar things.
No work/life balance. With these salaried positions you expect that your many over-hours on one week’s special project might be recognized by a bit of slow on another. No. You work full-time or overtime but no lieu time, never any sensible balance that lets an employee recover.
