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I work in this small team where my "manager" has been the solo backend developer for 4 years.

The person before me left after 9 months.

When I joined the team I immediately noticed that the solo dev was jealous of the project: was not able to share the right information with me, and often he simply didn't share the information, he kept the most important task for himself, and when he must review my code he wait for ages before doing it. Nothing is deployed without his permission, and more than once he waited MONTHS for a code review on my code, with the consequent flood of conflict to resolve on my side. He complained about other teams, about other people, about everything, but when we were in front of our manager's manager, he became a little lamb.

I asked help from the product owner and the manager director, but nothing happened, they just shrugged. moreover, my "manager" took over my tasks after 8 months without any communication.

WTF is this behavior??? Does it happen to someone else?? How to deal with an environment like that?

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    "How to deal with an environment like that?" since you tried your boss, and your bosses boss and no one seems to care to help, why isn't the answer "find a new job"? As this sounds quite horrible
    – Aida Paul
    Commented Nov 8, 2023 at 10:36
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    The answer-behind-the-answer is, next time do your due diligence during the job application process...
    – AakashM
    Commented Nov 8, 2023 at 10:51
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    @AakashM Sorry but I don't understand your comment... how can I do my diligence during my job application? Nobody will tell you the shitty side of a company during a hiring process, every company is top-notch in its field (I am sarcastic).
    – friday-json
    Commented Nov 8, 2023 at 11:02
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    As people commonly point out on this site, a job interview goes both ways - the employer is also 'applying' - for the position of "employer of you". You might like workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/15456 , workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/186278 , workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/12386 & many more...
    – AakashM
    Commented Nov 8, 2023 at 14:16
  • @AakashM thank you for clarifying your answer. Usually, I try to get some info about the turnover. In my experience, high turnover is a red flag.
    – friday-json
    Commented Nov 8, 2023 at 15:30

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To be blunt: if you've raised concerns to your manager, the product owner and the managing director, and they're all fine with this approach and don't want to change it then it's not going to change.

So you either need to find a way to deal with it, or you need to start looking for a new job that works in a way you're more happy with. If you do that latter, think carefully about exactly what it was that you don't like about this approach, and how you might be able to determine whether the companies you interview at have something similar.

In the meantime, make sure that you're covering your arse so that if fingers get pointed at you, then you can argue why it's not your fault that things are going slow/features aren't implemented/etc.

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  • Just one thing to add, perhaps this is why person before you left. Seems like "manager" very concern about his job security
    – Strader
    Commented Nov 9, 2023 at 3:30
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    @Strader I checked the LinkedIn page of the person before me, and he's working now two years in another company. Seems like he found a better place/team/project.
    – friday-json
    Commented Nov 9, 2023 at 13:12

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