To summarize, I started at a company I interned with (at will state, US), new manager turned out to be comically bad. Not sure how to get out of the situation.
I have recently started full time at a company I had a great time with as an intern and thought the culture would be a perfect fit. It was laid back, my manager was a great mentor and I was encouraged to take initiative or learn about higher level aspects of the team's operations without any micromanagement to be stressed about.
The team was restructured into two sub-teams and I was hired under a different manager, which did not seem like an issue at the time since it was still the same team. Well, I was wrong. To list just a few things about my new manager:
- Extremely micromanaging and refuses to leave any initiative and tries to hold absolute control over higher level aspects of the projects.
- On that note, only gives out tasks under the same project in 30 min - 2 hour crumbs and does not release further details until he is satisfied with those parts.
- Not a good mentor. Unhelpful with any issues that come up, extremely unclear about expectations and disparages people for not meeting them.
- Likely not fit to lead in the first place. Had 10+ years of experience in a rather narrow developer position in a different company before being hired here and does not seem like he actually understands high level aspects of the business to guide people. To the point he can usually only explain things by writing pseudocode and I have never seen an instance of him offering guidance beyond writing code snippets to use or rewording and deflecting the questions people ask.
- Absurdly rigid with schedules. Before the restructuring, people worked 8 hours including lunch. No more paid lunches and his expectation is for people to factor in the 10 mins it takes to get food to eat at their desks now. I have been threatened for leaving 3 mins early one day even though I worked 45 hours that week (exempt of course).
- Not very trustworthy. Often talks about working on projects using tools that were not even in existence at the time he claimed to have worked with them. Also gaslights and displays at least somewhat abusive behavior.
I am convinced I need to get out of here as soon as possible but I am not sure how to go about it. A few ways I can see:
- Address the issue with old manager in other subteam and/or the VP. I am worried this will come across as whining especially with the rapport between my manager and the rest of the management versus my standing as a newbie.
- Shadow someone I have a good relationship under a similar team in different department and switch there. Not sure how to do it without raising suspicions or putting myself in a bad spot.
- Aggressively look for a new position at a different company. I am not exactly in shape and I do not want to take a downgrade as far as my position goes because of this.
- Commit to getting in shape as far as interview skills go and work on some open source while learning at work. Sounds like the best option except I am concerned I am not going to be learning much in the near future. Also I do not really want to suffer through a year of working in my current situation.