A data engineer shared a post on Reddit claiming that he is underpaid, overworked, and stuck managing an underperforming team. He claimed that he is forced to fix everyone’s mistakes and lead them despite being the lowest paid in the team.
“Team lead working 60 hrs, but the team is enjoying in clubs,” a techie wrote. He added that he has been working as a data engineer for the past four years, revealing that his salary is lower than his team’s because of the “bad decisions” he made in the past.
“I’m the lowest earning member in the team, and still, I have to manage them, find out their mistakes and solve the most critical task in my project. Still, I’m working more than 60 hrs a week and too much stress while they enjoy their time,” he continued.
He claimed that his manager blamed him for his team’s mistakes. He accused his team of being irresponsible for partying while ignoring a critical work deadline.
How did social media react?
An individual asked, “This basically means you are a good developer but still need to train yourself as TL/manager. You mentioned folks cannot test their code – what have you done to rectify this? If they cannot handle prod issues, what have you done to upskill them here? Everyone went to a party on Friday despite an important handover – what have you done to ensure such important tasks are completed on time? Either your team is unmotivated- in which case you can’t do much honestly unless you are a good leader. Or there are some gaps in communicating the expectations- this can be easily improved!”
Another added, “No wonder people get laid off.” A third joined, “Let’s be very clear. You are not managing them if you cannot make them do their own work. I don’t know what the problem is. However, your strong feedback against your team members is needed and should be listened to by your management. Strict actions are needed against your team members with warnings around their performance.”
A fourth wrote, “Sounds like you need to hold people accountable. Helping juniors unblock when they are stuck is acceptable and is part of the job, but doing their job is not. If you are not being listened to, you are just a punching bag for your management to get their work done without caring about who is working or not. That is just not a good place to be, honestly, even if you ignore the salary discrimination.”