So I work for one of the tech giants. I've been at the company for nearly a decade, and have held 5 different roles.

In early 2025, I received an offer to join a new team in what was a really big step up for me at the time. However, the day I joined the team, in typical tech fashion there was this massive re-org. The manager and director who hired me were both let go.

So essentially I had just moved to NYC and had no idea what the job or team was going to look like anymore. I said, let's give it a week or two, meet the new manager, and go from there.

Didn't happen.

So there I was. Making ~275k a year, on a team, with zero responsibility or management direction. Doing nothing.

And I don't mean "oh it was like sending a couple emails here and there, taking a BS meeting, and calling it a day." I mean, literally, doing nothing.

I was binge watching YouTube and Netflix at the office in one of the cafes. I was new to NYC so id just go try a new famous spot for lunch a couple times a week. I walked every inch of Manhattan over the course of those ~2 years.

I was completely unassigned. This may sound like it was a dream scenario lol, but it was genuinely a nightmare. I had uprooted my family's life from the west coast to move to Nyc for this massive promotion, and instead I did absolutely nothing.

And it's not like I didn't try. I spent months trying to ask for more work, more exposure to the business. However the new manager that was hired was genuinely the dumbest person id ever met in tech. This person was making over $500k / year and I truly look at both my company and the tech world differently because of her.

So after a while of truly trying to have work to do, I gave up. I started just staying home most days. My wife would go to work and id go to the gym in my apartment, make a big breakfast, drink coffee and sit on my balcony overlooking the city, and just laugh at the absolute absurdity of the corporate tech world.

Last week, after 6 months of interviewing, I finally landed a role (same company) that actually was a big step up for me. I'm only 1.5 weeks into it and I'm already feeling the effects of doing no work for ~2 years. I feel completely behind, and so rusty. It's a good thing though and I'm extremely grateful to have finally made it out to the other side to a role and job I'm very proud of.

But wow. Now that I can look back on things objectively, what an absolutely hilarious ride. The tech world is so weird and awesome but mostly weird. I'm not sure there're many places where a random person can just slip through the cracks like that making the kind of money we do. And looking back on it, I was by a wide margin, making the least amount of money on the team I was assigned to, which makes me think they just felt bad for me and didn't wanna let me go? Idk. But it's over thankfully 😅

Do I feel bad? Admittedly I did for a while. I felt like I was a useless expense, especially after years of being so used to bringing in a lot of revenue as a good salesman. But after a while I just got angry. And then after the anger faded I decided to use this extremely unique scenario to my advantage and just try and enjoy it. Spent a ton of time with my wife on days she didn't work, tried every restaurant I could across NYC, and got a mental break. And now I'm excited to be back :)

AMA!

EDIT:: Wow, there's a ton of supportive comments in here of folks sharing their similar experiences and I have to say it makes me feel a lot better about my situation. Thanks for sharing y'all 🙏🏼

copied from LinkedIn.

I work at adobe and been here for sometime. Pre Covid and till 2024 end, we were doing fine. Several employee benefits, random large events every month, more mental health holidays. It’s almost become 180 deg.
Cutting down on resources cuz they think AI is going to fix everything is backlashing hard. Engineering is spending more time proof reading AI and having to code properly from scratch.
They had to cut back on Claude and ChatGPT licenses and look for a cheaper LLM. Promotions have been limited too.
Work stress so bad that everyday the priorities change for business.
They’re going all in trying to release as many products.
Atleast 3 developers I know quit in the last 2 months for better opportunities.
I’ve very little hopes for this org to recover.

Context: An issue came up where customers weren't getting financial information needed. I provided a solution that would fix 80% of the problem while we figure out the rest. After that I kept getting emails about the 20% asking for updates, it even got escalated to someone in a Chief role therefore If it is this urgent and important I provided a solution where the party asking for updates would have to do some work and they declined that fix because it would take 4 hours.

So these people rather keep waiting for days and sending useless emails asking for updates than roll your sleeves and get to work?

its that time of the year again..

This is so true😭🫩

I've been reflecting a lot on my career lately, especially after watching people around me get promoted while I feel like I've barely moved forward.

And the more I think about it, the more I realize how many opportunities I probably missed because I couldn't communicate well.

I used to think that if I worked hard enough people would eventually notice. So I focused on doing my job, meeting deadlines, and making sure my work was good. I rarely spoke up in meetings unless someone directly asked me a question.

Whenever senior leadership was in the room I'd get nervous and overthink everything I wanted to say. Sometimes I'd have a genuinely good idea but convince myself it wasn't worth sharing. Other times, I'd finally speak up and end up rambling for 3 minutes when I could've made my point in 30 seconds...

Looking back, there are so so many things I wish I'd done differently.

I wish I'd volunteered for more presentations instead of avoiding them. I wish I'd learned how to explain my work in a way that actually showed its impact. I wish I'd asked better questions, contributed more during discussions and stopped assuming that being good at my job was enough to get promoted.

The most frustrating part is seeing people who aren't necessarily better at their jobs move ahead because they're better at communicating their ideas and getting people on board. I'm not saying communication is everything, but I seriously underestimated how much workplace articulation matters as you move up.

Now I'm trying to improve, but I can't help thinking about how much further along I could've been if I'd started years ago. Super curious for people who've successfully climbed the corporate ladder, how much did your communication skills contribute to your promotions?

I really don't want to spend another few years being the person who does good work but can't explain why it matters..

And I am referring to direct report bosses here.

As I have a boss who, because I am not in his inner circle, will get a team member who is in his inner circle to tell me what is it he wants.

i joined the corporate world almost a year ago and have been around non stop drama.

i work in IT and i received a request from a manager to give access to 2 of her employees to something. our protocol is to always call and confirm access with those users unless directed else-wise.

so i called and confirmed access and apparently the employees did not know they were supposed to have access.

the manager blew up spamming me through email and call saying i made a huge mistake i needed to somehow delete the emails from their computer etc just a big mess.

i obviously apologized and explain in the future to always specify if something is confidential and she just got rude and angry.

since then iv always said good morning/hi/hello when around her in the office and she always scoffs at me or turns her head and never says it back. i realized i should stop because maybe i was making her uncomfortable and she never reciprocated.

i got reported today for not saying good morning to her. she told my team i need to be trained on social etiquette.

mind you this is a 50 year old woman. i am 23 and this is my first “real” job

Has anyone else noticed how differently management styles are viewed depending on gender?

I’m in a team lead/management role, and I recently had to pull someone up on a missed deadline and set some clear boundaries around project delivery. I wasn't rude—just direct, factual, and clear about expectations.

Afterward, a senior colleague pulled me aside to suggest I should "soften my delivery" so I don't come off as harsh or difficult.

Meanwhile, male managers in our department deliver the exact same (or much tougher) feedback, and they’re praised for being "decisive," "strong leaders," and "results-driven."

It feels like if a woman isn't constantly wrapping direct instructions in three layers of apology and smiles, she's automatically seen as "having an attitude."

For women in leadership here: How do you hold people accountable and give tough feedback without letting people police your tone? Would love to hear how others handle this.

HCLTech is expanding its Lucknow IT office.

They want to reduce their dependence further from Bengaluru traffic.

After all, the traffic decides if the morning 9AM meeting will happen.

And Yogi Ji has promised a traffic free morning schedule in Lucknow.

I spent more than a decade in corporate, big and small in Europe. What I have observed is that how much you earn often has nothing to do with how good you are or how much value you generate for the company.

Several examples:

1. In a small tech corporate, the customer success managers upsold millions per year, but are paid among the lowest. Some business development managers didn't achieve any targets but were paid twice as much.
   
2. Same company, a CEO coming from consulting, had no idea about market and product, were paid hundreds of thousands for writing "strategic" memos. He made some critically bad GTM and product decisions. But nothing happened.
   
3. A director cashed in one+ million thorough the years even though the business he has led was loss making all these years, but he had a good relationship with the top.

What I have learned:
-In certain cases, how much you are paid depends on the switching costs for the company, like the customer success managers. It's not that expensive to find replacements on the financial term, even though you weaken customer relationships while changing.

-In many cases, it's branding. If you come from the fancy brands like BCG, Goldman Sachs, you are seen differently in the corporate and given high positions (with more probability)

-In a lot of scenarios, it's just the people on top like you and want to keep you around.

Of course, there are exceptions: some really good sales do bring in millions for the company and get very rich for that. Some engineers do create breakthrough technology and get huge compensation. Some leaders can lead their companies to success and get rewarded handsomely. I am not talking about these cases.

What's your experience? What's your take on this?

I manage a team and we meet in the mornings to get a daily brief as well as just shoot the shit... This meeting in general has been great for morale because it's fun .

I(M-40s) have two men and two women on my team.... The two guys are really big into the cruise life and are often talking about their next Cruise.... However recently R rated topics such as wife swapping on these cruises etc. have come up in these meetings...

And maybe I'm projecting but I felt like one of the women was visibly uncomfortable listening to this so I took the guys aside and told them to drop that BS during the meetings....

But I've often questioned whether I'm being too prude or a "pick me" by doing so....

Especially because I'm not American (although I have lived and worked in America for over 20 years), I am not sure where the boundaries are, but I feel like in a professional setting any R-rated topics should be avoided.

Hi i have joined a start up company and after that my confidence and my willingness to do work has tremendously got down, 1st they took me for there parent company and once im about to join they said i will be working for this company and since it is small company you will not have PF

After that day my chest is heavy , my mind is not at work , idk something is bothering me so much and , there is no training about the product that they sell or buy , ( i work in procurement) and since i try to talk to parent company people to get myself well trained, all just go away or just ignore me

I really have no idea what to do now , I'm carrying a 100kg load on my shoulders

Because of the state of the economy, this administration, and in general, the fact that I am Hispanic, but also white I get tripped up on these choices in the job application because I feel like I am being discriminated against if I do volunteer to say yes, but then I’m also confused because some applications cover two races are more and say not Hispanic or Latino so I end up thinking I need to put Hispanic or Latino, even though I am white. Does anybody have this confusion or fear that because you volunteered to put your ethnicity even if you have two?

I’ve started to put I don’t prefer to say just because I think I get a better chance at interviewing.

I can’t see yet that it’s worked, but I have finally gotten human beings responding.

For context I’m going on 2 years with only a handful of interviews after 150+ apps and those were only because I worked with recruiters.

spent forty five minutes on a zoom call this morning listening to three different directions argue about who owns the timeline for a deliverable that nobody has even defined yet while my actual actual work just sits there up until tomorrow when i get to do it all over again.