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'm pretty new to consulting so I'm curious to hear what advice you can give to a newbie. I've heard all the horror stories of climbing the corporate ladder so I'd appreciate any advice you have, work advice, life advice, literally anything :)

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😭🫩

Working in a corporate job with a decent salary sounds financially comfortable, but the reality is often different.

Rent, EMIs, family responsibilities, daily expenses, and pressure to manage a certain lifestyle can eat into monthly income faster than expected. Even employees earning well might struggle when an unexpected medical bill, urgent repair, or family expense comes up before payday.

What makes things harder is the pressure to look financially settled while trying to manage everything behind the scenes.

I'm curious to know that who people working in corporate jobs.

• Do you feel financially secure with your current salary?
• How do you manage unexpected expenses without disturbing your monthly budget?
• Do you think companies should offer better financial wellness support to employees?

Interested in hearing different experiences from people across industries.

I've been building VIMANA

https://vimana.live/

an India-focused flight tracker that also helps with the airport part of the trip. It's free, there's no login and no ads.

**Live flights**

* About 300 aircraft over India at any moment, from community ADS-B receivers (adsb.lol + adsb.fi)
* Tap a plane for its route, ETA, aircraft type and punctuality, or open it in 3D and follow it in to land (sun-lit terrain, real stars at night, lit runways)

In my experience, it’s rarely a lack of care. It’s the gaps:

🕐 Recognition arrives too late to matter
🙈 Behind-the-scenes work goes unseen
🔁 Praise goes to the same few visible people
📝 Thanks is generic (“good job”) instead of specific

Small, timely, specific appreciation changes how a team feels.

Where do you see it slipping in your team, and what has helped fix it?

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..

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

We're looking for some meaningful and unique Diwali gifts for our clients, with a budget of around ₹2,000 per gift.

Don't want to go with the usual dry fruits, sweets or generic gift hampers that everyone sends.

Looking for something useful, a little premium and memorable, something clients would actually appreciate rather than just pass on to someone else.

What have you gifted or received that genuinely stood out?

Would love some creative suggestions or personal experiences!

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.

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.

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?