Underpaid, Micromanaged, and Denied Growth Opportunities at Cisco project - Recensione dipendente - Devops Engineer presso SoftServe

2,0
16 ago 2025
Consiglia
Gradimento del CEO
Pronostico commerciale

Vantaggi

- colleagues were highly skilled, professional, and collaborative - opportunities to develop strong self-management and problem-solving skills due to minimal guidance - exposure to cross-team collaboration in a large-scale environment - access to certain training resources and internal documentation -flexible remote work arrangement.

Svantaggi

1. Severe Below-Market Salary - my salary was drastically below industry standards - approximately 100% below the market rate for my role created a strong sense of being undervalued from the start - when I inquired about how my raise was calculated, I received only value answers such as "there are many moving parts" or "management made titanic efforts" - no clear explanation was given about what is required to achieve a meaningful raise 2. Invasive Micromanagement and Ignored Boundaries - managers interfered in personal matters during 1:1s, including unsolicited advice about relocating to another city or country - during wartime, I was pressured to relocate abroad, and personal details I shared were later used against me - when I took officially allowed self care days, my manager demanded to know why and pressed for personal details, despite this not being required by company policy - HR policies were not applied consistently. Even when time off was formally approved in workday by manager, I was later pressured to justify it again in chats and with colleagues. New, undocumented 'rules' were introduced retroactively, shifting responsibility for manager's poor planning onto employees 3. Career Stagnation and Unequal Opportunities - I was deliberately kept on outdated technology stacks and repetitive migration work, while interesting skill-building tasks were given to others, including new trainees - Promises to transition me to more engaging work after mentoring were never fully fulfilled - the manager personally handled the hiring of trainees, yes I was assigned to mentor someone with no IT background, who was emotionally manipulative and avoided responsibility, without any managerial support to address the issues - Even during migration work, I had to plan and manage my own tasks without support 4. Misuse of performance goals and responsibilities - Some goals set for me were tied to work that primarily benefited the manager personally (preparing materials for QBR) - I was given goals where the outcome depended heavily on the work of others, limiting my ability to achieve them independently - pulled into solving issues and collecting project metrics for unrelated projects under the same manager - project metrics gathering - which was never formally my responsibility - was pushed onto me repeatedly without role acknowledging or compensation - these interruptions negatively impacted my main work 6. Task Reassignment and Favoritism - "exposure" to interesting work often meant passively listening to calls without actual involvement, while my core workload stayed the same 7. Communication Failures and Exclusion - Excluded from key meetings and chats tied to my role, leading to a four-week delay in resolving an issue due to miscommunication - When transferring metrics responsibilities to my manager, I was suddenly held accountable for mythology decisions made before I was involved 8. Passive-Aggressive Feedback and Double Standards - Feedback was always vague or "shadow feedback" without actionable details, yet still used agains me in evaluations - Setting boundaries with colleagues led to passive-aggressive behavior from management - If I missed a 1:1 I was criticized yet when another colleague skipped multiple 1:1s without warning, there were no consequences yet I was asked to have a recorded call with TLS after that - I was asked to explain and justify decisions that were not within my scope, while others were not held to the same standards - when I once made a production mistake, I immediately prepared RCA. Instead of engaging with that, manager criticized me for having 'too few planned changes'. In reality, most of his production work were just simple installs or configs and he never carried serous technical work. This double standard made feedback feel unfair and credibility questionable 9. Unrecognized Efforts During Departure - during my notice period, I personally planned and executed the entire knowledge transfer process, ensuing a smooth handover of all responsibilities, yet this effort went completely unacknowledged by management - even at the end of my tenure, my manager did not thank me for my work, despite doing so for a former colleague he had only worked with for a few months on the project (before the previous manager was assigned). This stark double standard left a lasting impression of bias and lack of basic professional courtesy.

avatar
Risposta di SoftServe
8mo
Thank you for sharing your experience. We’re sorry to hear that your time at SoftServe did not meet your expectations. We take feedback about compensation, management style, and career growth very seriously. These are areas we constantly work to improve, and your comments will be shared with the relevant teams for review. SoftServe strives to ensure fair pay, respectful leadership, and equal opportunities for development. While we regret that this was not your experience, we truly value your input and will use it to continue strengthening our culture. We wish you all the best in your future career.

Esplora altre recensioni su SoftServe

5,0
19 nov 2025
Dipendente anonimo
Consiglia
Gradimento del CEO
Pronostico commerciale

Vantaggi

friendly people, modern approaches and a very diverse workforce. great clients and thought pieces as well to bring to the table.

Svantaggi

Not a con but just a note, they offer flexible remote working options, which may be different for those who prefer in-person

2,0
8 gen 2026
Dipendente anonimo
Consiglia
Gradimento del CEO
Pronostico commerciale

Vantaggi

Decent pay but you will be expected to manage multiple client projects at the same time in an expedited timeframe and are often flying solo. If you come from traditional consulting, these projects will feel insane and unrealistic to deliver true quality.

Svantaggi

All about who you know, not what you do here. Expect to have to work at 150% capacity plus spend at least 50% of capacity networking. You will be constantly asked to deliver with unrealistic timelines. People (i.e. business analyst group) are constantly stepping over boundaries and claiming work others with more expertise in a specific area should own. It is a constant cluster mess and I (as a junior associate) have been on my fair share of calls where leadership is yelling at each other about stepping into each other’s territories. I can only imagine what occurs on the pure leadership calls. Lots of people in director and above positions are on an egotistical trip and have zero interest in the team’s ideas, knowledge, or expertise. You will spend many phone calls just listening to the leader brag about themselves for 55 straight minutes.

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