The last post in this series ended with a line I wanted to come back to: managers - especially first-line managers in more hierarchical orgs - are not always empowered to change the systems they're operating in. They're functions of those systems too.
The last two posts in this series have been about curiosity - what it looks like when people have it and what happens when the environment kills it. A friend responded to the second one with something I've been thinking about since: the framing issue.
A senior engineer on my team is leaving. Not leaving the company - just moving to another group internally. On paper, it's a lateral move that doesn't change much for the rest of us. In practice, it changes a lot.
Early in my career, I said yes to everything. Extra project? Sure. Meeting I didn't need to be in? I'll be there. Feature request that didn't quite fit the system? I'll figure it out.
I started writing this blog in my final days of employment for a company whose name I will mask as "Education Shack" (to protect both the innocent and guilty), reflecting on my 25 month tenure there. I decided to hold off on posting it, until I had time to detox from the negativity that weighed me down.