10-05-2025....

Hey,

So, another Saturday and I am back again to my blog. I initially planned that I would be doing this on a daily basis, but then I was too lazy. I was working on my project, but unfortunately couldn’t pick that up either, but let's see, hopefully will try resuming it.

This week was really tough, especially on the office side of things, which is also part of the reason why I am writing this.

How do you deal with TLs or architects?

There is an ongoing project that my team is working on. When I describe it, it really sounds fun, and that was also the reason why I was interested in doing it. I don’t want to go into the exact details to bore you, but this revolves around the security side of things. How well can we secure our apps (both Android and iOS) using some of the best market tools available? But one important lesson that I have learned this week is that we should also look into the leadership or the people under whom we are working, apart from the kind of work that we are doing. Currently, I am the only iOS engineer working on this, and I was really excited to work on this, learn more about the os behaviour, etc, etc. Also, single-handedly manage all the tasks around it. Kind of working and learning on my own. But now I am at a state that I have clearly communicated to my manager to change my team to the extent that I am even ready to prepare for interviews in order to change the team internally or even the company if required.

How do you deal with a person who is not ready to listen at all?

How do you deal with a person who believes nothing is perfect and fails to describe perfection?

How do you deal with new requirements coming in every round of reviews?

How do you deal with review meetings where, at the end, you walk out completely blank?

How do you have a meaningful debate on things that don’t make sense to you?

How do you deal with an architect who is ready to point out all your mistakes but doesn’t even listen to their own flaws?

How do you even speak in a room where everyone is just scared to speak so that the architect doesn’t get mad?

How do you say no to meetings because no matter what work you have done, you know you’ll definitely be looked down upon?

How do you work in an environment where, even though everyone knows it's not your fault, nobody takes your side?

How do you handle the blame you get for someone else’s mistakes?

How do you handle the scolding you get for not standing up to the expectations of seniors when that expectation itself was not communicated?

How do you work in an environment where you don’t get any appreciation for any work at all and are mocked for the silliest mistake?

How do you say that I don’t want to work with this person on any projects going forward?

How do you deal with people who are not ready to listen to a no?

These are some of the many questions and the answers to which I am failing to find. I was always excited to work in a startup, to learn and grow fast. I used to love working in tech because I was under the impression that it was the least bureaucratic field. You can speak your mind out loud. You can put your opinions, listen to others, and eventually pick the right one. But all my beliefs came into question when I was working on this project. And I am not saying I haven’t made any mistakes at all, I acknowledge it. But we eventually have to move forward with it.

It's not that I have stopped believing those ideas. I still believe that we can listen to people. We can find mistakes in someone’s work and resolve them peacefully. We can take stands for teammates if we find them right, or at least if we are in a group where a junior is getting scolded, we can mediate the conflict. We can make things understandable to juniors. I read it somewhere that if you can’t explain it to a kid, then you haven’t understood it. But now I feel my style of working is really different from what was required in this team. Maybe I am drowning in a group of intellectual people. Maybe I am in the wrong group.

But the silver lining to this is that my manager understood this. He is all in for changing my team, which is what I will eventually be doing, but I am scared of how I will still deal with this person in the limited time I have here in this team.

I wanted to make this not as bad as it sounds, but I couldn’t control myself from expressing it.

If you have read till here, thanks a lot. Please also share your 2 cents on this in the comments

Thank you