Pros
- Flexible Work Model: The team operates under a hybrid arrangement, with one in-office day per week. - Autonomy and Trust: Team members are given the autonomy to plan and manage their own work. Micromanagement is minimal. - Limited Time for Professional Development: While a Pluralsight subscription is made available for training purposes, usage is restricted to one hour per week. In practice, operational demands mean that training time is often deprioritised, with three out of four weeks offering no realistic opportunity for learning and development. - Positive Cross-Team Perception: Feedback from other teams is generally favourable, which reflects well on the team’s performance. However, much of the recognition is directed toward management, rather than acknowledging the broader team’s contribution.
Cons
- Misalignment of Role Expectations: Commitments made during the hiring process have not materialised. The scope of the role primarily involves first-line support and reactive security remediation tasks, which significantly differs from the responsibilities originally outlined. - Unequal Standards: There is a noticeable disparity in expectations between junior and senior engineers. Junior staff are held to stricter standards and often carry a heavier operational workload, while senior engineers are exempt from key responsibilities such as change management and accountability measures. - Leadership Disconnect: The Infrastructure Manager is frequently absent from team stand-ups and lacks active engagement with the team’s day-to-day activities, contributing to a growing sense of disconnect. - Survey Integrity: The team has been directed to submit only positive feedback in Friday Pulse surveys, which undermines the purpose of such tools as mechanisms for genuine employee engagement and continuous improvement. - Lack of Career Development: There is currently no clear path for progression or professional growth, which impacts motivation and long-term retention. - Understaffing issues: Over the past six months, the team has experienced a reduction in headcount, with two engineers leaving the team and no replacements being hired. Despite this, the leadership structure has expanded to include a Team Leader, an Infrastructure Manager, and a Head of Infrastructure and Security — resulting in a management-heavy structure relative to a team of five engineers.
