I'm a developer and then Mondays happen

I'm a developer and I've been in this industry for 13 years and then Mondays, they're not always great! 😅

Have you ever had what I like to call a "mid developer life crisis", where you start questioning things like:

"Why are we copying X Y Z companies if their tech implementations and architecture are totally different than ours?"

hold your thoughts for a second and let me explain first

I'm not against trends or following another company's tech implementations, I simply don't agree with the approach of "Let's do it because X Y Z are doing it".

That's not how it works, you cannot force one's architecture, solutions and tech implementations to fit yours and your business necessities without first assessing if it makes sense, the risks involved, is it doable, the costs, the time, the pros and cons, etc.

"Why do I feel like a code monkey?"

We are the caretakers of the codebase, we read and write lines of code every single day, we know the code, the risks, the architecture, the time we need to implement a feature, the product, the business model, etc.

So shouldn't we make tech decisions, instead of being told how to do our job?

"Why aren't we addressing the tech debt?"

We all have been there! Raise your hand if you get antsy because there's no time to fix tech debt. 🙋🏻‍♀️

Tech debt is nasty and pesky "little" thing and the longer it's ignored and not addressed, the higher the risk of compromising the product and business.

Developers need to address tech debt and improve the quality of the code and companies should highly promote this.

So what can we do?

These are a few of the things I do when I have this "mid developer life crisis"

Work actions:

1. Be professional (always) and do your job as best as you can
2. Approach your manager and explain your concerns
3. Don't point fingers or criticise, instead
4. Propose solutions and offer your help (easier said than done, I know).
5. Take initiative and push for the things you think the company could benefit from

If you are really unhappy and feel like you're not growing as an individual and professional, then

1. Start looking for a new job. I'm sure your skills, expertise and work will be of great value and use in another company.

Personal actions:

1. Get some side projects to keep you motived. Not only are you learning new things, you're also exploring other languages, tech stack, tools, frameworks and expanding your "toolbelt" or "toolkit".
2. Get a few hobbies to help you unwind and relax, at least you won't dwell in "Why this?", "Why that?" that you might ask yourself 300 times a second. 😂
3. Talk to a friend, it helps more than you think.
4. And most important of them all. It's just a job don't let it affect you and your personal life to a point were you could burnout.

Overall

No company is perfect but if you express your concerns, propose improvements, offer your help and take initiatives, there's still hope for a better working environment.