Redundant functions
It was a shock to learn that the amount of developers in our team was going to be cut in half, from four to two. We knew a reorganisation was afoot but we thought it wouldn't affect us because we're already understaffed.
So sorry, this is not about JavaScript functions, it's a bit of a rant.
This is the first non-freelance job for me. Apart from being a right fit ethically (according to this), the type of work also really suits me. Our team creates the design-system. That means a lot of UX, a lot of accessibility, which is right up my alley if I am to believe my educational background. It also means a lot of lines to implementing teams. Which is why we organise the front-end guild within the bank.
We were also dubbed a core-team since we distribute configurations for linting, testing and even provide the different pipelines for teams to use, and we've setup the CDN.
So the work is diverse, we are very free in how we set our targets. Which is why we do Kanban, not Scrum.
But even though our team could really use an extra dev, management has decided we can do with less. Meaning our work is going to be done by external contractors and I'll be moved to another team doing things that İ did not sign up for. There was also a 30% chance I'd be let go entirely. That might have been easier.
Being independent most of my working life, the uncertainty of not having a job does not really bother me.
What bothers me is management contradicting what they said six months ago, saying one thing and doing the other, hasty decisions, a blunt axe through the workforce, and carelessly hoping for the best using disproven solutions. The way forward is still opaque.
To be fair, I have never experienced a reorganisation and it must be near impossible to do it in a way that keeps everybody happy.
But this is a company that made it's pay-off 'banking with a human touch' but simply counts heads for redundancy (not function or quality).
It is a bank that has a mission 'committed to a sustainable and just future for everyone'. Yet when moving to a smaller office last year, did away with the last of the living plants and even installed a giant wall of plastic plants in the stairwell.
Outsourcing the workforce to overseas contractors is seen by some as a form of neocolonialism. Apart from 'exploiting' the overseas workforce, this way of working can only work for so long, it is not sustainable. Currently there are still experienced developers locally to guide and manage the external workforce. But in one generation all you have left is project managers. The western developing world stopped producing long ago; everything we need comes from outside the country. My country practices is called a knowledge-economy. This outsourcing of IT undermines that. Soon all we are good for is telling others what to do.
Maybe I was a bit naïve assuming ASN a 'good' bank. Maybe it still is 'good' considering the alternatives (at least they try to be), and the bottom line is it's simply a bank that does not invest in wars or oil. If I want to work with people that do not go on winter sports or fly half the world to go on holiday; I should start looking elsewhere.