This is a well worded blog post:

  • Youโ€™re learning coping mechanisms rather than skills.

Every organization has their quirks that people find their way to work around. ... Over time, we learn to cope with these things โ€“ we set aside extra time for the reports, make sure we take the time to sell the political person on our ideas, or learn how to argue.

The trap: Sometimes organizations are (or become) sufficiently toxic that weโ€™re investing more time in developing and refining the coping mechanisms than the actual skills. If your list of things to develop is really a list of things that you wonโ€™t have to do in a more functional environment, none of which will make you more employable elsewhereโ€ฆ itโ€™s time to walk away. [emph mine -mfn]

Everything we do that doesn't make us "more employable" could be wasted time. I mean, having effort, eg, helps because you get better at estimating stories, and knowing what you need to know to get those high-quality estimates and "ready-ready" stories. That's not wasted time (even if I don't always love those meetings).

But if we're coping just to cope -- and when it's safe to say a decent amount of it won't translate to a "more functional" workplace -- that's a workplace smell.

Nothing earth-shattering, but I liked the "does this problem make me/us/whoever more employable?" and "do I spend more time coping than learning?" metrics.

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