Is the situation at work normal (description inside)?

Question

Work organization

Need opinions about the situation at work.
I have been with the company for about 3 months. Position Junior programmer.
In my opinion, a strange situation has developed there (before that I worked in 2 companies, so there is nothing to compare with), I don’t know whether to continue working there.
Dislike a few things.
1. A mess with the organization of the workflow. We hardly use Trello, but use Google docks for tasks. As a result, there is no clear statement of the task and criteria for its completion. As a result, it turns out that the views of different people on the functionality are generally different.
2. Tasks do not always pass through the team lead, and as a result, the complexity of the task is determined by people who have not seen the code (testers, managers...). It is not always possible to convince that implementation takes more time.
3. You have to spend a lot of time helping other juniors who don’t know how / don’t want to google elementary things (how to make a branch in the git, how to add a CSS property to JQuery). Right now they are hiring and they are hiring such very, very green juniors.
4. Periodically (a couple of times a week) managers yell obscenities (not at progers, but at each other or just like that).
5. There are not enough testers and some tasks are not tested for a very long time. They do not plan to hire new testers, although they are hiring new progers.
Here's what I think to do. How normal is this?
The company is small (grocery, not a studio), so I don’t expect anything special. But these things are annoying.
I try my best to fix things. For example, I help with the transition to Giroux (our manager swears at Trello), I set everything up there ... I write documentation and Wiki. But there is no special will and money to somehow change everything more globally.
Is this really not very normal or do I want a lot?

Answer 1

We hardly use Trello, but use Google docks for tasks.

It is acceptable to store a broad description of the task in Google docs, for example, if it is a specification of a certain protocol. The task must contain a reference to this specification.
Convey to the management above you and TL and PM that tasks other than the task manager should not be taken on. As a last resort, create tasks yourself and send links to them to the director, TL and PM. If this is perceived with hostility by PM / TL - get out of there, if by some other directors - send them to TL / PM with an indication of where the task is formalized and how. So purely by the way, this one is all the task of your PM.
Fix the ETA of a task before taking it to work. Notify the director AND TL about this. If you suddenly have questions before implementation - ask on what basis the ETA was set by the director, based on the code base. During the implementation - fix the difficulties that have arisen in the body of the task. If the ETA increases a lot - be sure to notify the TL and the director about it. If questions arise at the end - refer to the comments and notices.
Is this part of your responsibility? If not, go to google. Of course, you also need to be a person and help as far as possible, but not to the detriment of your main duties. If the management suddenly requires this from you - no question, start a maintenance task and log the time spent into it.
It's ok
And what? Is this your problem? If specifically your task is being tested for a long time and questions for you - send it to the testers department.
Generally speaking, this is the direct task of your PM and admins.
What you wrote about here is called the technical process. Yes, in your company he is not very good.

Answer 2

I somehow ended up in a similar place, I was seduced by the proximity to home
, so I couldn’t persuade the “project manager” to even spend less time on development :))
I answered HR questions about why I was looking for another place so quickly, I answered like this: interesting projects and professional growth were promised, but in fact you have to deal with routine, and I’d rather take care of my career now than in a year I won’t be able to explain to the same HR what I did for a whole year
without panic, calmly fulfill your duties and look for another place, you are now considering all the activities there from the point of view of improving your resume
, do not forget to write down in your resume the training of newly arrived juniors and the organization of the transition to fat plus documentation :) but you don’t need to complain about the rest of the interview
it's a really toxic and low level environment and you don't have to be there at all

Answer 3

1 This is not "normal" but "standard".
2 If there is not even a trello, then fat is clearly not the topic there. We must at least start with Asana. Well, or if you want to the maximum, then RedMine. Because in the end it still won’t take root - it’s too redundant.
3 If you spend time helping, consider this time in the tracker too. Agree with the team leader that these tasks are paid. Or just sit on your headphones and do your job.

Answer 4

This is usual. You can either score, or dump, or change it. The choice is yours.

Answer 5

What is stopping you from getting the job done?
Why do you destroy it yourself and say that the company is to blame, the company is just a piece of paper with letters, and the work process is you employees.

Answer 6

1. It’s tough, but you can live
2. Here you have to look at the circumstances in your case, I would say that while my bosses directly don’t set the task for me to do anything
3 But then, well, I can’t help it (I’m not talking about 1 time there suggest a certain moment per month or, for example, what happened in your development area)
4 This is normal everywhere
5 This is normal everywhere

Answer 7

1. Everyone uses what is more convenient for him, if Trello or fat is not used, then there is a reason.
2. In general, all tasks in our team go not through the team leader, but through managers, nothing, we live)
3. It’s not normal, I teach juniors in the following way - I allow them to ask themselves only questions that I can answer “yes” and “no”, 80% of issues are resolved at the stage of formulating the question itself
4. Now, if they didn’t yell obscenities at each other, it would be suspicious and a reason to think)
5. Prove that testers are needed, we also did not immediately come to this, but now we have an excellent There is a QA.

Answer 8

The problem is systemic, and it lies in the fact that your project does not have a normal Product Owner / Project Manager with experience in product and team management. If those people who should perform the tasks of the above roles are co-founders of the company or close associates, then most likely it will be difficult to change something. Well, except that they are adequate and you can reach them - here you know better.
If they have a desire to change something, then:
1. First you need to build processes on paper. Development is a fairly typical business process, in many places it is well described. Let them take the basis and modify it for the company.
2. Then implement a project management application that will make this business process executable. That is to put it to work. Before that, by the way, you also need to think about how to migrate existing data.
In general, this is not your headache at all as a junior. My advice: since you have already got there, work for at least another 3 months so as not to spoil your resume with too frequent job changes. If the situation does not change during this time, then change jobs at a calm pace.
As advised above, at the next interview, when they ask why you are leaving, it is better not to talk too much like "Bad bosses", "Bad processes", etc. Tell us more about your achievements.

Answer 9

It shouldn't be, but unfortunately it is.
The main question is what are your prospects in this place? Do you have alternatives at the moment? The answers to these questions will give you a more or less clear understanding of your situation.
In general, the issue of communication is quite often acute in offices, something you can fix by talking with TL, something, unfortunately, will not be changed to please one junior, if others are comfortable working in such a system.
Mats in the office are the norm)