[deehunk]

I experienced the reality of a fake packaging engineer in my previous job in one of the top semicon companies. I brought it to the notice of the Senior Director a couple of times, but it was pushed under the carpet. Unfortunately, she became a Program Manager and is still surviving.

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by Turbohead

The manager is asking him to ask me to clarify his doubts despite being a so called tech lead.
...

Yes, I am mixing up 1 and 2 but it's too obvious to ignore.

But even if it's not in my KPI and by being less available, will the accusations that I'm not a team player stick enough to get me fired before I find a job?

Short answer to the question - NO.

Your job (as most jobs) are to do your core work. Team player, mentoring, etc. are additional responsibilities one takes up at his/her flexibility. Unless you are the people manager of that individual, it's not your headache.

[Red Liner]

Originally Posted by Turbohead

1) Did it and got burnt out.
.

Dude, just get the hell out of that toxic environment. But find a job before you quit. Don't let emotions rule now (though I have always let emotions rule me lol!).

That company does not deserve you. Bring some pride into yourself. Walk away when things are good. You don't work in some Gulag (google it) to be stuck there forever.

[dragonfire]

Originally Posted by Turbohead

The manager is asking him to ask me to clarify his doubts despite being a so called tech lead.

See, your responsibility is well defined here. Stick to it. And clearing somebody's doubts does not mean that your work has to suffer. Ask him to send the doubts in a mail and you'd reply after you are done with your current work. If you didn't finish your work, you didn't have time to do his - its that simple.

He is coming to you with doubts because you are "available". Make yourself "unavailable" and do it subtly. Like, I'll be with you in a moment. Do get back, but after an hour or two. Or ten. Eventually, take it to a point where he realizes that he can't rely on you every time.

Put off other people's work, not yours.

[anti21]

Originally Posted by Turbohead

I work in one of these WITCH companies[/left]

Therein lies your fault, you are working at a WITCH company. They are mostly useful to start a career in IT, learn the tech and switch away within 1-2 year of joining.

There are two kinds of people in WITCH companies:

1. Who just want an 8-5 job where they can do the bare minimum in the way they are asked to do. If they are told to click a button 30 times every hour at designated minutes, they would keep doing that without asking any questions like why we are even clicking the button. They would not even try to see if there is a way to make their job easier or what actually happens if the button is not clicked. No sir, they would just sit and click the button at designated time.

2. The people who will question why are we even clicking the button. They would generally find someone who explains it either within the organization or from the client's side until they get the answer to why the button is being clicked. Then they'd find a way to make the clicking not dependent on a human being clicking the button. Then they'd move on to a different similar task earning a good reputation among their own and even other teams and clients.

The former is 97-98% of the people in WITCH companies. The latter are 1-2%.

If you are in the latter, you would have to understand that you would be getting an appraisal of only 8-12% (if you are the top performer), which would be measly 30,000 or 40,000 since you started from there. They will give you so called "performer of the year awards" with maybe a 500-1000 INR coupon maximum. In the end if you complaint, you would be told that is the highest percentage of appraisal given out in the project (emphasis on percentage). When you complain that the amount the appraisal is based on is already low, so the appraisal amount is low, you would be brushed off with one or another excuse about policy or project not having any money. Indirectly, you are being told that if you are really worth more get an offer from outside. Maybe even directly by the HR (always remember they are at the side of the company and a mostly sock puppets of project leadership). You go and get an offer from another with maybe a 60% or 80% hike, then suddenly that money that project did not have will magically appear out of thin air. Maybe even an on-site opportunity will be dangled in front of you.

Do not fall for this trap. If you are really in the 2nd category of people, aim for a good product-based company (with good enough Glassdoor reviews) and switch to it. You would be working at an actual product with smart people who mostly know what they are doing. Your work will be valued more in the industry. It would be good for your career learning and reputation wise. WITCH have an awfully bad reputation in US and European countries in terms of quality of work. The reason many companies use them is because they are incredibly cheap. The new CEO/CTO come in at the WITCH client, gets a WITCH company and outsources IT department to them, saves money, increases profits and leaves before the fallout can be seen. Then someone else comes who has to clean the mess, they open their own IT department again and bring back important work. Rinse repeat. This merry go around is slowly ending with many of those US and European companies realizing that they can open up their own IT departments in India where they can keep the quality employees. Hence, in the last decade you’ll see many Tech divisions of those companies have popped up in India. These companies or the startups in India are the place to be. Former if you want to play it safe, and latter if you are young and keen to learn while wearing many hats.