I am normally a helpful person who dives in to help, but when it comes from above that I’ll be switching teams with no warning, it robs me of my autonomy, my investment in my team and product, and makes me feel like even more of a cog. Yes, it’s good to broaden my experience, and maybe if it was handled better it would have felt better. But my job isn’t just coding, it’s social skills and research and all of that. Especially in the remote environment, it’s hard. So this does feel bad.
Our product team failed to pull together a clear path forward, so I understand why this is being done, but it is still alienating. Is this a normal thing to expect in future roles?
I’ve been coding for money for some 18 years. It’s not unheard of to switch from one team to another or one product to another. Are you a contractor (i.e. self-employed independent contractor / consultant)? If so, you can definitely speak about autonomy and you can walk away from it if you don’t like it. If you are an employee, there is no real autonomy whatsoever. HR departments of some companies might want you to believe that you are somewhat valuable for them, in reality, you are an expense - a resource. In any larger company, you are a cog in the wheel. They want you in another team? There might not be much you can do about it.
I don’t really understand what your role really is. Social skills, research? Are you a manager? Are you a researcher? What does “all of that” mean?