I am sensing suspicious activity between the senior engineer in the team who distributes work across the team being biased towards contractors who belong to specific service based company. All the contractors in our team are from that vendor itself and it's not possible unless they are getting help from insider.
Its agile model and person who distributes and reviews the work of others, just letting the contractors from that specific vendor to close the tickets despite it's not done but giving hard time to me because I don't fit in his personal interest. We have 8 engineers in the team apart from that lead and myself, out of them 5 are from that vendor and the remaining 3 are full time but don't have any visibility about the project at all and so, I cant get their support if I escalate this over to leadership.
From what I have seen in the past, this Indian vendor is known for bribing people in their Indian accounts and get business with their help.
And even our product manager is from that vendor itself. So the lead and product manager literally plans the work every sprint in such a way their contractors will get edge and flexibility.
As soon as I started questioning and fighting back, they are literally micromanaging my work and giving me hard time every day. They know what I am doing but I don't know what they are doing because I dont have visibility.
The contractors from that vendor comes to work, doesnt do any work but just close the tickets but I need to work 10 hours a day to run behind the product manager and lead to get accurate requirements of my ticket so that I can work and close my ticket.
My manager likes me a lot but I couldn't take this shit anymore. What should I do?
Take this up to hr? How can I prove bribing activity? One good thing is that I can tell all 100% contractors are from that vendor itself.
I can talk to my manager but he cannot really do anything as he himself looks up to the lead for getting the work done as that guy just holds the entire knowledge?
My manager don't want me to change team and I am really struck and I just can't quit because I am on h1b and it takes 3 months to get new job.
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On a serious note, since you can’t jump ship - ask the question to yourself- who gets the blame if this project tanks? If it is not you, then my advice is to stay clear of the politics. Also, to make sure there will be no blame pinned on you for whatever reason, make all your communication via email so there is a record. Even if something was agreed on verbally, take time to email every one concerned and your boss that this is what is agreed and the recipients should let you know if something should be done differently.
In summary, when shit hits the fan, don’t be anywhere near it. Also, when shit is going to hit the fan, don’t be a hero and stand in between.
There was another team that had 5 Indians and another 5 were Americans and Chinese (all FTEs). The Indian manager pushed out all the non Indians.
I learned my lessons. When I switch, I look at the demographics of the team. If one ethnic group is majority, I avoid the team. My friends also talk about the same. Better get out when this is the trend. There is a reason the team is skewed towards one demographic. Team usually breaks.