Ask HN: Fired for Using Firefox
I'm here asking for advice, as I'm not sure what to do next.
I got a job 3 weeks ago, as a front-end developer. Obviously still on probation. Just got terminated today, reason given was I do not know how to use tools. They say the fact that I use Firefox as my preferred browser means that I'll most likely be terrible at cross-browser testing. That the fact that I do not use chrome dev tools is a red flag. Or the fact that I said I prefer using text editors (vs code) over full blown IDES (visual studio).
So my question is, is it fair to terminate a new developer because they use Firefox?
111 comments
[ 4.0 ms ] story [ 197 ms ] threadFor the first two weeks they were happy to let me just learn angular and the app. They gave me a CSS ticket to fix one page last week, and I actually fixed all the pages! But I did it using Firefox and a text editor (vs code) so they are having none of that!
> get yourself a lawyer
Very seriously considering this.
From their perspective, they hired a guy, and it took him 3 weeks to close a single CSS ticket. If you were the company, what would you do?
It sounds like you may be new, so chalk it up to miscommunication. But next time, spend the first day “learning” while closing a few real tickets. Make sure you’re up to speed with the rest of the team in your first week, so there’s no question of your value.
But the moment I stepped up to, and embraced the challenge, everything changed. Maybe someone whispered some bad things about me? I will never know...
What I'd do differently if I wanted to work there? Keep my mouth shut, and not say anything about my views and concerns. Just wait to be given orders and follow them, never questioning anything.
Imagine your boss was actually happy with you not delivering anything those first few weeks. Would he have let you go?
I've watched this exact situation play out too many times now to miss the signs. A new person joins the team, spends a few weeks familiarizing and reporting as much in the standups. Manager is encouraging the whole time. Then one day, New Person is no longer with the company, reach out to me if anybody has any concerns.
Every time, it's the new person not catching the signals that they should have been self starting and delivering all that time.
I'm not trying to say that it's fair. Just pointing out that it happens.
If you were a boss, at what day would you expect from your newly hired developer to start delivering any result?
> I've watched this exact situation play out too many times now to miss the signs. A new person joins the team, spends a few weeks familiarizing and reporting as much in the standups. Manager is encouraging the whole time. Then one day, New Person is no longer with the company, reach out to me if anybody has any concerns.
...and you consider this a healthy behavior from any working environment?
What do you think employees are, mentalists to read people's minds and know what others they are thinking?! Let's be serious here please...
> Every time, it's the new person not catching the signals that they should have been self starting and delivering all that time.
Oh how much I abhor this behavior! What is it with "not catching the signals" even mean here?!
If you don't like someone's behavior, let that person know and be crystal clear about the reasons; 99.9% of all times it's either bad communication or misinterpretation, let alone a naive misunderstanding.
> I'm not trying to say that it's fair. Just pointing out that it happens.
Indeed it does and this needs to change and needs to change yesteryear!
No. Of course not.
But there's a difference between the world we want to exist and the world we live in. And that world is full of people who behave like your manager and the ones I've seen that led to my observations here.
The sad truth is that you need to be able to read situations like this and adapt to them.
> If you were a boss, at what day would you expect from your newly hired developer to start delivering any result?
I'd suggest flipping this around. If you were a boss, and your new hire jumped in with both feet on day one and started closing tickets, would you let him go after his 3 week probation was up?
If my manager wanted me, as a senior dev to only use chrome for a browser, and use a its debugger for solving all my tickets, he should have made this clear during the recruitment process.
"Senior Front-End Dev required, must only work with the Chrome Web Browser, and full blown IDES"
We would have saved one another a lot of time...
You never EVER do any ticket closing or commenting on your very first day. Others might interpret this as a threat: e.g. who is this who came here to show-off, that thinks he knows more than us?
Good luck after this type of behavior; you are doomed by your own colleagues, let alone the management.
Rule #2: Be observant, at all levels.
See how each and everyone behaves; who talks a lot and who does not, who is the silent one and who is the mystery one.
Learn to read and interpret human behavior and professional behavior, both verbal and professional; I know from experience that some colleagues pretend to care about you in verbal communication, but in professional they dig your grave...let's call them insecure people.
Rule #3: Go with the flow and apply #2 and #1 accordingly.
A working environment should be a pleasant place to work for that helps you acquire professional and personal experience, not make you feel like you are in a military camp or in a prison with unwritten laws, that is surrounded by invisible landmines.
So, to answer to your counter-question:
> I'd suggest flipping this around. If you were a boss, and your new hire jumped in with both feet on day one and started closing tickets, would you let him go after his 3 week probation was up?
Unless that person was exclusively hired to save the whole company from bankruptcy, due to his or her previous professional experience in such stressful time constraints and was guaranteed to deliver in time, I would call this person in my office and give him a warning that such behavior would cause nothing but trouble and would advice him / her to take it slowly, but at a moderate degree; a person should understand when should draw a line, else that person is out, not by the management, but by his / her colleagues.
Does this cover you?
> You never EVER do any ticket closing or commenting on your very first day. Others might interpret this as a threat: e.g. who is this who came here to show-off, that thinks he knows more than us?
holy shit my man... you have worked in some dire situations. Last time I hired a junior dev that finished a bunch of stuff in his first couple days I made sure everybody knew what a good job he was doing, how proud we were of him and how lucky we were to have him there. Your coworkers are supposed to be your allies, not a threat.
So they'd recently changed their policy from 2 days to 3 days work from office. Meaning the majority of dev time, would be spent at the office. I simply told my manager that since we'd be spending more time in the office, could they give us the equipment we need? One of the devs wanted an extra monitor, some other two devs were sharing a laptop charger, I'd been waiting 3 weeks for my second monitor and laptop charger....
I want to be productive. My home office is 100% set up for my productivity. So I need to spend more time in the office? Ok. But please supply all the equipment I need to work effectively. If you consider how much devs get paid, hardware is cheap! You are wasting money by not giving them the tools to do their job!
I was not that blunt, but kind of hinted that, after spending my first 3 weeks waiting for a monitor, usb port and laptop charger.
If you hire someone because you think you are going for A, then change your mind about "what's coming down the line" and decide to stick with B, what is the proper way of letting them go?
Also, are you posting here because you're frustrated and want to rant? That's OK, I do it too, but it's pointless me trying to offer advice if that's the case.
Or perhaps you are looking for advice? HN isn't great for that, so email me if you want, it's on my profile.
It is OK. I asked a question, and you gave your advice. And I am definitely not posting here because "you're frustrated and want to rant". I am posting here because I'm sure others have unfortunately found themselves in similar situations, and I'm looking for their input. Have you found yourself in a similar situation, either as the developer or manager? If the answer is no, then what is the point of you replying to me in this thread? If yes, then please, share.
> That's OK, I do it too, but it's pointless me trying to offer advice if that's the case.
And I'd email you, but you have already stated that you feel I have no case, so what's the point?
I'm sorry for that bad experience. If you were instructed to change tools or given a warning prior to termination, the termination might be justified on grounds of insubordination, but not on merit.
Either way, that place you just left carries a bigger red flag than you.
> I'm not sure what to do next.
Keep learning, get more experience, apply to the next job.
What is most shocking about it all, is they have an Angular app, which they are thinking of moving to React, which is why they hired me. On the basis of my React and JS skills. They trusted me to get up-to speed on Angular, but dismissed me because I use Firefox? Don't want the job back, I'm just feeling that people should not feel free to d*ck others around like this. How will I explain all this on my resume?
You don't. Omit that job.
But if pressed you can honestly say that you have no idea what the problem was, you performed your requests, and you were given no warning. In any case that was beyond your control and didn't turn into a real job.
IMHO it's better to cast around for the best possible honest framing of the issue.
One of them even codenamed it "the cloth of protection" lol.
As others have said, the correct thing to do here is to just not even list the job on the resume in the first place. No reasonable person expects every single short stint be listed on a resume. I’ve heard three and six months suggested as guidelines for the minimum lengths of jobs one should list. Anything shorter than that probably isn’t worth going into, as you’re still onboarding at that point. Also, people get sick, have sudden illnesses in the family, or otherwise can’t work for a couple months for loads of reasons.
And I concede that a policy of honesty might only make sense in some world views / ethical positions.
FWIW, there are ways to not reveal that info, but also not lie.
For example, if a recruiter / employer starts fishing for my current salary, I just say "I'm not going to talk about that, but ...", followed by some carefully worded signal about my general salary expectations.
If lying in this context doesn't bother you in the slightest, then maybe you won't see value in this approach.
So it is more like a 3 month gap.
> Jobs at this time are hard to come by. The biggest employers in the industry have laid off hundreds of thousands. There is a lot of competition for every position.
It's a 3 week gap, just omit it. If anyone asks, you were looking for a new job.
I've had jobs I didn't add to my resume because I don't want anything to do with those shitty companies ever again.
Nobody has ever questioned the <6 month gaps.
If, however, they have a point, try to learn some productivity tools to be more efficient before going for the job.
In any case, don't think too much about this company, it will just distract you.
I asked my boss, that as a senior dev with over 15 proven experience, he should not stress to much about HOW I do it, just WHAT I deliver, and WHEN it is delivered. I guess that was asking for to much? Or being insubordinate? Anyways, I was told my skills, abilities or personality was not the problem, am just not "a good fit". Why? Because I like firefox, and using text editors (vs code) over IDES (visual studio).
Name and shame then? Don’t know how well this goes with the suing that everyone’s proposing though.
All I have said, is I'm going to look into my rights as an employee, and question whether I was treated fairly. Why do you have a problem with that?
If I was in the first few weeks of a job I would try to be receptive to what my coworkers suggest, not win any arguments.
I let a fellow dev fully set up my dev box twice. The second time I did tell him lets do this later, I really want to work on that first ticket but he just kept on typing, ignoring me. I shoudld have grabbed the keyboard from him the moment I realized he was deleting my current ubuntu WSL setup. Guess I just kept silent in the spirit of "being receptive to what my coworkers suggest". Little did I know that my boss would decide that this means i don't know anything.
Not at all. I pick my battles. Some things are worth fighting for, others can be ignored. Not all conflict is bad. Every manager reading this should google "form norm storm perform"
Any senior dev worth their salt should have, and be allowed to have a "storm". We all have our experience, and the paths we followed to get that experience. If a companty thinks your experience and path is useless to them, why would they hire you in the first place?
Please, let me know how you micro-manage your senior devs.
Before hiring you they had either interviewed another candidate that matched their needs and was more experienced than you, or expected a friend of theirs to join their team, but did not reply back for a while and due to their tight schedule, they had to hire someone urgently, thus leading to your hiring. After hiring you, between the end of second and third week, this aforementioned candidate or friend replied and said "I'm available now" and decided to let you go; the only thing that had to do is to figure out a way to use as an excuse to fire you.
I have been there myself and I know first hand how it feels; therefore I will repeat myself: discuss the matter with a lawyer and feel happy that you dodged a bazooka, not just a bullet!
Meditate.
Not the ‘sit quietly and breathe while you imagine being calm’ type. The ‘realise that existence is futile and that all you are is the thought you are having right now’ type.
It’s some good shit, seriously.
I love Sam Harris’ ‘Waking Up’ app. There are probably others. Here’s a free month. I get nothing from this.
https://dynamic.wakingup.com/shareOpenAccess/SC80D94AB
Don't try to read more into this situation than what it really is. Either party did not like the other, no big deal, this happens. Much better to leave early than to suffer through a longer period for nothing. Enjoy Firefox and VS Code - I'm sure there are plenty of other companies that will allow you to use whatever tools you like for development.
It is absolutely unfair, for someone to hire and fire you "for any reason". We are not slaves.
Do your due diligence when hiring, and when firing. Is that too much to ask?
The one month gap in your resume nobody cares about. Seriously, don't be so insecure! How do I know this - I just had a massive 8 months gap in mine, and still managed to land a contract in a new country which I was not yet living in, the language of which I don't really speak (yet), and hired in spite of my non-existing skills in FE dev for a full stack job. If I can do it like this, anyone can do it.
> Do your due diligence when hiring, and when firing. Is that too much to ask?
Yes, absolutely too much. If companies can't fire people, they will be much more reluctant to hire too, it's that simple. They will avoid hiring new people in any way they cna, have 2x more rounds of leetcode shite, and will fire you during probation anyway. You are not a slave, exactly because you can also leave any time. In fact, you should have done it before they fired you. The signs were clearly on the wall.
Thanks mate. I'm happy for you.
> In fact, you should have done it before they fired you. The signs were clearly on the wall.
Honestly... not really. One day its "take all the time you need", the next it's "why are you using Firefox? That is a red flag on you, and please leave right now".
Nowadays there are few differences between firefox web developer tools and chrome's tools.
IDEs can be powerful tools. To me it seems that in some programming languages they are the default, in others not so much. I don't see much IDE usage in frontend development. But it could be useful when writing TypeScript maybe?
Anyhow. You did absolutely nothing wrong.
Termination on grounds of things that _might_ happen is not fair at all.
I suspect there's something else going on, as this reasoning seems spurious.
Whatever the reasoning, this type of behaviour by an employer is a red flag in itself.
It sounds like they were looking for a 'fit', and it wasn't you.
That said, these types of things should have been settled during the interview and onboarding processes. If it wasn't, it sounds like a really poor company to work for anyways. Keep your head up, and hope the next one is better.
Phew you dodged a bullet there, they are a sh* company for sure. Hope you find a suitable company soon!
In other words, if they provide you with a PC on Windows 7 with Notepad as an editor, you shouldn't (and you probably don't have the admin rights anyway) to install anything else on company's property.
In reality, it's usually in the interest of the company to allow you to work with tools on which you are the most productive. But they don't have to.
I was trying to fix that, by documenting everything in the wiki but I guess I use Firefox, so red flag, I've got to go.
Thing is, we only have half the story. We don't know what else happened in the meeting you were terminated, or got said or happened in the 3 weeks, we don't know what you did and didn't ask your mentor, we don't know how many roadblocks you hit because you're using Firefox and VS Code, we weren't there for the conversation there was about you using Chrome and Visual Studio, or more importantly, how you reacted. We don't know how good you actually are with Firefox and VS Code. If you're struggling to use Firefox and/or can't use VS code very well, which means no one else on the team can help you, and you actively discourage their efforts to help you, I could see that being a red flag.
That said, there are a few quotes elsewhere in this thread that give me an inkling that it's not about Firefox and VS code.
> So my question is, is it fair to terminate a new developer because they use Firefox?
Why is fair relevant? Fair is for board games with your family. This is the real world, and people in power can be as petty as they want. There's no principal of the tech industry to complain to, very little protection (assuming you're in the US, in an at-will state). There's no review board that says yup, that was unfair unless you're a protected class, and was constructively fired for being black/gay/old.
> They gave me a CSS ticket to fix one page last week, and I actually fixed all the pages!
I mean, it's important to get all of the pages, so it is important that you got all of them, but if you're telling us that you got all the pages, it sounds like there was a meeting that contained additional feedback for you, about how you did/finished the ticket and your attitude about it, and that was your defense in that meeting. Don't get me wrong, you sound hungry for it by pushing your boss to get the ticket - which is a good thing! (In certain environments, anyway.)
> as a senior dev with over 15 proven experience, he should not stress to much about HOW I do it, just WHAT I deliver, and WHEN it is delivered. I guess that was asking for to much? Or being insubordinate?
The "what" is quite important. Did the. senior dev/someone talk to you about how they'd like the fix implemented, and did you do it that way? How did the code review go? Are there formal code reviews?
Let me guess: you've heard yourself being described as insubordinate before?
As a senior dev, it's not just about what you deliver, or when you deliver, but also how you make people feel when you do it, especially as a jr dev. If you told the sr dev during your termination meeting instead of listening to what you were being told, and that "telling truth to power" is important enough to you that telling us that you said that to the sr dev really says there's more going on than Firefox and VS Code. It's possible that they "knew" that telling you that you need to work on social skills X, Y, or Z was going to go poorly, and Firefox and VS code is cover for you being difficult to work with and/or a bad cultural fit fit for the team.
> What I did say was that I rarely use browser debuggers, because I've just never felt the need to. The console.log and a good mental image of what the code is doing has got me this far.
It didn't get you very far in this job. If you have to stop to add a console.log ever time you have a question about the code instead of just setting a breakpoint and investigate the state at the point with built-in tools, I question your efficacy. If this were, say the Linux kernel that's a different story, but you're not, you're a frontend developer. Which are important these days, but a good one should have more tools in their toolbox than just console.log. It's fine to lean on that first, but it shouldn&#...
Yes. And what is wrong with that? If this was a court of law, then not only would you have to hear both sides, you would also have to determine which side is true. When I asked for advice, part of that request was to put yourself in my shoes, then give me some advice. Not to decide who is legally and ultimately right or wrong. That is not what I asked. I told my story, FROM MY POINT OF VIEW, AND ASKED FOR ADVICE. If I want advice from all points of view, I will, and have decided to consult a lawyer. It does not mean I do not value your advice, but please, never give someone advice by questioning WHY they are asking for advice. If you have to do that, then your advice is useless, as far as am concerned. Let's not waste each others time.
In case you were wondering why you were let go, it's clear from your response here that it was not about Firefox and VS code and that was just an excuse.
Your point of view isn't enough. If it were, you wouldn't be asking for help outside of your point of view. (ie, other people). That's why you're asking for help from outside your point of view.
The other half of the story is necessary to figure out what happened. If you only give your half of the story, you just want people to agree with you, uncritically. You're looking for a bunch of yes men who will agree with you no matter what you say or do. It's very nice, and comforting, and we all need that sometimes. But it doesn't challenge us or push us to do better. If all you want is a hug, there are lots of warm fuzzy places on the Internet. I like https://eyebleach.me/.
My advice, which may fall on deaf ears, but I'll give it anyway, since it was asked for, originally, is to work with a therapist and work with them on how to put your best foot forwards when working with other people, and maybe some anger issues. I'm saying this earnestly and I'm not making fun of you. There are an unlimited number of things a person can do that are career limiting views, don't let your "personality" be one of them.
Or do, I'm not the one who got fired for "using Firefox". But I wasn't there, maybe it really was about Firefox.
Why are you even responding to my questions, if you have no intent to help? I asked a question. I did not ask whether I should, or have the right to ask the questions. The answers you are giving, are irrelevant. Next time, please understand the question, before giving a so called answer.
Did a leader in your organization ask you to switch tooling and you declined?
I work in an organization where we cut deployment bugs in angular by a shocking 40% by consolidating our teams tooling into a consistent set of standards. If a developer started with us who after hearing this wouldnt agree to conform to those standards we would terminate them as quickly as possible.
Which is why its so crushing that he said "we have to let you go, because I do not believe you will handle the tooling we choose six months down the line"
I mean.... are this future toolings going to be brought down from aliens???
They told you you don't know how to use your tools. In other words that you were not being professional. Not that you are not allowed to use other tools. There's a subtle difference. You might think you know best (can't judge that) but your failure is actually convincing others of those amazing abilities and skills you have.
The fact that you are on HN complaining about this, tells me a lot. It's a bit immature behavior and you are burning a few bridges like that. That combined with a few things that maybe didn't go that well in your work in the first weeks would be a gigantic red flag for a manager.
I would recommend not doing acting out in public like this. It's unprofessional. It doesn't matter who is right or wrong. Nobody cares. This is probably a good learning moment for you as well. Somebody didn't see things your way and chose to let you go rather than work with you some more. You might want to reflect on what you could have done differently here.
Anyway, you wouldn't be the first opinionated junior developer that gets a reality check this way. They hired you to do a job and you managed to get yourself fired in 3 weeks. Not a good look. You should thank them for not wasting your time more than that and avoid a repeat of that with whatever you do next.
https://twitter.com/jbrains/status/616228270841962496
hahajahha!!! This guy just called me a junior dev. I guess that is possible. To work 17 years in the same profession, being payed, mostly as a temp contractor, having to prove your chops over and over again every year or so, but still somehow never learning anything. Thanks bro. From today on, I'll consider myself a junior web dev. You showed me the truth with your wise words.
> but your failure is actually convincing others of those amazing abilities and skills you have.
In three weeks, I got one ticket. T had to insist on being given a ticket. Ticket said fix the CSS for the login page, I fixed the CSS for ALL pages. Did you get that? All pages. You are starting to sound like my boss, asking me over and over again if the CSS was fixed even after the scrum board said so, the git history said so, I said so in daily stand-ups, and I DMed him so in slack. Wow! I guess am a failure then. Maybe I should have jumped on top of my table and repeatedly screamed "I did it! I did it! I did it!". Is that how you think I should have "convinced others of those amazing abilities". Honest question. Please let me know what else I should have done.
> They told you you don't know how to use your tools. In other words that you were not being professional.
Firefox, or even Chrome for that matter, is not a web dev tool. It is a browser. You use it to browse. Whatever you choose to browse, is your choice. Can you show me one, even just one job ad, from anywhere in this world that says "must professionally only use chrome as their web browser"?
> The fact that you are on HN complaining about this, tells me a lot. It's a bit immature behavior and you are burning a few bridges like that. That combined with a few things that maybe didn't go that well in your work in the first weeks would be a gigantic red flag for a manager.
Honestly, I don't care about your opinion. The fact that you are complaining about me complaining tells me a lot about you. Very immature, combined with some other petty arguments you have raised.
That's an odd thing to say. Firefox, Chrome and Safari are absolutely web dev tools - they're the most powerful such tools I've ever used.
Please take some time to consider what I'm saying to you.
I could be wrong, as I have very limited context, so here's my justification for making that claim. You're giving a very one-sided view in the intro, and then other important details crop up below. You didn't know Angular, for example, but the company was willing to give you the time to learn it. You sounded hostile about being asked to work more in the office. Reading between the lines, it seems you were also critical about what work you were given. I'm sure you were trying to help, and you were just being honest. But that kind of feedback costs you capital that you didn't have, since you were so new and lacking in experience where they needed it.
As a manager, I can imagine thinking that you don't have much expertise in our tech stack, and you're not the most easy-going of people to work with. You mentioned that you thought you were a good fit given their technical goals. But tech skills are a small part of "fit".
I think the manager made a decision that they thought was the best for both of you, and they were probably right.
And it seems like you need to learn from that, rather than come here looking for validation that none of this was your fault.
So, that is a valid argument. But looking at my termination letter, it says "did not met the performance expectations and standards".
This is after I know, that the only ticket they gave me, which I insisted on being given, did not only meet the requirements, but exceeded them. They wanted me to fix the CSS of the login page, I fixed the CSS of ALL pages. Could you be wrong, or do you need more context?
My guess is that you gave them what you thought was honest and helpful feedback, but the way you delivered it made you come across as arrogant and abrasive. I say that because I get the same feeling talking to you on here.
Imagine a story that runs like this. You off-handedly made a negative judgment in public about their existing code, which was written by their longest-serving and most senior engineer, who overhears your criticism. They then criticise you in private Slack channels of which you are not a member. Now your manager has a conflict to deal with. On one side, there's a long-standing engineer who knows the existing tech stack in great depth and has delivered much value for the company. On the other is you, somebody who started three weeks ago, and doesn't know much about the tech stack. The easiest way of resolving the conflict is to get rid of you. While they could be patient and see if things improve, your somewhat abrasive reaction to your manager's request to work more in the office makes their mind up that the pain in managing you is not the worth the potential technical skills you offer. HR advises that the lack of knowledge with Angular and browser dev tools gives sufficient justification, no need to muddy the water by mentioning the personal conflicts, as that's much more subjective. Thanks tamarind8, but your work duration probation "did not met the performance expectations and standards" so we're terminating the contract, here's 2 weeks notice as per your contract.
You arrive here, and tell us that last sentence, and you're asking if it's fair. The rest of that paragraph gives context to the decision.
Now I'm not suggesting I've got all or even any of the details right there, it's simply a generic story I've seen play out quite frequently. But without knowing that kind of detailed context, it's impossible to say what happened.
You can't control the decision to fire you. It's done. Whatever the reason.
But you can now control your response to it. You can be defensive, blame everything on them, and think about taking legal action that will almost certainly fail. Or you can learn from mistakes you made and do things differently next time.
So, as a manager. How would you feel if someone interviewed you, and hired you based on your years of experience as a manager, then suddenly started acting like you have no experience at all? How would you handle that?
How would I handle it? There are two answers to that.
The first is “I’d quit and go and get a new job”. I’d assume they were idiots who didn’t know how to run a software company. I’ve done this in the past.
The second is “I’d figure out why they feel like that and do something about it”. Seniority is set to zero when you join a new company, and you build it by working well over time. If you’re smashing out junior tasks every day for two weeks, discuss it in retro and 1:1. This is where personal growth comes from and shows true seniority.
From what you have said you are certainly not a junior dev. Where I see you being somewhat naive is exposure to toxic work environments. A large number of devs and their managers are just immature and nitpicky. Somehow a technology stack is a religion for them. I personally do not know anything that will satisfy such people. And then people can be unimaginably evil, something that often escapes the typical naive engineer/dev who often do not discover it even after having worked up until retirement. Like others have mentioned you have probably dodged a bullet. And your 3 weeks gap is barely anything. Often people can have larger gaps between jobs. Sometimes you can even cover up these gaps by lying on your resume. So point being, relax, do what you can and move on....
That may be true at junior levels, but as you become more senior your output is judged on a whole bunch of other things:
- Do you elevate the rest of your team? Through mentoring, teaching, documentation etc.
- Do you participate productively in higher level strategic planning? Helping the company decide what to build next for example - senior engineers should participate in planning, in order to help the company understand how features can best be built, when to pay down technical debt etc.
- Do other people look forward to working with you, or do they avoid it? This can have a major impact on your ability to deliver value.
Plenty more things like that.
You emphasized only!
Also just a comment on your original comment, where you essentially stated that inter-personal skills are also important. In toxic work environments often individual contributors are dumped with so much of work, that if they even ever attempted to help/interact with someone else they would fall behind on their own work. And then they are held task for not doing their work. I have seen this multiple times pan out. Remember you are dealing with unreasonable people, and they will get you in the end no matter how good you are, if they do not like you for some reason ( for example you are a different ethnicity, and you don't speak their language, which may not be English)