I had a talk with a friend today.
We worked at the same company... Hewlett Packard (HP).
I left after being a team lead there for 3 years.
He’s still there.
Same position.
Six years.
Six years with no salary increase.
And his calendar looks like a prison schedule: Minimum 4 meetings a day, each 30–45 minutes.
I can totally confim it because I was there as well, as a team lead I was more in useless meetings rather than doing the work itself.
And we all know those “30 minutes” meetings love turning into 60.
What made it worse is what he told me next:
He moved from Bucharest to a mountain area where prices are lower.
But now companies are trying to pull people back from remote.
So he’s stuck in this weird corner: Lower cost of living… but less mobility. More pressure… but not more pay.
He's having a kid and a wife.
He said he’s been searching for another job.
But the market is shaky.
So he’s going to stay there for “another period.”
And then he said the sentence I’ve heard from so many people:
“I’d like to build something for myself… but I have no clue what. Or how. Or where. And everything seems like it needs a lot of investment.”
That’s the trap right there.
A lack of clarity.
Because when you don’t know your direction, everything feels expensive.
Every idea feels risky. Every option feels like a gamble. So you default back to the thing that feels “safe”…
Even if it’s slowly draining your life one meeting at a time.
And the scariest part?
Six years can pass like that in a blink.
Not because you chose it.
Because you didn’t choose anything else.
This is why I don’t judge people who stay.
I’ve been there.
I just hate how normal this has become: A grown adult with real skills… asking permission for time… stuck in meetings… with their life on pause… waiting for the market to “get better.”
You don’t need to blow up your life to start building something.
But you do need a direction.
And you need to start before “another period” becomes another six years.
Your biggest fan boy,