As a former L6 Manager at Amazon (now L7 since Q2), she took credit for all the work I did by restricting my access to upper-level reviews. In her review meetings, I was always called into to answer follow-up questions, only to find-our she bungled her explaination. Her promotion and achievements were solely due to my efforts and the team's collective achievements. Her only contribution was asking me to work for 24 hours a day to make up for two lost headcount on the team and forcing me to 2 to 3 hours per day coaching her on how to explain our work to upper management (she would ask us to explain the same thing again and again and does not retain her knowledge). She was a Yes-person for anything that came from one level above her, and I reported everything she did and didn't do to her L8. He is currently working on up-skilling her. I was asked to help upskill her and coach her how to be a better manager (I previously managed a small tech team but I'm not interested in managing people).
Despite being confronted, she continues to appropriate my work. However, she now claims that she won't take credit for it and she wants to help me get promoted by next Q1. I enjoy what I do, but I am displeased with this Manager's behavior. I also have no interested in being promoted (I like begin an IC). She has failed to perform her managerial duties, such as unblocking my obstacles, advocating for what is right within the upper levels to streamline our roadmap, and having a holistic view of our business for long-term planning.
Despite receiving Exceeds Expectations ratings for two consecutive years (3 years at Amazon), my PCS was only 2.3% YoY, and I was informed that I had reached the cap pay for the L6 level. I am considering leaving, and I have already informed her that I will not remain in this team any longer than necessary. I am uncertain how to handle this situation. I am currently seeking employment outside of Amazon and have 15 years of experience, with 11 of those years as an SDE and the remaining as TPM.
Could I have done anything differently? I also feel like I wasted the last 4 years of my life moving away from software development to product management.
Sorry to hear your troubles ... but my 2 cents is that if upstairs have to call you in to answer the questions your manager could not ... and you straightened out the mess, upstairs would know you and the team are the people who do the hard work. The same for higher ups asking for your help to train your own manager. If you're earning more money, bonuses etc for your additional roles, I guess that's fair enough, or the job just pays ridiculously well, doing extra stuff shouldn't be a problem ... but I can sort of guess from your outline, it's not that way at all.
I have little idea what it's like at any of these big companies {and I'm out of doing anything remotely computer wise for a couple decades (memory leakage is a bummer among other things,)} - but I'm familiar with how a few really big companies (entirely not computer or web related business) like to work when they can get away with things down my way ... they see managers as a simple tool to get the most out of people, they don't have to have much talent past doing whatever it takes, little lies/ very unlikely to materialise promises that need to be told, and proving a buffer for when someone has to held to account.