121–130 of 506 posts
This is your first job out of college, I assume they know that.
How you should proceed is to just shrug your shoulders and say, "ok boomer"
Start sending out resumes, sounds like a dysfunctional management structure, probably wont get better and you'll be happier somewhere else. If a lateral transfer seems possible, tell HR you would like be transferred out of your manager's boss's org structure. Go above manager's boss's head and file a complaint against them for incompetence and unreasonable expectations: blaming workers for delays caused by poor proje…
> Go above manager's boss's head and file a complaint against them for incompetence and unreasonable expectations: blaming workers for delays caused by poor project management is counterproductive and unacceptable CYA behavior. (Ideally once you already have a better offer in hand) This is terrible advice..
Shrug it off and keep your head down. Keep on producing good work. Your manager should of deflected this sort of stuff and you are a junior developer. The responsibility doesn't really fall on you. Take some notes about what you can do better on future projects and try and improve. Rinse and repeat. Gj on delivering.
Also keep in mind that there is a good chance the manager might have had OPs back in all this, maybe it's just the managers boss who has unreasonable expectations (maybe due to poor communication from the manager about changing requirements etc).
Examples: 1) "The deadline was pushed back..." - Hey it happens, but why did the initially-chosen deadline turn out to be unrealistic? Why did the team not meet the deadline? She should not only be able to answer those questions but be willing to take ultimate responsibility for everything happening with her team and her projects.
2) "busy putting out a fire" - In the short-term, maybe not her fault, but as short-term becomes long-term, "fires" become more and more her own fault.
3) Due to the alleged "fire," she didn't show up to the meeting with you and her boss, which is disrespectful to both. Also possibly inefficient (does a manager really need to be the one to personally put out said "fire?"), but that judgment-call depends on the nature of the "fire," which you haven't revealed. Anyway she left you, an individual contributor who is not managing the project, to take criticism about the management of the project. Bad design decisions, often not a management issue, became one when she insisted on hers. Meanwhile, changing requirements, well those are 100% a management problem from the getgo. And the delays. A management problem. Why are you answering for management decisions and management problems? That kind of feedback is normally delivered to someone who has the global big-picture bird's-eye view etc., i.e. the manager. For that matter, just as a matter of protocol, isn't that kind of feedback normally delivered to a direct report rather than two levels down? You said it yourself, "I had no idea..." That's right and why would you? (Well if it was something you should've known, then there was no way for you to know it except by your boss conveying it, so she failed again. Or, it was always her problem to begin with. Either way, she failed.)
4) According to him, you've been screwing up - how would he know that? From her, who has apparently been throwing you under the bus. Like why would you even have been invited to this three-way meeting that really should've been between her & him? Unless she had already started linking the failings (her failings) to you, such that you were an important or even relevant attendee to the meeting. She screws up, she blames you. That's not what a leader does. Meanwhile I bet he's in love with her and finds her blameless in every way. (I'm joking a little bit, but not entirely. Watch them together sometime if you think I'm onto something, and see what you think.)
The thing is, whether any of these points are her fault or not, she is supposed to step up and take responsibility for them and not throw underlings under the bus. That's why she gets the big bucks. If an underling is answering for these things, then WTF put the underling in the manager's chair.
Anyway, based on my reading between the lines of your comments, which I know are only telling your side of the story, I don't think you're going to stay happy in this job. It's going to get more and more shitty, especially if she gets away with it this time. I think you ought to enumerate to the two-levels-up boss all the reasons why you think that whole thing was unfair. Write all the points down on cards if you have to. Stand your ground. He ought to respect your nerve, or if not, if he sees you as a petty threat then you are working for petty people. Hopefully I've given you some perspective or a way of articulating or thinking about things. It's your very first job so you're not as good at spotting this kind of douchebaguerie (Fr.)(JK) or even knowing that it's not normal. Well, strike that, you definitely can tell it's not normal, as your feelings are trying to tell you, so good on ya for listening to them.
But that doesn’t help you, what does is a concept commonly known as “managing up”.
You need to manage your manager to get the best out of the situation. Good communications are key, you need to provide regular updates that are easy to digest and that can be referred back to later. If you have a decision to make that you want their input on then ask but also propose a solution and, if you are right on time, tell them that you will proceed with you proposed method if you haven’t heard back from them by X time.
You can’t change the past but you can learn from it and implement this kind of thing.
Also, a trick to do with sneaky managers you don’t trust is to make these updates in channels with other people in on Slack/Teams etc. This is why email CC hell occurs, you’re basically covering your ass BUT if it’s in a group chat you can call it “desiloing, knowledge sharing” etc.
You’re fine, you just got burned by rubbish people, there are a lot of them, manage them and your life will be easier.
Also, if you’re a fresh grad and been left totally unattended and you’ve basically hit the deadline then you are not the problem. Expectations on new devs are very low usually.
1. Make sure all your time is tracked on a file you control. Don’t necessarily share that information freely but it might be useful to you if you need to explain stuff layer to answer why something took so long.
2. Always have a written down scope and when it changes make sure there is evidence and record this with your time log. (If its exploratory work then the scope might be what you intend to learn rather than deliver)
3. Always send an ass-cover email saying “scope has changed and here is a revised estimate”
To be fair for your first job out of college they are treating you pretty badly and my gut here is after getting your 2 years to prove to are not an early quitter it will be time to move on, and when you do expect a big salary jump.
Unless you are a master negotiator they are probably paying you half what you can get elsewhere.
Also I wouldn’t trust their knowledge or opinions based on what you said, so make sure you learn good Rust practices outside then org from trusted friends/colleagues/courses so when you get the next job you look smart.
You also have a good story for the “tell me about a situation questions” so make it a great story bu being a pro, improving the stakeholder management (communicate project and estimate changes more often) and then show the next employer you are awesome!
The second thing you should take into account when planning your career is you probably aren't going to promoted under this boss.
Third thing is "welcome to the corporate world!" You probably need to do two things more often. One is request feedback from your direct supervisor more often. The second is let people know what you're doing, how you're doing it, and what circumstances are holding you back. Basically if someone changes something and that means you're going to miss your deadline let everyone know in via email. If you run into any issues that will delay the project, again send out an email explaining the issue why it was unforeseen, and how it'll impact the deadline.
Be plain and tell them that it made you uncomfortable and confused given your contributions to the project and the fact that you hadn't heard any negative feedback prior. Their response could be one of many. They could say that the boss is an asshole and just overreacted. They could say, "Actually, they were right. We've been disappointed with this project and think you could have done better."
If the response is the latter, it then really opens a whole other can of worms because if they have been disappointed with your performance all along, why are you just learning about it now?
Managers have responsibilities to their direct reports, especially junior devs to provide ongoing feedback and guidance. If that hasn't happened in this case and the project is considered a failure, that is a major problem.
I also think it's possible that your manager's manager is uncomfortable being direct with your manager. So instead of having a candid conversation with them, they used you as an emotional punching bag as a way to air their grievances. Which is totally inappropriate and nothing you should take personally, but is also something that should be considered a red flag to working for/with these people.
> Part of the reason it had taken so long is because I put a substantial amount of work into a part of the project that's no longer necessary due to changing requirements, which I don't think I could have forseen. One of the things that I've experienced with new grad junior devs is that there's an adjustment needed to change from academic working to business working. In academia, usually the professor gives an assign…