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On being the employee who “needs improvement”

virtuouscode.com

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Re: On being the employee who “needs improvement”

#141

Post by biztos »

CydeWeys wrote: post #109
biztos wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a remote worker and I'm sure it's occasionally a pain that I'm at the gym, or sleeping, or otherwise not responding on Slack or whatever. However, like many remote workers I work in a distributed team across several time zones. So it's not just "he goes to the gym in the afternoon," it's more like one person leaves the office in one time zone in order to beat the traffic jams, while another person in another time…

Distributed teams across multiple timezones is a bit of a different situation though; you're naturally going to be more asynchronous there, and the team structure will be different. All of my experience with remote coworkers has been on collocated teams with the occasional remote worker in the same timezone. I don't have any interest in being on a fully distributed team; I like being physically present with my cowork…

Cabin fever is definitely a risk. I'm quite comfortable working remotely and we have a few others doing it on the team (mostly senior tech people) but most of the team is in one of the various offices.

My preference would be to go to the office and be with my colleagues 2-3 days a week, and work from a home office the other days. We have some people who do that. But all the offices with direct colleagues are at least a 12-hour flight away from me, and I like where I live, so I have to just deal.

If I ever find myself leading a remote-first team I would make it a priority to have good strategies against isolation.

Re: On being the employee who “needs improvement”

#142

Post by BeetleB »

acjohnson55 wrote: post #137
BeetleB wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Most managers do not want to fire their reports, if they can help it. But a PIP is often the last breakpoint before they have to do the deed. As someone said, it varies from company to company. Many managers treat it as a step to firing. And if you listen to employees who've been through it, many will have stories about how unfair it was - unfair in that others who had worse "infractions" were given a pass. To them,…

Well yeah, but that's a sign of both parties not actually being committed. There's a lot of assuming in that scenario. A lot of that uncertainty would disappear with some candid communication. "Maria, what you're doing today is X, Y, Z. We wanted that before, but going forward, we need A, B, C. My impression is that you like doing X, Y, Z. So, we've got two choices, and both of them are difficult, but we need to be u…

What you said is almost the same as what the HR person told her manager. Have the conversation, and if it's clear she no longer fits the role, let her go with a good package. Why make everyone unhappy with a PIP?

>My only point is that it's wrong to say definitely that a PIP is a death sentence. It's more like a cry for help.

Not completely disagreeing with you there. I don't believe in either extreme. I do not think most managers are doing it as a cry for help. I also do not think every manager is doing it to fire someone. Just pointing out that it very often (if not the majority of times) is the case in some companies.

To an extent, this is the prisoner's dilemma. The PIP is used for both purposes, but it's safer for the employee to assume the worst. If the PIP was never a path to termination, then employees would be more receptive to it.

Re: On being the employee who “needs improvement”

#143

Post by biztos »

ncallaway wrote: post #127
CydeWeys wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Distributed teams across multiple timezones is a bit of a different situation though; you're naturally going to be more asynchronous there, and the team structure will be different. All of my experience with remote coworkers has been on collocated teams with the occasional remote worker in the same timezone. I don't have any interest in being on a fully distributed team; I like being physically present with my cowork…

We run an entirely remote company, and the cabin fever is definitely a real concern. If you ever have to be a remote worker in the future, I'd highly recommend getting a co-working space as it really helps fulfill a ton of those social needs. Your employer might even pay for some (or all) of the costs associated.

Do you have any other strategies against cabin-fever?

I've tried co-working but once you add in your own chair and monitor (ergonomics) and eavesdropping-proof location (security) and taking the laptop home at night (security) and on top of all that having a commute again, it's kind of a pain.

I will probably eventually rent my own office (at my own expense) near where some friends work, but that's a pretty expensive way to guarantee social interactions.

I'd be curious what else you've come up with.

Re: On being the employee who “needs improvement”

#144

Post by sbov »

fizixer wrote: post #100
jstimpfle wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> he thinks being against using goto in C/C++ is dogmatic, and that there is no need to develop a testing framework until the software is developed The important thing missing here - context. There are perfectly valid situations where your friend could be right. > he felt like one of those types who are more interested in their career bottomline than in developing good principles and practices of the work they do (so…

> There are perfectly valid situations where your friend could be right. I didn't say he thinks banning goto is dogmatic (and I never heard him say that his team completely disallows any use of it). You could be against goto and still be okay with its occasional use. He seemed to be of the opinion that there is no reason to be against goto in the first place, because he never felt goto's use hurting his productivity.…

I think it's pretty simple to make the case for goto, or any construct, being harmful in a work environment. Code is ultimately social, and if your colleagues find it difficult to read or use, then by definition it is harmful.

For another example, I love functional programming, but my colleagues hate it. It is, by definition, harmful for me to use at work.

Re: On being the employee who “needs improvement”

#145

Post by overgard »

qaq wrote: post #43

OK I've being working remotely for close to 10 years, most places were very flexible about hours and taking time during the work day for family things etc. But one things none was ever flexible about is remote employees dropping off com. channels for days. I think that is clear abuse of trust and the main fear why so few jobs are remote in the first place.

It's kind of common sense right? (Or maybe not). If your employer trusts you to work remotely, theres an obligation to be responsive, or at the very least be clear about times when you're going to be unavailable. To me, that's just basic professionalism. These people are paying significant money for your services, you can't treat that casually.

Re: On being the employee who “needs improvement”

#146

Post by ianai »

VonGallifrey wrote: post #78
comstock wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There could be reasons... one thing you might not have experienced is not having explicit management, and not even knowing who you /should/ inform. That happens from time to time. This is possibly indicated by "bosses". Not having explicit line management sucks.

There is a really easy solution to the "no explicit management" problem: Just go to 1 boss and ask "When I want to take a vacation day, who do I talk to/what is the process for that?" Works best if that is early on after joining the company. Or just ask the same question to HR, they would guaranteed know what the process is.

In my case, I had a supervisor magic-up a title promotion for himself based on seniority. He started telling everyone he was "the lead supervisor" including his peers. His peer, my direct supervisor, told me to escalate work/issues to the "lead supervisor" before our manager. When I did check with HR/higher management, they were flummoxed.

Re: On being the employee who “needs improvement”

#147

Post by Chopsah »

krakensden wrote: post #91
munin wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This only works if your management remembers your status updates.

If you're worried about that, make them public. Middle managers are easier to get than programmers, so you may have leverage walking up the chain to your boss's boss.

Qualified middle managers are not easier to get than programmers, in my experience. And if they (and their reports) are qualified, they'll not micromanage, nor need to.

Re: On being the employee who “needs improvement”

#148

Post by overgard »

Consultant32452 wrote: post #140
overgard wrote: post #138

I agree that PIPs are mostly just HR covering themselves in firing an employee, but this just reads like a long list of excuses for a person not performing their job. Its at-will employment for both sides, the company isn't obligated to care about your personal issues. If your work output isn't good, it kinda doesn't matter if you have kids and your manager is younger -- theyre giving you money for your work not beca…

I had a contract with a household name theme park company that is known for treating its employees like disposable widgets. It made headlines a while back by laying off tons of people and only keeping some on to train their offshore replacements. That kinda place. So while I was there, there was this one guy in the department who was almost never at work. He was always "working from home." Occasionally he would turn…

That is no doubt a great thing. I'm not trying to suggest that workplace bonds and friendships are meaningless, just that people need to have appropriate expectations about what the relationship with the company fundamentally is. Theres no doubt space for compassion, it just shouldn't be viewed as an entitlement.

Re: On being the employee who “needs improvement”

#149

Post by avip »

JimDabell wrote: post #13
tigershark wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly to me it seems that the author was extremely unprofessional. He just disappeared for whole days without letting anyone know. In all the companies that I worked it was explicitly mentioned in the contract that such behaviour was subject to disciplinary actions up to dismissal.

It really depends on how the team was being run. Some remote teams are like co-located teams and work synchronously with set office hours. Other remote teams work asynchronously instead and individuals are free to arrange their work and life as they see fit. In the latter case, if somebody is working on a task that'll take a few days, not hearing from them for a day or two isn't unusual or a problem. It sounds like p…

I've never seen a remote setup wherein being unreachable for more than 1 day during normal work days would come across as legit. It sounds downright unprofessional.

Re: On being the employee who “needs improvement”

#150

Post by kafkaesq »

Anytime they say that -- what they really mean is that they only way for you to "improve" is to GTFO.

Another (not so gentle reminder) to follow this poster's advice, and make sure to always have a decent emergency fund saved up, at all times.

So that when something like this does happen -- and it has happened to nearly all the best people I know, at one point or another, that they are told, in one way or another (either directly, in "secret code", aka PIP): "Look, we don't think this is working out" -- you can be prepared to say the natural, adult, self-assured thing: "Well, I'm sorry to hear that. Do you want me to agree to separate from you, or do you want to separate from me -- and if so, on what terms"?

Because really, no one has time for soul-killing head games like PIP.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14776772

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