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Ask HN: What should I say to my manager when my performance starts suffering?

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Re: Ask HN: What should I say to my manager when my performance starts suffering?

#31

I’ve found that when most managers ask questions, they’re just trying to get a sense of what’s going on. I wouldn’t over analyze it. I would also suggest that honest answers are the best. If you’re having a hard time doing the work, is there something else you could be doing? As much as it doesn’t feel like it, companies do not want to fire employees. It’s expensive to lose someone who knows the business, and expensi…

> It’s expensive to lose someone who knows the business, and expensive to hire someone. That's not true. Letting people go is a great business strategy because it means companies don't need to give salary increases. They will right after that hire someone with less experience and making less money. But what about the business knowledge, you ask? Well, any company that knows what they're doing won't ever let important…

Even a moments reflection shown that’s not possible. Average wages in the US are rising at record rates at the moment, so clearly not all companies can be ditching experienced employees and hiring newbies. All those experienced workers seem to be getting jobs somewhere.

Also there nothing automatic about managing key worker risks. Trust me on this. You seem to have some theoretical idealised image of a perfectly dystopian company and think that’s a universal truth. I’m not sure where you got this image from, I suspect it’s ideologically based, but reality is all over the map.

Sure, companies look after their own best interests. Often those align very well with employees, but not always. You can have friends at work, and most people try to do the right thing, but the company is not your friend. It’s unreasonable to expect it to be.

Re: Ask HN: What should I say to my manager when my performance starts suffering?

#32
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It’s expensive to lose someone who knows the business, and expensive to hire someone. That's not true. Letting people go is a great business strategy because it means companies don't need to give salary increases. They will right after that hire someone with less experience and making less money. But what about the business knowledge, you ask? Well, any company that knows what they're doing won't ever let important…

This is definitely not universally true. My current employer sets compensation by asking "what is the business cost of losing this person?"

Your company probably don't know what they're doing, just read my explanation above.

Re: Ask HN: What should I say to my manager when my performance starts suffering?

#33

I’ve found that when most managers ask questions, they’re just trying to get a sense of what’s going on. I wouldn’t over analyze it. I would also suggest that honest answers are the best. If you’re having a hard time doing the work, is there something else you could be doing? As much as it doesn’t feel like it, companies do not want to fire employees. It’s expensive to lose someone who knows the business, and expensi…

> It’s expensive to lose someone who knows the business, and expensive to hire someone. That's not true. Letting people go is a great business strategy because it means companies don't need to give salary increases. They will right after that hire someone with less experience and making less money. But what about the business knowledge, you ask? Well, any company that knows what they're doing won't ever let important…

> Letting people go is a great business strategy because it means companies don't need to give salary increases.

Company don't have to fire their employees, they can just freeze their salaries, there's no "need" to give salary raises, especially once they've explained that you're underperforming.

Re: Ask HN: What should I say to my manager when my performance starts suffering?

#34
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It’s expensive to lose someone who knows the business, and expensive to hire someone. That's not true. Letting people go is a great business strategy because it means companies don't need to give salary increases. They will right after that hire someone with less experience and making less money. But what about the business knowledge, you ask? Well, any company that knows what they're doing won't ever let important…

Even a moments reflection shown that’s not possible. Average wages in the US are rising at record rates at the moment, so clearly not all companies can be ditching experienced employees and hiring newbies. All those experienced workers seem to be getting jobs somewhere. Also there nothing automatic about managing key worker risks. Trust me on this. You seem to have some theoretical idealised image of a perfectly dyst…

Yes, companies are paying a lot but only because they need to attract new talent. The problem is with existing talent. To convince yourself, just look at the flip side. Why do you think workers are leaving companies at record rates? Because they're not valued where they are. If this was not the case, companies would pay to keep the talent they have.

Re: Ask HN: What should I say to my manager when my performance starts suffering?

#35
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even a moments reflection shown that’s not possible. Average wages in the US are rising at record rates at the moment, so clearly not all companies can be ditching experienced employees and hiring newbies. All those experienced workers seem to be getting jobs somewhere. Also there nothing automatic about managing key worker risks. Trust me on this. You seem to have some theoretical idealised image of a perfectly dyst…

Yes, companies are paying a lot but only because they need to attract new talent. The problem is with existing talent. To convince yourself, just look at the flip side. Why do you think workers are leaving companies at record rates? Because they're not valued where they are. If this was not the case, companies would pay to keep the talent they have.

Workers are leaving because they don’t want to work anymore. COVID gave everyone more time to reflect on their life.

Re: Ask HN: What should I say to my manager when my performance starts suffering?

#36
As a manager your success is my success. If I bring something like this up it is because I want to fix it. I mean I'm not immune to fluctuations in performance either and anyone with even the slightest bit of empathy will understand that.

Re: Ask HN: What should I say to my manager when my performance starts suffering?

#37
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It’s expensive to lose someone who knows the business, and expensive to hire someone. That's not true. Letting people go is a great business strategy because it means companies don't need to give salary increases. They will right after that hire someone with less experience and making less money. But what about the business knowledge, you ask? Well, any company that knows what they're doing won't ever let important…

> Letting people go is a great business strategy because it means companies don't need to give salary increases. Company don't have to fire their employees, they can just freeze their salaries, there's no "need" to give salary raises, especially once they've explained that you're underperforming.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What should I say to my manager when my performance starts suffering?

#38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, companies are paying a lot but only because they need to attract new talent. The problem is with existing talent. To convince yourself, just look at the flip side. Why do you think workers are leaving companies at record rates? Because they're not valued where they are. If this was not the case, companies would pay to keep the talent they have.

Workers are leaving because they don’t want to work anymore. COVID gave everyone more time to reflect on their life.

Isn't this the same thing? Companies want to extract the last drop of life from they employees, and they don't think it makes sense anymore. If companies wanted to keep them, they would just let these employees work less (which is basically the same as paying more per worker).

Re: Ask HN: What should I say to my manager when my performance starts suffering?

#39
> Just wanted to check in

It sounds like you already know this is a firing email.

The best thing is to reset your career. Graduate school is a very good way to do this. Get some wins, it will pep you up.

> how can a company expect to retain employees/contractors if the only work available is the same tedium over a long period of time, and no way to change that?

Getting fired sucks dude.

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