Your manager’s manager shouldn’t be directly criticizing you. This is so wrong on many levels. That manager should relay feedback to your manager directly and your manager discusses performance in a 1:1. That’s the ethical way to do it. This feels like a power play and you should get an exit strategy worked ASAP.
Ask HN: My boss doesn't think I'm doing good work, how to proceed?
51–60 of 506 posts
Re: Ask HN: My boss doesn't think I'm doing good work, how to proceed?
#52This boss telling you that they felt the project should have been done a long time ago: I wonder who that comment benefits? Feels like no one. You get bummed, they give late feedback without a lot of constructive aspects to it. I am trying to think of one way it was useful to tell you that, but I can’t. Seems like you should feel justified in not being a fan of working under this person. What you do with that is hard…
> I am trying to think of one way it was useful to tell you that, but I can’t.
It's useful if it's a warning that OP isn't meeting expectations. Getting that feedback before a formal review, when there is still time to turn it around, is beneficial.
I've seen junior engineers be blindsided during a review more than once. They go in thinking they're doing great, because they've gotten no incremental feedback and lack the experience necessary to guage on their own, and then hear they're not cutting it. Getting this feedback before review time (and preferably even earlier than OP did) is good, even if it hurts to hear.
Obviously that feedback should have gone through their manager though. OP's manager should have rescheduled this meeting if they couldn't make it, since they probably already knew the feedback was negative.
Re: Ask HN: My boss doesn't think I'm doing good work, how to proceed?
#53> I'm working my first job out of college
I could have stopped reading there. My first job hop after college brought a 150% pay increase. Don't leave too soon, but you probably don't want to stay at your first company for too long either. Especially if it's a source of stress and unfair treatment.
It's not so much about the company as it is about getting a second perspective, and probably a pay increase, early in your career.
Re: Ask HN: My boss doesn't think I'm doing good work, how to proceed?
#54Work to specification while you find a new job. Get the requirements via email or send a confirmation email for anything that you believe might be an "offhand remark".
The market is hot and jobs are currently plentiful.
Realize that a lot of the tech world reads this site so be careful.
Re: Ask HN: My boss doesn't think I'm doing good work, how to proceed?
#55juniors gotta junior. just kidding! keep your chin up and take the good advice and don't let the criticism get you down. manager may have made unrealistic deadline commitments and should be mad at himself not you. as for hiring more people to a project, that likely means the manager wants the project to be completed faster OR he doesn't want all his eggs in one basket (you). managers must constantly plan for worst case scenarios (like critical people leaving the company)
Re: Ask HN: My boss doesn't think I'm doing good work, how to proceed?
#56Scenario 1) You did produce substandard shit code that could have been done in a week. In that case, figure out what you did wrong and learn from it. Most fresh college grads produce shit code, it's just a thing. No one holds it against you because you're young and new. In this case, recognize the advice from someone better and more experienced than you, and just do better next time. Don't take it personally as an at…
The professional habit I developed to manage scenario 2 started out as upward directed leadership and sometimes turned into simply coaching my bosses to be better themselves. There's a part that jumps out to me in the OP, the requirements changed so a lot of his work went to waste. Incredibly common. Equally common is management not realizing that it's something that they should take ownership of.
Re: Ask HN: My boss doesn't think I'm doing good work, how to proceed?
#57The first meeting where your manager just abandoned you and you ended up talking to your manager's boss is totally inappropriate. Being so new to the job basically all the responsibility is with your direct manager and her boss is wrong to dump on you without your manager present. I'd give it another chance though, sounds like the work is fun and maybe you can communicate your concerns to your direct manager.
Yeah, this the root cause.
Re: Ask HN: My boss doesn't think I'm doing good work, how to proceed?
#58Ouch, that's a really rough spot to be in. It's really harsh of your boss to tell you that they expected you to get this project done earlier when you are so new to the company, it doesn't feel like very valid feedback and I would try not to take it personally and just assume that they were having a bad day and unfortunately they took it out on you. Regardless, giving that type of criticism is not a good pattern for your boss. It's just not effective.
The idea of proving your worth at a company is definitely something that has been repeatedly proven to me as being invaluable. I would try opening a dialogue with your immediate boss and having a bit of a check-in. I think that as this project comes to a close now is a good time to do that. I would let them know about how uncertain you felt with that bit of criticism, and maybe asking for concrete suggestions to address the problem with your upper level boss. Maybe some way that you can submit extra weekly reports detailing more of the work that you are doing on specific projects, including changes to requirements and how they affect your workflow. Sometimes bosses get so caught up in the big picture they don't recognize the ways that unexpected changes impact their teams.
Re: Ask HN: My boss doesn't think I'm doing good work, how to proceed?
#59A few takeaways from an old-timer here: > First, he basically tells me this project should have been finished a long time ago and he can't believe it's taken this long etc. I had no idea that he felt this way before the meeting - I've mostly just been working to get it done before the revised deadline my manager gave me. You need to communicate, build relationships, and get feedback from many people in the organizati…
> You need to communicate, build relationships, and get feedback from many people in the organization. One of those people is your manager's manager.
That's an unreasonable expectation. That's your manager's job, not yours. If you have a skip level manager that is expecting direct updates from you... they're doing management wrong.
Re: Ask HN: My boss doesn't think I'm doing good work, how to proceed?
#60Please pose this question in /r/consulting as well. You'll get additional valuable input. Best of luck friend.