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Ask HN: My boss doesn't think I'm doing good work, how to proceed?

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Re: Ask HN: My boss doesn't think I'm doing good work, how to proceed?

#351

Post by slenk »

prima-facie wrote: post #40

Your boss is gaslighting & intimidating you. - Do not be intimidated into thinking you did your work poorly. I've seen this happen many times with employees being guilt tripped, especially the younger more junior employees. You are a professional and the work you do is important for the company, you do it with pride and to the best of your ability. - Beware of gaslighting. Some bosses can be incredibly manipulative a…

It's not even OPs direct boss - that meeting just screams inappropriate to me.

Re: Ask HN: My boss doesn't think I'm doing good work, how to proceed?

#352

Post by Nbox9 »

thegrimmest wrote: post #310
pc86 wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I draw a corollary to how graduate medical education works. You go into residency a fresh doctor with zero applicable skills. You may not even be CPR certified, but you're an MD/DO, and you've matched into a residency. You know less about actually helping people than a nurse who's been on the job for a month. You spend the next 3-7 years working 80-100 hours a week learning your chosen specialty. You become an absolu…

What if you just want to write software and not be responsible for mentorship? Why do capable individual contributors always have to be roped into leadership?

> Why do capable individual contributors always have to be roped into leadership?

Training your replacement is how the cogs in the machine reproduce.

Re: Ask HN: My boss doesn't think I'm doing good work, how to proceed?

#353

Post by crate_barre »

There could be any number of reasons why you were the outlet of his frustration that day. It could be entirely you that was the catalyst, or not, it could be something that has nothing to do with you.

People have bad days and it’s entirely possible your boss may also be making a mental note not to come down on you like that again.

If either of you don’t given each other a chance from that moment to possibly walk back from the edge and let cooler heads prevail, then this simple bad moment cannot be forgiven and will act as a butterfly effect for an inevitability.

Brush it off and lay low, unless push comes to shove.

Signed Yours truly,

I’ve worked in corporate forever, and know the ups and downs.

Re: Ask HN: My boss doesn't think I'm doing good work, how to proceed?

#354

Post by slenk »

C19is20 wrote: post #104
Gortal278 wrote: post #3

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.

Be slightly wary of taking advice from people that use 'of', instead of 'have'.

Or, take the opportunity to teach them the real phrase and explain that because of people's verbal speech patterns it confuses younger generations...

Re: Ask HN: My boss doesn't think I'm doing good work, how to proceed?

#355

Post by tomcooks »

tunesmith wrote: post #252
hkolk wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if your manager is ok with it, don't register it as a sick day. Makes it potentially more complicated with the company doctor. Just consider it a workday spend on ...whatever. Manager being ok with it means you deserved it though :) (EU based engineering manager speaking)

company doctor?

In EU companies have to appoint a medical expert that checks worker's health (for free) upon joining the company, and routinely (1-2 times a year, depends on country I guess). Edit: Could be something that only companies whose workers have to do physical labour ("blue collar" jerbs)

If you call in sick for more than three days you usually go through your own doctor, so that you get a certification that you're taking X days off in order to cure yourself

Re: Ask HN: My boss doesn't think I'm doing good work, how to proceed?

#358

Post by antman »

tomcooks wrote: post #355
tunesmith wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

company doctor?

In EU companies have to appoint a medical expert that checks worker's health (for free) upon joining the company, and routinely (1-2 times a year, depends on country I guess). Edit: Could be something that only companies whose workers have to do physical labour ("blue collar" jerbs) If you call in sick for more than three days you usually go through your own doctor, so that you get a certification that you're taking…

It is compulsory at least for all companies over 50 people. There is a three level risk profile of the work the team does that assigns the respective doctor hours to the team. That is mostly for work related incidents or prevention as per the EU legislation.

For long term absence each country has different rules and paperwork.

Re: Ask HN: My boss doesn't think I'm doing good work, how to proceed?

#359

Post by acbart »

mushufasa wrote: post #24

> 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…

> without bothering the professor

What the hell kind of academic culture is this? Maybe in graduate research, if I expected a research assistant to know how to do a task... but certainly not true in an undergraduate course! If they can't do the assignment, that is the perfect time for them to come to me and learn from me how to do the assignment. That's like, the whole point of my job as a teacher is to help people learn. Yes, I make assignments too, and people underestimate how difficult that part of the job is, but helping people figure things out is like my #1 job. It's sad to hear that your experiences (and apparently many other commenters) are something very different?

Re: Ask HN: My boss doesn't think I'm doing good work, how to proceed?

#360

Post by balls187 »

I only have one side of the story, so I'll take it at face value. It sounds like both your boss and your manager suck at their jobs, and this is not a good place to be long term.

I'm going to assume that as your first job out of college, you don't have a lot of leadership experience.

> 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.

This isn't your problem, and your boss is a dunce. It's your managers job to ensure project deadlines and status are communicated, as well as any delays. It's your boss's job to KNOW why one of their projects has been delayed this long. There exists a myriad of effective processes for SDLC to manage project software schedules.

> He looks at the code and criticizes design decisions, some of which were made largely on my manager's explicit suggestions.

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt, that your boss wasn't merely having you defend your decisions--having to justify decisions is part of being an engineer. Reaching beyond your manager to provide comments on your code is not helpful (as evident in that it took the wind out from your sails). Good software teams will utilize code reviews to provide that feedback. And if your boss had comments about the code, he should have talked to your manager about it.

> I have no clue what happened in that meeting and I haven't heard anything about it from either of them since.

I have to wonder why your manager hasn't bothered to share with you what the outcome was. However, if it's something you're curious about, definitely ask.

> I really did work hard, so it's demotivating that it feels like the result of me working hard is unappreciated.

It's not that. There are a lot of bad bosses out there, and this is the effect they have on really talented workers.

> How should I proceed?

Work just hard enough not to get fired, and find a side hustle 2nd job. Or have an honest conversation with your manager about how that meeting felt. If it were me, and one of my talented team-members felt like they got s*t on by the skip, I'd want to know, and I would work to repair that relationship (personally my relationship with my skip-levels is one of the most powerful tools I have as a leader).

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