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

I think first thing to be sure is that you're not misinterpreting the intent here. Sometimes random comments that aren't really delivered with bad intent can easily get misinterpreted. Perhaps the manager's boss intention was to help you in some way. It's expected that a really junior person will make bad decisions (maybe not what you're looking to hear here). That's (partly) how we learn. How well do you know this person? (Wasn't clear to me from the above who is "he" and "she", you said your manager and her boss and then you referred to that boss as "he").

If this is not a question of misjudged intent, and probably after trying to clear it up with your immediate manager (but be subtle/diplomatic about it), I would consider my future with that company.

The other thing to note is that us tech managers are notoriously bad at people skills. It's possible both your manager and your manager's boss think you're doing great work most of the time, and say nothing, and just say something when they feel it needs improvement. So on the whole they think highly of you despite your perception that they are critical. Again, a more open talk with your manager, while being a little careful, should help clarify this. This is a good conversation to have after you've accomplished a major goal (like "pretty much done"). Just ask for feedback in a neutral way, don't accuse anyone of anything... If you get great feedback, it's a good time to ask for a raise or a bonus if you feel you deserve that! If you're not having these conversations it's really hard to gauge what people are really thinking...

Good luck!

Not suprised considering your boss is a woman - I guess she just got emotional or she just doesn't like you.

Thanks. I'm reading all the comments. I definitely felt like what the boss was upset about at the meeting had more to do with the technical side, rather than communication.

I feel like my communication with my manager was good. We have all-team meets (that the boss isn't a part of) where I gave weekly status updates, and there's a group chat on slack with my manager where me and the other person on the project discussed what we were working on. I also maintain a github project that shows the status of everything I'm working on that takes me more than one day (and try to keep it up-to-date with what the other person on the project is doing too).

But there was virtually no communication between me and my skip boss. My feeling is that I should have been doing more to keep him in the loop. I think, viewing from the outside, some might say that the management hierarchy exists for a reason and just communicating with my direct manager should be fine, but I think the skip boss would have appreciated being kept more directly in the loop.

I'm looking at this from a PM's perspective and not a devs perspective so take it as you will.

>he basically tells me this project should have been finished a long time ago and he can't believe it's taken this long >>Sounds like a manager with a MBA and lack of hands on technical experience.

>he says I probably just misinterpreted an offhand comment of hers as a hard requirement >>The problem isn't you not understanding her requirements, its a lack of documented well defined requirements - and any changes to said requirements should be noted and tracked.

>no longer necessary due to changing requirements >>Once again, this sounds like your manager is deflecting the fact that they didn't have well thought out and well defined requirements before the project began.

I think what probably happened here is this ... your bosses boss, has had misgivings about the project and your work on it, that he's been passing on to your boss. I think your boss either disagrees, or agrees but has been trying to softly nudge you in the right direction without alarming you.

My feeling is that it's probably the latter, which is why you haven't heard anything since the meeting between two of them after you left. You're new in the industry so this isn't something that you should even be able to pick up, but what I'd suggest is a bit more tactful probing around these ideas to find out if one of those guesses is correct.

If you, or worse you AND your boss are on the higher ups shitlist, you want to take corrective action as quickly as possible even if your boss doesn't (which might involve lining up another gig, just in case).

As an anecdote, in a toxic environment, I had a boss who was shielding me in similar fashion from his boss who was supportive of some other coworkers I was repeatedly butting heads with. My boss agreed with me and thought my approach and work was the right way to do things, but I had no inkling till one day he casually mentioned that his boss had weighed in on what up to that point just seemed like low level squabbling. That got me very alarmed indeed, and he was shitcanned not even 4 weeks later. Turns out that they had pressed him repeatedly to fire me, and used he refusal to do so as one of the reasons to get rid of him.

In came a new boss, and within weeks (conveniently after I'd wrapped up a very difficult project, which was part of the reason my now-former boss had been shielding me from them) I was told I had no future at the company (directly from the higher up). So, keep your ears and eyes peeled and proceed to do some digging.

Your boss might not be giving you the full scoop on what's going on behind the scenes, and you might need that information to take evasive action. Hopefully I'm wrong though.