I'm demotivated and my bosses say I'm too slow or not doing good work. I got a 4.4% effective pay cut.
I'm just sticking it out because I don't really have options.
Ask HN: My boss doesn't think I'm doing good work, how to proceed?
471–480 of 506 posts
Re: Ask HN: My boss doesn't think I'm doing good work, how to proceed?
#472Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Do not put work into things that may or may not be needed. You're a junior dev, someone tells you something is needed, you work hard on it. I guess you learn to question your boss as to whether it's really needed, but that sometimes isn't optimal, either.
Trust, but verify. The advice was about how not to be a junior dev.
As a junior, you really shouldn’t be constantly maneuvering around your immediate supervisor up the chain of command.
Either your supervisor is good, and you need to trust them, or they are bad and you are likely SOL. Ultimately an organization who is holding a junior directly responsible for high level project decisions that were made in concert with their supervisor, is a bad organization.
Re: Ask HN: My boss doesn't think I'm doing good work, how to proceed?
#473> 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…
I often find myself falling into this trap of not reaching out for help quick enough and I've been a dev for a decade. It really is a super bad habit and I've made some strides recently to get better at it.
Re: Ask HN: My boss doesn't think I'm doing good work, how to proceed?
#474How should you proceed? Grow some thick skin. Modern education has failed you (and you were probably coddled a bit too much). Hard work is small part of a much larger equation which includes context, bigger picture, results etc. Everything you mentioned is completely normal except for you whining about it on HN, as a junior dev mistakes are inevitable. You accept responsibility and push back on the "unfair" criticism…
You seem like you'd fit in great as a manager at OP's company.
Re: Ask HN: My boss doesn't think I'm doing good work, how to proceed?
#475> I'm not thinking of quitting over this or anything, but it seriously bums me out. I don't know if I have a future at this company if the boss thinks I'm not a good dev, and I really like it here. A month or so ago they added someone else to my project and I trained him on my code, and he's super smart and capable, and I'm thinking that now they probably feel that they could fire me if they wanted and not lose much.
You need to start applying to other companies immediately. Please take this as a MAJOR warning that they are setting you up to fire you. There are many reasons why they might do this, but you've ALREADY TRAINED YOUR REPLACEMENT. Changes are good that other person is either cheaper or better qualified and they want to free the chair/pay up for them.
I've been in this exact situation and it's better to just hit the job boards as fast and hard as possible. Given 100 years, this manager wouldn't change their opinion of you. You were blindsided and scolded without your direct manager's involvement. If you "stay loyal" you'll either be fired or treated the same way over and over. If you have 6 months of Rust and Computer Vision experience it should be pretty easy to find new work right now. This is the best job market in decades, take advantage!
Re: Ask HN: My boss doesn't think I'm doing good work, how to proceed?
#476Earlier quoted context omitted.
Cross-cultural programmer here, and I can help. In Europe, calling in sick when you're not actually, recognizably ill is a pretty serious breach of trust. No cutesy "mental health break" exceptions. That said, you likely have at least 20 days of paid vacation, plus holidays. In the US, where 10 days paid vacation is the norm and you're often punished in some way for actually taking it, the occasional "mental health b…
I can assure you there is nothing "cutesy" about mental health. Feeling severely depressed/suicidal is much more serious than some minor cold. Thank god the US is moving in the direction where mental health is recognized as a serious issue. Comments like this show that we still have a long way to go.
> I can assure you there is nothing "cutesy" about mental health
You misread what I wrote, and then got angry about what you imagined I wrote. Usually I don't explain myself to strangers on the internet, since people who angrily misread also usually angrily double down, but here goes.
In the US, it is frowned upon to take a scheduled day off just to relax, outside of your annual 2 weeks of vacation. So you call in "sick". Since you're not really sick, but want to relax, you call your reason for illness a "mental health day". I characterized this practice as cutesy, because it's a cutsey repurpose of the concept of sick day for self-care. It's not a mental health crisis, it's relaxing. But as long as you characterize it that way, it gets a nod and a wink from anyone who cares.
In Europe, by contrast, if you need time off because work is stressful, you plan ahead, take the day off and be cheerfully honest that you spent the day at the beach or whatever. But if you tell people you were sick, and then spend the day at the beach, people will at best think you are odd, but probably will think you're a liar. Telling people it was a "mental health break" to call in sick in order to go to the beach will not get the same cozy reception it gets in the US.
Clear?
Re: Ask HN: My boss doesn't think I'm doing good work, how to proceed?
#477No post body was provided.
Re: Ask HN: My boss doesn't think I'm doing good work, how to proceed?
#478Earlier quoted context omitted.
> In business, it's much better to 'bother the professor' regularly and check in affirmatively on whether the assignment has changed This is definitely management's responsibility. If they assign a task and let it continue after it has become obsolete, what kind of management is that? > As a junior employee, you're not going to know the full business context of what makes sense Agreed. I would add that explaining eno…
This is definitely management's responsibility. Ideally yes. But the truth is that you will often find yourself in situations where management is less than ideal, and no matter how unfair you will end up looking bad if you fail to navigate that.
Definitely. I argued the same in a top-level comment.
Re: Ask HN: My boss doesn't think I'm doing good work, how to proceed?
#479Sounds like your shields are down: https://randsinrepose.com/archives/shields-down/
Fundamentally, do you trust your manager? You admire them, but do you trust them?
If so, I'd have this conversation with them (outlining what you've said in your q) and say "I really like working here with you and [boss]. I want to succeed here. What can I do differently next time to make sure that I hit a home run?".
This should give you some tasks to do (check ins regularly, design review, looking at other projects). Do them. Make it clear that you are doing them (overcommunicate). If at all possible, loop in the boss (ccing via email works great, as does public slack channel).
On the other hand... If you don't trust your manager, start looking for another job.
Re: Ask HN: My boss doesn't think I'm doing good work, how to proceed?
#480Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can assure you there is nothing "cutesy" about mental health. Feeling severely depressed/suicidal is much more serious than some minor cold. Thank god the US is moving in the direction where mental health is recognized as a serious issue. Comments like this show that we still have a long way to go.
> I can assure you there is nothing "cutesy" about mental health You misread what I wrote, and then got angry about what you imagined I wrote. Usually I don't explain myself to strangers on the internet, since people who angrily misread also usually angrily double down, but here goes. In the US, it is frowned upon to take a scheduled day off just to relax, outside of your annual 2 weeks of vacation. So you call in "s…
Apologize for misreading you and getting frustrated. I appreciate the explanation. I hope you can understand where I am coming from.
If I am anxious or depressed, going outside into nature or to the beach would help me tremendously. Much more so than sitting at home. How anxious and depressed do I have to be before it flips from "relaxing" to "legit"?
At my job I get x vacation days and y sick days. If I feel I unwell mentally I am going to use a sick day. Why is it anyone's business why I am sick or what I did on my sick day?
If my coworker said they were feeling terrible yesterday so they took the day off to go to the beach I would understand and encourage that. I would also admire them being brave enough to admit that rather than pretend they had a virus.