#PerformanceIssues #CareerDevelopment #BonusDilemma
Hey fellow SWEs! 🖥️💼
So, you’re in a situation where you didn’t get the bonus you were hoping for because of performance feedback from your manager. 🤔😕 Don’t worry, you’re not alone in this struggle. Let’s dive into some practical solutions and advice to help you navigate this challenging situation.
### Understanding the Feedback
First things first, it’s essential to reflect on the feedback you received from your manager. Take a step back and objectively analyze the areas where you may have fallen short. Was it a specific project where mistakes were made, or a recurring issue in your code reviews? Understanding the root cause of the feedback is crucial in addressing the problem effectively.
### Seeking Mentorship and Guidance
Consider reaching out to a senior developer or mentor within your team for advice and guidance. They can provide valuable insights and support on how to improve your coding skills and overall performance. Don’t be afraid to ask for help and learn from those who have more experience in the field.
### Embracing Continuous Improvement
Remember, growth is a continuous process in the tech industry. Embrace the feedback as an opportunity to improve and develop your skills further. Set specific goals for yourself, whether it’s improving code quality, increasing productivity, or enhancing your presence in the office.
### Building Resilience and Confidence
It’s normal to feel anxious and uncertain about your job security after receiving less-than-ideal feedback. However, it’s important to build resilience and confidence in your abilities. Focus on your strengths, seek feedback on your progress, and celebrate small wins along the way. Remember, setbacks are part of the journey towards success.
### Conclusion
In conclusion, receiving feedback on your performance can be challenging, but it’s an essential part of professional growth. Use this experience as an opportunity to reflect, learn, and improve. Remember, you’re not alone in this journey, and there are resources and support available to help you succeed. Stay positive, stay focused, and keep pushing forward towards your career goals. You’ve got this! 💪🚀
### Share Your Story
Have you ever faced a similar situation at work? How did you overcome it? Share your experiences and tips in the comments below to support your fellow SWEs. Together, we can navigate through challenges and achieve our career aspirations. 🌟
Remember, setbacks are temporary, but your potential is limitless. Keep pushing forward and striving for excellence in your career. You’ve got this! 💻✨
Welcome to 2024. Your company is probably taking advantage of the job market right now.
Might not be on you and more on uhh… your company noticing the job market is favoring more to employers.
Not really sure.. but it’s possible your company is taking advantage of their employees in this way.
So may not necessarily be because you’re underperforming.
Based on what you wrote, seems like BS to me. They will do anything right now to save money and/or pay themselves bigger before giving the small fries more money. Everyone makes mistakes, some bigger than others, but mistakes do happen. Hell, how many times has X or Instagram gone offline for a bit? Plenty of times in the last year and you could argue they have some of the best engineers. If you like the work life balance, I’d chalk it up to “just some BS to save money”. If my company starts doing this, I will most likely put in even more effort to look elsewhere (they havent… yet). Do what’s best for you.
Always be updating resume and keeping skills sharp. If you have more than 2 – 3 YOE you always have options. Especially since you work ML. If not 2 YOE then just grind it out. A company who is consistently taking advantage of you for staying, not giving good raises, bonuses or promotions is not a place I want to stay longer than I have to (2-3 yrs).
The only folks with clean kitchens all the time don’t cook.
If you’re shipping bugs, that means that they trust you to ship code, and it also means that the org’s processes aren’t sufficient to catch the bugs that inevitably happen. Neither of those conditions speak to your ability as a developer.
Don’t put a lot of thought into some company’s arbitrary score. A 100% doesn’t protect you from being let go, and a 90% means the same.
So many red flags here, I’d be leaving that company. Start collecting interviews and brush up your résumé.
Achieving 100% on your review and then 90%, and you’re still not getting a bonus? That’s hilariously pathetic.
And asking you for more consistent performance to get the bonus and promo? No. That should come after a year, not 2-3.
My strategy is – if there’s no movement in salary after 1.5 years, I leave for a massive pay rise from another company.
I didn’t get it even with good performance. Shits about luck yo
My team was budgeted enough that each of us got a 0.5% merit increase this year regardless of performance.
You guys are getting bonuses?
>I do admit that I struggle with small silly errors
>I’m on track to get promoted next year but that I need to work on being in office more and delivering better quality code.
Yes. This is clear friendly “suggestion” from your manager.
If you want better perf rating, overdeliver so your manager can write this issue as one off. If these kind of issues persist, the “suggestions” will get more stark.
Not sure how your company works, but 100% rating is usually just a keep your job rating. Doing really well usually means a 150%+ rating.
Below 100% for more than a few reviews can mean pip/termination.
“Do more with less, going above and beyond is meeting expectations”… in 2024, it’s easier to change jobs than get a payrise elsewhere.
They are freezing pay or skimping on pay rises to same money so management and shareholders get “increased value”.
“Come into the office more” should signal to you exactly how your company is thinking.
Error is human and this is why we have PR.
The fact that many seniors did not found your book says more about your company processes than the coding skills of any of you. It shows that no one is taking reviews seriously. And what about the automated tests?
This is company policy issues here.
I didn’t get my bonus this year despite hitting all my targets because the company didn’t do well. 2024 sucks.
You have no problems. You need to gain confidence and not worry about what is happening at work. Also, if you feel discomfort from pressure from a manager, then you need to put him in his place. You need to work in pleasant conditions for yourself so that your confidence increases exponentially.
Maybe not, but there are some definite red flags here. It’s possible that someone is setting you up to be “quiet fired,” either because they see you as a threat, or they want to make you the scapegoat for the obviously lax code review process, or management has told them to reduce headcount. In the short term, be vigilant about avoiding bugs in your code, maybe look into automated AI tools that might assist you (but don’t rely on them). Be more visible in the office, as your boss recommended. “Proximity bias” is a real thing, and in any case you need to be there to assess the political landscape to see if you actually are in danger. As the other commenter said, keep your profile and skills up to date, just in case. In fact, why not take the next step and look for another job? It sounds like there are some glaring issues in your organization that might make it a toxic workplace. With 4 YOE, you shouldn’t have too much trouble going somewhere else, and with a nice salary bump as well. Lastly, you said that you have an anxious type personality. Invest in counseling to see if you actually have clinical anxiety, and how to cope with it. If it is severe enough, maybe you should consider anxiety meds. If you don’t get it under control, you are headed straight for burnout. But don’t do it through the company. If management somehow finds out you are in therapy (and I don’t care what anybody says, they have ways of finding things out), you are likely to be instantly terminated.
>I need to work on being in office more and delivering better quality code.
This is low quality reasoning, possibly they just want to save money.
Being in the office is not a good performance measure in my opinion, but if that’s what you are measured on, then you should consider.
A patch causing customer issue is more of a team tooling and processes issue. Everyone can have a bad day. Production quality should be guarded by reviews, test automation, monitoring, etc.
If that’s not in place or it was such an edge case that no person or tooling noticed, that should not be a reason to degrade individual performance evaluation.
I wouldn’t think you are in trouble, more likely the company is trying to save money.
Stay in touch with your manager on expectations though, and keep a casual eye on company finance reports to see if trends on money are positive.
Meet expectation is your new friend
You shouldn’t be in trouble. Everyone causes a production incident in their career, one way or another. I caused one where our website crashed in the middle of the day and I had to call our IT guy, who was minutes away from walking down the aisle at his own wedding. I still can’t believe he responded.
Work to reduce silly mistakes – you’ve identified them and you can address them. When your manager says you need to work on code quality, at least they can justify it. Now, being in the office more… ur manager is probably saying that cause they think it’s affecting your code quality. Maybe it is, but they shouldn’t be bringing that up if u aren’t abusing some WFH policy.
If there’s other specific issues that they’ve identified in your recent review, and you agree with those things, I’d say you’re in a great position cuz it’s on paper – theoretically if you improve those things you’d be back to 100%. But really, give them no reason to deny your next bonus/promotion – just regularly try to go beyond those expectations.