How not to get fired within 6 months? [closed]

Question

In my only job after graduating I lost my job within 6 months of getting hired.

These are the reasons my manager gave for my dismissal:

• Team mates complained about me asking too many questions, questions that I could have searched for on stackoverflow. (Similar question)

• My communication was not good enough, and that I wasn't confident. He said that during daily standups he couldn't tell from my update if I had made any progress from the previous day. I found it difficult to provide an update during standups for these reasons:

• (1) I couldn't articulate my progress in a project, and everyday I was worried about what to report for my update

  (2) I didn't know how to stretch out any incremental gains to fit the 2 to 3 minutes that were expected for a standup everyday (similar to this question)

  (3) Some days I would make big progress, other days I would be stuck on something because I needed to research it or a component of it

  (4) As part of my onboarding I had to learn programming languages and technologies, so sometimes my update would be that I was reading documentation or learning a technology, which doesn't sound cool compared to teammates who fixed a bug or added a new feature. After a few days of this, a senior member of the team got annoyed with my updates.

  (5) I didn't respond quickly enough on the instant messaging platform we used. I regrettably did this for two reasons, the first is that when I was in the middle of intense research on or working on an algorithm or problem, the context switch killed my flow and productivity. The other reason is that I treated instant messaging as emails, so I didn't give them priority when I was in the middle of working on a problem. (similar to this question)

  (6) My manager said that I need to be more professional. I have a friendly, outgoing personality and a lot of times I'm too relaxed even in a work setting, and can get distracted at the possibility of a good conversation.

  (7) My manager had been underestimating me and the difficulty of the project I had been working on, and when he said something about the project, I disagreed which caused him to send me the message "Read the readme" which he deleted 5 minutes later but not before I read it which annoyed me because I understood it better than him, so I became arrogant when I explained to him why I was right.

My manager also became very upset after asking me to do something at 5 minutes before my finishing time, and I told him I had an errand to run so wouldn't be able to do it. I had been working unpaid overtime, sometimes staying 2 hours past my finishing time, so that particular time I decided I wasn't going to do work past my finishing time anymore.

I was not using a ticketing system like JIRA, so maybe that is part of the reason I didn't have a structured way of giving updates during daily standups.

What I want to know are:

1. What do I do to improve my communication, office politics, and professionalism so that I won't be fired in my next job within 6 to 8 months of starting?

2. Also what is a good balance between being professional and fun to work with? Too professional and teammates may think I am antisocial. Too social with teammates and it will probably backfire because teammates think I am unprofessional.

3. When socializing with colleagues at team events, retreats, etc. do I have to remain professional all the time? I guess understanding human psychology is a skill that would really help in the workplace.

4. Is there a different level and type of professionalism you should have when working remotely compared to working in an office? If so what are they?

Answer 1

"I was not using a ticketing system like JIRA"

My answer will just address this point. I recommend you keep a small notebook by your desk, and write down everything that you do each day. That's what I do - anything that is "significant" or takes more than some minimum amount of time (~15 minutes) gets written down, along side the day(s) I worked on it, and a little checkmark denoting that the task was complete.

I have weekly checkins with my manager, before which I review what I've wriiten down, and prune, consolidate, and enhance that list so that I can accurately capture my week's efforts.

Answer 2

Couple of things to think on in the future;

• Not responding immediately to instant messages

An instant message deserves a rather instant response. People don't necessarily honor the right priority of sending their messages and requests, but a general expectation is that a phone call interrupts you for an immediate action, an instant message is someone asking for a response within a few minutes or when next possible, and an email generally has an expectation that it might be 4-24+ hours before you respond.

If someone is pestering you too often on instant message for things that should be an email, it is better to politely suggest that if it's not urgent, that they email you so you can more efficiently handle the highest priority items in front of you, speeding up your availability for their request in the end as well

• too much conversation

This one takes practice. Just try not to have too much unproductive chat in the office, watch when you're doing it.

This can really get under Mgmt's skin, because when you talk to someone else, you are tying up both your time and theirs - and it's something we all like to do, so one person can easily start a trend that has a negative impact on a team's performance, without even realizing it.

This is the kind of thing that should be easily resolved with one or two verbal nudges.... But as an employee, you should understand if someone's gone out of their way to mention it to you, it's a problem and you need to address it quickly.

• How to strike a balance between professional and fun?

If you're on company time, you should keep it very professional and work based. Get people's contact info, maybe start a slack channel or group text, maybe an email thread where you can communicate offline when you're not on company time, but can still be involved.

Things like Teams or Slack, where a chat room can be set up where each person can contribute when they have a moment, but not be tied up in an in person or phone conversation, will allow you to more easily chat without losing time.

But again, better to keep it on the low end during work hours.

Company retreats, etc, go wild - Anything that would normally be allowed in respectable behavior... But don't do anything that might influence people's relationships with you in the office or cause problems between you and team mates. Don't cause fights, don't hit on coworkers you think are cute (at company events; one could argue don't do it in general because you can mess up team dynamics), etc.

• Progress / status update issues

This one is minor; it's a skill you'll develop over time, don't sweat it. Listen to how other people are reporting and try and match theirs a bit, and try to keep it light but informative.

"today I am working on knowledge transfer information and documentation for the incident management process."

"Tomorrow, I do not have many items to do, please assign me some work so I can stay productive."

^ Something you can do, is leverage your manager(s) any time you are stuck on anything. If you are encountering some kind of issue that's going to delay you, keep your manager over-informed rather than under informed.

This is actually a generally good tip for micro-managers.... flood them with information. You will look like a hardworking, good employee, and they'll kind of get bored and stop paying attention to you anyways.

An example of this, when I do consulting work, as I finish certain tasks, I will do a quick screen recording and email it off to them, which they enjoy and like to use as an opportunity to review and maybe make suggestions... I usually do this when i go through and test my code to ensure it's working, to save some time. And it prevents me from having to discuss it at length the next day in a meeting because they can see that item / those items are done.

When it's work that can't be quantified easily... like documentation.... That one's just a tough deal. We've all been there and you just have to be clear and, if they present it as an issue, have an open mind and ask if there's anything else you can be doing to help the team.

• working unpaid overtime

You need to set expectations on when you can get something done and when you can't. Try and gauge this from the beginning, or as you are going along. Let management / people requesting work know, hey, it's looking like i will be able to get this done friday.

Hey, this thing came up, it might be monday now.

(manager assigns you something else) - I can get this done by friday, but it will delay the other project by a few days; otherwise I can focus on the other one and this can get done next wednesday (implying, I am at capacity, i can not do both).

It's less about how many hours you are working - you shouldn't burn yourself out working 60 hours a week, paid or unpaid. Set in your mind, a reasonable cutoff, and keep management over-informed of your ability to meet deadlines with the work they assign you.

By doing this, you are giving them a problem to solve, and if it is an issue to them, they have the ability to make decisions on retasking the item to someone else, accepting it may take longer, or reprioritizing the items in your queue.

It's weird you got fired on these.... At a lot of org's, getting fired takes a lot of effort. Maybe chalk it up to poor management or a bad fit.

The golden rule for the future, do your best, keep your manager aware of your situation whenever it changes, and if you get any kind of negative feedback, address it, because it's likely been tolerated a while before they told you

Answer 3

It is a great idea to maintain a good working relationship with your boss at all times.

A good working relationship is beneficial to both you and the boss/company.

For example, here are some situations you mentioned in your question about your interactions with your boss, which could be improved:

When the manager said something about the project, I disagreed which caused him to send me the message "Read the readme" which he deleted 5 minutes later but not before I read it which annoyed me because I understood it better than him, so I became arrogant when I explained to him why I was right.

The words annoyed and arrogant do not play well for anyone at work. If you maintain your calmness in many situations at work, you will be in good shape.

In this situation, it seems that you should try to be nicer to your manager even though he may misunderstand you. First, please try to calm down (for a few seconds - breath in and out -) before you can professionally and politely respond to your manager. Simply, explain to him "Thanks for the helpful link. I've read the file. However, I still have some specific questions about something."

The important key is for you and the team to understand and solve the technical problem. If possible, please avoid pointing out who is right (You) and who is wrong (the BOSS) in an argument. Ultimately, the boss really wants to see his workers successfully solve the problems in the projects rather than to see an argument or anything else.

My manager also became very upset after asking me to do something at 5 minutes before my finishing time, and I told him I had an errand to run so wouldn't be able to do it.

Can you ask him if it is OK for you to work on his requested task after 5 minutes (because you have to run an errand) ? You can also mention to him that you usually work 1 or 2 extra hours after work. Please don't just tell him "No, I can't do the work you request because I am busy in the next 5 minutes."

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My second note is that, ideally, it would have been wonderful if the former boss had given you some feedback a long time ago so that you had had enough time to improve. However, I am sure you will be doing well on the next job. Good luck.