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It all started to go downhill from here. One week, I took lots of leave; some for genuine reasons, 1 for no reason.

From that day, manager is very negative about me and has been losing trust day by day.

One day, I did a big mistake and told him I wasn't being assigned any work and I feel like I'm doing nothing in office.

Then, it seem to have left an impression of me as "useless fellow" in him.

Today I wrote some cool scripts (sysadmin) and he was meh when I showed the scripts to him. He genuinely believes that I don't know anything about the product that we're working on and tbh he's correct. But he has lost trust in me because of that, which I find hard to cope with.

Except doing my best, what else can I do to regain my manager's trust.

I've not became permanent in this job and I'm wondering if this is the last call for me to get me out of this job?

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  • 7
    Please find a new job as soon as possible.
    – JosephDoggie
    Commented Aug 21, 2023 at 13:52
  • 6
    If you aren't willing to make the effort to work with inadequate documentation, you may be in the wrong profession. Ask your co-workers how they learned about how the system works. Ask them or the manager to suggest/assign good places to start. You should have been doing that from day one, not sitting on your hands waiting for someone to solve your problem. Fix this or the next job may not go any better.
    – keshlam
    Commented Aug 21, 2023 at 15:31
  • 2
    Eat the elephant one bite at a time. Start with something small enough and specific enough that you can read the product design directly rather than relying on the documentation; ask your co-workers questions about how it works if necessary. Generate a patch, maybe ask a co-worker to sanity-check it, run it through peer review. Repeat, learning the structure as you go. Don't expect to understand it all at once. I still have to do this when I hit sections of a project I haven't worked on before; it's part of the job. Over time you learn the architecture and style and get better at it.
    – keshlam
    Commented Aug 21, 2023 at 15:44
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    "One day, I did a big mistake and told him I wasn't being assigned any work and I feel like I'm doing nothing in office." - That is not a mistake if your intention is to ask him to assign you new work. It comes down to how you framed it.
    – Job_September_2020
    Commented Aug 21, 2023 at 20:15
  • 3
    Sounds like step one is to stop performing poorly.
    – mxyzplk
    Commented Aug 24, 2023 at 0:09

2 Answers 2

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It's possible you have a terrible manager. However, from your comments:

He wants me to learn the product properly.

I can't seem to learn the product because I find it extremely boring and non-rewarding. Plus the documentation is big meh

It sounds like the main thing your manager wants you to do, you're not doing. That's understandable if the task is difficult and boring, but if that's what your manager wants you to do, writing some cool scripts isn't going to keep him happy or get you closer to learning the product. You say it's "non-rewarding" but I think the reward is you are able to do the job.

So flag the issues you have with the documentation but show that you're trying. Also try and come with solutions ("if I could sit with Rui who uses the system every day for an hour" I could learn a lot).

And if you're still unable to make progress, maybe it's time to look for another job.

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  • 1
    manager isn't bad. he's good guy. problem is he is unable to understand why i am not understanding the product although i've told him once about it.
    – zeeshanseikh
    Commented Aug 21, 2023 at 17:12
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    Finding it boring is not an excuse for still not understanding enough of it to work on it. You were hired to work on that product. If you can't or won't try, you're not doing your job
    – keshlam
    Commented Aug 21, 2023 at 18:10
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    From your description it sounds like the documentation is the biggest blocker to you doing the job. So I think telling him once is not enough.
    – matt freake
    Commented Aug 21, 2023 at 18:25
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    @keshlam why're you so aggressed? relax.
    – zeeshanseikh
    Commented Aug 22, 2023 at 14:32
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    Apologies if concise came across as aggressive. The point remains: as your manager said, you need to get over the hump and start being productive on the product. Or leave. Or be let go.
    – keshlam
    Commented Aug 22, 2023 at 14:45
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People take days off for all kinds of reasons, including to have a day off. It should not be an issue if your days off were planned and communicated.

Low days with nothing to do in the office are somewhat expected. It is an issue for your manager, not you to figure out.

Is writing "cool scripts" part of your job? Were you able to achieve anything useful? Was this task communicated and agreed with your manager?

How exactly "he has lost trust in me" manifests? Could it be that your manager is busy/upset with something else and you take it personally?

Have you tried talking to your manager about tasks/expectations/procedures to follow? Can you agree on specific behaviors on your part that needs improvement? I suggest doing exactly that.

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  • 1
    I communicated with my manger about the script yesterday, he was very happy about it and excited about it. I've not implemented it in production because I want to do peer review with senior colleagues. But today he was like meh. Maybe he didn't understand it haha. :) It wasn't that complex. Generally we do manual work although most of what we do can be easily automated. My goal is to automate everything in this job and follow best practices. But I badly lack business knowledge/product knowledge and he's concerned about it. He keeps saying to learn the product, don't go deep in technology...
    – zeeshanseikh
    Commented Aug 21, 2023 at 14:48
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    but I keep going deep on technology and I can't seem to learn the product because I find it extremely boring and non-rewarding. Plus the documentation is big meh. I followed the advice to communicate I'm not getting assigned any tasks and here I'm. Should I ask him what are his expectations? That'd surely make him fire me. :)
    – zeeshanseikh
    Commented Aug 21, 2023 at 14:49
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    If your manager fires you for asking what to do, consider it a win!
    – Eriks Klotins
    Commented Aug 21, 2023 at 15:15
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    Never thought it that way. I'll ask him tommorow.
    – zeeshanseikh
    Commented Aug 21, 2023 at 15:16
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    Sounds like he has already told you what to do. Focus on the product. Not tooling, not technology that the product isn't using yet and may not use any time soon. Ask for a task to start on that doesn't require knowing the complete codebase. Learn enough of the code to do that task. Now you know a bit more; repeat.
    – keshlam
    Commented Aug 21, 2023 at 15:41

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