ugh, I just had one of THOSE meetings....

the "you don't show enough initiative" meetings

@goodguy5 get the Alert feat or roll better.

Suggest ASI boost to dexterity

ha.... ha....

But now, I don't feel like doing anything because wallowing, but I have to act like I'm doing something because meeting.

Did you get examples of what does show sufficient initiative?

Acting in such a way to appear to others as you're doing whatever it is they like is a good plan.

Sometimes that's just cleverly organizing when you document/check in/whatever your work to get the visibility desired.

@goodguy5 That doesn't sound very useful. So no specifics?

that's true, as well. I like to operate in a black box and that doesn't do much to show when I'm doing stuff.

"Do good work and advertise", and I wish I could recall where that quote is from.

I don't remember any specifics from the meeting we just had, but maybe they were there.

mostly just felt like "do work without me having to assign it to you".... y'know.... the thing that managers are supposed to do

Possibly was never trained as a manager, had bad examples, and this whole thing is so Not A Bar. Grab a tea and head to the bar!

fair brt

actually... mods?

if you pls

← 21 messages moved from TRPG General Chat

Shabam!

Have your favorite variety of flavored water?

water flavored? yes

@goodguy5 so, you are a fellow ghostwriter-developer like me?

→ 1 message moved to TRPG General Chat

@goodguy5 Some. My favorite managers were those that explicitly told me their job was "bullshit shield" for the people actually getting the work done.

@Derpy unsure?

Do you have any inkling about what the manager likes about employee Y? or what they're seeing that they like?

making some sort of reports?

Reports are good. People like graphs and tables and stuff even if they don't matter or aren't helping to actually answer a question. Shiny things are usually well liked.

brains are dumb.

Can you ask employee Y for an example of one they put out or send to manager?

I can see them. We use powerbi.

Which of my messages got moved?

Oh just seen

@AncientSwordRage the one say.... yep

Only the best choicest messages.

We accept rare to medium rare messages here. Nothing well done though. That's right out.

Part of the issue is that I need to be getting more sleep.

^ That struggle is real.

How does the baby feel about that proposition?

but toddler, weird schedule (because of toddler), and the.... *gestures vaguely* everything

My friend did that to take care of his kids. He's a fulltime dad now days and is pretty happy with it.

Also, the majority of his salary would have been consumed by daycare anyway

@goodguy5 Is powerbi a templated system? Can you easily replicate employee Y's reports without too much effort?

I'm the "bread winner", to my dismay, so fulltime dad is out.

and yea, I guess enough. I'll take a look at it.

that's a good idea

@goodguy5 Developer in a team, you end up filling every hole left behind by people that should be "senior" and often have an higher level in the company, like architects that avoid taking decisions and so on?

It might be useful to look around for high visibility things the manager has said nice things about in the past. Also, use the same words the manager uses. People like to hear their words repeated back to them.

@Derpy oh no not that bad. I'm a well-paid grunt. or at least that's what I prefer to be.

@GcL ooohhh.. psychology. more good ideas

@goodguy5 Also, people say Machiavellian like it's a bad thing, but I quite enjoyed The Prince. My copy had side notes of the historical context and some additional explanation of his examples, but it was still worth the read.

@goodguy5 If you can, do some things that you suspect are wins, then check in with the manager to verify this. Solicit their advice about choices... if there's nothing you actually need help with, choose something... anything.... but don't make it appear trivial.

@goodguy5 If I get what you mean by "Grunt", I want to be a grunt too. See this short story taken from the Codeless Code, it basically aligns with my view. Link

People like being asked for their input. Also, might make them feel like they're doing their job well, and that's an association that's good to have.

My problem is that I am paid like a low-class grunt but I still manage to be the guy that has to fix the problems and incomplete work left behind by the elite. ^_^'

On the upside, they did tell you about an issue instead of not telling you for... 3 months.

@Derpy Add "full-stack" to your title and find a different job? /S

@GcL kinda trying....

@Derpy basically exactly

@Derpy If you keep track of some of these things in terms of hours or money saved, that can be good evidence to support a promotion. E.g. "tracked down and squashed issue" "saved the other team 40 hours of work a year"

or "Reduced inventory error rate to below 2% saving the department $50k per year."

That kind of stuff is useful for cover letters as well.

Not just "built a thing" or "did some stuff", but "did X and it had positive tangible outcome Y"

@GcL bwhahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhaahahahahahahahahahahhhahahahahahahahhaahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahah (continue for the next 2 hours)

They already know that. Why you think the managers come to me when they need a problem fixed?

Probably leave out the maniacal laughter.... unless you have a fluffy cat to pet and a moon based laser weapon.

@Derpy I would not rely on the memory of others to provide your evidence when making a case for promotion.

I just asked employee Y about it and he said that he's just modelling employee Z!

And I've been constantly losing weight for months. I can't tell if it's stress, nutrition, youngling-wrangling, or some terrible disease

I think I'm down 25 pounds since the new year

@goodguy5 Is Z also supervised by the same manager?

@GcL yes, but I don't have a rapport with Z, so I'm not comfortable asking

Still, manager mentioned Y, so I'd try to emulate what they're actually doing.

Or at least the parts of it that manager sees and likes.

@goodguy5 apparently, I can lose another 30 pounds and still be in the healthy range for bmi (as flawed a system as it is), so that makes me feel better.

Are you getting enough physical activity? chasing a toddler counts.

that is my main suspicion