Updating regarding my boss and PIP.

[ViShawn]

I made a thread a while ago about my boss threatening to put me on a PIP just after THREE MONTHS of being into the role, which mind you I only had access to certain tools for 10 weeks in. I work in technology and am a Linux Engineer, or Site Reliability Engineer as my formal title. A very high level and lucrative role.

The company I'm at is one of the larger software companies that has been around since the 80s. Not too hard to figure out. I'm the ONLY black person in my role which happens a lot in technology. The fact that I am a generally high performer, have gotten great reviews in the past, worked remotely for even more pay than this job, the idea of my boss coming to me with a PIP surprised me.

He gave me some action items for the 30 days to work on where he wanted to see improvement or action on them or else the next step was a PIP. These 30 days are over.

We went over a few things...he wanted me to go over the infrastructure myself and my peers work on now and some of the monitoring. He saw that I was able to explain most of it well. He just said there's something always to learn

There's still a perception...and I told him that I feel the first month he had the wrong image of me and that's not what I wanted to present

He still wants to see me participate more and take on tasks...take the initiative on things and contribute because there's still plenty to do. I can sometimes be quiet and that could be misconstrued of course. The past month I was focusing only on ME and trying to reach these goals for him to get him off my back. I did it but I still think he sees me as doing the minimum. I don't know what he expects out of four months.

So at the moment I see that as a win. He can't say that I don't know things or use it against me. But perception is there. I may have to learn how to "manage the manager" here to let him know what I'm doing. I can also wait a bit more to find a role that is a better fit if things are not better where I'm at. Any thoughts or suggestions appreciated.

 

[JahFocus CS]

Good to hear things didn't crash and burn but I'll give the same advice I believe I gave last time... plan an exit strategy, why put up with that shyt? Unless you feel that your compensation or benefits wouldn't be as good elsewhere. Or unless you are concerned about appearances of "job hopping"

 

[ViShawn]

Good to hear things didn't crash and burn but I'll give the same advice I believe I gave last time... plan an exit strategy, why put up with that shyt? Unless you feel that your compensation or benefits wouldn't be as good elsewhere. Or unless you are concerned about appearances of "job hopping"

I've been interviewing elsewhere but there are some technical gaps I need to address on my own. Programming is huge for one for these DevOps/Engineer roles and things change. I also noticed that I got to the final round on my most recent interview last week and didn't get an offer because some of my networking knowledge is rusty.

People ask about job hopping but not really. Recruiters and companies just want to find the right candidate. It's business.

Exit strategy is to hone my skillset and learn until I can make a sound move and not one out of desperation. I'm really trying and I talked to some of my old colleagues and they *may* be able to hire other people within three months so I have to stick it out.

 

[Astroslik]

You always have to prove yourself tenfold immediately as a black man in any role, while cacs get 6 months to learn shyt

 

[ViShawn]

You always have to prove yourself tenfold immediately as a black man in any role, while cacs get 6 months to learn shyt

Yeah pretty ridiculous. At least now he's off my back. I can stay 6 more months or so, take the skill set and name, then go elsewhere.

 

[ViShawn]

@Hard Times Nakamura

 

[Hard Times Nakamura]

Keep in mind they can give you the boot for a BS reason after the probation. I got the boot on day 45.

Literally they can just be going over the numbers in the background or waiting for some other shyt to pan out. In my industry they would need to basically gain something to offset the loss in productivity they would have by letting me go.

So maybe they gained that and said well we are gonna fukk ourselves in his speciality but net gain overall for the company won't be bad. So they just cover up the bad news with great news. Shift priorities to make you being gone seem smaller.

CEO: What happened to our integration project with ___? We are showing a $5 million loss because of this. Not substantial but still noteworthy to figure out.
CAC fakkit Manager: Well that fell through because it didn't work out with a key individual contributor. But more importantly you'll want to hear the good news we are winning the contract for ___ worth $50 million!
CEO: Amazing. However, Please keep an eye on that department and ensure you find the right person next time. But we're all getting fukking bonuses after that big win! Drinks on you!

But anyways what programming languages do you need to learn specifically? Keep pushing him to give specifics. Vague shyt won't cut it. Start a paper trail and filing inquiries with HR regarding this. In my new job we already defined career goal objectives for year 1. Basically they are clear cut and related to my strengths. Everything has been going well so far mainly because there was a dire need for me to be here and basically take on work from my boss off his plate. None of it is new to me I have been doing this for almost 7 years already in various past roles. I am overseeing an agency implementing the work and catching them on errors on the regular basis. My boss is very pleased because he has been overseeing this stuff with limited bandwidth and I'm already proposing stuff that needs to be improved and elevated in month 1. Basically I am an auditor as well as handling strategy but overall project management and prioritization. I've already made a few connections in the organization outside of our immediate group because I came in speaking the language. So a lot of times you need to try and find a role that literally is the perfect fit for you to minimize stress. The problem is that takes a lot of time.

 

[Hard Times Nakamura]

I can sometimes be quiet and that could be misconstrued of course.

This can be very subjective. In job interviews what I did to help this was to ask "breaker" questions meaning you can't be vague and corner them into giving a concrete "real" answer.

Ask them about their management style and policies. Basically my manager and his boss communicated to me they are laid back as long as the results are coming in, due diligence is done and all regulatory and compliance issues are handled.

Many CAC koolaid companies aren't satisfied with just that and have a culture of perfection which is not healthy.

 

[ViShawn]

I could foresee a move within six months but it's never on your time.

Primary in Devops you're learning to automate yourself out of a job. What I need to learn is more Python which is the primary language in my field but there's Ruby and Go as well.

Obviously learning configuration management helps as well which I am actually certified in one but Chef and Puppet dominate those markets now.

I don't know how to push the HR angle but I guess I could highlight his perception comments about me and that only a handful of action items he gave me weekend measurable and performance based.

 

[ViShawn]

This can be very subjective. In job interviews what I did to help this was to ask "breaker" questions meaning you can't be vague and corner them into giving a concrete "real" answer.

Ask them about their management style and policies. Basically my manager and his boss communicated to me they are laid back as long as the results are coming in, due diligence is done and all regulatory and compliance issues are handled.

Many CAC koolaid companies aren't satisfied with just that and have a culture of perfection which is not healthy.

I'm curious about how you think I should approach HR now.