How to deal with your boss? 4

[sahinoz]

Hello all,
I am having some issues with my project engineer lately. I graduated recently, and am working as an engineer in a company for about two months. I was assigned a project a month ago and I was able to submit it succesfully. However, my boss never really showed any close attention or interest throughout the time I was working on the project. I was seeing him around with other engineers and making comments about their work. For a whole month, we got together only two times to review my progress and that was it. I don't know if this is the way things work in the company. The problem is, I don't want to look like a slacker and get fired. I have a great interest in what I do and passion to improve myself further more. Can anyone please give me some advice on how to overcome this issue between me and my boss.
Thanks,

 

[IRstuff]

What makes you think that there's a problem? It may be that the others require more hand-holding.

I see no reason whay you can't take the initiative to ask your lead engineer how you are progressing.

Note that this is a two-edge sword; too much interacting can make it look like you need a lot of hand-holding or pumping up.

TTFN

 

[HVAC68]

In the 2 meetings you had, how was the interaction ? Positive ? If yes, you are on track.

If no, talk to him and find out how you are progressing. After 15 years, I continue to do this once in 6 months with my boss. This is apart from the routine performance appraisals and employee evaluation.

HVAC68

 

[SomptingGuy]

I graduated recently, and am working as an engineer in a company for about two months. I was assigned a project a month ago and I was able to submit it succesfully.

I salute you then. In my experience new graduates often need so much hand-holding that you feel like sending them home and doing the job yourself. That way their job gets done quicker and you still have more of your own time left to do your own job. If your boss really feels you can work unsupervised and deliver, he/she is a good boss.

 

[rhodie]

As a young guy myself, I was very much aware when I started my first job that the feedback system I was used to having in school and college didn't exist.

I'm probably only a couple of years older than you (26), and people our age can be all lumped together in the so-called "Y Generation". Lucky us, we have a culture niche already...

One thing about our generation, sahinoz, is that we are very spoiled on getting attention and feedback on the work we perform. Constant comments and grading from our teachers and professors, coaches and mentors has always allowed our generation to have a very clear, almost up-to-the-minute idea of how we are performing.

Of course you understand that in the business world, time equals money, and time needs to be spent on making money, not on back scratching the employees and slapping hi-fives when expectations are met.

I'll admit that the lack of performance appraisal was very discouraging and a source of great worry for me in the beginning, but you will quickly realize that the confidence your bosses have in you will be measured by how little they speak to you re: projects and not how much they have to.

In the real world, the focus is on getting the work accomplished, not celebrating the effort of getting it finished. It is understood, and expected, that a great job will be performed.

Like it has been mentioned above, times for meaningful feedback will probably only reach you once or twice per year. Pretty standard business.

Keep after it, and be encouraged by what you've experienced so far!

 

[ivymike]

second the above, but with a word of caution - if your boss isn't paying close attention to what you do, and he's not getting calls to complain about your work, then you're probably doing well enough. Don't let yourself believe that your boss actually has any idea how well you're doing, though- chances are he's viewing your performance as "adequate" even if you're working wonders to keep people from calling him. To facilitate future discussions of your value to the company, it would probably be worth keeping a journal in which you track the projects you're working on, with special attention to challenges you overcome. It may help if you consciously try to document specific challenges, the timeframe in which they occurred, the actions you took to overcome the challenge, and the results. That way you don't end up saying "well, usually I am a team player." You can say "last March we ran into this situation, and the team needed me to solve world hunger, but my personal life conflicted, so I rescheduled my wedding and fed the starving over the weekend so we could meet the deadline. Everyone was happy with the results, except my fiance who left me. " (doesn't show good work/life balance, but what company pays more than lip service to that anyway?)

 

[SomptingGuy]

Wooo, ivymike's bite marks are clearly visible.

Good point about the journal though. In the UK, junior engineers have mentors, making the whole journal thing a necessity.

 

[ivymike]

yeah, but I'm learning. obviously there was a bit of hyperbole in the above.

 

[jmw]

Ivymike, you talk sense.

"Don't let yourself believe that your boss actually has any idea how well you're doing...."

All too often the converse is true especially if you allow others the opportunity to shoot you down.
Now let's see....

So, Sahinoz,
I would say your instincts are fine; you do need more interaction your boss.
The two times you saw him was the minimum essential from his perspective.
He has other priorities.

"I was able to submit it succesfully."

Your opinion? Did your boss enthuse? Did he just glance at the summary and put it down somewhere to "read later" or did you just internally mail it to him and are operating on the "no news is good news" principal?

Never assume.
Never assume that because you did well that it is perceived that way.
Never assume that good work will bring its rewards.
No news isn't good news, it's indifference.
If in doubt, ask. If you don't ask, you don't get.

Now consider: two equivalent bits of kit from different manufacturers and one works well and the other doesn't. Everyone will be focussed on the piece of kit that isn't working.
They will become involved with it to a far greater degree.
The funny thing is that when something goes wrong and the problem is dealt with well by the manufacturer, it is that that is remembered and that is the piece of kit they will choose again.

It is true of people as well; how well some one else performs in difficult situations can outweigh all the good work by you not getting into bad situations.

BUT: it is primarily about perception.

Talented musicians can lack gigs while untalented people get the big bucks... the difference? good PR people and good managers.
Sports stars have managers and PR people too.
Engineers don't.
It isn't that they don't need this but that they have to do it for themselves.
Good PR and self promotion outways skill and ability.
It's how poor performers get top jobs; (become managers?) they know that advancement is a matter of self promotion.

It is not enough to do well but to be seen to be doing well.

You, just like any other commodity, require good PR to be a success.

The key is communication.

Those guys that are always in with the boss are providing the boss with a comfort zone; he is able to keep "his finger on the pulse"
It is his early warning system.
They never surprise him with bad news.
He can far more easily detect when things are about to hit the fan and move the fan when he has this sort of dialogue. How many foul-ups never happen because of this interaction?

Poor communication is the bane of industry.
It isn't about reports and management dictats, what works is frequent informal interactions that help everyone know what the state of play is.

Register your success:
You are a new player and you may need to take the initiative.
You probably got a project that isn't life or death critical. Your completing the project isn't necessarily going to ring bells.

You need your success and your good work to register in his mind with equal or better force than failures.
You don't do this by saying "Hey, ain't I great!" You do it by involving him in your work.

Whether you think you need it or not, you can and probably should, make a point of informally asking his advice, or keeping him up to speed on where you are. If you don't want to ask advice, make proposals, the outcome is the same: give him the opportunity and he will respond.

Otherwise, you will always get the projects that "don't really matter that much" and you can be as successful as you like while your career goes no where.

However well you work, you can be sure that when you do foul up, you will get to see the boss and this will be a memorable event, and one that will outweigh all the successes..... unless those successes have registered.

Don't just rely on your reports.
A report has an executive summary.
If your executive summary is all "targets met" and "ticked that box", the detail won't be read.
The activity won't register.
Your boss will make more time for the ones that show problems or need more guidance.
That's were he has to focus his attention. Those are the ones that will register.

{b]Avoid Surprises [/b]
Don't wait till you have finished a project before you see him, this suspence is probably killing him.
Bosses deosn't like surprises; especially if it's too late to do anythig about it.
Your report should be a formal record of what he already knows.
He will know just what it will contain if there is informal dialogue and a continuous low level comforatble awareness is probably better than surprises anyday.

An eleventh hour failure isn't what he wants, he wants an early warning that he can respond to. You not talking to him might be making him a bit nervous. You being new he may be sitting back a bit to see how you do and if you will take the initiative.

Know it all already?
Don't forget that in every task there are several ways to do it (parapharsing Cpt. Queeg)
[ul][li] the "right" way: the way they taught you?[/li]
[li] the wrong way....[/li]
[li] his way..[/li]
...and guess which way he likes.
Better yet, don't guess, ask.

Nobody, least of all bosses, minds people who ask:for advice or for input; for opinion or guidance.
They are more likley to be worried about people who don't ask or who don't appear to need it.
They want to be involved and kept informed.

What works would appear to be informal dialogue. If the boss didn't want/encourage this it wouldn't be happening.
He needs to know what makes you tick. He doesn't need to think that you don't need to learn from anyone... disaster looms there.

What I have learned (the hard way) is that outstanding success can meet with abject failure if only you know how good you are and how well you have done.
Oh, and low profile man makes a great scapegoat and gets on the downsize lists with ease.

Life isn't fair, it's what you make of it.

JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com