What does a SWE1 get PIP’d for?
I joined my company about 6mo ago, and we started wfh about 3 months ago. Working from home has been really rough for me, and the last few weeks Ive been slipping kind of hard. Its not like I havent done anything, but Ive been finishing about 60% of my sprints while my TM’s typically finish about 90% of their sprints (the last few weeks, before i was on par.) Im pretty vocal w my manager that Im having productivity issues and things like that and hes just been giving me the “Ah, times are tough, a lot of people are struggling, take some time if you need it.” pitch. But while Im struggling to even complete sprints, my teammates are cross collaborating with other teams, driving initiatives, going above and beyond. Their sprints are like not even a priority for them as they better the team, advocate for us within our org and improve our processes and they still get their sprints done. Ive been staying up late, waking up early, but for some reason just cant get work done. My company has said they arent goint to do any performance reviews for 2020 because of all of this, but i cant help but feel like Im going to be PIP’d as soon as they can. Even if I go back to finishing 90-100% of my sprints, I just dont even think about driving team/company process improvements. Ill offer help and take up tasks that other people cant/wont get to and things like that but, thats it. I basically get what comes on my plate during sprint planning and help when I see someone struggling and thats it. My team pip’d someone before me, and when I ask my close teammates what happened to him, they claim he didnt know the stack, wasnt doing anything and would just not show up to work and not ping anyone about it. I guess, Im just curious. Do companies PIP people just for doing exactly what they are tasked with, or do you get PIP’d for not keeping up with teammates in terms of work. I feel really average among a team of high achievers and it has been weighing on me quite heavily lately. Im confident Im a strong engineer in terms of SWE1’s in our org, but on our team Im garbage compared to everyone. YOE: 2 TC: 220k
Seems like Vmware. No review cycle this year.
So you are a track and field athlete?
Jesus is this an attempt at a joke? Go back to bed.
See a doctor. Could be depression, anxiety, ADHD, or some combination. Maybe something else, such as Vitamin D deficiency or other physical factors. I see a shrink every month and it's been very valuable.
Do you have 1:1 conversations with your manager? This would definitely be something to raise with them. If they lie to your face about it, well that's a place you don't want to work anyway. Perhaps take some time off to recover? It's not a normal time right now, a lot of people are struggling.
Without knowing much about your situation, so take it with a grain of salt, you could always ask for feedback from peers or someone you work closely with on your team. Then you can see what it looks like outside of your point of view. Another idea is to find the reason why you're not completing sprints - such as taking too much work on, time management during the first week, or maybe you're getting the wrong tickets? If it's motivation then time off helps tremendously. Here we've been super productive but also pacing ourselves. A lot of my team took off this week to refresh. It's stressful right now with so many things happening in the world too - coronavirus, layoffs, politics, economy, etc.
Company?
Probably a startup or small company