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That comment sounds a lot like my latest performance review. It was actually the constant interruptions that caused me to be less helpful, less friendly, more c

That comment sounds a lot like my latest performance review. It was actually the constant interruptions that caused me to be less helpful, less friendly, more cold, and more aggressive toward my colleagues. A tool that could help mitigate these interruptions would probably improve my relationship with them a lot. I don't think people realize how disruptive minor interruptions are when multiplied by the size of their team. I can't have impromptu face-to-face chats with 30 people every day and still do my job.

masukomi 9y ago
hit me up on twitter (@masukomi) or email masukomi@masukomi and i'll let you know as soon as the new version with better installer is available. Also, I'd love to hear any suggestions you may have regarding what i could do that would help people like you to get a better sense of how interruptions are affecting them / their work .
WorldMaker 9y ago
There was a previous role where I was alternating both dev and devops hats and it is easy to wonder if I had tracked interruptions and task switching a bit more formally if I'd have more ammo for a performance review that seemed to come out of nowhere for me. I was told that people thought I wasn't being helpful or communicative enough, but I felt unproductive and like I was doing almost nothing but helping other people most of the time. (In the long view that situation worked out in my favor, surprisingly, but it's an interesting thing to wonder about.)
- daveFNbuck 9y ago
  Your situation sounds very similar to mine. How did it work out in your favor? Right now it looks like I just have to give up completely on productivity to get a promotion.
  - WorldMaker 9y ago
    It's not a way I can generally recommend, sorry. In that particular case the extra scrutiny meant I was in the first wave of layoffs, and they almost ruined my vacation doing it (I almost got word of the layoff right before heading off on a cruise), but I got a full severance unlike some of the following waves. The first wave was to make the quarter profits more appetizing for sale to new owners, and eventually over the next couple of years the new owners entirely laid off all software development in the region. It seems preferable in retrospect to get a full severance and plenty of time to find the next role (even as stressful as that was in the moment) than to hang on for an ownership change and eventual layoff anyway. Some of my friends hung on and regretted it. Anyway, like I said, that's not generally applicable to every situation, though. I hope you get some good luck or find a way to make the extra scrutiny work for you. Sometimes that extra scrutiny means they care for you and want you to ultimately succeed (and may even depend on you succeeding) and you both need to work together to figure out how to make that happen. That was the case in a further previous role, though in that case that was mostly a sign to me that it wasn't going to work in the long term (a lot of my "bad" behavior were symptoms of stress and ethical anxiety), and I needed to move on.

masukomi 9y ago

hit me up on twitter (@masukomi) or email masukomi@masukomi and i'll let you know as soon as the new version with better installer is available. Also, I'd love to hear any suggestions you may have regarding what i could do that would help people like you to get a better sense of how interruptions are affecting them / their work .

WorldMaker 9y ago

There was a previous role where I was alternating both dev and devops hats and it is easy to wonder if I had tracked interruptions and task switching a bit more formally if I'd have more ammo for a performance review that seemed to come out of nowhere for me. I was told that people thought I wasn't being helpful or communicative enough, but I felt unproductive and like I was doing almost nothing but helping other people most of the time. (In the long view that situation worked out in my favor, surprisingly, but it's an interesting thing to wonder about.)

daveFNbuck 9y ago
Your situation sounds very similar to mine. How did it work out in your favor? Right now it looks like I just have to give up completely on productivity to get a promotion.
- WorldMaker 9y ago
  It's not a way I can generally recommend, sorry. In that particular case the extra scrutiny meant I was in the first wave of layoffs, and they almost ruined my vacation doing it (I almost got word of the layoff right before heading off on a cruise), but I got a full severance unlike some of the following waves. The first wave was to make the quarter profits more appetizing for sale to new owners, and eventually over the next couple of years the new owners entirely laid off all software development in the region. It seems preferable in retrospect to get a full severance and plenty of time to find the next role (even as stressful as that was in the moment) than to hang on for an ownership change and eventual layoff anyway. Some of my friends hung on and regretted it. Anyway, like I said, that's not generally applicable to every situation, though. I hope you get some good luck or find a way to make the extra scrutiny work for you. Sometimes that extra scrutiny means they care for you and want you to ultimately succeed (and may even depend on you succeeding) and you both need to work together to figure out how to make that happen. That was the case in a further previous role, though in that case that was mostly a sign to me that it wasn't going to work in the long term (a lot of my "bad" behavior were symptoms of stress and ethical anxiety), and I needed to move on.