3 ms·

Ask HN: Need to find energy while checked out at work

I've been disrespected at work by my boss' boss a few times and last time I had enough and spoke my mind. He didn't take it well, proceeded to diminish me even further and, as I learned from my boss, told awful things about my work (basically calling me unprofessional). I know I have things to improve on but nothing nearly as being unprofessional. Long story short, I'm looking for a new job but my days are filled with dread and looking at my monitor without know what to do next. I need to find energy to complete some tasks. Unless I get a new job, I'm not seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Any advice?

rman666 7y ago
Suck it up, force yourself to do your job, and put any extra energy into improving yourself and your resume, and find a new job. Try to really understand your part in the failure of your current job and work to improve on that.
Communitivity 7y ago
Tough love time. Whether you were unprofessional depends on how you spoke your mind. The way you phrased it, I suspect maybe so. That said, there's hope. I have been in monotonous dev contracts before and how I approach it is to gamify. Find meaningful metrics about your job that you can calculate on a daily or weekly basis, ideally through automation. Then set percentage improvement goals for yourself. Do the same thing for your outside of work personal growth: find a popular technology that's relatively new still that appeals you, figure out what it would take to get recognized as an expert in that technology, and map out mile markers on the road to that goal (e.g., become a committer on X and Y projects, port Z to technology Foo, submit and present 2 presentations on technology Foo at tech conferences). On top of that, network like crazy through local groups, online groups, LinkedIn, Twitter, and conferences. At first, volunteer to do stuff other community members don't want to do (minutes, documentation, writing more unit tests to improve coverage, etc.). Your contributions will be noticed, and job queries will start coming in. Do not say anything bad about your job or boss in those conversations, simply 'We've grown in different ways and I feel it's time for a new challenge.'
- checkedout154 7y ago
  The unprofessional thing was just the last iteration where I was reprimanded for communicating with other teams about a common problem we could all fix together but the idea wasn't vetted by the boss' boss and apparently I took too many liberties. The other time I was tasked with solving problem X and researched solutions A, B and C. Boss' boss wanted A but boss told me to use B. I got reprimanded for that and thrown under the bus by boss. And on and on... it's a shitty show, really. The same happens to other people routinely. I just didn't want to get into the dirty details in my post but I guess I should have. Thanks for your advice, really appreciate it.

rman666 7y ago

Suck it up, force yourself to do your job, and put any extra energy into improving yourself and your resume, and find a new job. Try to really understand your part in the failure of your current job and work to improve on that.

Communitivity 7y ago

Tough love time. Whether you were unprofessional depends on how you spoke your mind. The way you phrased it, I suspect maybe so. That said, there's hope. I have been in monotonous dev contracts before and how I approach it is to gamify. Find meaningful metrics about your job that you can calculate on a daily or weekly basis, ideally through automation. Then set percentage improvement goals for yourself. Do the same thing for your outside of work personal growth: find a popular technology that's relatively new still that appeals you, figure out what it would take to get recognized as an expert in that technology, and map out mile markers on the road to that goal (e.g., become a committer on X and Y projects, port Z to technology Foo, submit and present 2 presentations on technology Foo at tech conferences). On top of that, network like crazy through local groups, online groups, LinkedIn, Twitter, and conferences. At first, volunteer to do stuff other community members don't want to do (minutes, documentation, writing more unit tests to improve coverage, etc.). Your contributions will be noticed, and job queries will start coming in. Do not say anything bad about your job or boss in those conversations, simply 'We've grown in different ways and I feel it's time for a new challenge.'

checkedout154 7y ago
The unprofessional thing was just the last iteration where I was reprimanded for communicating with other teams about a common problem we could all fix together but the idea wasn't vetted by the boss' boss and apparently I took too many liberties. The other time I was tasked with solving problem X and researched solutions A, B and C. Boss' boss wanted A but boss told me to use B. I got reprimanded for that and thrown under the bus by boss. And on and on... it's a shitty show, really. The same happens to other people routinely. I just didn't want to get into the dirty details in my post but I guess I should have. Thanks for your advice, really appreciate it.