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It's killing me slowly right now. I got hired in the middle of the pandemic and I think just 6 people even know I exist. I've spent more time talking with HR th

by yardie 6y ago

It's killing me slowly right now. I got hired in the middle of the pandemic and I think just 6 people even know I exist. I've spent more time talking with HR than my team members. Not for what you think, I respond to their emails and chats so we get along great. My team is mostly on DnD, no idea what their working on and emails take 24-48 hours to respond.

benrbray 6y ago
I feel you, it's been really tough on me too, for many of the same reasons. I don't feel like part of the team, and it's not really clear what my purpose is. When this is all over maybe I'll take a break from this lonely career and spend some time in a more human-facing role like teaching.
coryrc 6y ago
Start making 1-1 meetings just to get to know people better and the kind of things they do. Make sure you mostly work on projects where you can collaborate closely with 1-3 other people.
- yardie 6y ago
  I'd like to but unfortunately they are using that stupid department billing system. For me to collaborate I have to be invited in, basically. Can't have an engineer working on a project they aren't billing for no matter how interesting it looks. I'm trying to find the project managers so they know I'm available and to include me on future projects. The current projects are staffed up and any change in manpower is a change request, client approval, etc.
hemloc_io 6y ago
Totally feel that, I'm in the same position. Interns we've on-boarded, especially from non-CS background programs, all have had these kinds of issues. It's been getting better, but I don't see how it's possible to have anything close to "real" mentor-ship schemes with full WFH. When I was interning most of learning happened not with my project but with interacting with the team and seeing/understanding what they did. I have a sneaking feeling that the productivity boosts due to WFH mostly come from more senior devs w/ specific workstreams that are benefiting from more "head down" time, but without mentoring/training new ppl the quality hiring pool will go down over time.
ryandrake 6y ago
Thanks for sharing. Your company definitely needs some “how to WFH” training. Taking 24-48 hours to respond to an e-mail is totally, absurdly unacceptable, and if I (as a fairly senior guy) saw this regularly happening, I’d bring it to the offender’s attention and to their manager if they didn’t take corrective action. If someone is too busy to respond to their e-mail, they need to discuss their workload with their manager.

by yardie 6y ago

benrbray 6y ago

I feel you, it's been really tough on me too, for many of the same reasons. I don't feel like part of the team, and it's not really clear what my purpose is. When this is all over maybe I'll take a break from this lonely career and spend some time in a more human-facing role like teaching.

coryrc 6y ago

Start making 1-1 meetings just to get to know people better and the kind of things they do. Make sure you mostly work on projects where you can collaborate closely with 1-3 other people.

yardie 6y ago
I'd like to but unfortunately they are using that stupid department billing system. For me to collaborate I have to be invited in, basically. Can't have an engineer working on a project they aren't billing for no matter how interesting it looks. I'm trying to find the project managers so they know I'm available and to include me on future projects. The current projects are staffed up and any change in manpower is a change request, client approval, etc.

hemloc_io 6y ago

Totally feel that, I'm in the same position. Interns we've on-boarded, especially from non-CS background programs, all have had these kinds of issues. It's been getting better, but I don't see how it's possible to have anything close to "real" mentor-ship schemes with full WFH. When I was interning most of learning happened not with my project but with interacting with the team and seeing/understanding what they did. I have a sneaking feeling that the productivity boosts due to WFH mostly come from more senior devs w/ specific workstreams that are benefiting from more "head down" time, but without mentoring/training new ppl the quality hiring pool will go down over time.

ryandrake 6y ago

Thanks for sharing. Your company definitely needs some “how to WFH” training. Taking 24-48 hours to respond to an e-mail is totally, absurdly unacceptable, and if I (as a fairly senior guy) saw this regularly happening, I’d bring it to the offender’s attention and to their manager if they didn’t take corrective action. If someone is too busy to respond to their e-mail, they need to discuss their workload with their manager.