I am very very anxious , no interest in office work and I want to start preparing for interviews. But mgr keeps pouring more work.
Managers, directors etc should be more understanding at this time since they are also in the same boat now as we ICs.
Comments?
The Sr. Directors in my org have _at most_ 2 direct reports each!
Amazing. So Magoo, this is how your run a company? A recent grad from biz school knows better.
I envision VMware with 50% of its current staff in 1 year.
Sr. Directors in my org are not qualified for the role and are Directors at best. The VP is also not senior / seasoned enough in anything but corporate intrigue. The Sr. Directors in my org have _at most_ 2 direct reports each!
Completely ridiculous. Yuge red flag of an incompetent and bloated org.
"Might buy me a few extra beers a month"
FYI, for those of us who are already interviewing with other companies, we're now seeing offers with 10-15% base pay increases in the U.S. market for remote jobs. I'm actually a little surprised, with all the media reports about tech layoffs, demand still seems strong for skilled and experienced sr managers. So, get what your worth on the open market.
Now I understand why attrition has been high over the last 2 month at VMW.
Yeah saw that and had a 1:1 then...not an exciting rise...but top of my geo/team limit
Might buy me a few extra beers a month
When is the next 1:1 where I can get my annual pay rise I wonder.....no mention yet this end
Information went into WorkDay today. Your manager has the information now.
The comment below is the absolute spot on, especially the part about $tupid VP's lacking vision. Tech is full of empty suit/skirt VP's.
"They have to In a way, they have too many ppl to keep and eye on and they are held accountable without much leverage when they get tasked with being the delivery girl or boy for some d-mb VPs lack of vision."
I guess best strategy is to chill / coast until layoffs dust settle down
Agree entirely
When is the next 1:1 where I can get my annual pay rise I wonder.....no mention yet this end
But mgr keeps pouring more work
This is extremely subjective. If someone is accustomed to working 6 hours a day and now has to work 8, they'll feel upset. But, not the manager's fault. Does the work pertain to the job, or is it just shuffling papers? With attrition, there are many tasks and stories in R&D that were put to backlog. Now they're being assigned out to teams who have capacity.
I highly doubt a manager is just pouring work on you. From your discussions with them, they likely think you have the capacity. If you don't, tell them that in your next 1:1.
Seriously though. Do people go to their 1:1s and say everything is fine, and then come to Layoff and say how much they're being screwed?
I think we should be real here.
If your manager, Pm, leadership have not got a plan and are creating useless busy work. Then you have every right to do the minimal as well.
For teams that are doing something useful for the customer, we are getting paid not for 8 hrs but paid to do your job per your goals. If you finish in 1 hr that’s a benefit to you.
On our team the leadership, managers and PMs have not being doing their job and the engineers are tired of being used to product busy work stuff and now most of us are on strike and rightly so.
Your manager will try to manipulate you to do more work. They have to In a way, they have too many ppl to keep and eye on and they are held accountable without much leverage when they get tasked with being the delivery girl or boy for some d-mb VPs lack of vision.
So you need to within yourself feel good about doing the minimum. You will get less praise, lower raises, bonuses and people will try to make u feel bad to manipulate you but you have to fall for the manipulation. Get clear about your goals of gtfo ing and do the minimal.
But do be nice. We’re all human beings going through this together. It’s a good place tbh. Most likely we will get severance or most ppl will be coasting so we will get paid to prep for interviews.
Life is good if you look clearly enough.
Best of luck!
It isn't just the senior directors, it's the vice president level as well.
VMware is now typical of many established vendors in Silicon Valley. There are lots of management, but very little leadership. Think back to the last time you attended an executive led all-hands meeting? Did they say anything that made you believe that they aspired to grow the business and had a plan to drive growth, or did they just appear to be satisfied maintaining the status quo?
Yes, we all know the answer, based on recent experience with SVPs and their VPs.
There is some truth to this concern, Sr Directors and other managers with few direct reports are panicking about the Broadcom model of a flat org structure. So, they're creating lots of "busy work" to make their team look productive. But Hocks leadership team are savvy and have seen this all before. Being busy doesn't equate to meaningful results. That said, we're all in agreement, of course employees have to produce some effort to be worthy of a paycheck. However, I also agree that managers with few reports should be worried.
But mgr keeps pouring more work
Let's put it that way. You are getting paid for what, 8hrs a day. During those 8hrs you shouldn't have enough time to even think about opening youtube / facebook or reddit and just be busy to do the job you are getting paid for.
If you can honestly say to yourself that you got enough work to cover those 8hrs - great - you do what you get paid for.
If you can look at yourself saying 'I got a few hours of downtime each day but I want more' - then better leave and free up the job for people that actually want to work.
If you got zero motivation to work - leave.
I want to start preparing for interviews.
You can - AFTER you finish work.
WTF is it with people nowadays ... you hate your job - leave for crying out loud.
Where were you educated? I'll make sure my kids don't go there. Unbelievable selfish. I don't like to work too but don't be a dead wood we're all here on the same boat.
Collecting paycheck but not working!?!?! Ridiculous… this is not a charity.
I've noticed an uptick in busy work myself.
Yes, of course, we need to do our jobs, but getting net new "key" projects for Q4/Q1 (in my case) makes my eyes roll.
Want time off to prepare for interviews, ask your manager if you can use your ‘Take a Break’ days, no need to say why, that’s 4 days how much more do you need?
Then do the job you’re paid to do like the rest of us.
'keeps pouring more work.'
Umm you do still WORK here, no? Getting paid? How is this even a question
ICs have very little to worry about with layoffs. Managers should be more worried. Maybe you should just do your job.