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If your manager says you’re failing then he is failing as a manager. The tech industry is very white male dominated and everyone else has to work twice as hard and constantly prove themselves. It’s truly awful in every way. There are company/managers out there who will do everything in their power to help you succeed in your career. Not give up and fire you because “you’re not taking initiative”. Sounds pretty wack to me.
Thank you. I know this is true but it’s hard to tell myself sometimes!
Not sure if this is helpful but I’ve been constantly given roles and responsibilities that are well outside of what my job should be and have been told to take initiative as well. I’ve found that being explicit in stating my timelines and workload has helped curb the influx of outside work as I will state whether I actually have time for anything else or if they will need to wait. I don’t think my manager’s expectations have changed, but I haven’t heard about my need to take initiative since.
Definitely so frustrating! I'm in a somewhat comparable pickle - my manager has prescribed formal "goals" to me that are beyond my paygrade, constantly tells me I'm exceeding them, and yet is holding back on a promotion (to the paygrade whose goals I'm exceeding) because I haven't been in "tough" enough situations. All while giving the role I'm seeking to men with half my experience and who demonstrably function below the expectations of the role.
I've had a lot of luck seeking the advice of my manager's peers here. Make sure to go about it with respect for your manager, and a minimal (but sufficient) level of transparency. The gap I had was that my manager was not concrete enough in his description of exactly what he needed me to display. ie in your case, this might be that you're displaying initiative in areas that your manager has less visibility on or doesn't care as much about.
In my case, this did lead to very candid discussions and a formal org switch...but really, sometimes you need to take a step back and make sure you have a very clear picture in your head of exactly what the expectation is, from you. If that's not happening with your current manager, you need different language or a different method of feedback. Only then can you make informed decisions, either to start meeting those expectations, or seeking expectations that are more aligned with how you want your career to grow :)
Good luck!!! And don't lose hope
Not gonna lie, I just got fired for this. Their reasoning was that I wasn’t taking “ownership” or “initiative” with projects the way others on my team were which was wild because I also felt I was doing more than my peers (all male and i was the only female programmer at the company). If you think they’re giving you a warning about it, I would start looking for jobs just in case because like the last person said, it may be time for an org switch. I was given confirmation that I would be switching teams away from this manager but then was fired 2 weeks later so just cover your butt and apply for some jobs in the meantime :) hope it works out!!
Yup, agreed!