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I was in the final stages of an interview with Microsoft two weeks ago, in partner marketing. Then the recruiter told me they were putting the hiring process on hold to assess the need for the role. Well, then we heard about Microsoft layoffs last week. Seems like most were in Xbox and Project Alpha but there’s not a lot of information out there. Should I hold out any hope that I’m going to get this job? Any insights on how much these layoffs have impacted the marketing org and/or new hiring?
Hey, I have 4 YOE and currently a manager at PwC and have been managing teams for a little over a year now. My role mainly consists of leading teams of engineers deliver MVPs to our clients.
If I wanted to exit to Google or Facebook (Meta) what role would align for me? I was looking at engineering manager roles but unsure if that’s too senior for me.
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IMHO, they are wanting your attention on something important to them that is flying past your radar. Do you have kids? If so, this attention seeking behavior might look familiar.
Sit down and give them time and attention. Hear their entire point of view without interruptions. Help them understand what you are changing to address what you mention doing differently above. Be calm and respectful of their point of view first, and then transparent about your growth too. Then check in with them regularly. It does take effort on your behalf, and I’d hope that you’d make this investment in people as a leader. It’s a good way to develop long term relationships.
When approaching things this way, I’ve never seen it not work. For children or adults. Listen more, talk less, invest the time to make the relationship whole.
Some people can be simply unreasonable (whether through a personal situation which they aren't sharing and is making them lash out or clashing personalities). Regardless it's really difficult on everyone involved. I think you will come out of this with some reflection and learnings about how to do slightly tweak your leadership style, but not a definitive answer on how handle every difficult person or interaction. Don't beat yourself up and lose confidence over that! If the majority of your teams like working for you, you are doing a pretty damn good job. I have seen partners 25+ years in hit the wall with off the wall unreasonable clients and still be great leaders and successful partners ... you can't expect a 100% hit rate.
My other tactical advice is if it gets this bad include another impartial observer (another director, HR, etc) in the coaching conversations with the person. This way you can get feedback from them as well as have a line of defense against any potential misrepresentations that the person could be spreading about your interactions.
Do they have ground on their threats?
Eh, I haven’t done anything inappropriate. Of course I reflect on what I could do better in supervising and there is always something, but I haven’t done anything worth reporting although the relationship has become contentious. I am moving the person to a different leader who they have more in common with, but the whole thing has been extremely emotionally draining and I have to feel like there was a better way to put a stop to this sooner.
I’ve experienced this in the past, and like you said, it really took a mental toll on me because it’s important to me that my team is high-performing, happy, and given opportunities for growth. This one person, however, was just not pulling their weight (doing very little work, being unprepared for or missing meetings, coming into work late every day) and refused to take feedback. It got nasty/aggressive at one point, including them calling me a b****. I ultimately had to pull in HR (without naming names), my leadership, and this person’s former manager to get input on how to best handle the situation. After others got involved to try to provide an alternate source of coaching, and we didn’t see improvement, we prepared to put this person on a PIP and make the case for termination, if required. I began giving more discrete tasks, documenting everything, but they ultimately resigned before the PIP was put in place. It wasn’t until they left that I realized how much of my mental energy was spent on this one person - it was amazing to be free of that weight and see the team thrive after they left. Like you said though, as it was happening it really made me question my management skills and was a huge blow to my confidence. I’ve since recalibrated and feel like there are just some people who will be like oil and water; as long as you’re taking the time for introspection (and it sounds like you are) and figure out how you could do better next time, you are handling it as best you can.
If you feel you have done everything you can to improve the situation and have behaved appropriately in those intersections then create separation for your own sanity Put your energy into someone that wants to help the team.
Sack em