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Ask Slashdot: How To Improve At Work When You're Not Getting Feedback?
An anonymous reader writes: Too many managers avoid giving any kind of feedback, regardless of whether it's positive or negative. If you work for a boss who doesn't provide feedback, it's easy to feel rudderless. It can be especially disorienting if you're new in the role, new to the company, or a recent graduate new to the workforce. In the absence of specific guidance, is there any way to know what the average boss would want you to work on? What would you advise someone who works in IT, engineering, coding, designing or any similar industry?
Oddly enough, the stuff I get the most praise for is stuff that I simply started doing because it filled a void that I felt was present. Full disclosure: I have a cool boss.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
If your boss isn't communicating with you, try to communicate with him/her as to what you need and why. Be respectful and open, but direct; you're trying to improve your working relationship. If that doesn't work, move to a department that has a more communicative manager, and failing that, just bail as gracefully as posible. That workplace isn't going to be a good place for you to work in the long run, and life's too short if you have any other choice.
"My strength is as the strength of ten men, for I am wired to the eyeballs on espresso."
If you're not getting yelled at or fired, you're doing just fine.
...or you're stagnating, and 10 years later when you finally get laid off due to cuts from high above, you'll find yourself hopelessly outdated and lost as hell in job interviews.
I guess the point is, it's not simple validation sometimes, it's mentorship, it's a chance to let the boss know what you're up to so he/she can put you on interesting problems later down the road, or even put you on to opportunities that may come along which are more suited to your desired career path.
Any boss who is non-communicative, let alone not do any of these things for their employees, is completely worthless.
I mean shit man, I don't beg for daily praise/criticism, but I do want to know at least once in awhile if my initiatives and work are truly taking the company where it needs to go...
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
Here is a secret: your boss is not there for you. They are there for the company. They exist not to mentor you or help your career but to get what the company needs out of you and mitigate company risks like you leaving. If the manager decides it is in the company's best interest to release you rather than reform you, that's what she should do. If it's not in the company's interest for you to grow, you shouldn't expect your boss to help you grow.
I have many underlings ask for me to lay out a career path for them. To me this is an admission that they are passive actors in their career, floating along and putting in time and expecting others to figure out the next step for them. And I will do so, in some cases, depending on how much the company needs that employee to stick around even if in another position.
Another secret: your boss is regularly asked how he/she has planned for you leaving voluntarily.