Corrective Action: Fill & Download for Free

I was the only woman manager working with 782 men of lesser rank.During my first week, I had to conduct some corrective actions. During these occurrences I was told on several occasions, “The only reason you got the management job was because you gave a good blow job.”I replied, “At least we can both agree I do a job better than you. Now how about you start doing…”My corrective actions were effective. No blow jobs were necessary.

Getting fired. About a decade ago I had an employee who was working himself down the “getting fired path” so I took him aside for a quick conversation. He was a good person but his performance was suffering. He was a helpful person working in an environment that prided itself in squeezing blood out of stones and sucking our souls dry. I explained to him that at that point was giving him his official “verbal warning” and that I would be working with him closely and coaching him for the next 90 days to see if he would stay an employee. We both knew that he would not be an employee in 91 days so I explained to him the two options.The first option is that he could provide me with a resignation date that was 89 days away. During that time I would help him with his resume, job leads, give him time off for interviews, and provide any potential employer with an honest review of his performance and tell them how much I respected him for recognizing the situation he was in and making the mature decision to seek success elsewhere. The other option was that both he and I could feel the pain of the “Corrective Action Process” for the next 90 days. This would include semi-weekly to daily check in on performance and goal setting. Requests for detailed explanations from the employee on any missed performance goals. If a potential employer called me I would provide the honest assessment that the employee was currently going through the corrective action process and if they were fired that they were no longer eligible for rehire. Then I reminded him that once we started down the corrective action process every manager and assistant manager in the building would be watching his performance closely and looking for opportunities to take advantage of his situation. This corrective action would be like the smell of blood in the waters to every close by shark. Then on top of that there would be the psychological effects of the stress of being under a microscope, the stress of being fired from a job, and the sense of being a victim or a failure.After the conversation the employee said he wanted to think about it over the weekend. When he came back to work I met with him and he told me he liked the idea of being proactive and having someone to help him out. He gave me his resignation and over the following 80+ days I found him over 6 solid job leads, helped him improve his resume, and gave him the time off he needed for interviews. Not every manager will do this but I’ve always shared with my employees it is better to be proactive than reactive.

In some order, here are some common mistakes that new grads (and to a lesser extent, new SWEs who have previously held other jobs) make:A mistake would be wasting time trying to figure out everything on your own. The correct action would be frequently asking for help from your more experienced colleagues.A mistake would be becoming embroiled in office politics. It’s easy to slip into this accidentally simply by worrying too much about whether your teammates like you, or by viewing them as trying to screw you over when in actual fact, they’re usually just focusing on their own projects. The correct action would be focusing on completing your assigned tasks; if other people aren’t giving you what you need, then bring up that concern directly with your manager; and if things don’t improve, then switch teams. (Trying to play office politics is likely to damage your mental health, so it’s generally better to simply switch teams.)A mistake would be comparing yourself to your colleagues and allowing that to make you insecure. The correct action would be recognizing that you will also gain knowledge and skills over time; and even if you never become as productive as some other people, it really just means you don’t care to focus on software engineering as much as they do, and that’s a perfectly valid choice.For most people, it’s a mistake to make your work your entire life, and it’s easy to accidentally do this even in the absence of explicit pressure from your company. It has a nasty tendency to lead to depression and burnout. I would strongly recommend limiting yourself to spending 40 hours a week at the office (including lunch and breaks) except when there is a deadline coming up. If your team frequently has unreasonably tight deadlines, you should look for a new team.It’s a mistake to switch companies too quickly, preventing you from developing deep expertise in a particular skillset, because you’re chasing higher TC (total compensation). But it’s also a mistake to stay at a company too long if it’s not conducive for your growth (which should mean developing your skills, developing better software engineering “judgement”, and gaining the ability to take on more complex projects). You should try to strike a balance, although I know that’s difficult.