Ask HN: Am I getting quietly fired? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Am I getting quietly fired?

3 pointsthowawayer0914 comments

I have taken a role as a junior developer at an esteemed company. I have been working extra hours at the end of most days to improve my skills since I started working this position. Maybe it is coincidence, but I believe that my commitment has led to me being the sole developer on multiple projects.

While new tasks and work is occasionally assigned, the workload seems to be decreasing over all. I'm not sure whether this is because there are no new clients, or because the management won't let me take on new projects. I should say that the company has also slowed down their hiring process.

I'm worried that since I'm not as skilled and extraverted as my colleagues, I'm more likely to dispose. Not only that, but I'm unsure whether this anxious feeling is justified or that I'm actually getting quietly fired.

Any advice on how to deal with this situation?

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Some managers like to assign projects to people. It makes it easier to understand who does what, and whom you should see

but when they don't have new requests for you, they won't always create them out of thin air (they are busy, and you know the app better than them anyway)

Propose ! You can use your knowledge of these projects to refactor code, or improve them ! Improve the code ! Improve CI/CD !

You can also have a conversation with your manager, to ask him for what will come next.

Also, don't worry about some large companies. They have solid finances, and HR don't care if some employees spend a few weeks, sometimes months, without a lot of work. They will assign them to new tasks as needed.

Relationships, health, work.

It took me many years to cultivate the following understanding. I am doing the best work I can here, if it isn't good enough, let me go.

This understanding helped me understand my own self-worth. It also helped me overcome the anxiety of worrying too much about what may/may not happen or what others think.

So put your work in context. Focus more on relationships and health. There is always work for those who want to work.

Being the sole developer on projects as a junior engineer means any of the following:

* the company has less need for those projects

* the company has less importance for those projects

* the company is likely to forget those projects

* a junior developer is not a heavy cost to the company so he is more likely to be kept

* any developer can be replace a junior developer

* the company head is erratic and unreliable for anyone to be secure

All in all, don't rely on your projects as job security

> the sole developer on multiple projects

This should give you some protection

> developer at an esteemed company

What is your company reporting to the financial press? What are you hearing internally about the prospects of the company?

That said, you should always be prepared to be dumped into the job market. Have your resume and references ready.

> What is your company reporting to the financial press? What are you hearing internally about the prospects of the company?

From what I can see, they're very profitable. I can imagine that reducing the headcount would make sense with the decrease of new clients.

There's nothing in what you wrote that suggests that you could be fired / laid off. Of course anyone could be fired / laid off even without much of a warning but you're making a big leap from "workload is decreasing" to "am I being fired".

Trust your gut. Start looking for another position now. You don't want to wait for someone else to tell you your future.

As a side-note, recognize that people lie to prevent panic. It may quickly turn from "you are indispensable" to "your position has been eliminated".

Do not trust your gut. You're new to the industry and full of insecurities, doubt, impostor syndrome etc. Many people are. Your gut is telling you all sorts of things that are completely false. Do not trust your gut.

At the end of the day, only you know how you are feeling. If you are not feeling secure about your standing in the company, it's for a reason. Starting your search now gives you the ability to negotiate from a position of power, as you can say no to an offer and wait for another better offer.

Now, WRT trusting your gut... You aren't in a position to know for sure how things will turn out with this company, and you won't know for sure until someone tells you ;) You deserve to be in a place where you feel secure.

If you feel insecure with hardly any reason, you’ll feel insecure anywhere so moving won’t help at all.

OP will probably feel a lot more insecure as the new person at a new company than they do at their existing company where they've already proven themselves and own multiple projects.

So what if they do? You’ll get a nice severance and be able to hunt for a job full-time.

Many of us know this but since OP is junior, I'll just make it clear that severance is not normally guaranteed in the U.S. Maybe you have a contract or other paperwork that says otherwise but typically you can be walked out the door at noon and not even get the second half of that day's pay.

This has happened to me twice in my career. If you’ve got a nagging feeling, start looking. You could be wrong, and you’ll come out knowing your worth in the market better. You could be right, and you’ll come out with a severance package and a new job lined up.

This can also be a self-fulfilling prophecy. IOW, you can usually spot someone looking for a new job a mile away, especially if they’re new to the industry. Thus if they do “trim the fat” they know you’re prepared and if they have to choose between someone who has a family and obviously not prepared vs. someone who is obviously prepared … they’ll choose the person who can land on their feet.

TL;DR: Be prepared if you feel like you need to, but keep in mind that being prepared for getting laid off might be what gets you laid off.

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