First time manager here - how would you guys handle this? We have a top performer that is excellent at his job, both technical and soft skills. He is more productive than his peers, even with a higher workload. He was up for promo last cycle and though I was pushing for him, he didn't make the cut at the last level due to fewer promos company-wide. My manager couldn't give me any constructive feedback to give him, just "good luck midyear" which is something we've been saying to all strong performers this cycle. He recently told me he's feeling undervalued and not sure "how long he can sustain this". It sounded like a combination of his workload being high and not being recognized for it. Everyone calls him a "rockstar" and he doesn't seem to like it since people say that to ask him for more work that he's not rewarded for. I told him I would support him in any ways I can, but I'm not sure what levers I have left to pull. My skip paints the picture that no promos or bonuses can happen outside of this cycle and doesn't help me redistribute work across the team to at least lighten this employee's workload-- the rest of the team is at capacity, though this employee has more scope. It feels like my hands are tied and I have no power here. Part of me wants to drop a hint to my manager/skip that the employee is dissatisfied but I also don't want to put this employee on the chopping block if it hurts him in other ways. Edit: wow this really blew up. Yea folks, don't come to doordash. No idea how long this business will last.
Give him spot bonuses if that is in your purview
What's a spot bonus?
Retention bonus
You absolutely should tell your boss this person is your top performer and may be an attrition risk, and discuss the situation. One of the main jobs of management is to keep high performers engaged and happy.
Not in my experience. In my experience management is for asking for status updates, documents, more documents, more status updates, then providing some bs excuses for why the company rejected promo cases because they can’t say „I didn’t have enough political clout to promo you” or „company figured you can do your job at the same pay”, then for being oblivious when your performance dropped 80%, but you’ve learned that nobody looks at actual value you produce but some bs metrics that are easy to game. OP (thread creator) is a fucking anomaly - a one in a million manager who seems aware of the effect that a deserved but rejected promotion has on people. Want promo? Jump between companies. Want to chill? Oh, you can chill big time in a corporation. Just never try to sustainably perform at the next level, counting on the company/org to recognize and award you. This happens. But even more often - it doesn’t happen. And you’ll be angry with yourself you’ve been a fool :P
Make it known but do not give the person's name. Just flat out let them know. Usually I bring it up and tell them we lose this person we have no real replacement and we fall behind months and money to replace them. If they don't promote they should at least come up with a way to get them paid better for performing well. Keep up the good work, if this is what you're worried about it shows a level of empathy and caring for your people. Something we are missing in tech.
Let him take Friday's off, instant 20% pay raise
You mean regular Fridays off with the average workload being the same.....? Something doesn't add up.....
replace the comma with “ and”
A few things: - Fight aggressively for high raise and bonus even without promo. This is usually possible for attrition risks in high performers. - have him do a bragging doc, recording every single win he has had in this past year. Then you use that in your case for mid year. Make sure that it is clear on what his impact his on important business initiatives. - Is he normally quiet? Do you have a good relationship with your own manager and skip? Start grooming them on his promo case earlier. Socializing your engineers efforts is also part of your job. if none of this is possible then he is absolutely in the right to leave. Gl!
I’ll sign my name of the bragging doc, as long as it more cheques
Send me his info so I can recruit him to Meta where they will value him and pay him handsomely
Hi.....im at risk. Help me?
Dm me
Note to self: don’t join doordash
That’s bs. Truth is - this is the case in EVERY corporation. Every. Single. One. Even Meta. It’s just that slow promos are A BIT less of a problem at meta and A BIT more or a problem at Google (compared to the average). Instead of „note to self: don’t join X”, make a huge note to self: „apply yourself when there’s growth opportunity, coast of there’s none, once you’ve grown, don’t ever grind for internal promo but jump between companies instead”. This is the way.
I don't see how it's less of a problem at Meta. There are promo quotas here like there are elsewhere, and know many people in the org frustrated due to blocked promos The real lesson is knowing it's luck of the draw due to budget but hoping that past denied promo results carry forward so you get preference next half Whats dumb is the mgmt runaround of fake constructive criticism on how to improve (next time do X when it sounds so trivial relative to big picture output) when the truth is easier to swallow (companies have budget and unfortunately it didn't happen this time, but mgr + skip are aware for next cycle)
You're going to have to become creative and find other ways to "sweeten the pot" to entice him to stay. This could include: - Additional PTO - Increased bonus - Increased raises - Potentially a larger 401K match (if that's within your purview) - New title - Modified Schedule (More WFH days or potentially Fridays off) - More global remote days if not already global remote
I've never ever heard of anybody or any company being able to change a 401k match rate for specific employees. Is that a thing?
Different people have different match rates depending on how long they've been at the company, so theoretically the company could change the match rate for a specific employee.
cash solves all problems. creative/product/tech decision control. increased authority over technical decision making is also received well. it shows the mgmt has faith in skills and abilities. but yeah, some immediate cash retention is best option. we had a couple of cases like this, the ones who were irreplaceable had an immediate group head meeting where they assured future benefits like cash raise promo whatever hut also promised short term cash tl;dr: CASH edit: also things like extra pto, etc as others have mentioned. but honestly, high performance people generally end up taking the least pto. all high performers i know are working weekend just coz they had nothing else to do, so more pto may not swing the scales.
Yep more PTO won’t work. I’m personally in the same situation. The only thing that will work is more autonomy and freedom in the absence of cold hard cash. Having that makes people think twice of leaving and being in a situation where they have money but are working like a donkey
Hope he finds a place where he gets valued.
Can I dm you for a referral? Recently got laid off from Amazon :(
DM me for referral
DM if you need referral at Nutanix