Item — HN Reader

They sound like terrible managers.

If they are unable to evaluate your actual work, the only way they can evaluate you is based on your verbal contributions during a meeting.

As they are clearly unable to coach you, they are probably relying on you to coach the younger workers.

Just realize that each manager is looking for a different set of things. Some managers would be perfectly happy with you quietly writing applications well.

Nobody knows how to be a manager, and while some with encouragement can learn, some people either don't have the inclination or correct temperament.

I personally would never push someone into management or push the person out if that person was happiest as a individual contributor.

The world needs more makers, not more managers.

All the best!

1 comments

I think I agree with this response the most. Even if this person didn't feel much like being in a leadership position, that's still 15 years of real-world experience and accumulated talent they just threw away. Unless this person's code quality was somehow declining in spite of that, they just lost a huge resource.

It makes me wonder if the OP got their lines crossed about the lack of leadership thing being a significant part of the reason they got fired and/or there's a significant part of the story not being told here, like maybe the company is being pummeled by the effects of the pandemic and had to trim some of their more expensive employees (of which someone with 15 years of experience is likely to be) or something.

We're all just guessing based on partial evidence, but every time I've mentioned that people should talk up more in meetings, it has had nothing to do with their leadership skills. It's always been as part of a discussion about how they need to try to understand the bigger picture. Being able to describe your designs, and being able to articulate alternate designs, is a very important part of software development. If OP is the kind of dev who gets lost and can't contribute when the discussion becomes abstract, that's an important skill to be lacking.

And let's be honest, lots of people with 15 years experience really have 1 year of experience 15 times. It's really hard to guess at the situation based on no evidence, but I can easily see both sides here.

Yeah whatever happened here, the communication from this person's leadership was bad. I'm not trying to vilify them—maybe they had their reasons—but OP is clearly confused about why they were laid off and how (if) it could have been avoided. If I were going to fire someone with 15 years' experience, I would really try to give several clear warnings and actions leading up to it, assuming that was my actual reasoning.

"Fired" and "laid off" are two different things entirely. OP was laid off, not fired, and I think it's reasonable to assume that the pandemic was the immediate cause of having to cut staff. There's really no way to give several clear warnings about that.

If that's the case, that's what should have been made clear. OP clearly doesn't think that's what happened.