The director in charge of the project left, I took over, my manager told me I'm responsible for driving this, and I'm one of the most junior people on the team. After some instances where we missed deadlines because no one took care of parts I mentioned they were responsible for, my manager told me another senior member of the team will be responsible for this. This is because from his perspective, senior team members don't want to listen to peers who are more junior. However, when I go into any status meetings, etc. my same manager puts me on the spot in front of everyone by saying I'm responsible. Even senior team members stopped giving feedback on code reviews, and just start rewriting parts of the project themselves in isolation. I also keep getting asked the same questions over and over, despite me sending out emails, documenting everything, sharing knowledge, etc. I have asked my manager a few times if we can speak in private about this, but he keeps wanting to have a group discussion. This will obviously strain relationships since I keep being put on the spot, and being forced to say things I would only say in a 1:1. This has been going on for 3 months, what should I do? Should I just resign? EDIT: Last year I had strong, positive feedback, and ranked as one of the top performers on the team EDIT 2: I don’t work at RBC If anything seems confusing, I had to deliberately leave out info and change my writing style to avoid getting doxxed. I can try to answer more questions in the comments. #workplace #finance #tech #career #quant
Honestly, fuck your teammates and your boss for putting you in this position. Put your teammates on the spot in these meetings; expect them to answer for the portions of the project for which they’re responsible. Embarrass them. And put a meeting on your boss’ calendar, don’t make it optional, and include in the notes that you need to have a 1:1 with him before the project can move forward. Don’t do any work until you have the meeting with him. You need to strong arm your position here. It’s clear the company needs you more than you need them if they’re asking the most junior person on the team to lead instead of spending the time to sort out a long term plan.
Wouldn't you agree that this is a toxic approach? I just tried to ask for a 1:1, and I'm being told only schedule it if its urgent. Seems like the only way I can progress is if I escalate to my skip manager.
Give your team a heads up that they’ll be called on to answer for the areas they are responsible for - honestly, it’s the right thing to do as a project lead and manager.
You are being too nice, you might get fucked over
It's not a question of "if" but "when"
you were right about this lol
And people wonder what PMs do… What’s the director salary and are you hiring a replacement?
Don’t you have a simple RACI chart that the prior PM had setup ? Even as the junior most member, once you are acting as a project/ Program manager, you are totally empowered ! Understand the RACI fully & start calling out the respective folks based on that ! Good luck !
It’s RBC capital markets what do you think ?
All good advice above. The way you write seems like you got some self confidence issues. Surprising with 6 YOE, you sound more junior than you are. Work on your communication style or change company / manager to a culture that allows you to grow your self confidence. Get some balls, business is not nice. Apologies in case I misunderstood.
No, read my initial post. I purposely changed my writing style to stay anonymous. I also don’t work at RBC. This is an old blind account lol
How would RBC pay 400k TC?!! Are you SWE?
It’s capital markets, so their comp is different to the regular bank, where most make < $100k. But don’t look down on RBC, I’m in their AI division and my TC is just under $250k. 6 YOE Product
Is that in Canadian pesos?
They gotta respect your office even if they don't respect you. Make that clear and define accountability for individual tasks.
Nothing junior. Hold people accountable publicly and ask for dates. And put it in writing. Meeting notes:accoutability/post to do list jn shared Team space. Raci is needed. Go kill it.
Take some ownership. You have 6 YOE and you get paid 400k. You should have the capability to do this at this level. If you really don’t have the skills, take this as the opportunity to gain them. If you want a 1:1, just put it on your manager’s calendar. If your manager cancels, find someone else that’s project managed before and ask them. There are probably a ton of PMs in tech or especially ops that are less experienced and get paid half of what you get paid that give you the pm basics.
With 6 YOE and 400K TC, you’re not a junior engineer and I’d advise you stop looking at it that way. You’re a professional in charge of driving the project. You’ve sent notes and have appropriate documentation. Ensure that you’re asking the right folks to work on the right things & in meetings re-direct questions to the people who are supposed to be working on that aspect of the project so everyone has a chance to “be in the spot.” “So-and-so can you give a quick update on this? If not can you get us one by next week”.
Thanks, I don't view myself as junior, but my manager said I'm junior relative to my peers, and they will have a problem with that. How do you handle people who keep asking the same questions over and over? My worry is that politics are being played against me.
Documentation and emails. Send wrap up notes after meetings and if someone asks a question that is asked often say “we get this question often and it was covered in last weeks notes. Happy to follow up if there are additional questions”