- Chris Williams is an ex-VP of HR at Microsoft and has over 40 years of experience in his industry.
- Williams says he's seen people struggle at work and shared when those struggles might mean trouble.
In the past, I've discussed how to tell if your imposter syndrome is real or imagined. I assured readers that, in most cases, you're good at what you do. The self-doubt is mostly in your head.
But sometimes you are bad at your job. As the former VP of HR at Microsoft, I've seen many people struggle. I watched people consistently miss deadlines, lose sight of the objective, or fail to live up to the expectations for the quality of their work.
How can you tell the difference between struggling at your job and truly failing? Here are three signs you might really be in trouble at work.
You're being told
The most obvious way to know if you're not doing well at your job is the direct feedback from your manager.
Do they tell you that your work is poor? Are you constantly asked to redo your work? Is the feedback rarely positive, always something wrong?
Sure, some managers are always pushing for more and better and faster. Some never seem to have a positive word. But if the feedback is specific, detailed, and — importantly — accurate, you need to listen. There really is an issue with your work.
The clearest sign is your performance review. Look for sharp language about the quality or timeliness of your work. Clear and direct negative feedback in a review is not common. Such language is usually softened and vague. When it's harsh, it's a problem.
A cause of confusion is that many managers aren't very good at performance reviews. They spend just a few lines on what's going well and pages on "areas of improvement." A quick read might get you to believe you really are terrible at your job.
You need to read carefully to see if the areas for improvement are essential to the job or if they are simply areas you could use to go from "good to great." The former is a problem, the latter, not so much.
If your review is mostly negative and the issues are real and core to the role, then you really do have a problem.
You hear nothing about your work
More difficult to read are the missing signs of trouble. If you hear nothing, that silence could be an important sign.
If your manager never talks to you, if they cancel scheduled one-on-one meetings, if they avoid you all the time, you have a problem. No news is not good news from your manager. They aren't avoiding you because you are so great they can just leave you alone.
They're probably avoiding you because they aren't comfortable having a difficult conversation about your performance. They either don't know how to approach it or just hate having those hard discussions.
The worst is when your peers participate in the silence. They don't want to be associated with the quality of your work. They risk being dragged into helping you when they have their own work to do. Rather than say something direct, they'll say nothing at all.
If you're being isolated from your manager and your peers, it's never a good sign. The silence is a sign of trouble every bit, as much as a poor performance review.
You're working too hard
One final sign of trouble at work is if you're working too hard. Harder than your peers and harder than you can bear.
Yes, some jobs are tough. Some jobs take all the time you can give them. But if you are taking more time than others, that's not a good sign.
I used to teach an advanced placement computer science class for a high school. The first assignment was easy; most students completed it in an hour or so. They turned in a page of code that worked. One student struggled for days and finally turned in a 40-page version that, somehow, also worked.
As the year went on, I got a call from their parent complaining he was working around the clock to complete the assignments — assignments I budgeted for a couple of hours, tops. He struggled to pass the tests. My coaching was little help. He was, in fact, not very good at it.
He eventually passed, and to my amazement went on to college and eventually Google. I don't know what switch turned on, but he eventually figured it out. Yet when in my class, the amount of time alone was a clear sign of trouble.
If you work night and day to solve issues your peers handle in the regular course of business, that's not good. If you never get ahead while seeing others manage just fine, there's a real problem.
Most jobs are built to fill a day, not a life. If you can't get your head above water, the problem is most likely you, not the job.
How to do better at your job
All these signs are reflections on your work. You need to reach out for help.
Get help from your manager if you can get their attention. Seek out your company's learning and development department. Maybe they have training courses or resources to help you improve. They could even point you to specific one-on-one coaching. Or perhaps you can find a kind peer who will show you what they're doing differently.
Continuing to struggle with these signs is a sure path to the exit. Or, at the very least, a miserable work life.
Chris Williams is the former VP of HR at Microsoft. He's an executive-level advisor and consultant with over 40 years of experience leading and building teams.