u/SoftwareArchitect101

Technical employee. It has been 2 years in corporate. Slightly over one in this team. It's an MnC, but I've delivered value - Stakeholder management, part of a mission critical project, technically in-depth infrastructure savings, automations, requirement and impact analysis, architecture design, ​learning and teaching business to other people, mentoring juniors(everything from teaching how to work, business and technical stuff, giving presentations etc) ​​and onboarding seniors with KTs, event planning, leading teams in hackathons.

All this in parallel to the work I'm supposed to do - complete the JIRAs assigned to me which directly serve business value.

I know that my current organization has constraints - they canceled a promotion and hike is minimum. I thought - okay, why not try to grow by getting more responsibilities/challenging work. I asked in my 1-1 what improvements would they want in me (if any) so I can work at least one level above my role. I was instead told why I suck at work (more towards emotions) and why "leads don't have confidence in my delivery" - despite having a clean record in major deliverables. I did ask about actionables and was given very vague immeasurable feedback (which I was anyways taking care of - they didn't know since I don't broadcast small stuff outside my BAU too much).

I was told I might not get responsibilities one level above my role till I fix the very basics. Ironically, I've been inculcating those basics, without which other stuff couldn't follow.

I've got some recognition from people who are way above my line manager's level, but something feels very hollow within me - if all this is actually worth it. Everything feels meaningless, recognition seems immaterial. The meeting was 2 months back, it hasn't gone off my mind (despite asking for measurable improvement points, I wasn't given and the conversation was too emotional from their end - couldn't really extract any SMART goals)

I do want tougher challenges assigned end to end to me with full ownership. Where I can work for a few weeks at a stretch. Is my expectation unreasonable? What should I do - I don't feel like switching since what if elsewhere I feel the same.

Seems a me problem(since I'm getting recognition from skip levels and I've the freedom to do whatever I can identify is useful, outside my BAU timings). What can I do to manage myself (or manage up - although I really don't wanna do that) ​without feeling too exhausted with the emotions involved?

If someone faced this issue with their reports/themselves, could you please suggest ways which worked for you? ​Am I approaching in the right way or do I need to tweak my strategy for growth/fulfillment?

As in the title - yesterday while coming back, I slipped and broke my office laptop. I work in an MnC for context. Few months back I accidentally broke my old laptop (I opened the lid from a wrong angle), there were no questions and I got a replacement brand new laptop.

I am concerned about this time - since it was second time an accident happened. What is the general insurance/IT policy at MnCs? Will they give me a replacement again, or I will face penalties? I am not in FAANG etc, an average MnC.

I'm about two years into my career at a large MNC and I'm still learning how performance discussions work.

I know promotions are currently on hold due to cost-cutting, so I wasn't asking my manager for a promotion or a bigger hike. During my 1:1, I asked a different question: What skills, responsibilities, or behaviors should I develop so I can start operating at the next level? My goal is to learn, even if formal recognition comes later. (AI smell, my apologies)

Up until then, my regular 1:1s had been consistently positive. I was told I was delivering well, and the only recurring feedback was to avoid burning myself out. I did end up burning out, took a planned week's leave during a quieter period, recovered, and came back. Since then, I've been handling my normal responsibilities along with work that is largely outside my usual scope.

A few weeks after that conversation, during a verbal mid-year review, the message changed significantly. I was told that I wasn't up to the mark and that people didn't have confidence in my abilities. However, when I asked for specific examples, the only ones I received were very small mistakes that had no customer or business impact and were corrected immediately. My written feedback, on the other hand, was generally positive and didn't reflect the same concerns.

I'm trying to understand this from a manager's perspective.

• If you genuinely believed someone lacked confidence from the team's perspective, what kind of concrete examples would you expect to provide?
• As an employee who genuinely wants to improve, what questions should I ask so I leave the conversation with actionable goals instead of vague impressions?

I'm not looking to argue that the feedback is wrong. I'm trying to understand how to convert conversations like this into a clear development plan with measurable expectations.

Edit: First wrote it myself, got removed by filters, used AI to improve it. ​Yes, I'm embarrassed and I hope you could please bear with it

Title. I realised that I'm not into most of the flashy stuff other people do. Because of this, post office hours, mostly I think about how things went in - conversations with my peers, my leads, next task to do, improvements on previous task. Or maybe how to upskill/how to get more gains in the gym etc.

I took a break after 2 years where I didn't think about anything and it felt awesome. 3 hrs of nothingness felt great. But currently I'm on a week's vacation

How do people who live a simple life recover from the stress etc? Also doesn't it feel we are lagging behind/guilt when we rest? Currently I'm not thinking about the guilt since I was too exhausted but I'm worried it might hit me