How to speak to a low-performing engineer

hliyan

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The Engineering Manager Guide

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6 min read

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Mar 15, 2022

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Having to deal with a low performer who is not responding to positive reinforcement can bring out some of the worst instincts in a manager. Managers of a certain personality type will take the confrontational route: strong verbal feedback ranging from expressing disappointment to shaming the employee or even threatening them with benefit cuts, changes to responsibilities or even termination. Managers of a certain other personality type will take the avoidant route: afraid of hurting the employee’s feelings or triggering a confrontation, they will instead provide the vaguest of feedback, hoping that the employee will get the message. When the message invariably fails to get through, they will then tend to make the low performer someone else’s problem: either transferring them (effectively making them another manager’s burden) or reassigning critical work to other, high performing team members (effectively penalizing them for their coworker’s poor performance).

In the first scenario, the negative impact is obvious: except for the rare case of a highly self-aware low performer who uses the manager’s negative feedback as fuel to improve themselves, in most cases, the employee will develop various levels of toxicity. That toxicity will manifest in several ways: further lowering of performance, spreading water-cooler talk about how bad their manager is (which is not entirely inaccurate) and finally, being a detractor in the market if and when they quit (or are fired). Watching a low performing colleague not being supported by their manager can be devastating for a team’s morale. Even high performers may wonder: if my performance ever drops for some reason, will this happen to me too?

In the second scenario, the negative impact is less obvious but more dangerous in the long run: first, the manager inadvertently sends a message to the organization that low performers will be tolerated and that high performers will have to pick up their slack. Second, this particular low performer will continue to labor under the illusion that they are performing adequately, until one day when the manager is finally forced to take action. And since the manager has not conveyed any strong feedback earlier, this action will come as a surprise to the employee, who will now believe that they have been unfairly targeted by their manager. As in the first…