Put down that turkey sandwich and listen up!

When you’re just starting out in development, your focus is on learning and coding. Over 75% of your day will involve code: writing, discussing, planning, testing, documenting it, etc.

As a result, you might not always understand what motivates your managers to make difficult decisions like initiating reorgs, laying off high performers / teams, or changing up a project’s priority at the last minute.

Before you get upset, consider the situation from their perspective (yay, empathy) and then go talk to your manager. You can speculate all you want, but your managers owe you honest answers and will likely give them to you.

When you do talk it out, bear in mind that managers have a finite set of resources, are tasked with specific goals, and are human, just like you. You’re both part of a team with the same mission.