Feeling unproductive in my team and would like to give my manager a plausible reason to change teams

manpreet Best Answer 2 years ago

I have joined a big company 2 months ago. In this company, there is a strong focus on diversity and inclusion, as well as making the employees feel well at their work.

However, the department / team where I started does not seem to always embody these values fully. In my team, the most senior engineer made some sexist jokes (in the lines of comparing women to washing machines), and some of my other team colleagues did not seem to mind and even encouraged this behavior. I reported this to my manager and the situation has improved (at least no more jokes were made in my presence, but I have also avoided to be in the team space at the times of the day where this was likely to occur).

Despite this improvement, I have never felt safe again, and I am not able to fully focus on my work. As a consequence of this, I am late on one of my tasks and am being pressured to finish them quickly in a way that makes me feel very uncomfortable, even though I am new to the company and still learning how to do my job as an engineer effectively.

I am now planning to have a conversation with my manager and ask to change teams, but I am afraid that I will be seen as unreliable and over sensitive. When searching for a new team, I will probably have to interview with teams, so I am also wondering how I can present myself in a good light.

I am genuinely interested in doing great work and contributing effectively, but already came to the conclusion that this will be really hard to achieve in my present situation. Can you please advise me as to how to proceed?

manpreet 2 years ago

Being made to feel unwelcome, especially due to a serious issue like sexism, I can definitely understand having an impact on your work and while others may disagree - it's clear you personally do not feel comfortable in the presence of that team anymore.

As nobody except for you can determine what will or won't improve the situation for you - I don't feel it's appropriate to suggest any different course of action to what you've asked for help with (changing teams).

Unfortunately, the situation you are in is complex. As such, the best advice that can be given is to simply outline what your realistic options are and the issues with each (rather than trying to prescribe which one you should pick).

Changing teams due to mismatched aspirations
This is possibly the most common reason for an employee to ask to change team. They are performing well in their current role, however they aren't realising their full potential. As such, a request is made to change to a team that provides more opportunities for growth.

"I currently know x, but want to learn y - so I can contribute more further to the business"

Unfortunately, as you've only been there for 2 months - it would be hard to argue that you've already reached your skill ceiling. That isn't to say it's impossible, if there's a massive difference between the current team and the new team (finance vs PR for example), perhaps a case can be made about where you really want to be in 5 years.

But realistically, it would be out of the ordinary for you to have taken a job in one field, and two months later realise you wanted to be in a different field.

Changing teams due to mismatched skills
Second to having the wrong potential, is that you may argue you are skilled, will succeed and bring value to the company - but not in this role.

This can be dangerous in your situation again, as you are making it clear that you feel you aren't suitable for the role anymore.

Importantly, there is every chance that this would be written off as "you need more time in the role to develop" and in nicer organisations "we'll arrange more training for you".

Changing teams due to cultural mismatch
Potentially, you can argue that the culture of this team is mismatched with you. This would definitely be true - the sexism you've experienced shows that.

However, in many companies the culture is fairly uniform with only minor differences between departments (how friendly your boss is). You may find no other team has a culture that is distinct enough to warrant a team change.

More importantly, the other team's culture may be seen as a "perk"; that is - your boss may see no reason you should specifically get to work with that team "just because you want to".

Generally, if you're bringing this up - you need relatively big problems to focus on. For example, the need to work from home, the need to have flexible working hours or the need to work within a more Agile organisation. Also, generally the solution is - you'll find a new company to work for.

Changing teams explicitly due to the sexism
Of course, you can explicitly bring up the sexism as the problem. This would be a legitimate reason for changes to be made.

However, as you've seen from many comments and other answers here - the sentiment is likely to be "well it hasn't happened again, we'll continue to work on fixing that issue - within this team".

Beyond this, there is a real chance that the problem exists in other teams and is dealt with less effectively. That is not to say you need to stay in the current situation; but it's unfortunately a realistic consideration you need to make when making this request.

Changing team with a different employer

Unfortunately, the reality is this is the option you have most control over. If the current employer is not working for you - it may realistically be the easiest option.

I don't feel it's worth going into pros/cons of doing this.

As a final note; be aware if you are under a probationary period. While it would be great to think all companies will try to maximise the use of all hires - the reality is you will be sticking up a big "this isn't working for me" flag.

In the context of probation periods - some will argue that's "exactly what they are for", and at that point, may suggest you and the company part ways.

Be aware of this potential outcome when raising request.