The Truth About Overemployment What Your Boss Doesn't Want You to Know

When i was working multiple developer jobs at once, i had to learn how to make every single action count.

Before that, i often felt like my manager only cared about the hours i was online, not the results i was producing. i even tried working longer, but that just led to more work.

You want to be judged on your results, not on how busy you look. The real question is, how do you build trust and prove your value without burning out?

Here is the communication strategy i used. It helped me get a performance-based salary raise in one of my jobs.

Build Visibility

Your main goal is to do work that is visible to others. This will be your main shield against any performance concerns.

Yes, it's selfish to ignore less visible tasks, but you are selling your time for money. You have the right to be selfish.

Also, if you see a complex task you have experience with from another company, volunteer to take it. You’ll do it faster than anyone else, which frees up your time.

Be Proactive

When you get a question, answer it instantly. The same goes for asking questions. If you get a new task and don't know how to start, ask right away.

The worst thing you can do is get a bug ticket and only ask how to reproduce it the next day.

i used to hesitate to ask questions because i didn't want to look like i didn't know something. To get over this, ask as many questions as you can during your probation period. Everyone expects it, even from seniors.

Control the Feedback Loop

You need to have scheduled feedback sessions in the calendar. If you don't have them, start them with your team lead. Once a month is ideal.

i always start my feedback sessions with a pitch. i want people to associate me with my results. i say something like:

"I think I'm doing a very good job. During the last month, I've done this feature and gained context about these components. I feel like I'm doing well, but I have imposter syndrome, which is why I need your feedback. I'm mainly looking for confirmation that I am doing good and just need to stay on track."

Then, just ask for their thoughts. This helps you understand what is important to them.

Find Your Minimal Productivity Bar

It's very hard to actually estimate a developer's performance. If you work too hard, that performance level will become the new expectation. But what's the reward? You just have to keep working at that pace for a small raise in a year.

Knowing that, i decided to find my lowest bar of productivity. What is the minimal amount of work i can do while keeping my managers happy?

i slowly reduced the amount of work i was doing until questions started to come up. That’s how i found the bar. From then on, i would work just a little bit more than that. By the way, my bar was around two hours of focused work a day.

This is just a quick overview of the framework. I explain everything in much more detail in the full video.

Go watch it before your manager schedules another meeting that could have been an email.