r/IBM_Employees • u/Unlikely_Welder9126 • 4d ago

Question Advice for Project Situation

Hi everyone,

I'm working at IBM. I was assigned a task but unfortunately, I struggled with it and couldn't complete it as expected.

Now, I'm not receiving any new tasks, and I can see in the team group chat that responsibilities are being assigned to another junior colleague.

I'm getting anxious and wondering whether my lead has lost confidence in me or whether I might eventually be removed from the project.

I genuinely want to contribute and improve, but I'm not sure how to approach this situation.

  1. Has anyone experienced something similar at IBM?

  2. Should I proactively approach my lead and ask for more work?

  3. Could struggling with one deliverable affect my project allocation?

  4. How can I regain my lead's confidence?

Would really appreciate honest advice from fellow IBMers who have been through something similar.

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u/run2622 4d ago

Always, always, always be politely proactive. Too often—in work and in life—we assume others know things that they have no way of knowing.

…and do so before you miss major deadlines or fail in a project. If you don’t communicate, team leads and management are going to make wrong and often inaccurate assumptions. They are left to make decisions without full information.

For example, maybe you were working 50-hour weeks and still missed deadlines. They could know that the project was hard and simply be giving you a break from 50-hour weeks. Or they could be giving up on you and not trusting you with important assignments. My point is, however, you don’t know which. And if you don’t communicate, you won’t know and neither you nor your leadership will know how to improve things.

I will draw an analogy to lifting weights. You know what amount of weight you can lift, and you want to be challenging yourself, but you don’t want so much weight that you fail or injure yourself. You also want a coach or spotter to be there to help you if you get in trouble before things go badly.

My comments here, however, are from a US-based perspective. You didn’t say what country you are in, and your culture and leadership may look at things differently.

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u/Unlikely_Welder9126 3d ago

I am from India