I joined a company 6 months back and from start I am noticing that some of the engineers in the team are constantly underperforming and I can hardly see them working on any task. This puts additional pressure on other teammates to perform as we set team sprint goals considering availability of all engineers and we find the team always lag behind the deadlines.

I am wondering what should be the right way to discuss this with my manager during 1:1’s. I don’t want to sound like I am pointing fingers on others.

How to callout non-performing teammates in 1:1 with manager

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Anonymous User

The important part of what you said is this: 

> This puts additional pressure on other teammates to perform as we set team sprint goals considering availability of all engineers and we find the team always lag behind the deadlines.

So there's a real cost to the team because of the underperformance of your colleagues. This could lead to lower quality software being shipped, and in the long-term, issues around burnout and the best people on the team leaving. 

Frame the concern in this way to your manager. **Don't make it sound like you're complaining about a specific person just for the sake of complaining**. 

The way I'd phrase it is, here are my observations about the workload on the team based on looking at jira tickets, and here are my concerns on what may happen. What do you think? 

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Rahul Pandey

At the end of the day, working in tech, or anywhere really, is all about working with other human beings. Communication is the core skill necessary to make this collaboration effective.

This is an absolutely vital process for any employee in tech to understand, especially in a world of stack-ranking and layoffs.

Doing this properly is a hard requirement for professional success. As a software engineer in particular, this relationship needs to be carefully navigated to achieve maximum impact.

How to callout non-performing teammates in 1:1 with manager

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