Hi All,

I'm Egyptian and currently working in Austria under a work permit
which is restricted for 4 months, which is the length of the contract,
if they are happy with me they will prolong it. I have just started the
2 months ago, and was doing good some kind of electronic circuit
design and embedded software. The direct manager was happy, and told me
wow so fast for some task, and some very good words.

I had meeting with the ceo last two months, and he told my how do you
like the work ? I told him its good, I like the manager, the
enviroment,..etc. Then he said you have to push your self more, you are
just working by 70-80% percentage, I was shocked, and very sad by these
words, he said also I know that you have a lot of knowledge, I also
asked the direct manager to give you lots of work packages!!!

Currently the situation is worth, they don't invite me for meetings, I don't know because of the language or not, the direct manager doesn't care about me, there is just about one month and a half and the contract will be ended, and we agreed they may renew or not, but they didn't talk with me at all, and I must get a renewal to renew my work permit. I don't know what to do, should I talk with them, why they are treating me like that or what :(

What are you doing? What is your mindset? What are you focusing on?

Are you focusing on the details? Are you focusing on systems and the big picture? Are you unfocused?

Focus first on doing the most important things. Do the things that give the biggest reward. Rather than focusing on minor details work on the overarching systems first. Then let the smaller things fall in to place.

Also make sure you are actually WORKING while you are at work. Don't waste hours surfing the web. Don't spent time chatting. Don't spend time watching cat videos or television reruns. Don't waste time playing games. Try to spend as much time working as you can.

I've noticed over the decades that there are people with many orders of magnitude difference in performance. There are some innate differences, but usually the most visible difference is that people who perform are also the people who are working on the important things all the time. It is a matter of maturity and discipline.

Hi All,

I'm Egyptian and currently working in Austria under a work permit
which is restricted for 4 months, which is the length of the contract,
if they are happy with me they will prolong it. I have just started the
2 months ago, and was doing good some kind of electronic circuit
design and embedded software. The direct manager was happy, and told me
wow so fast for some task, and some very good words.

I had meeting with the ceo last two months, and he told my how do you
like the work ? I told him its good, I like the manager, the
enviroment,..etc. Then he said you have to push your self more, you are
just working by 70-80% percentage, I was shocked, and very sad by these
words, he said also I know that you have a lot of knowledge, I also
asked the direct manager to give you lots of work packages!!!

Currently the situation is worth, they don't invite me for meetings, I don't know because of the language or not, the direct manager doesn't care about me, there is just about one month and a half and the contract will be ended, and we agreed they may renew or not, but they didn't talk with me at all, and I must get a renewal to renew my work permit. I don't know what to do, should I talk with them, why they are treating me like that or what

As per my experience with Europe (Germany especially), 70 - 80% is pretty good.

Can you find another sponsor for yourself? Another company?

I've noticed over the decades that there are people with many orders of magnitude difference in performance.

His manager tells him he's doing great, which makes him stay in his mindset, and then the CEO all of the sudden says he's 70% effective and needs to step up. If he's wasting time then his manager shouldn't lie to him. What an ass.

@frob Thanks for your comments, I highly appreciate them.

@ysg The problem that the work permit is gonna expire soon, and I don't have anytime to look for another job I have to be expulsed :/

@symlink, I think he is an asshole, both of them :/

What I'm really worried, is that I lost the trust in myself, I was crying when I was coming back home, feel very depressed, I have never been treated like that :/

I even found a lot of solutions to a lot of problems, even I have two colleagues who I asked if they have knowledge in OpenGL, Design Patterns, both of them said NO.

I work in OpenGL, Software Developlment, Hardware Circuit Design,..etc alot of things (

What can I do, should I talk to them or how to approach that I'm really depressed of them. I feel that they are just like ok , one month more then you are bye bye, so no need to disturb us. I don't like that, I want to hear ok, we won't renew your contract, but I want to say to them BYE BYE first :/

What can I do, should I talk to them or how to approach that I'm really depressed of them. I feel that they are just like ok , one month more then you are bye bye, so no need to disturb us. I don't like that, I want to hear ok, we won't renew your contract, but I want to say to them BYE BYE first :/

You can choose to take it at face value: They are giving you a passing grade, but not an exceptional grade.

If it bothers you, you can choose talk with them and ask them to clarify what they mean. Ask them if your job is in jeopardy or if your performance is satisfactory.

Good managers will understand your concern and help give you feedback to help your career. Bad managers will use it to take advantage of you, but you don't want to work for those companies anyway.

What does it means to "work 70%-80%" and how they measure it?

@frob Thanks for your comments, I highly appreciate them.

@ysg The problem that the work permit is gonna expire soon, and I don't have anytime to look for another job I have to be expulsed :/

@symlink, I think he is an asshole, both of them :/

What I'm really worried, is that I lost the trust in myself, I was crying when I was coming back home, feel very depressed, I have never been treated like that :/

I even found a lot of solutions to a lot of problems, even I have two colleagues who I asked if they have knowledge in OpenGL, Design Patterns, both of them said NO.

I work in OpenGL, Software Developlment, Hardware Circuit Design,..etc alot of things (

What can I do, should I talk to them or how to approach that I'm really depressed of them. I feel that they are just like ok , one month more then you are bye bye, so no need to disturb us. I don't like that, I want to hear ok, we won't renew your contract, but I want to say to them BYE BYE first :/

Schedule a meeting with your manager (in the US managers/supervisors usually

have the final say whether someone gets a job or they want someone out).

Make sure that he knows about the topic that you'd like to discuss (such as

writing an e-mail and ask him when it would be convenient to talk to him about

your job performance).

In the meeting (it helps if you write them down beforehand and practice how you

think the meeting will play out and practice in front of a mirror what you will say)

tell him that you love your job, you love working for him and you want to continue

to contribute to the organization. Explain that you are somewhat concerned

about whether your contact will be renewed. Ask him in what areas you can

improve and become an even better employee, basically ask him: What would

you consider a top performer to be in my current position?

Having a notebook helps and write down what he says.

Lastly, don't cry. Just don't. That never helps :) . When girls cry, it's usually

annoying, when a guy cries, it's just pathetic :) . You won't be led off to the

chopping block in order to get your head chopped off if you go back to Egypt :) .

What does it means to "work 70%-80%" and how they measure it?

The way management usually "measures" productivity "metrics", they pull

it out from where the sun don't shine :) . If they have a clue (usually have

experience as software developers), then they will usually understand that

this is a very poor measurement and will take them with a grain of salt :) .

What can I do, should I talk to them or how to approach that I'm really depressed of them. I feel that they are just like ok , one month more then you are bye bye, so no need to disturb us. I don't like that, I want to hear ok, we won't renew your contract, but I want to say to them BYE BYE first :/

You can choose to take it at face value: They are giving you a passing grade, but not an exceptional grade.

If it bothers you, you can choose talk with them and ask them to clarify what they mean. Ask them if your job is in jeopardy or if your performance is satisfactory.

Good managers will understand your concern and help give you feedback to help your career. Bad managers will use it to take advantage of you, but you don't want to work for those companies anyway.

Heh, true. But, and this is important, when you're in a western country on a visa

from a country that's nowhere near as wealthy (like man India/China nationals in

US), they basically consider you to be cattle. There was a slashdot article, the

goal of such scheme is to only drive down salaries by flooding the market with

tons of IT professionals/engineers.

Our friend here is blessed if he has a sensible manager that treats him in a

humane fashion, given his vulnerable position.

http://it.slashdot.org/story/13/03/05/0317248/uc-davis-study-concludes-h-1b-workers-neither-best-nor-brightest