Managing a Team in Difficult Situations

There can be many reasons a company or team is going through rough patches. The company might be going through a crunch time, or the team may be near a significant and hard deadline and does not have enough bandwidth to meet the deadline. As a leader, it's the responsibility of a manager to steer through these challenging situations.

Difficult times

In February 2020, nearly all companies in this world were directly or indirectly affected by COVID-19. The aftermath of the pandemic is still present in our lives. It was a difficult time for most companies, as almost every team was affected for a very long time. For some companies, it was extremely difficult as their revenue dropped by more than 80%.

Most engineers, particularly senior engineers, are compensated via company stocks in modern tech companies. We have seen that many tech companies went through a rough patch with a significant drop in their stock prices during the pandemic. We saw recessions during which stock markets tanked. This affected the overall morale of the teams.

Sometimes unwanted attention by media houses towards a company may also result in dissatisfaction and unhappiness among employees. Sometimes, a company goes through a major reorg which results in a dip in their productivity.

Lastly, another ...