Question: I am a software developer for the last 5 years. I like this work and since I started this career I have been in 3 companies. Each change resulted a good raise of the salary and more interesting projects.
The last months I am feeling that I am getting more and more pushed to the ropes. The tasks that I have to do seem to get more difficult for me but my co-workers seem to struggle as much as they always struggled.

The last two weeks I actually didn't manage to finish what I was supposed to finish (although I was affected and driven backwards by the work that other developers had to do).
I was expecting to get told off for my performance but nothing happened. The meeting went smoothly and I am just expected to make a pull request for my code (I am starting another project and that was decided before the time period I am speaking about).

I don't know if they were expecting me to crash and burn and I didn't and that's why people were happy. I dont know if they are just polite.
I know that openness is a thing where I work and they would tell me something and also developers are hard to find where I live so they would not risk making me want to go for two bad weeks.

So I want to ask, assuming the management identified my bad performance (I am sure they did), why would they not tell me anything about it?

P.S. I have already spoken to a colleague today to have some guidance and work with him to improve myself, but I am sure he didn't have the time to tell to anyone yet.

Answer: 
> 
> The last two weeks I actually didn't manage to finish what I was supposed to finish (although I was affected and driven backwards by the work that other developers had to do).
> 
> 
> 

First, the assigned task are by definition estimates. Sometimes they are pessimistic (or you just happen to be lucky) and you finish ahead of schedule. Others they were too optimistic and they take more than expected. **This is normal**. Occasionally you will not finish in the scheduled time, within reason, this doesn't mean that the performance is "really poor". More often than not, it simply means that the job required more work than what it seemed to.

Second, even if the estimates were perfect, you already mention that you were "affected and driven backwards by the work that other developers had to do". That's more than enough for breaking expectations. If you had to rewrite half your task in order to adapt for the changed api by JDoe, the changed task might take up to 50% more. Similarly, if you had to finish work that was going to be by other developers, or even there were more important duties that required your attention. As the circumstances have changed, missing the initial estimate is not unheard of.

Relax and don't be so hard against you. If everything else thinks the results are acceptable in context, it's not worth worrying about it so much.
> 
> So i want to ask, assuming the management identified my bad
> performance (i am sure they did) why would they not tell me anything
> about it?
> 
> 
> 

Perhaps they are being patient and seeing if you are able to do better going forward. But everyone here is just guessing.

Only management knows if they saw a problem and if so, what they expect you to do now. If you really want to know, you'll simply have to talk about it with them. If you have regular one-on-one meetings, that would be the right time.

If you are afraid to ask, just let it go and try to do better.