TL;DR

How do I tactfully apologize for slacking off and express my willingness to set things straight again, without sounding like it was completely my fault?

After that, how do I approach about proving myself in order to get a SUBSTANTIAL salary increase in the mid-year salary review?

Background

I am a junior software developer. Recently my manager ran some time sheet stuff and found out some "gaps" in mine. It was not specifically targeted at me, but a team-wide thing to ensure our time is tracked properly and thus can be reported up.

The time tracking system we currently use isn't great and we know most of us (with my manager admitting this himself) do poorly at tracking. So everyone has gaps.

We are a team of internal devs of 10-15 people in a 200-300 people company.

My gaps

For last few months I was not given enough tasks to keep myself busy. The only thing I could (and probably should) have been working on when I was free was an internal application (not a lot of business value) that no one seemed to care how I have been progressing. I was bored and gradually lost motivation to work on it. Thus began my slacking off.

What I want to achieve

I will be having a 1-on-1 meeting with my manager to discuss about the gaps. I would like to confess to him that I have been slacking off. I want to be honest and explain my reason of slacking off. Voice my frustration in my job. Hopefully get more things to do and make this job more interesting.

I am also (in my opinion) severely underpaid due to me underselling myself (not blaming the company or my manager). I want to let him know that I am looking forward to a SUBSTANTIAL increase in salary and I am more than willing to work hard to prove that I am worth it. I want my manager to know that I need him to give me a chance to prove myself.

The question

How do I tactfully apologize for slacking off and express my willingness to set things straight again, without sounding like it was completely my fault?

After that, how do I approach about proving myself in order to get a SUBSTANTIAL salary increase in the mid-year salary review? I know it's probably a difficult request to make after admitting to slacking off, but I want to signal him that I want more money. I know I am worth it and I will definitely start looking if the pay is not enough.

The reason why I am not leaving now is because I am still relatively new in the company (< 1 year) and don't want to be seen as a job hopper.

Other little things

• We just had a new IT manager who is my manager's manager (my manager is the manager of devs, we have other elements in IT). The IT manager seems to be a nice and competent guy and he has made it clear that he wants to make a difference. I am yet to have a 1-on-1 with him, but there should be one soon.


• Please assume all discussions can happen in a civil manner. That is to say, I am anticipating my manager to be disappointed upon hearing the news but won't start swearing at me or giving me hell.

Appreciate your advice and please let me know if anything is unclear!

For last few months I was not given enough tasks to keep myself busy. The only thing I could (and probably should) have been working on when I was free was an internal application (not a lot of business value) that no one seemed to care how I have been progressing. I was bored and gradually lost motivation to work on it. Thus began my slacking off.

If I stake this statement in face value, then I would say, not your problem. If you would have missed the assigned work, then that's slacking off. You did not have enough assignment, that's not your problem, that's the problem of your manager. You need not apologize for something you did not do, which was not your responsibility.

You are expected to work on something on your free time, you're not bound to it (as that is not the part of assigned work).

You can, however, bring up the matter in the discussion that (in the given order)

• The assigned work and your accomplishments.


• You do not have enough assigned work.


• Your free-time work is not being supervised / reviewed and thus, you lack a proper planning to work on that.


• Your argument for salary increment.