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Ask HN: What lessons did you learn from your best or worst colleagues?

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Re: Ask HN: What lessons did you learn from your best or worst colleagues?

#161

Post by gsjjsjsbsb »

ticviking wrote: post #155
cutemonster wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Will bring it What if they say yes, and then you spend time bringing the bbq equipment to the workplace (although you didn't want to) and then your manager wonders "what are you doing, this'll set of the fire alarm", and you say "the others wanted to try this"

Take 5 min to run it by your manager. "The microwave is broken so we want to being a portable grill to make lunch with Tomorrow." If your manager has objections that's evidence it was a bad idea. Maybe it becomes a company tradition instead to have a hill day instead though?

> If your manager has objections that's evidence it was a bad idea

You're just pushing responsibility for saying "no" onto someone else. I would look at the concept of "ruinous empathy" - sometimes being too facilitative and not giving feedback isn't good for anyone.

Re: Ask HN: What lessons did you learn from your best or worst colleagues?

#163

Post by psim1 »

I worked as a student employee in IT at a university department for two years. Upon graduation, I had no job prospects but the department was posting a full-time job for which I was impeccably qualified (it was basically my student job and then some). I applied to it and got the job.

Some of my colleagues recognized the transition from student employee to professional, but strangely enough, my own boss never made the mental transition. She continued to treat me like a student in a number of degrading ways, offering condescending advice about preparing for my future and so on. I say this with a 20-year hindsight. I look back at the relationship and still think it was degrading. Within a year I applied to a different department where I got a fresh start and immediately was treated as an IT professional (though junior, of course).

I learned from this that some people are always going to see you like they first saw you. Your mother is going to always see you as the adolescent with the messy bedroom, even when you're 40. Your student job boss is always going to see you as a student.

Re: Ask HN: What lessons did you learn from your best or worst colleagues?

#164

Post by KineticLensman »

Worst. I had a manager part of whose job was to review my docs (reports and bids) before they were released. Their approach to reviewing was to start at the beginning and work through a doc until they found a red flag. They then refused to go further until that issue was fixed, which significantly increased the length of the process and meant that there was invariably more stress to come on the next iteration. A lot of their review comments boiled down to "I don't like this do it again differently". And I was lucky, I was at least able to write decent English - one of their comments aimed at a co-worker was "This is the incompetent ramblings of a halfwit".

When I became a reviewer myself I resolved never to be like this. If I didn't like something, I would always indicate what change I was expecting for the next review to pass and also why the change was necessary - what specific problem was being addressed. If I didn't like something but couldn't say why, then I taught myself to not say anything at all, typically because it was a cosmetic difference in my preferences vs. the authors. I also realised that a really good technique was to have a quick chat with authors before they had done too much, especially to make sure we all agreed on the aim and purpose of the doc, and my review criteria - to avoid me introducing unexpected hurdles at the last minute. This became a good way of turning the review process into an iterative learning process for junior authors.

Re: Ask HN: What lessons did you learn from your best or worst colleagues?

#165

Post by dopidopHN »

From the worst: that a grumpy agressive guy can actually be this way because he care too much. ( cute, I know )

From the best : the value of small talk and forming personal bonds with EVERY person you talk to.

The second one took me a while. We were both leader of team that worked together and things were going great.

I noticed that his team would kill for that guy.

And also that he always seems to know someone that could help. In OPS, in IT, in sales, in the competitor … everywhere.

And then I started to notice the small talk, the jokes, the patience … that makes that guys a nice person to work with.

And then I also noticed that he was leading both of the team, without that being very obvious. And I was not even mad about it. Everybody was exceeding target, we all got a nice bonus that year while having fun, why ruin it ?

I learned a lot from that smooth operator. ( all of that come on top of impeccable technical acumen. That play a role, too )

Re: Ask HN: What lessons did you learn from your best or worst colleagues?

#166

Post by HumblyTossed »

psim1 wrote: post #163

I worked as a student employee in IT at a university department for two years. Upon graduation, I had no job prospects but the department was posting a full-time job for which I was impeccably qualified (it was basically my student job and then some). I applied to it and got the job. Some of my colleagues recognized the transition from student employee to professional, but strangely enough, my own boss never made the…

This is why a lot of businesses (retail especially) don't like to promote from within the same location.

Re: Ask HN: What lessons did you learn from your best or worst colleagues?

#167

Post by ozim »

k__ wrote: post #153
ozim wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you were CEO once good luck finding job as non CEO :)

I know a bunch of people who founded their own companies and started a regular engineering employment after that.

I don't know anyone who founded their own companies and moved back to being an employee.

Well my current boss or current customer, as I have my single person company and doing contract (well I am a CEO :D), is still in the business so I don't have much to argue.

I also was not looking for a job as a former CEO or for CEO job openings.

I just know bunch of people who had masters degree and were looking for ANY type of job. If they wanted to just earn anything having masters degree and sending CV for a cashier position was mostly useless. I expect there is the same effect in play that someone with CEO experience will be "overqualified" for the job, meaning no one will hire them because:

a) in case they find anything better they will jump the ship

b) if it turns out they are better than person hiring them, well you people mostly don't want to hire someone who can replace them.

Re: Ask HN: What lessons did you learn from your best or worst colleagues?

#168

Post by adenozine »

noir_lord wrote: post #156
adenozine wrote: post #127

I doubt this will resonate with a lot of people because it makes me sound like a prick, but I used to share a cube with this gentleman who refused to eat his lunch anywhere but his cube. He was an Indian man, and though I like indian food well enough, I don't want my workspace to smell like any kind of food. So, I asked my boss at the time for my own area. He said no. That frustrated me, and I decided that the best t…

You drink 5L of water a day? (assuming 180lbs, 28ml Oz that's 5.04L)

No no, so it's half your weight in lbs, in oz.

So for a 200lb man, it'd be 100oz. Just under a gallon.

It seems like a lot at first, and for the first few days I peed a lot, but now it seems normal.

Granted, I'm doing myself a small service by saying 200, but that's just a few covid pounds.

Re: Ask HN: What lessons did you learn from your best or worst colleagues?

#169

Post by geocrasher »

StavrosK wrote: post #108
moosebear847 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vindication is morally questionable, but someone could be tempted to it to attach consequence to the offending behavior. After deciding not to take the low road, how did you handle these situations in the future?

By "vindication" do you mean "revenge"? Because vindication is absolutely not questionable. Revenge may be questionable, but I find that not teaching bad people a lesson isn't much better.

Vindictive, which is the word I used (not vindication) is defined as followws:

"having or showing a strong or unreasoning desire for revenge."

So yes I was after revenge.

Re: Ask HN: What lessons did you learn from your best or worst colleagues?

#170

Post by StavrosK »

geocrasher wrote: post #169
StavrosK wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By "vindication" do you mean "revenge"? Because vindication is absolutely not questionable. Revenge may be questionable, but I find that not teaching bad people a lesson isn't much better.

Vindictive, which is the word I used (not vindication) is defined as followws: "having or showing a strong or unreasoning desire for revenge." So yes I was after revenge.

I was replying to moosebear847, though I didn't notice you had said "vindictive", so I guess that's what they meant too, thanks!
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