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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?

#51

Post by codingbbq »

Best : My manager who appreciates everyone's time. He puts in efforts to immediately reply to anyone, takes quick decisions and acknowledges quite often. If anyone is dependent on you, unblock them immediately.

Worst : Many of the co-workers/ department heads etc. etc. have moved ranks above me exponentially and yes because of their hard work. Congratulations to them. But sometimes if I have to reach out to them or they need to reach out to me, they address me as "Sir". "Hello Sir, How are you Sir?" I feel terrible and I feel like they are mocking me for being a looser for not having achieved as much as they have.

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

#52

Post by moosebear847 »

geocrasher wrote: post #38

From my worst colleague: This man thought things were funny, and they weren't. I bicycle commuted to work, and he thought it funny to buzz me, passing just a few inches away from me, doing about 60mph on his street motorcycle. Another time, I was a bit stressed and needed some downtime so on my way out of the office, I said as much and added "so don't call me unless something is on fire." So, he called me, on my lunc…

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?

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

#54

Post by ozim »

Buttons840 wrote: post #20
alashley wrote: post #9

Best: It's okay to say you don't know something Worst: Don't tell employees you pay them so they shouldn't have to use Google.

Heh. I think the joke is that my company pays me 1 dollar a week to do Google searches, and 2000 dollars week to know which of the 100,000 results is worth following.

That is basically a truth.

If you sit in IT people bubble then you might feel ashamed that you have to look up stuff all the time.

But technicians always had books like "mechanics guide" or "lookup tables" and they mostly knew which things to apply and where. Without training and experience you don't even know what to look for.

IT bubble people overestimate non IT people level of understanding, I see how "normal" people still struggle with basic text editing or using browser features that are obvious to me like "open link in a new tab". I am not talking here about my grandmother but even people in their 20's but just those non IT.

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

#55

Post by ozim »

fighterpilot wrote: post #16

Best: Be practical and be focused on the domain problem instead of the surrounding tools, abstract methods, etc. Worst: Fire them all really really quickly. People that are bad after week 2-4 will never not be bad afterwards.

I would say it depends on attitude, if someone is saying he wants to learn, then he is just saying. If someone is struggling but is interested and doing stuff to learn more he still might pull out of downside.

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

#56

Post by GoToRO »

codingbbq wrote: post #51

Best : My manager who appreciates everyone's time. He puts in efforts to immediately reply to anyone, takes quick decisions and acknowledges quite often. If anyone is dependent on you, unblock them immediately. Worst : Many of the co-workers/ department heads etc. etc. have moved ranks above me exponentially and yes because of their hard work. Congratulations to them. But sometimes if I have to reach out to them or t…

They are not mocking you. They respect you for making the right decision for the project as opposed to the best they could do, the right decission for themselves.

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

#57

Post by fighterpilot »

ozim wrote: post #55
fighterpilot wrote: post #16

Best: Be practical and be focused on the domain problem instead of the surrounding tools, abstract methods, etc. Worst: Fire them all really really quickly. People that are bad after week 2-4 will never not be bad afterwards.

I would say it depends on attitude, if someone is saying he wants to learn, then he is just saying. If someone is struggling but is interested and doing stuff to learn more he still might pull out of downside.

If they have an excellent attitude I'd definitely give them a lot of time to prove themselves.

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

#58

Post by geocrasher »

moosebear847 wrote: post #52
geocrasher wrote: post #38

From my worst colleague: This man thought things were funny, and they weren't. I bicycle commuted to work, and he thought it funny to buzz me, passing just a few inches away from me, doing about 60mph on his street motorcycle. Another time, I was a bit stressed and needed some downtime so on my way out of the office, I said as much and added "so don't call me unless something is on fire." So, he called me, on my lunc…

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?

That's a very good question. Since then, I have never had a coworker treat me in such a fashion, and so I cannot speak directly to it.

What I can do is express that the reflection of myself in that scenario was one I didn't like, and I've become quite a different person overall since then. My conflict resolution methods in general are much more constructive. When I have a problem with somebody I am calm but direct and tell them what the problem is. I used to mistake being blunt for being rude, but blunt (as long as it is kind, and not vicious) can be very effective.

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

#59

Post by crossroadsguy »

It’s not what they told me. It’s what I learnt while interacting with them.

Best colleague: Talk openly. Engage in discussions. Conversation about conflicts and criticism is good.

Worst colleague: Don’t engage. Shitty people are just shitty people.

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

#60

Post by skmurphy »

na85 wrote: post #6

Best: Decisions don't get made in meetings. Tailor your communication to your audience. Be diligent and ethically consistent and people will respect you for it. Worst: Stay in your lane.

In general, decisions that actually stick--where multiple points of view are explored in real time--only get made in meetings. Announcing a decision in an email without a conversation rarely works out well unless there has been a thorough discussion with those affected and those who may have relevant knowledge or expertise.
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