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Be Kind

briangilham.com

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Re: Be Kind

#11

Post by chris_wot »

Junior devs should also remember that whilst they might be trying to be kind, sometimes the support person you are trying to instruct probably knows more than you do.

I was a bit bemused when a young guy who had just gone into devops and sysadmin gave me a mini lecture on the importance of open source and contributing to it if you have the skills, and that I really should give it a go one day, because open content is amazing.

I didn't have the heart to tell him I'd gotten into a few of the LibreOffice release notes for work I'd done on the project. Nor did I feel like telling him I'd made significant contributions to Wikipedia. I think I sort of weakly smiled and tried to change the subject.

Re: Be Kind

#12

Post by matwood »

herge wrote: post #4

I have the similar problem with code reviews. It is really hard to not sound harsh when giving a code review, especially in ones from junior developers where a whole laundry list of fixes comes out.

Best way not to sound harsh is to ask questions. "What are your thoughts on ...?", "Is this really what you meant to do?", "Do you think there is a better way to handle...?". It puts the power and learning opportunity back to the other person and lets them feel the accomplishment of improving.

To the junior devs, when you screw up (and you will) own it and learn from it. Like public scandals, the cover up is almost always worse than original issue.

Re: Be Kind

#13

Post by AdmiralAsshat »

Isn't there supposed to be a code review before devs are allowed to deploy something to production?

Yeah, Brian screwed up. But the company has at least some fault for letting him get that far unchecked.

Re: Be Kind

#14

Post by d--b »

Is that so uncommon? I mean, maybe I've been particularly lucky in my career but that sounds like standard behavior to me. I mean you already feel bad enough for blewing it that it's no use to add some more to it. And as the article says it happens literally to every one of us at some point. So unless your boss is a genuine bag, that's the expected way they should react

Re: Be Kind

#16

Post by vkjv »

herge wrote: post #4

I have the similar problem with code reviews. It is really hard to not sound harsh when giving a code review, especially in ones from junior developers where a whole laundry list of fixes comes out.

My only advice is to not worry too much about it. One of the first things a new dev needs to learn is how to separate critique of the wok from critique of them as an individual.

IMHO, code reviews should be clear and concise. They aren't a place to go out of your way to soften blows. I expect the same when my code is reviewed.

Edit:

It occurs to me the parent may have been referring to an informal review or one with the intent of mentoring. Asking questions, like the sibling mentioned is a great way. My comment is geared more towards a formal review.

Re: Be Kind

#17

Post by crush_xc »

This was literally the biggest issue for when I started at my first job. We had a team member who was terribly condescending and talked down to everyone but especially me. You could tell that he hated the fact that he was on a team with a junior developer and took every chance he had to made sure I knew I wasn't as good as him. It makes a terrifying environment to ask questions because who knows what kind of response you're going to get.

Re: Be Kind

#18

Post by chris_wot »

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #13

Isn't there supposed to be a code review before devs are allowed to deploy something to production? Yeah, Brian screwed up. But the company has at least some fault for letting him get that far unchecked.

Sure, and I don't see them blaming Brian in any way.

Re: Be Kind

#19

Post by hueving »

d--b wrote: post #14

Is that so uncommon? I mean, maybe I've been particularly lucky in my career but that sounds like standard behavior to me. I mean you already feel bad enough for blewing it that it's no use to add some more to it. And as the article says it happens literally to every one of us at some point. So unless your boss is a genuine bag, that's the expected way they should react

Unfortunately there are a non-negligible number of managers that take to the 'stick' approach and will yell at people, etc. Many people seem to be okay working in that environment so there doesn't seem to be pressure to stop that behavior.

Re: Be Kind

#20

Post by etrain »

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #13

Isn't there supposed to be a code review before devs are allowed to deploy something to production? Yeah, Brian screwed up. But the company has at least some fault for letting him get that far unchecked.

This varies highly depending on the organization. I've worked at places that do it both ways. Particularly in small places when resources are tight, teams are distributed, or there is a non-code safety measure in place (e.g. Business decisions are made ex-post of the code running dependent on the quality of its output), code reviews pre-deployment may not be necessary and can even be harmful (due to wasted resources).
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