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Ask HN: How to deal with incompetent people

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Re: Ask HN: How to deal with incompetent people

#11

Post by zldkz5 »

cupofjoakim wrote: post #4

Have you talked properly to the colleague in question? It seems like you've bottled up all this frustration for far too long, making this infected, which in turn makes it harder to talk about it. Even if it's hard, just tell him how you feel. Take it easy (don't start by listing all his faults) and stay objective - as in "When you do ... I feel ...". Be honest and say that you're not sure if you want to stay, and tha…

I never tried because we had to work together closely and I didn't want to break the balance. And now I don't know if it make sense since he became my manager.

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with incompetent people

#13

Post by _pmf_ »

> I've been doing a lot of work to clean up the debt that was accumulated and, meanwhile, I improved the reliability and the efficiency of the infrastructure. I wrote common components and library to avoid duplication and shared it with wiki pages on how to implement certain things correctly.

What's the business case for this?

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with incompetent people

#15

Post by [deleted] »

clavalle wrote: post #8

I never heard anything about incompetence in your description. Technical debt can build up for myriad reasons not related much to competence. What I would suggest is not to approach this situation as how you can wall off or otherwise attack this person but, instead as a life lesson on the importance of interpersonal relationships and politics. Politics are a fact of life. Humans are social creatures. All things being…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with incompetent people

#16

Post by akvadrako »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #3

Accelerate your job search, take some time of to decompress, and try again in a new opportunity.

Agreed. You can always try going to his boss to explain it, but that probably won't work out. It just seems like a miserable situation to be in.

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with incompetent people

#17

Post by catfish123 »

cupofjoakim wrote: post #4

Have you talked properly to the colleague in question? It seems like you've bottled up all this frustration for far too long, making this infected, which in turn makes it harder to talk about it. Even if it's hard, just tell him how you feel. Take it easy (don't start by listing all his faults) and stay objective - as in "When you do ... I feel ...". Be honest and say that you're not sure if you want to stay, and tha…

Terrible advice. Of all people you can talk to, the bad colleague now manager is the last choice! That's how you get backstabbed.

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with incompetent people

#19

Post by jka »

It can take a while in an organization before people learn whether someone is really competent; especially if as you say the individual in question is particularly good/charming at convincing others that they are effective or a necessary part of the org.

If you trust your employer and management chain enough, then you can use the normal reporting loop to file concerns and notes along the way - just try not to get emotionally involved as it could become difficult to separate your observations from your personal opinions.

Even more so don't let this person pressure you or change your decision-making in ways that could undermine your position.

And certainly, if the organization fails to take care of things, then it may be time to move on and find somewhere more progressive and healthy. It's the sign of a failing environment if it can't identify and deal with individuals who claim overdue credit by using others' contributions.

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with incompetent people

#20

Post by [deleted] »

zldkz5 wrote: post #10
clavalle wrote: post #8

I never heard anything about incompetence in your description. Technical debt can build up for myriad reasons not related much to competence. What I would suggest is not to approach this situation as how you can wall off or otherwise attack this person but, instead as a life lesson on the importance of interpersonal relationships and politics. Politics are a fact of life. Humans are social creatures. All things being…

Yes I agree with you, the point is that being technical person doing a technical job I thought that the value that I create will talk more than the nonsense of some people. As I like to act first and share later, but there are people who talk but don't know how to act properly. I can build this skills as you said, true, but in my position now it would be impossible to get a promotion as the available spot has been ta…

[deleted]
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