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Ask HN: How to deal with 0.1X programmer colleagues?

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Re: Ask HN: How to deal with 0.1X programmer colleagues?

#41

Post by guywhocodes »

mydriasis wrote: post #2

I also work at a start-up, and I've heard from bigco friends that yes, it _really is that much slower at big companies_. Unfortunately I don't think there's much you can do besides be an ass-kicker and gather up some promotions, maybe? Maybe some other startup-to-large-company folks will have interesting insights. I feel your pain, though. I'm also used to a fast environment, I can't imagine slowing down like that.

You don't get promoted this way, the reason these people get so little work done is often because they are working on getting promoted instead. Optics win and your ticket points is not it

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with 0.1X programmer colleagues?

#42

Post by sambeau »

Are you sure that's all they are doing?

When a new coder joined our team they always got loads done as they were left to completely concentrate on their work on the board. Meanwhile, the rest of the team where dealing with support requests, sales requests, pulling stats from the database for random execs, security audits, fixing the build system (again), CV reviews, design documents, code reviews, customer requests, 20 email or slack chains that they are somehow on, invites & menus for the staff party, …

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with 0.1X programmer colleagues?

#43

Post by jrochkind1 »

I'm guessing you enjoy doing the work of writing software, because I think most people who are productive like that do.

So I agree with you that "just do less" is not a good answer, and will not actually lead to satisfaction. The risk is not only guilt, but even worse, the soul-destroying feeling of being a useless person just keeping a seat warm. Although I agree with another commenter that doing things like learning new technologies and reading and commenting on Hacker News is "work" that you can definitely allow yourself to do if you would enjoy or appreciate it. If you start resolving somewhat fewer story points but still way more than anyone else, nobody is going to notice/call you on it.

But meanwhile, you are doing work you enjoy doing, what exactly is the nature of your annoyance? Just that it doesn't seem "fair" that they don't work very hard? I think you have to get over that. It's not your job to discipline them, and who knows how hard they are working (maybe they work very hard, they just aren't very skilled) or what else they have going on in their lives that may be very hard and distracting them.

If you would just appreciate working on a team with other people at your level you can collaborate with, if you would just enjoy that more -- you aren't going to get that on this team. That situation is really not going to change on this team, and there's no point in trying to. You will have to find another team/job/role (maybe at the same organization, possibly not) to find that.

Perhaps there is someone on your team who would like to learn from you and get more productive? You might enjoy mentoring them if so, including even pair programming etc.

If you can't control your disdain for the other team members, you will have to find a new job. Neither you nor they are going to be happy if it becomes clear you think they are incompetent slackers.

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with 0.1X programmer colleagues?

#45

Post by sonicshadow »

WhatsName wrote: post #38

"It's a marathon, not a sprint". I've only ever heared this phrase working for a big corp during my first large incident response engagement. Having worked both at startups and large organizations, I can tell that there are two extremes and neither are healthy. It seems like you got used to the constant crunch time that startups use to burn faster through their usually young human resources. From my experience, noone…

Then they proceed to call the samn things “sprints” and except us to do them back to back to no end

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with 0.1X programmer colleagues?

#46

Post by [deleted] »

hoosieree wrote: post #13
superchroma wrote: post #7

You're working too hard. And you're stupid. You set your own high watermark super high, now you can't back it off without getting questions directed at you. At no point in your career is holding your peers to account part of the role of a developer. Get that through your skull quickly. Either find a job where you're under the hammer more and the comp is what you want or learn to live with this. Or work on your own pr…

Cynical take: being this much more effective than their colleagues won't get OP promoted, but it might get the rest of the team fired.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with 0.1X programmer colleagues?

#47

Post by Arch-TK »

Apreche wrote: post #18

Your mistake is caring. Are you being rewarded for working much harder than your colleagues? Are they being punished for working hardly at all? Why are you working hard for the benefit of the company's bottom line? It's a big company, why do you care about its bottom line? Your colleagues have the right attitude. They are doing the absolute bare minimum to collect a paycheck and go home. I suggest you do the same. Ca…

I need a job I can care about or else I struggle to do the work.

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with 0.1X programmer colleagues?

#48

Post by mydriasis »

guywhocodes wrote: post #41
mydriasis wrote: post #2

I also work at a start-up, and I've heard from bigco friends that yes, it _really is that much slower at big companies_. Unfortunately I don't think there's much you can do besides be an ass-kicker and gather up some promotions, maybe? Maybe some other startup-to-large-company folks will have interesting insights. I feel your pain, though. I'm also used to a fast environment, I can't imagine slowing down like that.

You don't get promoted this way, the reason these people get so little work done is often because they are working on getting promoted instead. Optics win and your ticket points is not it

As they say, "life ain't fair"!

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with 0.1X programmer colleagues?

#49

Post by francisofascii »

You are in a good position where YOU get to control the output. No need to slack off. Get your stuff done at a reasonable pace. Set aside some time to learn new technologies or other parts of the organization before grabbing the next ticket. Go home on time, and work on your own stuff or other interests outside of work. Sleep well.

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with 0.1X programmer colleagues?

#50

Post by lizardking »

It's not clear to me how this is your problem. Presumably they were staying afloat somehow before you came on board. Does this level of throughput allow for them to remain profitable somehow? If not this would be a good topic to address in a skip level 1:1.

If it's just the principle of the thing that's bothering you, my advice would be to either go someplace where your peers will be closer to your level, or to just choose to not be bothered by things that don't actually negatively affect you.

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