If you work super hard, you run the risk of being irreplaceable.
And if you are irreplaceable in your current role, how do you expect to get promoted into another role?
Ask HN: How to deal with 0.1X programmer colleagues?
51–60 of 108 posts
Re: Ask HN: How to deal with 0.1X programmer colleagues?
#52I see 2 directions you can go:
If you work remote, get overemployed and collect multiple paychecks and be decent at those jobs instead of a rockstar.
Else, continue crushing it, this job looks WAY too easy for you and you wont grow here without having the right challenges and learnings. Look for roles in other teams in the company where you are not the smartest one in the room. Once you grow there and start crushing it, you will grow naturally.
Re: Ask HN: How to deal with 0.1X programmer colleagues?
#53You need to consider the possibility that your assessment is wrong as well. From your description, someone who is a cowboy coder that everyone has to clean after him will looks the same.
Did you talk to your manager and the team? How was it like in planning when you take far more points than the other? What is your opinion on the validity of the team's excuse? Was your code done in the sense that it is now running on production?
Re: Ask HN: How to deal with 0.1X programmer colleagues?
#54[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: How to deal with 0.1X programmer colleagues?
#55Your 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 made the same "mistake" this person did. Companies didn't reward me. But you know what? I kept improving, they didn't, and I was eventually able to launch my own company while they stay stuck in that job. Obviously companies should reward us for doing better, but, when they don't it still doesn't mean there's no potential benefit from "practicing" doing good work while at work.
Re: Ask HN: How to deal with 0.1X programmer colleagues?
#56> Now I'm working at a big organisation.
That's your problem. It's very difficult to keep competency high in a large organization. The system is designed to get predictable output, and be robust to variations in human capital. The low performance of your peers is known and expected by the organization.
The reverse is also true. People who are low competency, or only want to put in minimal effort choose employment at large corporations. It's easier to hide, they have to make less important decisions themselves, less accountability, expectations are lower.
The mismatch here is you. The system you are operating in is not trying to identify or reward hyper-competency, and hyper-compentents are not trying to enter the system.
Re: Ask HN: How to deal with 0.1X programmer colleagues?
#57I 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
This. Closing the most Jira tickets will get you from jr. to sr., but beyond that it's not a useful metric for promotion.
Re: Ask HN: How to deal with 0.1X programmer colleagues?
#580.1X programmer colleagues ... them all being, on paper, completely ineffective ... the bar is so low
I believe it's all about you thinking that you are too good
Maybe you should start your own company and code the next twitter, facebook or something
Re: Ask HN: How to deal with 0.1X programmer colleagues?
#59Do you not talk to your coworkers and understand how they spend their time? This should come first. Maybe they spend half their time socializing. Maybe your code is voluminous but ridden with subtle bugs, and your teammates are spending more time testing and doing good design. Maybe they are splitting their time between other projects or tasks. Maybe you are the only one with job security.
Working for a company, on a team, is different than just being a solo contributor. Teammate relations can be leveraged to create a better product through, well, teamwork. I want people to be happy and effective at their jobs, myself included. I try to work with others, understand what they are doing, and do things that directly or indirectly contribute to their efforts and even unite efforts across individuals and teams. There are usually inefficiencies that come from lack of communication. Talk to your coworkers and manager and adjacent teams and understand better why things work the way they do, stop just running off and racking up story points, it is not a race.
Re: Ask HN: How to deal with 0.1X programmer colleagues?
#60Your 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…
> Caring about your job is only acceptable if…
This suggests that it's unacceptable to care about doing your job well because you enjoy it or simply because your morals compel you to work hard at what you do. I don't think there's anything wrong with someone choosing to work hard for these reasons if that's their choice.