Timeline for Star developer didn’t get a promotion because he isn’t a people person, so he has scaled back his contributions. How can I motivate him?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
18 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 18, 2021 at 15:11 | comment | added | gnasher729 | A lead dev exempt from code reviews once cost me a week of my life. I totally unneccessary change was made because he preferred style A to style B. Style A is more complicated and less obvious, which explained (a) why he preferred it and (b) why he got his change exactly wrong. (For C or C++ developers: He changed "if (p != NULL)" to "if (! p)"). | |
| Dec 5, 2019 at 10:40 | history | bounty ended | Lilienthal♦ | ||
| Dec 2, 2019 at 6:58 | comment | added | StumpedMoneyHacker | @Malisbad how code reviewing works in practice may be another thing to investigate. Had he been teaching these guys, he would have a good case to be Director in the right role. | |
| Dec 2, 2019 at 6:55 | comment | added | StumpedMoneyHacker | @Malisbad the code review policy is generally that 1 or 2 devs (depending on how critical the project is) need to review a merge to get it done. The lead and this guy are exempt from the code review requirement (I didn't make that decision). I don't know all the details as I don't directly manage the software team. Problem is, getting devs to be serious about code review is difficult, so I suspect a lot of it is just rubber stamping. I used to be a dev and everywhere I worked had code review. But in practice it was just "approve my merge pls" in the chat. | |
| Dec 2, 2019 at 6:48 | comment | added | StumpedMoneyHacker | @Douglas it's a negative, but tolerated until now because it worked. That blind trust was an error. | |
| Dec 1, 2019 at 22:04 | comment | added | BSMP | @nvoigt To be fair, we don't actually know that he wasn't given an explanation, just that the explanation didn't come from the OP. The group doing the rejection may have told him. If so, the problem is even worse than I thought. | |
| Dec 1, 2019 at 14:27 | comment | added | Malisbad | @StumpedMoneyHacker douglas is correct is pointing out that this is serious red flag behaviour. What's your code review policy over there? I mean, the whole situation seems a bit out of this world to me at this point. No one should be able to just merge in code. Worse yet, as douglas mentioned, he's denying other people the opportunity to learn and grow. This guy, at this point in time, is definitely not leadership material. | |
| Dec 1, 2019 at 10:15 | comment | added | Douglas | @StumpedMoneyHacker "I suspect the other devs didn't even know their code had bugs." - Speaking as a software engineer myself, that's a bit of a red flag to me. No developer, no matter how skilled, can do everything themselves. Long term, the best devs help their coworkers improve, and quietly fixing things without even telling anyone an issue existed is actively denying the other devs opportunities to learn. | |
| Nov 30, 2019 at 22:18 | comment | added | StumpedMoneyHacker | @Josef he didn't guide the other devs. He just reviewed the merge requests and if he found problems, cancelled the merge request, changed the code, and merged it into master (he has the permissions to merge code by himself). I suspect the other devs didn't even know their code had bugs. | |
| Nov 30, 2019 at 20:05 | comment | added | user110557 | By the way, if you do explain to him that managing an intern for a period of time is a pre-requisite to a director position and he, reluctantly, agrees, make sure to keep an eye (and even 1-on-1 meeting) with the intern. By your description of this engineer, it is not unimaginable he will abuse the intern (in many ways and forms I can't even enumerate with the character limitation on a comment), eventually resulting in a hurt intern, at "best" and a huge hit of reputation to the company in the worst (maybe even legal action, depends how imaginative he gets). Yes, I speak from experience... | |
| Nov 30, 2019 at 14:51 | comment | added | Josef | Here you say he doesn't work closely with the devs on his team. In another comment you said since he stopped guiding the other devs in his team you started to see the team is a mess and outputs bad code. Which one is it? | |
| Nov 30, 2019 at 6:47 | comment | added | StumpedMoneyHacker | I plan to have a conversation with him next week. Shall give this feedback. Thanks. | |
| Nov 30, 2019 at 6:45 | comment | added | nvoigt♦ | Well, being told "no" with no reason why and no path forward sucks. Even if the rejection is sound, he has no chance to see that if you don't tell him. That said, you may want to add the fact that he actively rejected any tasks that would give him this experience in the question, I think it's important and the other people will be happy to not have it hidden under my answer :) | |
| Nov 30, 2019 at 6:43 | comment | added | StumpedMoneyHacker | I didn't tell him either. Positions which have power over other people can't be filled via higher ranked (unless they are very high ranked) fiat alone in my company. A group of managing directors declined him. I haven't had a convo about what is required with him yet. I certainly can if you think that would help. | |
| Nov 30, 2019 at 6:40 | comment | added | nvoigt♦ | Okay, that's different. But did you tell him that that is what is required or did you just tell him "no"? | |
| Nov 30, 2019 at 6:40 | comment | added | StumpedMoneyHacker | People can certainly change and I would help him make that change, but before that change is made, there needs to be evidence that he is suited for that change. He just applied out of the blue. | |
| Nov 30, 2019 at 6:39 | comment | added | StumpedMoneyHacker | "The committee rejected him because he is a star technical contributor, but seemingly has never demonstrated any real interest in management." Let me address this, as I was not clear. He is clearly interested in the position of management. He has never demonstrated interest in the nuts and bolts of management. The software lead asked him to help with hiring devs and he declined. I've asked him about doing project management and he declined. The intern was offered to him and he declined. He doesn't work closely with the devs on his team. | |
| Nov 30, 2019 at 6:32 | history | answered | nvoigt♦ | CC BY-SA 4.0 |