Timeline for Colleague is starting to become awkward to work with
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
49 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Nov 14, 2016 at 11:42 | comment | added | bobo2000 | @jmoreno because the inmates should never run the prison. | |
| Nov 13, 2016 at 2:29 | comment | added | jmoreno | @bobo2000: if everyone is underpaid, why do you object to this guy trying for alternative compensation? He's tried 25% and likes it, now he wants more. Could go as high as 100% remote, which just might be enough to compensate for the low wages and make him want to stay. | |
| Nov 11, 2016 at 16:04 | comment | added | bobo2000 | @JustinOhms yeah - not great right? But it's because I am using this opportunity to try and gain experience to move to a better paid job, so I am overlooking it. | |
| Nov 11, 2016 at 16:00 | comment | added | Justin Ohms | @bobo2000 "Everyone including me is being paid below the market rate for the work we do" if that's the case I seriously wonder if the company is even sustainable. | |
| Nov 11, 2016 at 15:46 | comment | added | bobo2000 | @SeanLynch the last start up I worked in took that approach for the reason that you have mentioned i.e. ditching an office to save costs. When I left the company, they were 500k in the red...it is a false economy, on one hand, the company saves money with buying an office space - but the hidden costs stem from project delays, if the project management is done badly. Which is more likely to happen with remote workers since it is harder for them to work as a team rather then individuals. | |
| Nov 11, 2016 at 15:32 | comment | added | Sean Lynch | @bobo2000 You obviously don't like the idea of remote work for the issues you've stated. The link I gave you talks specifically about your issues with remote work. And the author doesn't even disagree. OBVIOUSLY it's easier to have everyone in the same location. The problem is the cost associated with limiting your talent pool to only those in your physical location. And if that limitation stops your startup from becoming the next disruption, then it could be a billion dollar mistake. | |
| Nov 11, 2016 at 10:59 | comment | added | bobo2000 | @A.McDaniel when I signed up to the company, I underestimated how much work was needed, I was expecting to join a company with a strong structure already in place. It wasn't the case, and much of my work has been making things more streamlined (introducing agile), structured (agile again), more ethical (minimising overtime), it has been a fantastic experience despite my bitching, a lot of stakeholder management involved, but yes I do feel very underpaid and sometimes undervalued for the role I do...especially when my boss starts complaining or tries to intervene with the structure in place. | |
| Nov 11, 2016 at 10:54 | comment | added | bobo2000 | @SeanLynch just after I wrote that post, I just found out that one of my colleagues who is working 100% remotely doing QA has been misusing his time from organising his wedding with his family as opposed to doing actual QA. If he was working on site, that wouldn't have happened. | |
| Nov 11, 2016 at 10:50 | comment | added | bobo2000 | @SeanLynch yes remote working can work, I have enough reporting tools to track progress, but from my experience anyway, it is so much easier when everybody is in the same room to get them to work together. Right now he is our only developer, but if there were a team of developers and serious problems arose, the developers can pair program and solve problems much more efficiently then say over Skype, Slack or teamview etc. At least when I worked remotely as a developer, communication was much harder and subsequently problems were solved at a slower rate with everyone working off site. | |
| Nov 11, 2016 at 4:32 | comment | added | jamesqf | @bobo2000: Re "He just can't have it all his own way.", why not? Apparently your company needs him, which means he has leverage. If you want to keep him, you have to make it worth his while to stay. It's as simple as that. | |
| Nov 11, 2016 at 2:05 | history | tweeted | twitter.com/StackWorkplace/status/796896563696140290 | ||
| Nov 10, 2016 at 22:39 | comment | added | Sean Lynch | Just wanted to point out some ancillary information about remote work as a developer. I am a developer working totally remote and it's perfect. And in fact some have suggested that developers actually work better when they're remote. This idea that you need to limit your talent pool to only who is located in your area is becoming antiquated. pandastrike.com/posts/20150508-whiteboard-cost | |
| Nov 10, 2016 at 22:14 | comment | added | GrandmasterB | "he knows for example that right now we need him quite a lot, he is using it to his advantage." -- Good for him! Too many developers let themselves get used as doormats. | |
| Nov 10, 2016 at 21:05 | comment | added | Beofett | Remote work doesn't work for everyone, but your assumption that it is a detriment to everyone, in any conceivable situation, is a personal bias that is contradicted by your own statements (e.g. you know he works hard because of the burndown chart, even though he spends 25% of his time working from home). When your own bias starts conflicting with a colleague's work/life balance (especially a factor since he wants time to go to his home country to be with family), you need to step out of the picture and let your boss take over. | |
| Nov 10, 2016 at 20:40 | comment | added | chrylis -cautiouslyoptimistic- | @bobo2000 You are taking your own personal preferences (lunch with the team) and blatant biases ("you can't be sure they're working"--but you said you have burndown charts) and presenting them as objective facts. Accept that this is a business negotiation, and working conditions (remote, for example) are just as valid a component as salary or hours. | |
| Nov 10, 2016 at 19:23 | comment | added | A. McDaniel | I'm just going to point out that in the last year, you've written questions ranging from "What should I do about this private email I somehow saw that relates to my bosses marital issues" to "my coworkers are impossible to get along with" to "my boss wants us to work unpaid on the weekends". Is there an aspect of this company you do like? I'd seriously consider moving on. | |
| Nov 10, 2016 at 19:15 | comment | added | bobo2000 | @Brian the situation is that his GF, friends and Family are back home, so he has complained a couple of times of feeling lonely. He joined the company doing an internship in the UK, he liked it, then decided to go full time with us and is now based here. The situation is however made complicated from the reason above. | |
| Nov 10, 2016 at 19:11 | comment | added | Brian | @bobo2000 The employee is commuting from another country? This is something that you should have mentioned earlier. Could you provide more detail? | |
| Nov 10, 2016 at 19:06 | comment | added | bobo2000 | @A.McDaniel Sorry - didn't phrase it properly in the question, and didn't phrase it to him that way at the time, I just told him that we can only allow 1 week remote, and if he wanted to spend more time back in his home country, then he is free to book a holiday and have a holiday there instead. | |
| Nov 10, 2016 at 19:03 | comment | added | A. McDaniel | If I wanted to work remotely and my boss told me to "take a vacation" instead, I'd be incensed. It shows that my boss doesn't view remote work as "real work" and that vacations and remote work are somehow interchangeable, whereas the reality is is that remote work and on-site work are the interchangeable ones. In addition, your theory that it's more important for work to be "streamlined" and quick instead of a lead developer understanding the product and more crucially for YOU to be aware of all alternatives is a massive red flag. Your company culture sounds like it sucks, period. | |
| Nov 10, 2016 at 18:52 | comment | added | bobo2000 | @psr I use burndown charts to track productivity, the issue is not really that, he is a hard worker, and I can see from the graphs how hard he is working it. I like the guy a lot. The issue is that with remote working everyone starts to become detached from each other and the project. On site, we have mini brainstorming sessions with everyone including the CEO in the room. Working remotely you build less of a relationship with one another..I know this because I worked in a company whose set up was remote working for 5 years. It had it's benefits, but on the whole was terrible. | |
| Nov 10, 2016 at 18:47 | comment | added | psr | How come you have to be in the same room with him to tell if he is really working? Does he have any technical management that can tell what he is accomplishing? You say in a comment that you were a developer in the past, at least - are you able to evaluate his productivity? | |
| Nov 10, 2016 at 18:47 | comment | added | bobo2000 | @Brian that is fine, but the product owner needs to be made aware of this before he implements it, there have been times he has done it his way, we then end up losing 2-3 sprint cycles because the PO goes 'no I wanted it the original way'. At the end of the day it is his product, not the developer and he has the final say. It is about using time efficiently, making back and forth changes when it can be avoided is not a good use of time. At this point the developer doesn't get told off for it, I do, because I am in charge of making sure the that the product increments are delivered properly. | |
| Nov 10, 2016 at 18:45 | history | edited | bobo2000 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Nov 10, 2016 at 18:35 | comment | added | bobo2000 | @dirkk actually I think you will find, this developer has a lot more freedom than other employees in the company. There is nobody else in the company working remotely, that includes me, so we are doing our best to accommodate him. He just can't have it all his own way. He has also already stated he wants that privellege despite how much we give him, so money is not the issue. I think that as a company we have every right to have a say with how somebody wants to work if it is not the norm. | |
| Nov 10, 2016 at 18:22 | comment | added | Brian | Regarding your second bullet: As a developer, knowing the reasoning behind doing something a certain way almost always results in a better end product. | |
| Nov 10, 2016 at 17:51 | comment | added | jamesqf | "... there is a limit to what we can give him": Why? Obviously the company can't give him more money if they don't have it, but there is no reason in the world other than management's attitude why they can't let him work from home. About all you can do is have a quiet word with him, saying that management isn't going to play, then prepare for his departure. And keep your resume updated :-) | |
| Nov 10, 2016 at 17:02 | comment | added | dirkk | I am sorry, but I find your and your companies attitude quite terrible. If I would have a reasonable request like asking for working from remote and you give such a snippy answer ("book a holiday") I would be pissed. Of course you can say no, but whats so wrong about the request? Also I can't find something wrong with a developer asking why some stuff is done a certain way - It is actually part of the job description to do that. If you can't explain your reasoning, most likely his questions are on the spot. | |
| Nov 10, 2016 at 16:25 | comment | added | Brandin | @bobo2000 he threatened to leave if we didn't give him at least a week in a month - Doing this may have been a mistake, but now that you have done it, you should start recruiting for his replacement. Schedule interviews to come in on is "remote work week" if it is more convenient that way. | |
| Nov 10, 2016 at 16:13 | vote | accept | bobo2000 | ||
| Nov 10, 2016 at 15:09 | answer | added | Joe Strazzere | timeline score: 27 | |
| Nov 10, 2016 at 15:06 | answer | added | Vietnhi Phuvan | timeline score: 1 | |
| Nov 10, 2016 at 15:06 | comment | added | bobo2000 | @AndreiROM the company has come a long way, well I have done a good job - CEO now has a self service maintainable product now in 1 year and we have worked with some pretty good brands recently. It is just sales are not consistent enough - which isn't my problem. Noted: about finding a replacement soon. | |
| Nov 10, 2016 at 15:06 | answer | added | AndreiROM | timeline score: 3 | |
| Nov 10, 2016 at 15:03 | comment | added | AndreiROM | You guys are barely making this company work, and this person, who knows he has an ace up his sleeve, is trying to run the show. Quite frankly, you're out of luck here. He is dissatisfied, and probably only wants to stick around because he gets to push you guys around and make his own schedule. I totally get his point of view, as well as your own. The only way I can imagine this working is if you lay down the law and tell him you'll let him go if he doesn't start complying with instructions. Beware, he's probably half-way out the door as it is, so start planning on hiring a replacement. | |
| Nov 10, 2016 at 14:12 | comment | added | bobo2000 | @JoeStrazzere we had no choice but to try and compromise, when you are a start up that is bootstrapped,it is harder to replace good developers. He knows it so is pushing his luck. If money was not an issue, we probably would have replaced him, not thinking twice about giving into his demands. If I had my way, he would not be doing it at all. | |
| Nov 10, 2016 at 14:05 | comment | added | bobo2000 | @Lilienthal no remote working is harder, I used to be a remote worker for 5 years in another company as a developer, it is a) harder to bond as a team, for example when everyone is on site we eat lunch together get to know one another which helps morale a lot I find b) delays in communication, and more importantly c) you can't be absolutely certain that people are working if they are not in the same room as you misusing companies time. I am middle management here, but if there are any serious issues, such as my colleague wanting to change his contract arrangement, I need to report it | |
| Nov 10, 2016 at 13:53 | comment | added | Lilienthal♦ | @bobo2000 Your assessment of remote work is incorrect. You just seem to have an issue with this person working remotely. Anyhow, the real problem you have is that your company needs a decent hierarchy. It's a common problem at startups but having everyone report to the CEO is sheer mismanagement once you hit a certain staff size. | |
| Nov 10, 2016 at 13:20 | comment | added | bobo2000 | @JoeStrazzere it just affects team dynamic, firstly everything is slower when somebody works remotely, secondly I am a firm believer of having everyone in the same room working together so that the team bonds better. If they are away for too long especially in a product building environment, they become detattached from the project. Do you think he will leave the company in the near future? | |
| Nov 10, 2016 at 13:19 | comment | added | bobo2000 | @Roland it is a start up unfortunately, that is not making a lot of money. Everyone including me is being paid below the market rate for the work we do. The difference is that we all handle it differently. In addition, everyone that signs up are made aware that the company is not a rich company. | |
| Nov 10, 2016 at 12:58 | answer | added | paparazzo | timeline score: 6 | |
| Nov 10, 2016 at 12:35 | comment | added | bobo2000 | Sorry forgot to mention - the developer has already said to us that even if we paid him the money he wants he wants to work from home since his family and GF are not in the UK. We do not have a problem with this as long as it is not for longer than 1 week. | |
| Nov 10, 2016 at 12:16 | comment | added | user29390 | You need someone a lot, but "can't" pay adequately? That's the problem you need to solve. The attitude your current developer has developed is a symptom and a secondary problem. | |
| Nov 10, 2016 at 11:30 | history | edited | bobo2000 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Nov 10, 2016 at 11:29 | comment | added | bobo2000 | I'm his line manager I guess, since I need to get the team to work together so that they help me get the work delivered. The person though who has the final decision is the CEO, who I report too. | |
| Nov 10, 2016 at 11:27 | answer | added | Jonast92 | timeline score: 10 | |
| Nov 10, 2016 at 11:25 | review | Close votes | |||
| Nov 10, 2016 at 21:36 | |||||
| Nov 10, 2016 at 11:11 | comment | added | Erik | His boss should handle it. Are you his boss? | |
| Nov 10, 2016 at 11:06 | history | asked | bobo2000 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |