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I took up a position with a company as a contract-to-hire 9 months ago and they are going to make a hire/no-hire decision in next month.

Now, we have a situation going on. We have a star Developer in the team who has been here for 10 years and he is clearly a bully. His code-reviews are mostly negative and he is not helpful at all. Now, this is not my opinion. Other team members also share that view but they kind of stay away from the trouble.

I have been thinking to talk to my manager about it but then call off on the idea thinking that I do not want to draw a lot of attention just before a major decision about my employment is being made. I can wait till I am a full-time employee. However, on the other hand I think that if I do not talk to my manager about it right now and I get hired then I have to live with this bully for a long time.

I have been debating this to my self for a long time and finally decided to put up for discussion. Any suggestions?

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    You should consider this before accepting a full-time offer from the company. This employee is not likely to be going anywhere anytime soon, and if you accept the offer you will have to find a way to work with this person. You also may want to consider if perhaps your ego is getting in the way of objective reasoning. I see this a lot with new developers having their work criticized in review... – Cypher Jun 20 '17 at 3:07
  • The point of code reviews is to pick up things that are wrong or could be done better so by definition they will be negative this and "not being helpful" is not really bullying unless there is something you are not telling us – Neuromancer Jun 20 '17 at 7:36
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    @Neuromancer there's a big difference between pointing out things that could be improved and being negative and unhelpful. – Erik Jun 20 '17 at 7:38
  • @Neuromancer: What Erik said - plus code reviews are also a good occasion to praise ingenious solutions, or to learn something as a reviewer. Code review is a two-way street. – sleske Jun 20 '17 at 8:34
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    Non one seems to be asking the obvious - do you really want to work with this guy? If not, move on. – Mawg Jun 20 '17 at 12:15
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Nothing is going to change right now

Talking to your manager now isn't going to change a thing in the short to medium term, and a very remote possibility of change in the long term.

Even if management decides take action, it will be slow as this is a "working with others" issue which are hard to pin down in general and the on top of that he is their star developer and has been there for ten years, which means he is probably well liked by management.

Odds of them firing him? None. Odds of them hounding him to change until he quits? None.

Therefore, if you take this job, you will be working with him until he leaves or you do.

And that means you have to ask yourself - is this where you want to work knowing that you are not going to obtain relief for some time?

If the answer is "no", then take the remaining few months you have to look for a new position.

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    Yes, there is zero chance of this benefiting the OP in any way and in addition there is a good chance it will hurt him/her – Kilisi Jun 20 '17 at 6:04

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