Questions tagged [colleagues]
Questions regarding the people one works with. This includes questions about communication, teamwork, or other issues caused by ones co-workers.
1,908
questions
621
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answers
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How should I deal with an employee who has slept with my wife?
I'm the owner of a business with about 30-40 employees. Recently, I found out that one of my employees has been having an affair with my wife. The employee has worked for me for four years. I felt ...
347
votes
18
answers
74k
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Coworker keeps threatening to tattle on me for "time theft"
One of my coworkers is especially nosy and keeps tabs on when I come to work and leave, and how long my lunch break is, how many times I go to the restroom and how long each break takes, and so on. ...
245
votes
14
answers
74k
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I've killed my colleagues' characters during RPG session, now they won't talk to me
Introduction
I am a software developer and I've been with my current company for about 4 months now. Initially I've generally stuck to myself but after a while (a month?) of getting to know everybody ...
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votes
23
answers
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How to gently enforce "nohello" to a coworker?
I am a huge proponent of nohello in the workplace - I get way too many Slack messages and other interrupts to waste time on pleasantries. I keep my Slack status set to "nohello.com" as a way ...
- 3,160
219
votes
15
answers
37k
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Is it unprofessional to car share?
To save some money, my colleague and I decided to start car sharing to and from work. Our workplace operates a flexible working policy between 7 and 7 and we often come in early and leave early to ...
- 2,041
215
votes
16
answers
35k
views
Coworkers accusing me of "cheating" for working more efficiently
I'm a CAD drafter. We have quotas of drawings to get done each day, usually 5/day with the correct forms attached with them. Each one would regularly take around 1.5-2 hours at a normal pace, so to ...
user110699
207
votes
17
answers
41k
views
How to deal with a coworker that writes software to give him job security instead of solving problems?
I have a coworker that primarily develops programs for internal use in the company. They design their programs in such a way that they progressively consolidate their position within the company so ...
- 1,508
200
votes
14
answers
39k
views
How to politely tell someone to stop explaining?
It happens occasionally, that I come across something I don't know how to do, and I need someone to show me. So I ask Bob for help, because Bob knows this stuff, and he comes over and starts ...
- 3,897
196
votes
16
answers
27k
views
Supporting developers who insist on using their pet language
I've joined a team of around five developers building a microservice-based website, in a shop that emphasises autonomy and learning. However, it turns out one of the developers is writing "his" parts ...
- 1,093
191
votes
16
answers
61k
views
How do I prevent colleagues from making fun of the length of my password?
At work, we were required to choose login passwords on our first day. I choose a long and complex (mixed with numbers and symbols) password, it's easy for me to remember, but hard for anyone standing ...
user85194
190
votes
15
answers
52k
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How to deal with an "I'm not paid enough to do this task" argument?
I'm the current tech lead and team lead of our development team. We usually function like clockwork (with the intern somewhat behind), but today I encountered a problem that I wasn't able to solve.
...
- 8,759
190
votes
11
answers
38k
views
Coworker throwing cigarettes out of a car, I criticized it and now HR is involved
"On my way to work yesterday, one of my coworkers was driving in front of me on the interstate. This coworker is a smoker. When they finished their cigarette, they flicked it out of the window. I ...
- 5,125
184
votes
11
answers
43k
views
How to deal with a coworker who blamed me for the bug that was his fault
I’m relatively new at a job, but have established myself as the “guy” when it comes to a certain web service we use. Our own website integrates with the service. I don’t really work on the site, just ...
- 1,401
180
votes
21
answers
35k
views
Dealing with reactions from colleague about being self-taught
I'm working as a software developer for a big company in Western Europe. I have 2 years of industry experience and 2 more years as a freelancer doing web apps on the side. All in all, I've been from ...
- 1,814
177
votes
12
answers
39k
views
Co-worker works way more than he should
I work in a research facility in Germany. I have lots of co-workers that are from other countries, mostly part of some international collaborative research projects.
There's one guy from China who's ...
- 921
176
votes
16
answers
29k
views
How can I dissuade a coworker who is disturbing my work from giving me help I don't feel I need?
When I am focused on a task that is assigned to me, my coworker will frequently shout out "Liz, come here." I go to his desk and find he has been working on my task and he explains to me how to solve ...
- 1,619
170
votes
10
answers
48k
views
My manager told me to stop helping a (supposedly) underperforming coworker. What are my options?
A bit of background
I'm a junior female developer working for a telecommunications company. Shortly after I started, another young woman joined the team. Our manager sat us together with the ...
- 3,296
170
votes
19
answers
31k
views
Should I avoid telling others that I ask questions on Stack Overflow? [closed]
I'm often afraid to tell others that I ask questions on Stack Overflow. A good programmer should be able to solve problems by searching for solutions independently, right?
I feel like if someone ...
- 1,167
167
votes
9
answers
36k
views
Why would HR think it's inappropriate that I visited a coworker in the hospital?
I just got out of a meeting with my supervisor and a member of our HR department, giving me a "formal warning" for engaging in inappropriate conduct by visiting a coworker in the hospital.
HR told me ...
- 1,023
166
votes
7
answers
30k
views
How to handle unwanted attention from "fans" in the workplace?
(Disclaimer: I am by no means a famous person, but I do have a medium sized YouTube channel with around 100k subscribers.)
So it just happened that the company I worked for a couple years now hired ...
anon
164
votes
16
answers
33k
views
How to politely ask a coworker to “Google it”
I'm working in a team of 8 consultants just like me. I'm the youngest member of the team and also the one with the least experience (on resume at least). But 4 of the 8 members of the team will often ...
user3041
161
votes
19
answers
37k
views
Coworker asking me to not bring cakes due to self control issue. What should I do?
Sometimes I bring cakes to work, e.g. leftovers from birthday party to one of the family members.
Most coworkers are happy about it and eat them without a problem, however one employee doesn't want ...
159
votes
11
answers
33k
views
Having lunch at home
I live near my employer's office. All I need to do to reach home is walk for five minutes.
To go straight to the point, I prefer having lunch at home. It costs me way less money than going to ...
- 1,680
156
votes
21
answers
26k
views
How to handle colleagues who are unwilling to write a bug report?
I'm working as a software developer at a small-ish company (~50 employees).
My main project is a mobile app. I have most of my colleagues on the alpha test channel and customers do not have access to ...
- 3,763
154
votes
17
answers
39k
views
Is it inappropriate to invite all my coworkers except for one person to a private event?
I work in a fairly small department, I have 8 coworkers. 7 of them are great, we're good friends, and I love spending time with them - we hang out outside of work often, but usually in groups of 3-4. ...
- 895
151
votes
18
answers
25k
views
Trouble understanding the speech of overseas colleagues
All of my development colleagues (software development company) are based overseas in India (I'm in the UK). I'm in a junior position and a lot of my development relies on being taught how to do ...
- 891
151
votes
12
answers
40k
views
Coworker watches content on his phone all day
I work at a software company. I have a coworker who props up his phone most of the day, watching stuff while he works such as video game streamers, or cooking shows, or whatever. He's trying to give ...
- 1,081
145
votes
12
answers
56k
views
Manager has noticed coworker's excessive breaks. Should I warn him?
A junior coworker of mine takes very long breaks every day. I've timed them; he makes hour-long visits to the restroom every day. He is paid by the hour, leaves after 8 hours, and is not allowed to ...
- 1,171
142
votes
12
answers
32k
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Asked to secretly obtain coworker's knowledge before he gets fired
I was recently told by my manager that one of my coworkers (call him Steve) will be fired in a few weeks, as his last reviews were found unsatisfactory.
My manager also told me to "inquire and ...
- 82.2k
140
votes
6
answers
37k
views
How to handle a coworker pretending to be my boss? [duplicate]
I have an odd situation: I have a coworker who acts like he's my boss. I've already confirmed with higher-ups that it's just not true.
He'll say all kinds of things like:
This is my department.
...
- 753
138
votes
12
answers
34k
views
I have reason to believe that my very competent coworker is being severely underpaid - any tactful way to tell a boss?
I am located in United States. I have a coworker who is senior to me (in that, if my title is "Blah", his title is literally "Senior Blah").
This morning he made a comment about job postings for a ...
- 991
138
votes
26
answers
23k
views
How can I reply to coworkers who accuse me of automating people out of work?
I work in a small manufacturing company on special projects that automate some processes (primarily design/drafting). This automation is mainly targeted at reducing errors, establishing standards, ...
- 651
137
votes
12
answers
24k
views
How do I politely coexist with a help vampire?
I'm a senior developer at my workplace. A coworker in my sister team… isn't. They're also a textbook help vampire: they face an issue, they don't understand it, they miss the error message, they ...
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votes
20
answers
30k
views
How to disclose negative information about a candidate when I'd rather not reveal its source?
We are a small start-up and I'm one of the senior members. After a hard work day, I went to a bar, where I met an attractive young nonlocal man. We had a one-night stand.
We conducted job interviews ...
user65199
135
votes
9
answers
63k
views
What can I do to make a coworker's lack of effort more visible?
There have been a number of questions where people have been dealing with coworkers who were not pulling their weight. The common perception seems to be that this is due to lack of effort or ability.
...
- 49.9k
134
votes
7
answers
43k
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My adult son embarrassed me in front of my coworkers - how to react to provocations?
I am located in the north of Germany. We had an event where the whole company got together, about 200 people. We had dinner, a live band, all in all it was a great evening. My small department (about ...
- 1,096
134
votes
12
answers
56k
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What can I do about a very loud coworker?
Our office space is pretty tight and there are no cubicles.
There is a guy sitting next to me and he is the loudest person I ever met. He is groaning, crackling, puffing, giving loud sighs and ...
- 1,451
132
votes
26
answers
29k
views
Team member is vehemently against code formatting
I am the manager of a small team of developers (5 engineers, including me).
A few months ago, on the suggestion of another colleague we introduced
mandatory code formatting in the code base, for our ...
- 1,127
130
votes
16
answers
38k
views
How can I deal with a coworker who doesn't particularly care about code quality?
I'm a software dev in a small team. I am the most junior member with a couple of years professional experience, but was brought to the (newly formed) team because I had the most hands-on experience ...
- 1,026
127
votes
11
answers
31k
views
How to react to hostile behavior from a senior developer?
I started working at Dec 2018, currently, there is only me and the senior developer and we sit next to each other.
He comes to work really early and leaves early.
When I started working I noticed ...
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125
votes
13
answers
31k
views
How do I ask a friendly coworker to remind me what their name is?
I have a coworker at my place of work that I am somewhat friendly with. Often times when I pass his desk, we'll both say hi and talk for a couple minutes about this or that. We're not exactly close ...
- 8,196
125
votes
5
answers
29k
views
New colleague is a smoker; I can hardly breathe near him
To be explicit: this is my problem. I'm not "blaming" the new guy (actually he's rather nice). That said ...
I'm allergic to smoke. When I was younger, I went "out on the town" only once or twice a ...
- 3,116
123
votes
9
answers
20k
views
Colleague blocks change request in peer review because of perceived mistakes in code, but suggested improvements do not work
In the company I work for, change requests go through various steps, including a development step, a peer review step and a testing step. On this particular change request, I have been assigned as a ...
- 3,672
122
votes
13
answers
28k
views
My colleague is constantly blaming me for his errors
I'm a junior software developer in a small company. I'm working on a project since I finished my internship contract 4 months ago. It's a small project, so there's only another programmer (junior too ...
- 873
121
votes
11
answers
39k
views
Coworker curses under his breath as he works - should I ignore?
I work in an office where there are 4 of us in the corners of a cube. One of the guys who sits in an adjacent corner acts a little strange. A few times a day (or more), he curses under his breath as ...
- 976
117
votes
15
answers
18k
views
New coworker has strange workplace requirements - how should I deal with them?
A new coworker just started in our office, and on her first day she told us:
No one can speak to her. Communication needs to be done over email only.
No one can speak in the room we work in. There's ...
user107417
116
votes
20
answers
31k
views
Coworker is trying to get me to sign his petition to run for office. How to decline politely?
My coworker knows that I live in "his district" and he's been coming up to my desk for the past few days asking me to sign his petition to run for local office. Personally we don't share the same ...
- 737
115
votes
13
answers
24k
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How to handle a colleague who appears helpful in front of manager but doesn't help in private?
TL;DR
A colleague offers (unsolicited) help in front of manager, but actually doesn't help. What to do?
The long version:
I have recently started on a new job. There is another very senior person, ...
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114
votes
10
answers
31k
views
How to handle a developer getting defensive when faced with breaking code?
I started working at a company as a junior developer, after finishing a great programming bootcamp with a deep and broad programming knowledge. Since then (1.5 years) I learned a lot, gained ...
- 969
111
votes
13
answers
33k
views
My coworker emailed me a root password that I'm not supposed to have. Should I tell my boss, and if so how do I tell without sounding petty? [closed]
I'm a junior-ish employee at a company (I'm not technically junior experience-wise, but I'm junior compared to the massive amounts of experience everyone else has and I've been here the shortest).
...
user5621