> What's wrong with favouritism Because "guy I like" isn't a meaningful qualification for a senior engineer. I like everyone on my team. They're not all senio

> What's wrong with favouritism Because "guy I like" isn't a meaningful qualification for a senior engineer. I like everyone on my team. They're not all senior engineers, and I wouldn't promote them all even if I could. If you promote someone to senior just because you like them, not only are you doing a disservice to the company, you're doing a disservice to the engineer, because at some point you won't be their manager and they'll find themselves failing to actually work at a senior level. > * If a person does his job well and helps you (the manager) do your job better AND you get along well - that's the silver bullet right there.* If a person does his job well and helps you do your job better, whether you want to hang out with them seems pretty irrelevant. There is real value in interpersonal/social skills, but that's not at all the same as wanting buddies on your team. If you've got someone on your team that you don't like, but they do great work and work well with the rest of the team, they should be up for promotion before the person you do like who does mediocre work or doesn't work well with the rest of the team. Being a manager isn't about your personal wants.