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You nailed it. Tell me you can't or won't do it, and I'll pull it back and re-assign it, or maybe just do it myself. Tell me "you're on it", and what choice d

You nailed it. Tell me you can't or won't do it, and I'll pull it back and re-assign it, or maybe just do it myself. Tell me "you're on it", and what choice do I have? Any action I take will be seen as "undermining a junior engineer who needs to grow". Don't ask me why I know this.

philwelch 8y ago
One interesting tooling idea might be, in whatever issue tracking system you use, to attach a TTL to assignments, so if the task doesn’t move to “done” (or “in testing” or whatever) by a certain point, the task reassigns to the original requestor/reporter. The main reason this doesn’t work is because one of the biggest use cases for such tools is to formally promise that you’re going to do something (see, your bug report/feature request is in our backlog, you can track this ticket!) with no intention of ever actually doing it.
myrloc 8y ago
How will the junior learn how to do it otherwise? Ultimately it's that first hand experience that will be the biggest lesson in teaching the junior. Perhaps the solution is something in-between - assigning the task to the junior, expecting honesty and communication from them, and pointing them in the right direction as they need it. With competent but inexperienced junior, this works and results in a stronger team.
- rachelbythebay 8y ago
  When it works, it’s great. When it doesn’t, it sows the seeds of resentment. Now imagine your job is to wander around and find things, fix some, but mostly inspire others to weed their own gardens, so to speak. Eventually you step in the wrong place. “Click.”
- itronitron 8y ago
  One important thing for anyone to learn is that they won't get work if they don't complete, or even just start work. The more effective someone is at working with other people the more valued they will be. Asking the right questions, and knowing which need to be asked, is an important skill to develop as well.

philwelch 8y ago

One interesting tooling idea might be, in whatever issue tracking system you use, to attach a TTL to assignments, so if the task doesn’t move to “done” (or “in testing” or whatever) by a certain point, the task reassigns to the original requestor/reporter. The main reason this doesn’t work is because one of the biggest use cases for such tools is to formally promise that you’re going to do something (see, your bug report/feature request is in our backlog, you can track this ticket!) with no intention of ever actually doing it.

myrloc 8y ago

How will the junior learn how to do it otherwise? Ultimately it's that first hand experience that will be the biggest lesson in teaching the junior. Perhaps the solution is something in-between - assigning the task to the junior, expecting honesty and communication from them, and pointing them in the right direction as they need it. With competent but inexperienced junior, this works and results in a stronger team.

rachelbythebay 8y ago
When it works, it’s great. When it doesn’t, it sows the seeds of resentment. Now imagine your job is to wander around and find things, fix some, but mostly inspire others to weed their own gardens, so to speak. Eventually you step in the wrong place. “Click.”
itronitron 8y ago
One important thing for anyone to learn is that they won't get work if they don't complete, or even just start work. The more effective someone is at working with other people the more valued they will be. Asking the right questions, and knowing which need to be asked, is an important skill to develop as well.