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Ask HN: How to talk to my manager about a coworker?
I'm a consultant in a team of 8 that is half internal developers and half consultants. We're all fairly junior but one particular person has been empirically and consistently holding us back, or even sabotaging the project.
I'm talking about half-assed code, exaggerating or lying about completed work and overall technical debt.
The rest of the developers, (started with contractors, now even some internal) have noticed the source of delays, uncompleted tasks etc and we have always managed to work hard enough to fix what needs to be fixed in order to ship.
I don't think that our manager is clueless. However, this developer seem to do barely enough and are socially nice enough so that the manager didn't single them out. Instead the entire team gets a verbal talk about some delay or broken thing that reached production.
The structure is done in a way so that almost every feature has intertwined code from almost everyone and when a part of it fails it reflects bad on all of us.
I'm wondering what is the best way to approach this with the manager? How to have a discussion without throwing someone under the bus or looking like an attempt at deflecting blame?
(throw away for obvious reasons)
- ziddoap 8y agoUnfortunately sounds like a manager problem, not (just) a coworker problem. If your manager has been unwilling to intervene up until this point, and is only addressing the issue by addressing the entire group instead of the culript... Talking to your manager is just going to put you in a worse off position. In my opinion, you'd be sticking your neck out for little gain. No matter how eloquently you say it, no matter how structured and logical your arguments are... You're going to come across as both throwing someone under the bus while simultaneously deflecting blame. If I were you, I'd be more concerned about your manager than your coworker. But thats just me.
- cr4pc0wrk 8y agoSo how do you suggest addressing this? Continue to cover and try to get them to do less harm?
- ziddoap 8y agoIt's really hard to say as these situations are hugely complex and there's only so much info I have to go on (and this is all in my experience anyways... your mileage may vary, and I'm often wrong). Putting myself in your shoes I see two options: 1) Simply do not address it. Do your work, day in and day out. Do a damn good job of your work. Help out when able to, but don't stretch yourself thin to try and rescue a project and don't try to cover up for someone else (and thus taking responsibility in the end). When your manager addresses the group you BOTH know they are addressing your sole coworker -- so these group talks really don't matter and don't reflect on you (given what you've said about your manager being resonable is true). Maybe your manager just can't handle confrontation and thinks these group talks are adequate to get the message to the lone coworker. If this is the case, honestly just ignore the group chats and do a good job at the things within your job description. 2) Instead of approaching it head-on as a "you need to manage better" or a "you need to get rid of this person" problem, have you considered approaching your manager and/or CEO for a management or mentorship position yourself? If thats something your interested in, of course. I whole-heartedly think that you SHOULD be able to approach your manager with a situation like this. That's what they're supposed to be there for. But, in my experience anyways, it never works out. You're either labled a snitch, a suck-up, or reprimended for "overstepping your bounds". In corporate life, I find it best to be VERY mindful of where my job duties end. If your job duties don't include managing other staff members, I would advise doing everything in your power to avoid "managing your manager", even if justified. Unless it is outright sabotage, ignore it and do your duties to the best of your ability. Smart managers will recognize you for it. Or, you find out that you'd rather be working somewhere else.
- ziddoap 8y agoJust to add... If everyone in the office and even outside clients are not only noticing the slowdown but also able to point at the root cause (your coworker), you really don't need to stick your own neck out there to let them know something they are aware of. It's already known. Let the situation come to fruition at it's own pace.
- verdverm 8y ago