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I think an important consideration is important for whom. If the only reason something is important is because of an arbitrary management deadline, the right re

I think an important consideration is important for whom. If the only reason something is important is because of an arbitrary management deadline, the right response is to stand your ground and calmly finish working on what you already picked up. While I understand it's easier said than done, if you don't stand your ground, it won't get better. The polar opposite of this is when I personally broke something and it's stopping others from doing their work. In that case, the right response is to drop what I was or wanted to be working on and fix the issue. An extra case of all of the above is planning work around big releases and the like. Regardless of how solid your CI pipeline is, if there's a bigger change set released, it's good to have someone who's designated on call. They're free to work on their stuff if they please, but their main priority for that whole day is the delivery. If anything is fishy, they're the guy who picks it up first. None of the above happens without good communication. To get to good procedures you need to take the time, discuss with your team, and agree on what your plan of operation is. Make sure it's clearly communicated both inwards and outwards. If anyone internal or external comes to you with a fire, you can point them to your plan. It may be urgent to them, but that doesn't mean it overrides your team's agreements. With all of the above in place, the scenario you described changes considerably: instead of asking whether you can finish your task, you will instead inform the other side that you're going to finish your task, and if it fits your plan, then deal with their problem. At the end of the day, it's a matter of mutual respect — it doesn't matter what the org hierarchy is, they're asking you for help, they can't demand it.

TheRealPomax 6y ago
As an employee of the person telling you to drop your current work and go work on something else, it literally doesn't matter "for whom", you do it because you want to stay employed rather than doing "what's right" and getting fired over it. Standing your ground if you don't have solid seniority first is about as ridiculous advice as a parent telling their 7yo to "just tell them to stop" when they're getting bullied. You don't have ground to stand on, and even if your input is right, and well reasoned, it can't come _from you_ because your voice has no weight. By all means, try to change the system, but telling others they should too is advice from an extremely privileged position.
- nix23 6y ago
  First i do what my boss says, when i did that and we both have a little time to talk, i explain to him why i was thinking the other stuff was more important, often he has a good point from a complete different perspective than i have, sometimes i 'win' from my 'technical' perspective, after some time passes you learn to read each other and decision's are made without questions, for me its super important to know each others and the base where decision's are made.
- eska 6y ago
  Yeah, the best you can do at that point is to meticulously document your work. You don't want to look unproductive and get fired just because you're constantly stopped from releasing your work. And in the case that you do get fired, you will want to give your lawyer some ammunition in the form of work logs outside of the ticket system, which you will be barred from.
- WrtCdEvrydy 6y ago
  I will usually drop a small comment saying 'deprioritized due to OTHER_TICKET_NAME' and mark the ticket as Done.
- Etheryte 6y ago
  I sincerely disagree. Taking the extreme case you described as either do it or be fired, the other party wants a result, a task done or something similar, which still won't be done if they would fire you on the spot. It seems you misread my reasoning as blindly standing your ground which is not the case I was making. If there is a good reason to switch what you're working on, you should, as I also said above. But if there isn't one, you should either ask until you get a good reason or stand your ground. The argument from privilege frankly confuses me. I've applied the same principles both when I've been the underdog and the one asking others and it's good guidance since it also gives you input whether you want to work where you currently are. Sometimes I've had harder times because of it, but I've never stayed in an abusive work relationship.
  - cerberusss 6y ago
    I remember when I had ~3 years of working experience. We were on the tail end of a fixed price/fixed date contract. There was a bug that needed to be fixed, and it was in a module that everybody had worked on, and the code was pretty bad. So during the meeting, I said: that bug is just a sympthom, the module needs to be rewritten. And I knew what I was talking about. No, said a senior, we're just going to fix the bug, no rewriting. I said that's your call, but I sure am not going to fix that bug. I can tell you: nobody listened to me. So he more or less finished the discussion and said: I'm going to sit down with you, and we're going to fix that bug. And we did. At that point it was the right call.

TheRealPomax 6y ago

As an employee of the person telling you to drop your current work and go work on something else, it literally doesn't matter "for whom", you do it because you want to stay employed rather than doing "what's right" and getting fired over it. Standing your ground if you don't have solid seniority first is about as ridiculous advice as a parent telling their 7yo to "just tell them to stop" when they're getting bullied. You don't have ground to stand on, and even if your input is right, and well reasoned, it can't come _from you_ because your voice has no weight. By all means, try to change the system, but telling others they should too is advice from an extremely privileged position.

nix23 6y ago
First i do what my boss says, when i did that and we both have a little time to talk, i explain to him why i was thinking the other stuff was more important, often he has a good point from a complete different perspective than i have, sometimes i 'win' from my 'technical' perspective, after some time passes you learn to read each other and decision's are made without questions, for me its super important to know each others and the base where decision's are made.
eska 6y ago
Yeah, the best you can do at that point is to meticulously document your work. You don't want to look unproductive and get fired just because you're constantly stopped from releasing your work. And in the case that you do get fired, you will want to give your lawyer some ammunition in the form of work logs outside of the ticket system, which you will be barred from.
WrtCdEvrydy 6y ago
I will usually drop a small comment saying 'deprioritized due to OTHER_TICKET_NAME' and mark the ticket as Done.
Etheryte 6y ago
I sincerely disagree. Taking the extreme case you described as either do it or be fired, the other party wants a result, a task done or something similar, which still won't be done if they would fire you on the spot. It seems you misread my reasoning as blindly standing your ground which is not the case I was making. If there is a good reason to switch what you're working on, you should, as I also said above. But if there isn't one, you should either ask until you get a good reason or stand your ground. The argument from privilege frankly confuses me. I've applied the same principles both when I've been the underdog and the one asking others and it's good guidance since it also gives you input whether you want to work where you currently are. Sometimes I've had harder times because of it, but I've never stayed in an abusive work relationship.
- cerberusss 6y ago
  I remember when I had ~3 years of working experience. We were on the tail end of a fixed price/fixed date contract. There was a bug that needed to be fixed, and it was in a module that everybody had worked on, and the code was pretty bad. So during the meeting, I said: that bug is just a sympthom, the module needs to be rewritten. And I knew what I was talking about. No, said a senior, we're just going to fix the bug, no rewriting. I said that's your call, but I sure am not going to fix that bug. I can tell you: nobody listened to me. So he more or less finished the discussion and said: I'm going to sit down with you, and we're going to fix that bug. And we did. At that point it was the right call.