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Ask HN: Dealing with frustrating newly-senior engineer?
I know of an engineer who recently obtained the "senior" title. Though they are talented, they lack the experience that comes with many years of solving problems involving technology + people + process. As such, they sometimes make decisions that don't come from a place of seeing the 30k foot view. This is all normal and expected, and we were all once this person.
However, what doesn't seem normal and expected is the arrogance and friction that this person brings.
They argue incessantly, and (it seems) not always in good faith. Petty arguments, filled with "ha-ha gotchas" that are more about flexing what they think they know versus actually trying to find meaningful solutions. They over-optimize, spending endless time hurting readability and breaking abstractions to optimize code that will likely never need it. Their explanation? Matter-of-factly: "It's faster." Then they leave their esoteric over-optimized code undocumented for the next person who "should be able to just figure it out."
They frequently try to bond with people by shitting on popular projects, tools, or methods of doing things, without attempting to understand any of the justifications for why those methods made sense at the time, with the information that was available. It's all "trash" that elicits groans of disapproval and smirking and eye-rolling if it's not the latest, hottest shit. They talk with a shitty, pointed tone in their voice and make no effort to conceal it.
They've been the last hold-out on the team, when the rest of the team has aligned around a solution, because what was aligned around wasn't "their preference." They frequently have to be "overruled" because of their refusal to compromise, and make it loudly clear that they are being overruled when it happens.
I know that some of these concerns have been brought to this person's manager, but my sense of the outcome is that the manager is in a precarious position of trying to keep the team together and everyone getting along, so that forward progress is made. I'm honestly not sure what I expect from the manager. If I had it my way, this person would be let go. But they aren't, for whatever reason.
I need a strategy for communicating with this person. How do I persuade them to listen to other points of view? How do I prevent debates from devolving into petty gridlocks? I used to think that anyone could be reasoned with and compromise found, so long as everyone is acting in good faith, but this person challenges that belief. They have one way of seeing the world, and if something doesn't align with that, they don't budge. How do I minimize the damage?
- new_guy 5y agoSpeaking as someone who was 'that guy', it's pretty possible they don't know how badly they come across. A lot of engineers (and people in general) struggle with social skills. Are you the only one having issues with them? Maybe you could bring it to their attention quietly, and if they're writing bad code it should never pass review.
- daenz 5y agoOther engineers have expressed a subset of my concerns about this person, including 2 that have left the company. Wrt reviews, this person is extremely disagreeable, so suggestions about improvements are not met with the usual compromises. What usually ends up happening is their changes make it through if they don't introduce clear security risks, and everyone just deals with the new complexity, versus engaging in endless debates. Nobody has the time or energy to constantly fight this person. They don't seem open to learning or hearing other points of view.
- LinuxBender 5y agoIn my opinion that sounds like a problem with the engineers manager and the managers boss. If your company culture supports it, the entire team can escalate to the managers boss and have the manager seek new opportunities elsewhere. If the culture does not support skip-level escalations, then the entire team should go elsewhere.
- misterflibble 5y agoI wish I could offer helpful advice, but it's very tricky. I would be very careful working with them as you know that their behaviour could reflect poorly on you. If you have to work with them, I think you can only try to keep it professional, create an audit trail by keeping everything in writing, and try to involve other team members in your discussions so that you're not just dealing with them 1-on-1. I worked with someone just like that a few years ago: recently promoted to a Senior role, highly argumentative, bossy, and wouldn't accept constructive criticism. They eventually left the company. We're all fighting personal battles, it's a shame this sort of character chooses to battle with others as well