5 ms·
Just an anecdote -- I've known great engineers who slowly became angry, bitter, and defeated about their jobs, bosses and coworkers. They gradually turned sour,
by dxhdr 13y ago
Just an anecdote -- I've known great engineers who slowly became angry, bitter, and defeated about their jobs, bosses and coworkers. They gradually turned sour, subtly poisoning the workplace over time. When confronted, they'd lash out with the defense of "professionalism," that they're more than capable employees who are contributing just as well as anyone. Attitude and enthusiasm nitpicks are irrelevant as long as you're writing code. In short, they deserved to keep the job and could hack it because they were still "professional."
The truth is, those people had given up and became toxic to everyone around them. It was time that they move on.
Anyhow, whenever I hear the defense of "professionalism" I become fairly suspicious of the circumstances.
- YuriNiyazov 13y agoActually, I think that saying "but I behave professionally" is equivalent to saying "I am a great lover" or "I am a very humble person" - making such a statement is an automatic disqualification for the quality you are claiming. The point I am trying to make is that if someone says "he/she is capable and behaves professionally, but the culture fit is just not there", that's when I become fairly suspicious of the circumstances.
- velik_m 13y agoI would contest that if they "slowly became angry, bitter, and defeated about their jobs, bosses and coworkers", they weren't the ones doing the poisoning...
- dxhdr 13y agoVery valid point. In the case I witnessed it wasn't any particular person's fault but rather the longer-term consequence of bad "culture fit" allowed to simmer.