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points by gregglain 3 days ago | 0 comments
I actually have seen good coworkers get chopped down because they cared more about the system than others egos. It saddens me when management supports egos more than the product. It shows up years later to the customers.
[–] wallst07 2 days ago
How do you measure 'care'. If it's a tech org, it either works or it doesn't?

You might 'care' to add features nobody asked for? Or 'care' to spend longer than necessary to refactor something that doesn't need it.

[–] restalis 2 days ago
In this context, first and foremost, it's "care" in the sense of maintainability. When the projects get big and weighty, it doesn't get harder to find fast solutions for implementing individual requirements or getting something fixed locally. What's hard and slows down the development is the need to find solutions that won't leave the project worse off in the long run.
[–] gregglain 2 days ago
This and yes also excessive refactor (I'm guilty).

One case I recall was an SRE that was quite intelligent asking smart questions and management took it as insubordination. The thing is he was fighting against shipping crap that later would ruin oncall.

Another time a coworker solved a big problem, saving time. But because management was not too involved, she got a pip.

One would assume making the system more reliable would get rewarded, in some contexts this is true. Others, it has to be blessed otherwise it can cut against.

[–] wallst07 1 day ago
I understand this and agree, but how do you measure it objectively.

Usually it's one outspoken engineer with lots of experience and anecdotes but not a link between cause/effect.. just a lot of war stories and slowing others down.

[–] locknitpicker 2 days ago
> I actually have seen good coworkers get chopped down because they cared more about the system than others egos.

What does this even mean? This sounds like an euphemism for someone being a jerk just because they wanted to unilaterally push changes to the code.

> It saddens me when management supports egos more than the product. It shows up years later to the customers.

Management are hired to support the people that maintain the product, and help them work together. If a developer fails to work together with coworkers, it's the manager's job to either help that developer right their wrongs, or support other developers by getting rid of the problematic one.