
Ask HN: Is it ever OK to completely unleash on incompetent coworkers? - ajaxbit
I&#x27;m in the unfortunate situation of working with a coworker who is a complete poser, and has no ability.  He is therefore very insecure and paranoid and lashes out aggressively at anybody who points out (in the most gentle way possible) brokenness in his implementations. This person completely refuses to incorporate simple solutions  to the brokenness because it might make he&#x2F;her look bad (seriously).  This persons is clinically afraid to ever admit they are wrong, to the point of attacking anyone that brings a superior implementation to the table.  This person reminds me of one of those ignorant popes from the 17th century that wanted to execute galileo when he discovered the earth revolves around the sun.  My patience with the imbecility is at it&#x27;s end and I&#x27;m ready to bring thunder down on this individual but is it ever okay for this to happen?  Is it worth it?
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helen842000
As cathartic as it would be, it's not ok.

It would only make you look like you were incompetent at dealing with awkward
situations. Not a good result for you after all you have put up with.

While you may have been boiling with anger as they have been testing your
patience for some time, it's not a good idea to go from zero to rage in one
go.

E-mail the person your colleague reports to (hopefully they will have had
first hand experience for the incompetence), explain in confidence you are
having a few issues with this colleague of yours, say you're being patient and
want to resolve the tension, however there has been a long undocumented string
of occasions where you have had to fix their work & pick up the slack. Add
that you've attempted to bring this to their attention in a friendly manner
but it has not improved the situation.

Explain that you will now re-focus on your own work and that while you will
continue to be friendly and supportive you do not have the capacity to assist
as you have been doing.

Sign off by telling them that you require their support to rectify this issue,
that you will keep them updated and will document any examples of the
situation escalating.

Ensure you only ever remind your colleague of errors they need to rectify by
e-mail so you can keep responses.

Don't let them drag you down (work wise or emotionally) if you handle this
with just the facts, no blame, they are then solely responsible for their own
downfall.

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avenger123
Well, first of all, are you the only one noticing the incompetence? If so, why
is that? Why is isn't someone in a position of authority involved? This would
be the first step. Let them know and voice your frustration but make it sure
it comes across as a concerned voice for the company and not a vendetta
against the person.

If you are the only one that believes the person is incompetent but the rest
of the team (including supervisors) doesn't believe so, then you've got to let
it go. It's not your battle.

If you want to "thunder down" on the individual, go ahead, just don't do it in
front of the person. Find a room in your house, and let it out. You'll feel
almost the same as if you had done it in person.

People have long term memory for highlights and short term for details. If you
"unleash" you could be branded as the person that torn down another colleague
(a non team player, hostile, etc..) and the reasons for your outburst
(regardless of how legitimate, wouldn't be really remembered). Depending on
where the person is on the totem pole in the company you may even be putting
yourself in danger of losing your job.

But, based on what you are saying, it almost seems you are talking about
design issues with code and approaches on how to solve a problem. If this is
the case and you think the person's solutions are sub-par, but they still get
the job done, then you just need to chill. We love to think how something is
designed/implemented is really important but at the end of the day if the car
turns on and drives around, most people just don't give a sh*t that the engine
is the best in the world. Keep your part of the code the way you and if it
turns out that you end up maintaining/owning the person's work, then you can
start refactoring or complaining that the code is subpar.

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clockwork_189
Short answer...no. How you react to such a situation is what an example you
want to be to your fellow employees. In the sense, if you lash out to this
person, others might feel the same and do so as well. This would lead to bad
culture.

The way I would go about solving this problem is like so: Have a nice private
chat with the person. First, ask him if he has any problems with anyone at the
office. Then address those. Follow that by relaying your problems with him(in
a nice, professional and calm manner). Work out with him how you would
approach solving the problems you have with him. It could mean that maybe he
might need to take a week off to brush up on whatever the language skills, or
even that he might think it is culturally acceptable to lash out like he is.

Basically, work with him to figure out how to make the workplace a better
place for both of you. Remember, if you fight fire with fire you only get
burned.

------
grumps
NO.

It's not worth it by any means. You'll likely cause more harm to yourself vs
them. I would hope management is aware of the lack of skills this person has.
If not it's probably time to bring your concern to management. I wouldn't
suggest taking a tit-for-tat approach to their inability. It should be how
they're impacting your work and that you're afraid of how consequences would
roll back on you.

Management should setup milestones/goals for the employee to improve
him/herself with the resources that they'll need. If they can't meet this
milestones it's grounds for dismissal. To be ethical and legal one should give
their due diligence in trying to give the employee the best opportunity to
succeed.

EDIT: I fully acknowledge the desire to 'unleash the beast' on incompetent
people.

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dossy
While it would feel SO good to do so, it's not a good strategy. Compare it to
shitting in your own bed out of spite for someone else--you may feel great at
the time, but afterwards, it's you who has to sit in the shit ...

Personally, I advocate this strategy: you must periodically get contacted by
recruiters, yes? When they ask "do you know anyone who might be interested in
this position," pause for a moment, and then supply this cow-orker's name and
contact info.

Clearly, despite their incompetence, they managed to get their current job, so
they should be able to get another one with the aid of a good recruiter.

Cry lots of fake tears when they announce that they're resigning and heading
to another gig. Then, go out for drinks to celebrate once they're gone.

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jared314
No.

It sounds like you are very angry and there is nothing you can do about it.
So, you can either play the long game of finding a different outlet for your
creative energy, or find a different job. If the employer is large enough,
then transfer to a different team. If not, find a new employer. Don't waste
your passion on being angry at the people around you.

Also, remember that you may not be wrong, but you may not be right either. So,
don't do anything crazy. You ain't famous enough to burn bridges.

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belowlightsblue
Sanity, or the appearance of, is your friend here. If this coworker is lashing
out wildly, then the problem of him being bad for the team will become clear
to the people who can take care of it. But it sounds like you're spending too
much energy being upset by this. it's not your decision, its your
manager's...this co-worker is doing enough harm without you harming yourself
with resentment

------
hkarthik
In my decade long career, I've come across this situation a few times and it's
always been due to a leadership gap. Somewhere in the chain, management is not
doing their job.

Without a solid technical lead with a management mandate, there is no way to
change the behavior (or replace) such an individual.

If you're a good developer, in such a situation you have two options:

1) Leave the job and find a new one. 2) Work with management to deal with the
situation to change the person's behavior or change the person.

#2 is MUCH MUCH harder than #1 in most cases. And it's very easy to hit a wall
and get frustrated with it.

If you can't switch jobs, I suggest you start working on option #2. Based on
what you've described about this individual, you've likely reached the point
where dealing with it one-on-one isn't going to work.

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lsiebert
No, that probably isn't going to fix things at all.

And what you really want is a fix, not to call out the guy.

But there are techniques for dealing with this. For a basic look, try
Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People.

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jlengrand
I upvote because I understand your pain so much. I am in a two developers team
(me included), the other one being my "senior".

The guy doesn't know what a build means, and hosts all of his code in the very
same location. One folder. Yesterday, I had to remove circular dependencies he
introduced because "his eclipse was not working any more :s"

Trying to find a way to solve that for a year now :s.

------
ghostdiver
How about finding other job?

I mean, if it is possible for "imbecile" and a "poser" to get this job, there
must be something wrong with it, your employer and its recruitment process.

Why waste energy, time and your life for problems like this one?

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meric
Read "How to make friends and influence people". It'll help.

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ethanbond
Your team should have mechanisms to deal with people like this. Use them.

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lutusp
> This persons is clinically afraid to ever admit they are wrong, to the point
> of attacking anyone that brings a superior implementation to the table.

That's narcissism, not merely annoying behavior, and sometimes dangerous:
[http://arachnoid.com/ChildrenOfNarcissus](http://arachnoid.com/ChildrenOfNarcissus)

> My patience with the imbecility is at it's end and I'm ready to bring
> thunder down on this individual but is it ever okay for this to happen?

Confrontations don't work with people like that -- you have to get rid of
them.

~~~
lutusp
In an outcome I'm getting used to, I have once again been downvoted for being
right.

~~~
georgebonnr
Are you absolutely sure that's why? To borrow a phrase from another commenter,
just because you're not wrong, doesn't mean you're right.

There's a difference.

------
eip
What's really fun is when the incompetent person on the team is the
'architect'.

FML

------
groundCode
No. One of you needs to be the adult in the relationship.

------
hannibal5
The question you should ask yourself is what you are trying to do? Do you just
want to express your emotions or is your goal to solve the problem?

~~~
ajaxbit
Thats part of the dilemma. I want to strongly fix the problems, but I also
have strong urges to just let the individual drown in their own ignorance. I
feel like I upset the order of the universe by helping the person fix the
issues, like I'm giving aid to evil or something.

~~~
impendia
Ah, then that's the problem. Stop taking responsibility for your coworker's
mistakes. Then you will not feel compelled to yell at this person.

