Comment by shultays
2 years ago
Tim’s productivity score was zero
I also have a Tim in my team but he is a net negative.
Most of the time he would try to pair up. He just make noises that implies he is following your work. But you can see that is not the case when he tries to make a comment or a suggestion, he is clueless. Trying explaining things to him is a waste of time.
Rarely he decides to work on a task himself. No matter how trivial the task is, he needs someone to spell out what to do step by step. Even then when he sends a code review, you can find some surprises. He becomes a net negative because he can take a task that should take 2-3 hours top for a regular dev and then spends 1-2 week on it while also wasting more than 2-3 of someone else's time.
It is always fun to see him grab an easy looking task that is way beyond his capabilities and then struggle for weeks and tries to weasel himself out of it.
I never saw someone so immune to learning. He is in the team for over 2 years yet has a productivity of zero. I don't understand why companies keep such people
I have struggled to find work my entire life, but people like this get jobs. I hate life
You live in a different country probably.
Or, the past isn't the present. It was very difficult to get a job in the US in 2008 and now it's easy because it's 2023. (slightly harder for some kinds of tech)
That person manages to stay because he plays political games correctly.
In Europe firing people is not always straightforward.
There are so many people doing jackshit which make me go insane. I guess, good for them and I'm glad I'm not a shareholder.
Management handle the most blatant cases in 6 months. There are so many people who are not completely clueless at pretending to do something and they go undetected for their entire career.
From previous experiences, in a US startup they would be fired in 2 weeks.
What value to society does making companies carry dead weight provide? It raises the company’s costs, lowers productivity and morale, all to protect someone unfit for a particular role?
The unpredictable layoffs and terminations of US companies are their own issue, but companies pay unemployment insurance to let people go with some safety net. I can’t imagine UI is more expensive than keeping an underperforming employee.
Unfortunately, I have seen many of these types of people pass by management. The worst ones are the ones who do play political games correctly because they’re the ones who either get away with it at the very least or worse, make the talented engineers want to leave. Basically, the latter can completely destroy good teams.
Yup, I’ve seen many people like this in engineering. They “put all their skill points” into Charisma. Then they go on to build long, prosperous careers by bullshitting and charming senior management, until they themselves are promoted to senior management. It is a reliable, proven career progression for the incompetent.
They need to fire his manager first and then assess this guys capabilities. Maybe he is not guided enough. Maybe he is plain stupid. Full responsibility of his manager.
Bad management