HACKER Q&A
📣 _ntjb

How to deal with a colleague who does the least amount of work required?


My team member does the bare minimum as part of the task. It is a pain to review their code. You would point out 100 of syntax errors and pitfalls and they would make the same mistake again in next pull request.

What is worst is that they would push back against you. They are fine with duplicate code or less maintainable code or design which will not scale as long as it gets the task done.

I keep asking the seniors for direction however they are evaluated on the estimates they gave and the feedback they would get. So they would optimise such that the task does not take more time.

What is worse is that they are evaluated on feedback. So they use sugar coated words ?

Initially I was fine with it but now I feel its dishonesty to the job. If someone is gaming the system then I also ask myself why I am trying so hard ?

Thanks for listening to my rant.

  👤 tomas789 Accepted Answer ✓
Well, it might be you who is doing something wrong. Based on your explanation you are not in any kind of leadership role. The company culture is mostly set around inputs proveded from the leadership. Things like what behaviour is tolerated, what kind of output quality is expected, tradeofs between speed and quality and so on. If you provided your feedback to the managers and they did not act on that it might be that they are on with such situation. And if that is the case and you don't agree with such views than you are probably not a good culture fit in the company. It might be a good idea to reevaluate you current position and move on. Don't settle for something and hope it will get better. You might be missing on a great oportunity waiting for you somewhere else with much better company culture for you.
👤 luckylion
If you feel like someone isn't pulling their weight at all and your manager ignores that, either you're completely mistaken, your manager is incompetent or your manager doesn't care. In either case, you'll likely not become happy there by just continuing.

You can try to change your approach to work and adjust your performance accordingly, or look for a different team or a different job. I'm not sure if adjusting yourself is possible or desirable (could you go back if you switch jobs, or would you become that person and drag down the next team you work at?), so looking to work elsewhere is probably to easiest route.

👤 tsewlliw
Two things to consider:

1) If everyone else seems like a jerk, maybe you're the jerk. Hard for anyone here to know. I've been the jerk before, happens to all of us. Not everyone stops being the jerk.

2) Sounds like you don't vibe with the culture around feedback, and you're early career. Maybe look around seeking a strong culture of direct feedback as a positive thing you're seeking to help you grow. Seems like a great way to spend your questions at the end of a couple interview panels.

👤 h2odragon
Why are you trying so hard? Is your company going to reward you, or the slacker, differently because of how you're doing your job?

It sounds like you may wish for ownership, where your efforts returns' accrue to you and not the employers. Don't ascribe it to this job if it's not there: the personal satisfaction of doing things well is great but you can pour your heart out for other's enrichment and they'll never even thank you.