Random Thoughts - Part III The Search for Spark (No Politics)

[Kaotic Lazagna]

Wow. Kudos to you for being able to put up with it.

[Ultramaroon]

OMFG

[Spuds]

Originally Posted by Kaotic Lazagna

Wow. Kudos to you for being able to put up with it.

Meh, I just had a good laugh. It's quite comical considering it may or may not be an ironic situation.

I would categorize this person as weird but otherwise very personable. It wasn't like an angry discussion, just "here's some fun things you might not know" that started with pointing out old tobacco barns and how things have changed. Theeennnn sudden turn into fantasyland.

[NoHaveMSG]

Originally Posted by Spuds

Meh, I just had a good laugh. It's quite comical considering it may or may not be an ironic situation.

I would categorize this person as weird but otherwise very personable. It wasn't like an angry discussion, just "here's some fun things you might not know" that started with pointing out old tobacco barns and how things have changed. Theeennnn sudden turn into fantasyland.

I find that stuff amusing. I actually enjoying listening to conspiracy podcasts or even just ones opposite of my views.

[spike021]

I've been working on this challenging project for the last month or so.

It's taken me longer than probably would've taken for other members of my team due to learning curve issues and then also in the beginning having issues getting access to software I needed.

About two weeks ago, I was pairing on it with the most senior member of my team because she's the one who originally wrote and built this "feature" that I was adding to.

At the time, she told me to test it this one way, and that to do what I needed to do, I had to do it a certain way.

So I finally got everything working in the past week, tested it using the method she told me to use, wrote test cases based on that, etc.

Submitted my stuff for review. She approved it.

Today I find out it doesn't work in the real life website. Fortunately customers don't currently use that new thing so it doesn't affect customers, but it looks bad that I pushed it through in a broken state because now I have to continue spending more time on it to fix it.

When I brought it up in my team discussion today i mentioned what I think is the problem and that it hadn't been an issue when I tested it, but that it currently isn't working in our pre-production or production systems.

So she replied saying "I thought in the change I reviewed that we tested it in pre-production and it worked?"

So I described the testing process I used, but didn't mention how she was the one who told me to do it two weeks ago.

Then she says in this situation for this kind of change she wouldn't use that testing process. Also she still thinks the way I did it originally should work, based on her knowledge of the system, which is how she explained it to me originally.

I try not to put coworkers under the bus but it's kind of ridiculous that now she says _not_ to test it in exactly the way she told me to before. I even have special configuration stuff setup specifically because she told me I needed it for this.

And I feel like with all the trouble I've had the past six months ramping up to all this new stuff, this doesn't look good on my part.

Fortunately I just had my annual performance review and things are fine on that end; I got the normal default 6 months on the job rating, so at least for now I'm "safe" but it does make me uncomfortable going into this first full year if I keep having fumbles like this.

[NoHaveMSG]

It's taken me till now to realize the genius that was Dilbert's Desktop Games. At the time I was just a teenager playing a silly game on my parents first computer.

[NoHaveMSG]

Originally Posted by spike021

I try not to put coworkers under the bus but it's kind of ridiculous that now she says _not_ to test it in exactly the way she told me to before. I even have special configuration stuff setup specifically because she told me I needed it for this.

And I feel like with all the trouble I've had the past six months ramping up to all this new stuff, this doesn't look good on my part.

Fortunately I just had my annual performance review and things are fine on that end; I got the normal default 6 months on the job rating, so at least for now I'm "safe" but it does make me uncomfortable going into this first full year if I keep having fumbles like this.

As a courtesy I would bring it up to her privately. Especially if you have a chat log or email record of it. It she takes it as constructive criticism and it's no ding on you, I'd say no harm no foul. If she blows it off or in any way it can affect you negatively, shove away.

I prefer to bring things up privately first, cause in the end you want to have some kind of working relationship with a coworker, but if they can't learn and it makes you look bad then they are free game. I also like to outline things in email and send it out to others if I am working on a project. That way there is no " I don't remember that" or questions about procedure or responsibility.

[spcmafia]

Originally Posted by spike021

I've been working on this challenging project for the last month or so.

It's taken me longer than probably would've taken for other members of my team due to learning curve issues and then also in the beginning having issues getting access to software I needed.

About two weeks ago, I was pairing on it with the most senior member of my team because she's the one who originally wrote and built this "feature" that I was adding to.

At the time, she told me to test it this one way, and that to do what I needed to do, I had to do it a certain way.

So I finally got everything working in the past week, tested it using the method she told me to use, wrote test cases based on that, etc.

Submitted my stuff for review. She approved it.

Today I find out it doesn't work in the real life website. Fortunately customers don't currently use that new thing so it doesn't affect customers, but it looks bad that I pushed it through in a broken state because now I have to continue spending more time on it to fix it.

When I brought it up in my team discussion today i mentioned what I think is the problem and that it hadn't been an issue when I tested it, but that it currently isn't working in our pre-production or production systems.

So she replied saying "I thought in the change I reviewed that we tested it in pre-production and it worked?"

So I described the testing process I used, but didn't mention how she was the one who told me to do it two weeks ago.

Then she says in this situation for this kind of change she wouldn't use that testing process. Also she still thinks the way I did it originally should work, based on her knowledge of the system, which is how she explained it to me originally.

I try not to put coworkers under the bus but it's kind of ridiculous that now she says _not_ to test it in exactly the way she told me to before. I even have special configuration stuff setup specifically because she told me I needed it for this.

And I feel like with all the trouble I've had the past six months ramping up to all this new stuff, this doesn't look good on my part.

Fortunately I just had my annual performance review and things are fine on that end; I got the normal default 6 months on the job rating, so at least for now I'm "safe" but it does make me uncomfortable going into this first full year if I keep having fumbles like this.

One thing I've learned over the time in my job is to always, always receive action items via some sort of correspondence (email). Save it as PDF, and Forward whenever someone appears to suffer from long term or short term memory loss.

It also ensures proper QA in the long run, and covers your behind in case you get blamed of something.

[spike021]

Originally Posted by spcmafia

One thing I've learned over the time in my job is to always, always receive action items via some sort of correspondence (email). Save it as PDF, and Forward whenever someone appears to suffer from long term or short term memory loss.

It also ensures proper QA in the long run, and covers your behind in case you get blamed of something.

Yeahhh, I agree. Problem is when most of the discussion with this more senior team member happened it was in a Zoom call and that's all ephemeral. :\

Originally Posted by NoHaveMSG

As a courtesy I would bring it up to her privately. Especially if you have a chat log or email record of it. It she takes it as constructive criticism and it's no ding on you, I'd say no harm no foul. If she blows it off or in any way it can affect you negatively, shove away.

I prefer to bring things up privately first, cause in the end you want to have some kind of working relationship with a coworker, but if they can't learn and it makes you look bad then they are free game. I also like to outline things in email and send it out to others if I am working on a project. That way there is no " I don't remember that" or questions about procedure or responsibility.

Yeah, may need to do this. The problem is people who are software engineers, me included, can tend to be more sensitive so if I do it the wrong way I can really screw up the working relationship.

[Teseo]

Originally Posted by NoHaveMSG

As a courtesy I would bring it up to her privately. Especially if you have a chat log or email record of it. It she takes it as constructive criticism and it's no ding on you, I'd say no harm no foul. If she blows it off or in any way it can affect you negatively, shove away.

I prefer to bring things up privately first, cause in the end you want to have some kind of working relationship with a coworker, but if they can't learn and it makes you look bad then they are free game. I also like to outline things in email and send it out to others if I am working on a project. That way there is no " I don't remember that" or questions about procedure or responsibility.

Women never get the constructive criticism, they are salty af

[spcmafia]

Originally Posted by spike021

Yeahhh, I agree. Problem is when most of the discussion with this more senior team member happened it was in a Zoom call and that's all ephemeral. :\



Yeah, may need to do this. The problem is people who are software engineers, me included, can tend to be more sensitive so if I do it the wrong way I can really screw up the working relationship.

The answer to conversations on the phone or xoom is to create a "Meeting Minutes" email. May seem like overkill, but serves that QA process.

[Clipdat]

Originally Posted by Teseo

Women never get the constructive criticism, they are salty af

Laughed loudly at this cuz most of the time it's true.

[spike021]

Originally Posted by Teseo

Women never get the constructive criticism, they are salty af

Hate to break it to you but the fact she's female doesn't really change things. In my experience when working with men and having similar communication problems they take it even more passive aggressively.

[Clipdat]

Laughed again, cuz also true! In general men are horrible at communicating.