Professional Darwinism: Update to OP on p.74

[greencat]

Slight update to our new coworker who insisted that his way had worked for 16 years and he wasn't going to change it now...

He has handed one of his changes over to another analyst because despite getting access to our code repository (usually a total no-no for analysts, who shouldn't NEED to see the code to make a decision about something) he insisted that he "didn't get access to the code in time", which utterly baffles me because there is no hard set deadline on this change, so I don't know what "in time" he's talking about.

He has also moved desks in the open plan office to avoid myself and the senior analyst who sits near me, and has basically started blanking both me (who is the assigned developer on his big project) and the senior analyst (who holds all the knowledge about the database tables he will be working with). He hasn't said a single word to me or the senior analyst in three weeks, he's had a blow up with the project manager, he barely attends project meetings (and when he does attend, sits through the meeting sullen and silent, looking bored out of his mind, and contributing nothing to the design of the solution he is going to be working on) and is just generally offending most of the project team he is going to be spending the next few months working with.

He's been here three months and has only had one code change go live, and that was only because the senior analyst got the helling and wrote the change herself.

If you're that unhappy here, just leave! 

     And he's still employed because...

I think our boss is reluctant to admit he made a mistake hiring him. Or something, I don't know. He refuses to get rid of deadweight in our dept (there are three of them right now) and insists on doing performance management on them (insisting they upskill themselves etc), so I thinking maybe he's giving them enough rope to hang themselves with, or building up HR documentation or something. I hope.

At least your PD candidate has a complex job.  At my work, the candidate for PD who is getting managed this way is the dishwasher.  He is beyond lazy - he appears to be actively unwilling to do his work.  The management had the awesome dishwasher who works in the mornings stay for the guy's night shift and "go over the closing procedures" with him again - basically, the good guy ended up having to work a twenty-hour day to do this training.  They don't want to acknowledge that the problem that we've all observed the bad dishwasher having isn't a lack of knowledge of how to do his job, it's that he just refuses to do it until the other staff snaps and starts getting angry at him.  The dishpit looks like a cartoon catastrophe while this guy is "working."  He will sit there with the dishes piled up around him  and the trash can overflowing and play on his phone.  It's not like he finishes it up before he leaves either - he leaves piles and piles of stuff for the next dishwasher to do.  I'm all for giving people chances and retraining employees who aren't "getting it," but this guy is purposefully not working, and they should have fired him before his probationary period ended.  Yes - this guy has been doing this for at least three months, and he's only been there for four.

[Diane AKA Traska]

You know, I really read dishpit wrong and... well, I was initially surprised you'd call someone that AND that it made it past the filters...

[starofwinter]

You know, I really read dishpit wrong and... well, I was initially surprised you'd call someone that AND that it made it past the filters...

Ha!  It took a few read-throughs of the original post and yours not to wonder the same!

[WolfWay]

Mr "16 years" is now participating in the few project meetings he condescends to attend but somehow manages to answer questions from the senior analyst without actually directly addressing the senior analyst (he answers the question, but directs the answer at the Project Manager, rather that at senior analyst who asked the question of him).   

Senior analyst thinks this whole thing is hilarious. She says she's going to make it a game to see how many direct questions she can ask Mr 16 Years in one meeting without him ever directly answering her. 

[Hazmat]

You know, I really read dishpit wrong and... well, I was initially surprised you'd call someone that AND that it made it past the filters...

^This.^

[ladyknight1]

My local grocery store has a group of PD specialists. Under the old management, a group of women in their 50's and 60's were hired. Three work in the deli and two work in the front, bagging and stocking shelves. These women are nearly identical in their appearance, and they all move at their own pace. The three in the deli are notorious to the customers and management alike for moving extremely slowly. The sales from the deli slow down 50% when one of them is working, because they have absolutely no reason to move quickly, and it takes 10 minutes to get a deli order filled.

The two that work in the front like to take a coffee break (while on the clock) and sit on the benches in the front, instead of in their employee break room. The new management is nearly at wits end in attempts to bring a new attitude in these employees rather than letting them go.

[Diane AKA Traska]

I think in honor of all of our gutter-bound minds, I shall make "dishpit" my new insult.  "Look at that lane change!  Gads, what a dishpit!"

[mmswm]

I think in honor of all of our gutter-bound minds, I shall make "dishpit" my new insult.  "Look at that lane change!  Gads, what a dishpit!"

Oh, man!  You just made me snort coffee out of my nose!  But, I agree with you

[kansha]

Security audit finds dev OUTSOURCED his JOB to China to goof off at work

 

[faithlessone]

Security audit finds dev OUTSOURCED his JOB to China to goof off at work

 

Oh wow! Now that is quite impressive. Does anyone know how long he got away with it for?

[Diane AKA Traska]

Brings up an interesting point, though... assuming there's no security or confidentiality concerns, was what he did really all that wrong?  People subcontract all the time.  Mind you, it was somewhat dishonest, but really it's just an exaggeration of normal business practices (the acronym NSFW exists for a reason!)

[nutraxfornerves]

He was an employee of his company and I'm sure he was not authorized to subcontract his work without prior clearance from his employer. Nor was he authorized to send his token (a piece of hardware that allowed access to the private network) to someone outside the company.  Also, his duties did not include sitting around and surfing the web.

[Diane AKA Traska]

That would be security and confidentiality then.  Then again, I wasn't asking whether it went against corporate policy... merely whether it was entirely unethical.  The work got done (on his dime, I would assume), so he wasn't defrauding the company out of pay for work.  My first reaction when reading this, honestly, was to congratulate him on his cleverness.

[faithlessone]

I'm pretty certain a strong case could be made for fraud.

He was employed by several companies (not just the one that sparked the investigation), and considered a star programmer. He was obviously misrepresenting his skills, and being paid handsomely for it. If the company wanted to outsource their jobs to China, I'm sure they would.

Adding in the stuff about his token, which I'm sure could have led to a massive breach of security if it got into the wrong hands, and I'm surprised he wasn't arrested.

[Outdoor Girl]

5 Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) workers were fired.  They were responsible for writing tickets for violations, such as loitering, littering, etc.  Instead of actually doing their job, they wrote bogus tickets in the name of various well know homeless people who frequent the stations, looking for a place to keep warm.  Technically, the homeless folks would be loitering but policy is not to ticket them if they aren't being disruptive.  And besides, the tickets were never actually issued to the people whose names are on them.  Not that they could pay them, anyway, being homeless and all.  Oh, and most of these employees?  Made the Sunshine List, which is a list of public servents making >$100,000 per year.  Which they could only do by charging significant overtime since their normal salary is quite a bit less than that.