I don’t care how good you are at programming, finding bugs, whatever. If you’re rude, or if you speak poorly to people who don’t understand your… quirks…. you will wind up being shunted to the side. No one wants to work with someone who makes them feel beat down all the time, or someone who they simply can’t understand, or someone whose reaction to every issue is to start wailing about the end of the world.
mark payne
on 16 Jun 09Absolutely….!......life is too short to do stuff you don’t enjoy or work with people who make it harder ….most people (me included) spend the majority of their waking life working….it has to fun!
Tony
on 16 Jun 09I work with a person (who shall remain nameless) who needs a real slap upside the head sometimes. She’s rude, pushy, disrespectful and complains and whines about everything.
I agree with Mr. Mark Payne; work has to be fun, and those who bring people down with their poor attitudes deserve to be pushed to the side.
Merle
on 16 Jun 09Ugh, funsters. Must be youngin’s. Nobody produces like a boomer. That’s well known.
Anonymous Coward
on 16 Jun 09DHH is taking notes, presumably.
EH
on 16 Jun 09This reads more like an excuse for the exercise of raw power.
B.E.
on 16 Jun 09These things should be worked out and people should be made aware when they behave badly, but in the end you have to accept that we do sometimes. You can’t expect everyone to be all smiles all the time. Then you’re the one with a problem and who needs a reality check. No one deserves to be ‘pushed to the side’ for whatever reason. People are people. Be overbearing as you can and at the end of the day you just have to deal with it and concentrate on your own attitude. If everyone does that instead of making too much commentary, things can only get better.
Dan Murray
on 16 Jun 09In the web dev industry, this rings incredibly true. It’s really hard to find and build a team that can bounce of each other. The industry is saturated with talented programmers with bad attitudes and use taking down other people as a method improving the perception of their self worth. An important caveat of what I’m not talking about: everyone has bad days (ask my team about me), what I’m talking about is those who don’t ever have the stones to pull their weight as part of a team.
Enrico Foschi
on 16 Jun 09Absolutely right. And yes, Mark, life is short and has to be enjoyed.
We spend most of the time working, probably, because our job is fun, exciting and creates continuously challenges for us that give hell of a lot of value to our life.
We should avoid as much as possible to fall in the stress trap (and following your http://gettingreal.37signals.com advices surely helps). A rude boss or co-worker just makes things tougher (for himself/herself as well), less enjoying, less qualitative and annoying. I cannot see any good point in that.
And yes, B.E., sometime we have just to deal with it. As a personal advice, I would say “never get submissive AND never get angry”.
Just let it flow.
Sometime we are the ones that should start smiling to get some smiles back.
LKM
on 16 Jun 09Interestingly, this doesn’t apply only to programmers. Everyone has the capability of being an asshole to others.
Tathagata Chakraborty
on 16 Jun 09Real extensive knowledge will make you humble. Sharing your knowledge will make your knowledge grow. People who are egoistic and boss around don’t know anything.
Peter Cooper
on 16 Jun 09What about R-rated individuals? :P
Stephan
on 16 Jun 09Wonder what brought that on? Luckily I’ve only observed this only a few times in my career and I find those that exhibit this are usually mid-level programmers with a new sense of entitlement after shaking off the “noob” years. But it all seems to mellow out eventually…at least that has been my experience.
Enzo
on 16 Jun 09In my last job one of my guys would always wander into my office every day and start whining and complaining about anything and everything. I finally got fed up and asked that unless he had something constructive to say then stay out of my office. I didn’t see much of him after that.
...and there was much rejoicing!
W
on 16 Jun 09Wrong. There occasionally comes a time when someone with truly extraordinary skills is allowed a few personality quirks, social awkwardness being one of them.
Fictional examples are often glorified but I’d hire the likes of Dr. House, Fox Mulder or Corporal Klinger in a heart beat – so would you.
M
on 16 Jun 09Sounds like if Catherine doesn’t like you, she can be difficult to work with. All sounds a bit cranky…
What’s with all of the negativity on 37s??
Alejandro Moreno
on 16 Jun 09I’m sometimes guilty of this myself, but only to people who can’t even be bothered to properly indent their code!
Ryan
on 16 Jun 09This is the reason why I have to work harder because everyone bypasses my boss for this very reason and comes straight to me. It gets old. Quick.
sensei
on 17 Jun 09That’s fairly ironic. A negative comment about negativity. Positivity happens with self. :)
Andrew WC Brown
on 19 Jun 09I agree with @sensei. Adding two negative in the context of math makes a positive. Adding two negative in the context of emotion makes a double negative
This discussion is closed.