What Should I Do About My Colleague

ozSupergood on 05/12/2019 - 18:46
Last edited 06/12/2019 - 08:21 by 1 other user

We have a colleague (programmer) joined us 2~3 months ago, and recently we found him

  • late for the stand up meeting every morning (9.30am)
  • after stand up meeting, he used to have a lot of phone calls, different language, cannot understand, seems not work related
  • disappear at afternoon for several of hours, I asked him a couple of time, he said he had coffee.

We cannot deliver a project on time due to him, the team leader is on a different level so he wouldn't know about this.

What shall we do, or what could I do?

Education & Work

Comments

  • [Deactivated] on 05/12/2019 - 18:54
    +8

    Dear Boss,

    As you may be aware, we have a deadweight join us 2-3 months ago.

    We'd like to keep delivering quality work on time.

    You'd like to keep paying people who actually work.

    If you put 1+B together, you get something. I don't know what yet, but something.

    Love you,
    Grunt

  • HighAndDry on 05/12/2019 - 18:57

    Does he share a last name with the boss?

    • ozSupergood on 05/12/2019 - 18:58

      Not the same last name, they are from the SAME country.

      • HighAndDry on 05/12/2019 - 18:59
        +4

        I'd be careful then. Most new hires don't slack off this blatantly this soon. Maybe ask around and see if he's got connections to the boss, and/or send a note to your boss but anonymously.

      • Halo375 on 05/12/2019 - 19:29

        What does the fact they’re from the SAME country have to do with the price of fish?

        • brad1-8tsi on 05/12/2019 - 20:43
          +2

          everyone is a cousin

        • Bargain80 on 06/12/2019 - 16:59

          as per @HighAndDry reply.
          The new guy might have connection with OP's boss.

      • vikvance on 05/12/2019 - 21:02
        +3

        Not the same last name, they are from the SAME country.

        If he has been hired for 'other' reasons than his job ability, then there is nothing you can do, except find another job.

      • mini2 on 10/12/2019 - 16:10

        Be careful with you how rat this guy out, who knows they might pull the race card out.

      • [Deactivated] on 13/12/2019 - 18:18

        What country is it?

  • o53djz7qTPY4der on 05/12/2019 - 19:15
    +4

    What Should I Do for My Colleague

    Being him coffee in the afternoon. Then he won't have to go out for it.

  • bobbified on 05/12/2019 - 19:16
    +1

    We cannot deliver a project on time due to him

    Is he really 100% to blame for the late delivery or is he only part of the reason?

    the team leader is on a different level so he wouldn't know about this

    Because if he's 100% responsible (or is responsible for at least a significant part of the delay), your team leader will definitely hear about it. If it's not from you, then someone else will probably complain about it.

    Keep in mind the tech people are not necessarily the most social people and they have their own ways to do things that you may or may not understand. Unless you share the same expertise, how do you know he didn't do things much better and faster than someone else could have (even though he couldn't meet the deadline)? It may have been an unrealistic deadline to start with.

  • Melb69 on 05/12/2019 - 19:22

    The other annoying this is that not only is he creaming the situation he's probably on significantly higher pay than his colleagues.

  • Stewardo on 05/12/2019 - 20:50

    How’s his stand up act? This might make up for it.

    • ozSupergood on 05/12/2019 - 22:00

      This morning, the stand up finished when he just came.

      • Stewardo on 05/12/2019 - 22:03
        +2

        Sounds like his set finished with a crescendo.

        • lolz112 on 06/12/2019 - 21:11
          +2

          and a whoosh?

        • ChillBro on 06/12/2019 - 23:45
          +1

          Most underrated comment of the month!

  • HardlyCharly on 05/12/2019 - 20:58
    +1

    Give evidence and written records of all of this to someone who can do something about it. Doesn't matter what connections he has, there is always a line where his behaviour embarrasses those who hired him or got him hired.

  • try2bhelpful on 05/12/2019 - 21:19
    +2

    So who is the PM for this project? People should be assigned particular parts of the project, if he isn’t delivering his part of the project then that can be highlighted.

  • John Kimble on 06/12/2019 - 01:49
    +1

    Your boss doesn't say anything when he is late for the stand up meetings?

  • brendanm on 06/12/2019 - 07:49
    +3

    Why can't you sit down at meetings?

    • [Deactivated] on 06/12/2019 - 22:33

      It's to test how agile you are :p

      It's actually to keep the meeting short. I have mine outside in winter. You'd be surprised how quickly everyone can answer those 3 questions :

      • What have you recently accomplished?
      • What are you in-progress tasks and/or plans?
      • What obstacles are impeding you progress?

      when they know there's a steaming hot cup of coffee waiting for them when we go back inside.

      • brendanm on 06/12/2019 - 22:54

        That makes sense. I think I would really hate the corporate world.

        • [Deactivated] on 11/12/2019 - 00:58

          Our last 'de-briefing session' was rappelling down a skyscraper in the CBD.

          Ps: I'm not corporate. I just work with a bunch of masochists :)

  • orangetrain on 06/12/2019 - 09:01

    Are you his project manager? Have a meeting with his boss/him. If it still persists, talk to HR.

    Are you a lowly worker? STFU about him. If project is behind then only report that. If they blame/punish you or whole team instead of analysing ways to improve (ie, dropping him, getting more ppl), jump ship. It's not a school project, it's business.

    Are you his boss? Post on Ozb asking for help.

    Note: We don't know what kind of hierarchy your company has.

  • spunkyfondue on 06/12/2019 - 11:14
    +1

    First of all, as a project/product manager - I wish I had more people like you (who are interested in overall project delivery and goals rather than their own set of tasks).

    What you should do?
    Nothing.
    Getting optimum productivity from the team is not your job. Finish your set of allocated tasks and go home.
    If some of your tasks are dependent on this guy > clearly document your communication with him for a future autopsy when blame will start to go around. Repeat - As an individual programmer, you are not responsible for the overall project delivery or for effectiveness of your entire team.

    That's the role of your project manager/ team leader. Being on a different level is no excuse for him. He can be on another planet- he is still responsible for it. Standup meetings are run by scrum managers/dev ops leader/ product owner. If they are not attending these meetings/ are attending but cannot catch this behaviour - they'll pay for it eventually when the project gets delayed.

    All the best.

    • happirt on 06/12/2019 - 21:06

      I wish I had more people like you (who are interested in overall project delivery and goals rather than their own set of tasks).

      Why? So they can do your job for you?

      • spunkyfondue on 09/12/2019 - 10:28

        No, so he can do my job for himself some day (if he wants to)

    • ozSupergood on 07/12/2019 - 08:51
      +1

      Thanks for your suggestion. I am just a normal person. If someone pays me to do a job, I would finish all the stuff I should have. As a team member, it none of my business to question other people, but some of the team members also think this person's behaviour already brought some bad effects on team culture and delay the project. Personally if he can finish the stuff in his plate, he can do whatever he wants.

      • spunkyfondue on 09/12/2019 - 10:30

        Happy to help. When you're looking for a job in future, drop me a message. If we are hiring then, I might have something for you. All the best

        • ozSupergood on 10/12/2019 - 07:13

          Thanks, I might start to find something when the project delivered. Thank you.

  • streetsmart on 11/12/2019 - 00:50

    if you are doing standup, does it mean you are practicing scrum? what does your scrum master feel about this, I would have expected it would have been surfaced already during your retro. if not, can the whole team raise his being late as a concern during retrospective, #courageous? or maybe his personal circumstances i.e. he is doing school dropoff in morning,a reason why he cannot arrive by your standup time,and then maybe you can adjust it if your office has flexible working hours. But if it is just him being slack, then the whole team can actually ask him if he can be at work at 9:30am. Unfortunately, with the way you described it, he is not taking your house rules seriously and someone has to remind him on how the team prefers to 'function'. Again, it should be all of you in the team speaking up and not just you. If the team fails to deliver, the scrum master should help surface the underlying issues and your whole team should decide how you guys want to rectify those.

    if things don't improve, transfer to another team or leave the company. if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen

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