How to deal with a software developer who doesn't seem to understand that he's just a coder?
As a manager for a software development team, how do I deal with developers who don't seem to understand what their job description is?
In particular, I am currently dealing with a junior developer who wants to be "challenged" and asks for "creative" tasks for me to give him. Furthermore, he constantly makes input and recommendations on processes that are simply not his responsibility. The other day, he wanted to talk to me about possible speed-up improvements of a particular piece of code. This is annoying, because even if it could be sped up ... so what? That's not what you were hired to do. If we wanted somebody to speed that part of the code up ... guess what? We'll bloody hire somebody to do that. The fact that we haven't, should tell you that we have other priorities!
And that's the issue. He has been hired, along with a few other guys, to .... code. On our latest projects for our newest clients. We have deadlines to meet, and I'd like him to focus on Coding. That's his job description. I respect the fact that he wants to be challenged, but then maybe he should get a job as a SWAT agent. But in our deparment, our junior developers are nothing more than code monkeys.
How do I explain this to him?
DO NOT misunderstand me. I am not saying his attitude is bad, or anything, but I just need him to understand that this isn't Facebook or Google where we can afford to give him "challenging" tasks like a superhuman chess engine. We are a mid-size company constantly struggling to meet deadlines. We need him to code.
software-industry code
asked 30 mins ago
FEOWFO
6
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As a manager for a software development team, how do I deal with developers who don't seem to understand what their job description is?
In particular, I am currently dealing with a junior developer who wants to be "challenged" and asks for "creative" tasks for me to give him. Furthermore, he constantly makes input and recommendations on processes that are simply not his responsibility. The other day, he wanted to talk to me about possible speed-up improvements of a particular piece of code. This is annoying, because even if it could be sped up ... so what? That's not what you were hired to do. If we wanted somebody to speed that part of the code up ... guess what? We'll bloody hire somebody to do that. The fact that we haven't, should tell you that we have other priorities!
And that's the issue. He has been hired, along with a few other guys, to .... code. On our latest projects for our newest clients. We have deadlines to meet, and I'd like him to focus on Coding. That's his job description. I respect the fact that he wants to be challenged, but then maybe he should get a job as a SWAT agent. But in our deparment, our junior developers are nothing more than code monkeys.
How do I explain this to him?
DO NOT misunderstand me. I am not saying his attitude is bad, or anything, but I just need him to understand that this isn't Facebook or Google where we can afford to give him "challenging" tasks like a superhuman chess engine. We are a mid-size company constantly struggling to meet deadlines. We need him to code.
software-industry code
asked 30 mins ago
FEOWFO
6
New contributor
FEOWFO is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
"In our deparment, our junior developers are nothing more than code monkeys." you don't sound like an inspiring manager to work for. Even if you were working in fast food or something, you could definitely do something to make your workers more inspired and productive. The question you should be asking is how you can be a better manager. The question you asked will get resolved as a by-product.
– Chan-Ho Suh
10 mins ago
@chan-hoSue sounds more like a frustration bleeding out.
– user1666620
2 mins ago
add a comment |
As a manager for a software development team, how do I deal with developers who don't seem to understand what their job description is?
In particular, I am currently dealing with a junior developer who wants to be "challenged" and asks for "creative" tasks for me to give him. Furthermore, he constantly makes input and recommendations on processes that are simply not his responsibility. The other day, he wanted to talk to me about possible speed-up improvements of a particular piece of code. This is annoying, because even if it could be sped up ... so what? That's not what you were hired to do. If we wanted somebody to speed that part of the code up ... guess what? We'll bloody hire somebody to do that. The fact that we haven't, should tell you that we have other priorities!
And that's the issue. He has been hired, along with a few other guys, to .... code. On our latest projects for our newest clients. We have deadlines to meet, and I'd like him to focus on Coding. That's his job description. I respect the fact that he wants to be challenged, but then maybe he should get a job as a SWAT agent. But in our deparment, our junior developers are nothing more than code monkeys.
How do I explain this to him?
DO NOT misunderstand me. I am not saying his attitude is bad, or anything, but I just need him to understand that this isn't Facebook or Google where we can afford to give him "challenging" tasks like a superhuman chess engine. We are a mid-size company constantly struggling to meet deadlines. We need him to code.
software-industry code
asked 30 mins ago
FEOWFO
6
New contributor
FEOWFO is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
As a manager for a software development team, how do I deal with developers who don't seem to understand what their job description is?
In particular, I am currently dealing with a junior developer who wants to be "challenged" and asks for "creative" tasks for me to give him. Furthermore, he constantly makes input and recommendations on processes that are simply not his responsibility. The other day, he wanted to talk to me about possible speed-up improvements of a particular piece of code. This is annoying, because even if it could be sped up ... so what? That's not what you were hired to do. If we wanted somebody to speed that part of the code up ... guess what? We'll bloody hire somebody to do that. The fact that we haven't, should tell you that we have other priorities!
And that's the issue. He has been hired, along with a few other guys, to .... code. On our latest projects for our newest clients. We have deadlines to meet, and I'd like him to focus on Coding. That's his job description. I respect the fact that he wants to be challenged, but then maybe he should get a job as a SWAT agent. But in our deparment, our junior developers are nothing more than code monkeys.
How do I explain this to him?
DO NOT misunderstand me. I am not saying his attitude is bad, or anything, but I just need him to understand that this isn't Facebook or Google where we can afford to give him "challenging" tasks like a superhuman chess engine. We are a mid-size company constantly struggling to meet deadlines. We need him to code.
software-industry code
software-industry code
asked 30 mins ago
FEOWFO
6
New contributor
FEOWFO is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
asked 30 mins ago
FEOWFO
6
New contributor
FEOWFO is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
asked 30 mins ago
FEOWFO
6
New contributor
FEOWFO is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
asked 30 mins ago
FEOWFO
6
asked 30 mins ago
FEOWFO
6
6
New contributor
FEOWFO is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
New contributor
FEOWFO is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
FEOWFO is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
"In our deparment, our junior developers are nothing more than code monkeys." you don't sound like an inspiring manager to work for. Even if you were working in fast food or something, you could definitely do something to make your workers more inspired and productive. The question you should be asking is how you can be a better manager. The question you asked will get resolved as a by-product.
– Chan-Ho Suh
10 mins ago
@chan-hoSue sounds more like a frustration bleeding out.
– user1666620
2 mins ago
add a comment |
"In our deparment, our junior developers are nothing more than code monkeys." you don't sound like an inspiring manager to work for. Even if you were working in fast food or something, you could definitely do something to make your workers more inspired and productive. The question you should be asking is how you can be a better manager. The question you asked will get resolved as a by-product.
– Chan-Ho Suh
10 mins ago
@chan-hoSue sounds more like a frustration bleeding out.
– user1666620
2 mins ago
"In our deparment, our junior developers are nothing more than code monkeys." you don't sound like an inspiring manager to work for. Even if you were working in fast food or something, you could definitely do something to make your workers more inspired and productive. The question you should be asking is how you can be a better manager. The question you asked will get resolved as a by-product.
– Chan-Ho Suh
10 mins ago
"In our deparment, our junior developers are nothing more than code monkeys." you don't sound like an inspiring manager to work for. Even if you were working in fast food or something, you could definitely do something to make your workers more inspired and productive. The question you should be asking is how you can be a better manager. The question you asked will get resolved as a by-product.
– Chan-Ho Suh
10 mins ago
@chan-hoSue sounds more like a frustration bleeding out.
– user1666620
2 mins ago
@chan-hoSue sounds more like a frustration bleeding out.
– user1666620
2 mins ago
add a comment |
1 Answer
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He needs to understand that his priority is to build features which customers want to buy, and that micro-optimization is as bad as premature optimization.
He needs to understand that if nobody is complaining that something is slow or that there is a provably large bottleneck that is genuinely affecting overall performance (and thus customer productivity) by a non-neglible %, then it's really not a priority.
Regarding lack of challenge and creativity, honestly that's only going to happen regularly in a startup. Not even Google or Facebook can provide that - he'd need to go to a startup or a company which is rebuilding an older core product to modern standards in order to ever see the like.
answered 3 mins ago
user1666620
9,23673233
add a comment |
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1 Answer
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He needs to understand that his priority is to build features which customers want to buy, and that micro-optimization is as bad as premature optimization.
He needs to understand that if nobody is complaining that something is slow or that there is a provably large bottleneck that is genuinely affecting overall performance (and thus customer productivity) by a non-neglible %, then it's really not a priority.
Regarding lack of challenge and creativity, honestly that's only going to happen regularly in a startup. Not even Google or Facebook can provide that - he'd need to go to a startup or a company which is rebuilding an older core product to modern standards in order to ever see the like.
answered 3 mins ago
user1666620
9,23673233
add a comment |
He needs to understand that his priority is to build features which customers want to buy, and that micro-optimization is as bad as premature optimization.
He needs to understand that if nobody is complaining that something is slow or that there is a provably large bottleneck that is genuinely affecting overall performance (and thus customer productivity) by a non-neglible %, then it's really not a priority.
Regarding lack of challenge and creativity, honestly that's only going to happen regularly in a startup. Not even Google or Facebook can provide that - he'd need to go to a startup or a company which is rebuilding an older core product to modern standards in order to ever see the like.
answered 3 mins ago
user1666620
9,23673233
add a comment |
He needs to understand that his priority is to build features which customers want to buy, and that micro-optimization is as bad as premature optimization.
He needs to understand that if nobody is complaining that something is slow or that there is a provably large bottleneck that is genuinely affecting overall performance (and thus customer productivity) by a non-neglible %, then it's really not a priority.
Regarding lack of challenge and creativity, honestly that's only going to happen regularly in a startup. Not even Google or Facebook can provide that - he'd need to go to a startup or a company which is rebuilding an older core product to modern standards in order to ever see the like.
answered 3 mins ago
user1666620
9,23673233
He needs to understand that his priority is to build features which customers want to buy, and that micro-optimization is as bad as premature optimization.
He needs to understand that if nobody is complaining that something is slow or that there is a provably large bottleneck that is genuinely affecting overall performance (and thus customer productivity) by a non-neglible %, then it's really not a priority.
Regarding lack of challenge and creativity, honestly that's only going to happen regularly in a startup. Not even Google or Facebook can provide that - he'd need to go to a startup or a company which is rebuilding an older core product to modern standards in order to ever see the like.
answered 3 mins ago
user1666620
9,23673233
answered 3 mins ago
user1666620
9,23673233
answered 3 mins ago
user1666620
9,23673233
answered 3 mins ago
user1666620
9,23673233
9,23673233
add a comment |
add a comment |
FEOWFO is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
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"In our deparment, our junior developers are nothing more than code monkeys." you don't sound like an inspiring manager to work for. Even if you were working in fast food or something, you could definitely do something to make your workers more inspired and productive. The question you should be asking is how you can be a better manager. The question you asked will get resolved as a by-product.
– Chan-Ho Suh
10 mins ago
@chan-hoSue sounds more like a frustration bleeding out.
– user1666620
2 mins ago