Problem with New Team Member

[The Castle Cary Fairy]

The small potential impact of the bit in red is going to cause you to over-react and end up damaging your relationship with a permie.

Sometimes the winning move is to do nothing.

Errr... yeah but by keeping quiet I'll end up carrying the can.

Anyway, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm going to have to be much more subtle in my finger pointing activities.

[pauldee]

I really think your best bet is to try to give the team member some guidance, in a helpful, non-criticising, non-partronising way.

[Snarf]

Next time you do a pull and notice something messed up complain that something is wrong with GIT, pretend you cant figure out whats gone wrong and ask one of the other permies to see if they can work out whats up.

Let someone else discover the root of the problem.


Of course you can always :
>git blame SomeFile.js

Then ask the guy/girl if they need some help doing merges.

[Smackdown]

Errr... yeah but by keeping quiet I'll end up carrying the can.

Anyway, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm going to have to be much more subtle in my finger pointing activities.

Another tactic I've seen from other contractors is to become that persons teacher. Make sure other people are in the room when you're doing it and just give them useful guidance on how to step through the problems. Make sure that you do it with the code up on the screen instead of berating them with words. Works a treat.

[AnotherJohnDoe]

Hi all - I'm on a short contract in Rotterdam where I'm working as a front end developer using d3.js.

All in all it's pretty good and I enjoy it but we've recently had a new addition (permanent) to the team and he is not up to scratch in my opinion.

He has also started acting like a loose cannon and is working on things that he hasn't been tasked to do. Things that have an overlap with the work that I'm doing and as a result he's making a pig's ear out of merging conflicts in GIT and he's breaking code that was previously pretty robust.

Anyone been in this situation? I'm not sure what's politically expedient here but ultimately I need to cover my own backside.

I'd be interested to hear from anyone who has been in a similar situation.

I'd say have a quiet chat with them. Point out what you're tasked with and how what they're doing is causing problems for you

Ask him not to do that work himself as that's what the company is paying you for. If he doesn't then back off and talk to management

Unless you're in a management role then I think as a contractor it's not your position to be telling other members of staff what they can and cannot do

It's OK to ask but telling someone is stepping outside of your contractual obligations as far as I'm concerned and may cause problems

In the past I've either raised concerns with the PM on the project or the manager/director that's paying the bill if there isn't one

Chances are these people step on other people's toes so it soon becomes known higher up but it's their responsibility to deal with the issue not yours