Here’s Why I’m Sick of ‘The Secret Developer’
Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash
We should all be reflective as software engineers. The Secret Developer has been looking at their career to this point and has had an epiphany and a realization.
“I’m sick of myself. I’m ashamed of my work as a software developer and I’m no longer performing. It’s about productivity and behavior.”
Let’s see what’s going on, and what we can learn from it.
“I accept that most of the following description of my behavior has at the root of it that I’m miserable. I’m going to do you a favor, though and break down this behavior before going into why I’d stay in this situation and why my employer is entertaining the continuation of this.”
The Poor Behavior of The Secret Developer
Superiority complex
Thinking that you are in some respects ‘better’ than your colleagues is not good for anyone in a team. Here is The Secret Developer’s take:
“I’ve considered myself to be the best developer in the room for some time. I don’t make mistakes. In my current development job, I’m surrounded by contractors who frankly aren’t very good.
I might actually be superior to my colleagues. It’s a problem that I’m not treating people well.
It’s more of a problem that I’m getting knocked back from job opportunities. I think this is because I’m not working in a challenging environment. The alternative is that interviewers are wrong.”
Tone in meetings
In meetings, The Secret developer does make it clear that they disagree with some decisions, but they are not approaching this in the right way.
“I’ve noticed that I feel exasperated when colleagues speak some nonsense during our never-ending days of meetings and my tone changes. This means that my colleagues note that I’m judging them.
Perhaps this is why my PRs do not quickly pass through code review. The alternative reason is because my teammates are useless.”
It would seem likely that some software developers would take this judgmental tone badly. This might produce a variety of behaviors from colleagues and none of these behaviors are likely good.
Uncooperative
The Secret Developer seems to be on mute for much of their working life. Here is what is going on.
”I’ve started to try to keep quiet in most circumstances. I do not want to leak out details that I’m not happy in this job.
This aligns with the standard behavior of my colleagues. When they are asked a question in a meeting they typically sit in silence and let someone else deal with the query.
The fact that I’ve started to take on this behavior too is one of my great current regrets. It’s uncooperative and not helpful to anyone in the team.
Just because other people do the same is no excuse. I’m sick of this behavior.”
Given up trying to make things better
The Secret Developer has given up.
”I noticed that I do not have all the information to complete tickets that are pulled into any given sprint. I raised this to the PO, scrum master and tech lead (good me!).
Nothing happened. Nothing changed. Nobody cared.
Unfortunately, I sometimes let out my emotions in meetings. I bring my ‘sad’ voice and grunt out monosyllables like a teenager.
Negativity in stand-up meetings? It’s all on show, and visible for everyone to see.”
Silo Squatting, doing as little as possible
The Secret Developer is not a t-shaped programmer and never has been. Recently The Secret Developer has been doing less work than ever before.
“I’m stuck in my silo and not learning anything new. This isn’t my natural state and being unwilling to do anything about my current situation really goes against the grain.
Sure, I spoke to my manager who did nothing about the situation. After that, I simply gave up. I spend a good amount of time looking for jobs each working day without applying.
If it’s not my job to make it better, whose is it? This decline in behavior keeps me awake at night.”
Overcompetitive
The Secret Developer oftentimes rushes work with the sole goal of trying to “beat” other developers at work.
”I went into this profession with the aim of being as good as I can at software development. I like to get things done as quickly as possible.
This has been working against the team as defects have been raised. Things are not checked by me as well as they should. I’m simply not working well as a member of the team just because I want to feel ‘better’ about myself and the work I am completing.”
Why My Company Didn’t Fire Me
You might ask why any employer would let a developer carry on this way. Let us see The Secret Developer’s viewpoint.
“They literally don’t care. If they don’t notice when I’m off sick, why would they notice that I’m deeply unhappy?
As long as I deliver tickets everything is OK. That is why I recently got worried that I tried to make too many changes to the codebase and generated too many defects. I’ve pulled back now and have decided to do nothing in preference to doing too much. The result of this has been that everyone is happy with my (absence of) work.”
Why I haven’t quit
“This is a multi-faceted question. The answer is really things are too comfortable. I can WFH which effectively means I can get away with doing nothing from home.
My salary is pretty good as I looked at an equivalent job offering 30% less and a 4-day week. I felt I couldn’t even apply for it.
Clearly, this is disastrous for my career. I’m not sure when I’m going to do what needs to be done and put a bullet in my current job situation.”
What we can learn
There are many mistkeas here. We need to think about how the employee should ideally behave and how the employer should work to resolve this situation.
The solution for all parties is to communicate. To teammates, managers, and subordinates. That’s it.
It seems silly to leave problems to fester. Letting employees spread negativity is just bad for all concerned.
Conclusion
I hope that anyone who reads this blog takes the next opportunity to communicate with their manager. That’s the best advice I can give and the advice that I’m taking.