My Boss Told Me to “Chat to Colleagues”

Photo by Codioful (Formerly Gradienta) on Unsplash

I’ve seen so many instances of bad management in my (varied) experiences as a software developer. This recent one takes the biscuit in terms of being not just unhelpful but destructive.

My Background Being Managed

Thinking about how managers have treated me before being a software engineer, I can’t forget one of my first forays into the world of work. Yes, The Secret Developer worked at a local supermarket. Sometimes I worked as a cashier and hid my combinatorics book just out of sight of customers.

Other times I stacked shelves. One time the store manager came down to check on me and told me to stack faster. Then, like now I just couldn’t let it go. I told them I thought that I was doing it the better way by being careful. The response humors me to this day.

“You’re not paid to think”

There are certainly echoes of this thought in my current workplace.

Speak to colleagues

I have to admit this anecdote didn’t happen to me. My title is clickbait and this is the worst Medium post you’ve ever read. I know I get it. In my defense this story is true, and it happened a couple of months ago to a colleague of mine.

We were at the office, which is a rare occurrence for The Secret Developer. Having a chat over coffee my younger colleague said that she was really happy to be speaking to me so that her boss would see. It turns out that she’d been told to be “more sociable” and “speak to people more” and that would be one of her targets for a performance review.

I did quiz her. How is that a measurable target? How we giggled at the idea you can measure a developer’s worth by being seen if you are chatting to colleagues. I think we were only put in that position through bad management, to be honest. 

Ramifications

If this had happened to me I’d feel concerned about my job and future at the company. I’d feel attacked TBH and tacitly told that I’m a bad fit for the company. I got this feeling at work when I got told I have “strong opinions” because what does that even mean?

Still, some months on both my colleague and myself are taking the money for doing so despite the layoffs and bad treatment. It says more about us than the company, right?

Conclusion

If tech managers don’t think about the impact their words have, perhaps they shouldn’t say anything at all. Is that fair? What do you think?

I guess I’ll see you in the comments section.