| Plenty of blame to go around. I have turned into Rick before. I was a super productive engineer and I would work way ahead of the company in isolation and get things done super fast. This was caused by me being a workaholic and enjoying my work too much, not really caring about or paying attention to what was going on around me politically. It never occurred to me that pulling way ahead of the company would only result in severe damage to myself and the team. Being this kind of engineer is like putting a Ferrari Engine into a Volkswagen Beetle. The Ferrari Engine is going to tear the Beetle apart and the result will be bad for all parties involved. The longer the Ferrari engine is allowed to run, the more damage it is going to do. When I behaved this way in the past, a strong mentor or manager would have helped me immensely. Instead I had managers who were scared of me because I was more talented than they were and just wanted me to go away. As a result, I received no input as to how to better structure my working style and failed to mature and grow. The result was I ended up getting laid off after becoming deeply frustrated with everyone around me. Companies need the right sized engine that provides the correct amount of forward momentum, not an engine that rips the team to shreds. Learning to hold back, Pay very close attention to my surroundings and communicate much more carefully is required. This is generally the work of program managers, but there are very few good ones. Lead engineers need to learn to program manage themselves or they will just end up getting twisted around the axle. The reality of this industry is that software developers are disposable parts. Rick spent years building these systems, asking him to rebuild them would have been impossible. Once he got to the point of becoming toxic, he had to go. The Volkswagen Beetle (rest of the company minus Rick) needs to proceed onwards. |
> When I behaved this way in the past, a strong mentor or manager would have helped me immensely. Instead I had managers who were scared of me because I was more talented than they were and just wanted me to go away.
I think this is the cornerstone of the problem, that there rarely are more than one strong personalities in a team, because each strong personality is like a positively charged nucleus that attracts electrons but repels other strong personalities.