[nine_zeros]

My learned helplessness story - Another engineer fancies himself as the gatekeeper of our codebase. Nitpicks on PRs all the time. Always tries to change something.

This time around, an engineer produced a fantastic design. But this gatekeeper engineer had something else on his mind. The gatekeeper did not even communicate his thought process but continued asking ridiculous questions.

Later we found that the gatekeeper engineer wanted to change the entire design to his own, even if his own design had major flaws. Wasted a whole quarter just because the gatekeeper didn't seem to want to "concede". He would much rather have engineers make bad designs than accepting his own missteps. The author of the design fought vehemently at the expense of their own time and energy. To what end?

Other engineers on the team have forever stopped producing design docs. Learned helplessness.

[sethammons]

did you let their manager know? Especially valid with data that shows "look, before, ppl tried to follow process X, and now, as you can see, nobody even tries." Data, data, data. Management likes data.

[nine_zeros]

No. I am also in learned helplessness mode. The manager doesn't appear to get that the gatekeeper engineer is stubborn.

I have nothing to gain by getting caught in the crossfire.

I would just quit after biding my time.