That one special person..

Felon

Felon

Felon

Soldato
Joined
29 Dec 2014
Posts
6,173
Location
Essex
It seems like a fact of life - it doesn't matter how good the job is, how good the benefits are - or how good your colleagues are; there's always that one special person, who comes along and is a royal pain in the ass.

This one guy, we got in - he bypassed much of the interview process, he's expensive (7 figure salary), turned out to be technically incompetent, slippery, toxic and ultimately completely useless. Always has an opinion, always has something to say, but when you look at the output quality of his work, it's like something off rogue traders - useless.

He's had 2x bad quarterly reviews, about 6x different people have complained about him - yet he somehow manages to continue on. It's got to the point where my manager is trying to move him out of the team to elsewhere, but nobody else wants him, so he's just in no-mans land doing nothing, just wading into meetings with BS opinions and delivering nothing of value.

No company names, or names of any kind - just tell us about that one special person who always seems to **** up your day.
 
Teknobry said:
7 figure salary ... The guy is on £millions?
Or are you including a couple of numbers after the decimal point?
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Correct - the guy makes over a million dollars a year (Salary + bonus), (I work in a sector <algo/HFT trading> where salaries like this are commonplace)

(I wouldn't have a problem with this, if he was half decent and not a complete deadhead)
 
I don't mind people having an opinion about everything, but these people usually immediately, loudly and often obnoxiously hold everyone else's opinion to be wrong even when they have to take a completely ludicrous position. We used to have a game with one at work just to see how far we could push it and they were completely oblivious.
 
Rroff said:
I don't mind people having an opinion about everything, but these people usually immediately, loudly and often obnoxiously hold everyone else's opinion to be wrong even when they have to take a completely ludicrous position. We used to have a game with one at work just to see how far we could push it and they were completely oblivious.
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The one thing this guy does that makes my blood boil, is that he’ll do some work - then mess it up and somebody else gets dragged in to fix it.

He’ll then stand back and point, like a criminal who’s just robbed somebody, trying to make it look like somebody else’s fault, it’s sickening to watch.
 
We had a reorg and a new VP os AI take over. The person is completely useless in every possible dimension. They know a fraction of AI than any of the ML engineers, which would be fine if they were intelligent and quick learning, but they are truly dumb and just can't seem to learn or understand any of the technologies or products. This is problematic but they have zero redeeming features.They have terrible communication and interpersonal skills, have zero knowledge of software development lifecycles,. Cannot talk the talk let alone walk the walk. Getting dragged into meetings with them if just horrifying, they are just so clueless.

They are like on $2-3M per year TC, mostly in stocks.

I just don't understand how they were hired and how they continue to be allowed to remain. I could pick any of of my mid-level engineers from India and get someone for mire competant.
 
Surely your company has a regular cull like my place does?

How have they escaped this? Another 8 or so years to pay off my mortgage… then I “may” want to be that guy.. get culled and have a nice golden parachute, find a noddy job somewhere to coast to retirement. lol

Joking aside, does this person have anyone at work that they talk to? It may just be a misunderstanding why they are perceived that way, or it may just take someone that they are willing to listen to wind their neck in….

I’m dealing/dealt with someone who’s recently been promoted to a new role, and is trying to make a name for themselves.. by inviting themselves to meetings and showing that they are “actively” listening by making acknowledgement sounds and repeating what the previous person has said… …

I’ve just asked him to mute himself in the meetings as it’s very distracting.. we have automated meetings notes takers and don’t need an echo. Yeah he got butt hurt, but he now knows not to turn up uninvited.
 
Felon said:
It seems like a fact of life - it doesn't matter how good the job is, how good the benefits are - or how good your colleagues are; there's always that one special person, who comes along and is a royal pain in the ass.

This one guy, we got in - he bypassed much of the interview process, he's expensive (7 figure salary), turned out to be technically incompetent, slippery, toxic and ultimately completely useless. Always has an opinion, always has something to say, but when you look at the output quality of his work, it's like something off rogue traders - useless.

He's had 2x bad quarterly reviews, about 6x different people have complained about him - yet he somehow manages to continue on. It's got to the point where my manager is trying to move him out of the team to elsewhere, but nobody else wants him, so he's just in no-mans land doing nothing, just wading into meetings with BS opinions and delivering nothing of value.

No company names, or names of any kind - just tell us about that one special person who always seems to **** up your day.
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I have no idea how this even happens tbh....
 
D.P. said:
We had a reorg and a new VP os AI take over. The person is completely useless in every possible dimension. They know a fraction of AI than any of the ML engineers, which would be fine if they were intelligent and quick learning, but they are truly dumb and just can't seem to learn or understand any of the technologies or products. This is problematic but they have zero redeeming features.They have terrible communication and interpersonal skills, have zero knowledge of software development lifecycles,. Cannot talk the talk let alone walk the walk. Getting dragged into meetings with them if just horrifying, they are just so clueless.

They are like on $2-3M per year TC, mostly in stocks.

I just don't understand how they were hired and how they continue to be allowed to remain. I could pick any of of my mid-level engineers from India and get someone for mire competant.
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I had a period of reporting to someone who despite their senior grade and "Head Of" title, always seemed to be in a flap and was just stunningly disorganised and incompetent. Their position was confirmed following a review and a mutual colleague quit because she refused to report into them. It took another major restructure due to a merger before the company finally gave them the push.
 
slinxy said:
I’m dealing/dealt with someone who’s recently been promoted to a new role, and is trying to make a name for themselves.. by inviting themselves to meetings and showing that they are “actively” listening by making acknowledgement sounds and repeating what the previous person has said… …

I’ve just asked him to mute himself in the meetings as it’s very distracting.. we have automated meetings notes takers and don’t need an echo. Yeah he got butt hurt, but he now knows not to turn up uninvited.
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Are they by any chance called Andy?

Reminds me of a guy I had to deal with for a while. Managed to talk a lot in meetings without ever contributing an original or useful thought. Lots of repeating what had already been said. Would volunteer for anything that might get him out of regular work and then fail to report back. When put on the spot he would always try to redirect attention to someone else. Also had a forced laugh he would use, seemingly in the hope that people would accept it instead of a proper answer and move on. He did end up getting managed out.
 
CREATIVE!11 said:
I have no idea how this even happens tbh....
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Long story short, before I joined - my manager (and only engineer working on this project) was getting absolutely battered by a new requirement - where finding skills in the market is quite difficult. This guy came in with a bunch of patents and other publications, (that mostly turned out to be gobbledegook) - but I think he was in bed with one or two other senior leaders who got a bit of a halo effect from him and as such - he skipped a large proportion of the interview process (which is insane here, 8-10 stages).

The thing about the industry I'm in, is firms are generally quite small - we're only around 1k people, everybody has to deliver - it's very well rewarded but it's not like being in an org of 100k people, where you can just turn up at meetings and talk your way through a role. Here's it's based on impact and delivery - if you can't do that, you get exposed, and he has been very badly exposed.

My way to get around it, is to just keep my head down and keep producing high quality work that contributes to the business consistently - I feel that if I do this, it'll serve me well in the long-run regardless of whatever stupid games are being played by failing cretins and hypocrites.
 
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Felon said:
Long story short, before I joined - my manager (and only engineer working on this project) was getting absolutely battered by a new requirement - where finding skills in the market is quite difficult. This guy came in with a bunch of patents and other publications, (that mostly turned out to be gobbledegook) - but I think he was in bed with one or two other senior leaders who got a bit of a halo effect from him and as such - he skipped a large proportion of the interview process (which is insane here, 8-10 stages).

The thing about the industry I'm in, is firms are generally quite small - we're only around 1k people, everybody has to deliver - it's very well rewarded but it's not like being in an org of 100k people, where you can just turn up at meetings and talk your way through a role. Here's it's based on impact and delivery - if you can't do that, you get exposed, and he has been very badly exposed.

My way to get around it, is to just keep my head down and keep producing high quality work that contributes to the business consistently - I feel that if I do this, it'll serve me well in the long-run regardless of whatever stupid games are being played by failing cretins and hypocrites.
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It is never a guarantee unfortunately, but on average works out to just be good at your job and try hard. I have seen great engineers who were truly committed get thrown under the bus, but usually a rational company will tey and separate yhe wheat from the chaff. You have to look after yourself and set some boundaries and then hold on.

I'm hoping for a significant change of structure within a year,.and due to personal circumstances i cannot really afford to lose the job (not so much financial, but from a combo of commute, WTH and flexibility perspectives on top of financial). So head down and just get on with whatever insanity I am tasked with and hope the leadership gets a massive shakeup. Else i expect i will also be LRd. given my salary and relative isolation , so i need to save some more before then
 
slinxy said:
Surely your company has a regular cull like my place does?
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Culling only applies to ICs and low level managers. Once you hit Director and above it seem there is zero chance of removal. Probably because such decisions are made at the department level by other VPs .
And LRs tend to be purely financial. A department is told they have to reduce salaries by $5M. They can choose 2 VPs or a bunch of engineers. Department VPs will stick up for each other so some staff engineers, a fe managers and 20 people in India are shown the door while useless senior leadership stays.in place and take home another $1-2M in stock
 
D.P. said:
Culling only applies to ICs and low level managers. Once you hit Director and above it seem there is zero chance of removal. Probably because such decisions are made at the department level by other VPs .
Click to expand...

In my case, the guy got demoted and is now the same level as me, as he had some bad quarterly reviews. Everything at our place is worked out on quarterly reviews as we're so heavily bonused on performance, my manager was joking with me about how we wish we'd never hired him and how his review for the last quarter was a joke. Right now he's trying to carve out a role for himself, but nobody wants to work with him because he just causes aggravation and doesn't deliver anything decent.

The culture at my place is actually excellent, the teams are great and the people are great - but this one guy is just like a pain in my arse (and everybody elses), he's trying to move to another team, but the manager of the other team can't stand him - so it's akward lol.
 
D.P. said:
Culling only applies to ICs and low level managers. Once you hit Director and above it seem there is zero chance of removal. Probably because such decisions are made at the department level by other VPs .
And LRs tend to be purely financial. A department is told they have to reduce salaries by $5M. They can choose 2 VPs or a bunch of engineers. Department VPs will stick up for each other so some staff engineers, a fe managers and 20 people in India are shown the door while useless senior leadership stays.in place and take home another $1-2M in stock
Click to expand...
Interesting.. culling normally occurs at VP/leader roles or higher at my place.

If the head count is over, they normally rely on natural wastage and not filling the position or moving people about till they leave.. or the out source card.

If there’s a massive cull, then VP or lower goes first, normally in November.. as they need the directors to do the paperwork. Once they have gone, then the directors or higher are gone around March, before the yearly bonuses of course.
 
Mr Badger said:
Are they by any chance called Andy?

Reminds me of a guy I had to deal with for a while. Managed to talk a lot in meetings without ever contributing an original or useful thought. Lots of repeating what had already been said. Would volunteer for anything that might get him out of regular work and then fail to report back. When put on the spot he would always try to redirect attention to someone else. Also had a forced laugh he would use, seemingly in the hope that people would accept it instead of a proper answer and move on. He did end up getting managed out.
Click to expand...

I guess there’s one of those in very company too… I’ve experienced it in the past but normally they don’t invite themselves to meetings and they keep they heads below the parapet.
 
Felon said:
It seems like a fact of life - it doesn't matter how good the job is, how good the benefits are - or how good your colleagues are; there's always that one special person, who comes along and is a royal pain in the ass.

This one guy, we got in - he bypassed much of the interview process, he's expensive (7 figure salary), turned out to be technically incompetent, slippery, toxic and ultimately completely useless. Always has an opinion, always has something to say, but when you look at the output quality of his work, it's like something off rogue traders - useless.

He's had 2x bad quarterly reviews, about 6x different people have complained about him - yet he somehow manages to continue on. It's got to the point where my manager is trying to move him out of the team to elsewhere, but nobody else wants him, so he's just in no-mans land doing nothing, just wading into meetings with BS opinions and delivering nothing of value.

No company names, or names of any kind - just tell us about that one special person who always seems to **** up your day.
Click to expand...

Tbh if he's still there and the manager doesn't want him, sounds like a poor manager tbh.

Within 6 months it's really easy to manage someone out of the business.

Within 2 years it's currently pretty easy but a few more hurdles.

More than 2 years, it's stupidly tough but doable.

If your manager put him on an improvement program now, he could be out within the next 6 months.

If he's as bad as you say he is, this should be easy.

But if I were you I be blaming the manger for having zero balls, could have sorted this issue out ages ago.
 
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