I have a peer who joined before me. He is not qualified for the work he wants to do (hired for different skills) I got hired for the skill gap. He takes my work and paraphrases it to management and cross functionally. He also has a bunch of management's ear. How do I deal with this?
Both of us are engineers :)
Okay good now things are getting interesting... does he have at least the most basic skill set to do your job? Or are there just huge gaps where he would sink if it weren’t for his business acumen?
Both of us have business acumen. He has an understanding of the technology but mostly gets by by collecting information in 1:1 and posting it. I am hands on and a proven expert at the said technology. That's what got me hired. P.S:Declining such 1:1 is seen like me not being a team player.
If your manager knows exactly who does the work but doesn’t acknowledge you then it maybe best for you to move into another group. You can talk to your manager that it was your effort but the key is whether your manager cares about you or not. Manager can easily create a special assignment to your peer and create a good case for that and you still are not going to win. It may sound too negative but I’ve seen similar case like that in the past
report to your manager . Write those in perf and peer review
Happened in my previous company. I used to do all the hard work. My colleague takes credit n the standup. He used to tell that I did everything. But as times passes by manager will/should understand who s really working.
How does the work get discovered and assigned? How well does the person do with the work? Who likely gets paid more? Who does management like more?
As opposed to fighting that, I would recommend you to build communication path and frequent sharing with people your peer is going to. Talk about your work frequently and involve your manager once in a while in work you do. In my experience highlighting your work & communicating it tends to benefit more than criticizing or competing with others.
Do you have a wiki. Document in your wiki.
Let me guess you’re an Admin and he’s a Business Analyst