This senior engineer is quite capable and intelligent. However, he is toxic and passive aggressive to engineers on our team. For instance, recently I asked him for feedback on an initial implementation and said a few things such as, "It's clear that you have no understanding of ..." and "Wow, this is self-explanatory, I don't know how you don't get this". I've talked to other engineers on the team who have gotten similar treatment. This has really impacted the teams morale. How do you handle working with these types of aggressive/passive aggressive people? I'm trying not to bring heated work emotions home to the family. Working at FAANG at the moment, IBM prev TC: 280K #advice
Ask the senior engineer to focus on eating banana
But really what is the best way to handle this situation?
"I can't believe you can't see the answer to such an obvious question. How can I make this more obvious?" But also yes, I'm waiting for some real answers lol.
Op just show my user name to your senior
Senior engineers are expected to mentor effectively. Provide this feedback to his manager. Else transfer teams and let him drown in minutuae.
^this. I had the same problem with an senior engineering manager I worked with until I got fed up with it and surfaced it to the senior engineering manager and in my reviews. There has been a quick turnaround. Learnt that they basically had not set me up to be successful in my role and he was looking for justification that I am incompetent. I didn’t speak about it for a while and it affected my performance and growth. I will personally advise giving that feedback and then providing documentation on your work
Bring it up to your manager in the next 1:1
If you’re the EM, this is legitimate feedback to him. Had a similar situation on my team, extremely experienced senior with an attitude, he was PIPed and when he realized what had happened he left the company
Get…Thicker…Skin… Remember how he makes you feel and make sure you never treat people the same.. If he’s intelligent and capable nothing you do will matter..
Thick skin is good and all, but how thick are we talking? If said toxic engineer starts to negatively affect real work through subtle sabotage and political games, is that acceptable? If they are the loud one that complains about anything that wasn't their idea, manufacturers outrage, and generally pushes back against anything that is meant to improve & level up the team, project, ergonomics....etc At some point their detriment is greater than what they bring to the table, but it can be hard if not impossible to prove or calculate.
Tell him straight up that it's a douchey thing to say and you won't put up with that behavior. Be ready to document everything before you pull this pin. Make sure you capture in slack, email, pr reviews where he is demeaning you. Bring that to Manager and HR. We had a jerk like this at a previous gig. Constantly dressing down others. It got so bad I went to VP and told them that this guy has to go or many on the team will leave. Dude was packing his shit in half hour.
Passive aggressive is too nice to describe him. He is a jerk. Provide this feedback to manager
Let me guess, Amazon?
haha, yes but everyone else on the team is chill
Unfortunately this type of behavior is extremely common here. You’re honestly lucky you have a chill team otherwise.