I work with a legitimately talented and hard-working Lead Architect who is not nice.
He's constantly petty, degrading, and passive-aggressive. He'll interpret whatever you say in whichever way allows him to insult you. His "arch reviews" are provided in a way that makes people feel shitty instead of making them smarter. He doesn't create sharable documents or written guidance. He is, in essence, a borderless micro-manager, who shits on the whole damned engineering team.
He's tolerated by the CEO because he shipped the first version of the product quickly, so the CEO thinks he's brilliant.
He's tolerated by the CTO because the CTO doesn't realize that his ego and passive-aggressiveness have both swelled as the company has grown.
He is the reason that many of our best engineers have left. Every single one of his direct reports has transferred or quit in less than 12 months.
He is undermining a great company.
At this point, he better hope that we have a great outcome despite his bullshit, because if he doesn't make enough money to retire, he's fucked. Zero of the engineers (and engineering management) would ever work with him, ever again. It's too lousy of an experience.
And the really sad thing is that if he was just nice about stuff, he'd be one of our best employees. But he has to be a dick about every single little thing. He has to be snarky. He has to be the smartest guy in the room. On all topics.
He's constantly petty, degrading, and passive-aggressive. He'll interpret whatever you say in whichever way allows him to insult you. His "arch reviews" are provided in a way that makes people feel shitty instead of making them smarter. He doesn't create sharable documents or written guidance. He is, in essence, a borderless micro-manager, who shits on the whole damned engineering team.
He's tolerated by the CEO because he shipped the first version of the product quickly, so the CEO thinks he's brilliant.
He's tolerated by the CTO because the CTO doesn't realize that his ego and passive-aggressiveness have both swelled as the company has grown.
He is the reason that many of our best engineers have left. Every single one of his direct reports has transferred or quit in less than 12 months.
He is undermining a great company.
At this point, he better hope that we have a great outcome despite his bullshit, because if he doesn't make enough money to retire, he's fucked. Zero of the engineers (and engineering management) would ever work with him, ever again. It's too lousy of an experience.
And the really sad thing is that if he was just nice about stuff, he'd be one of our best employees. But he has to be a dick about every single little thing. He has to be snarky. He has to be the smartest guy in the room. On all topics.