What's the best way to document a co-worker/boss?

May 11, 2021 10:28 PM

My project lead is horrible, but is not my boss. Other people on the project have expressed grave concerns including late night meetings. My boss is willing to elevate this to executive level but needs concrete examples. The project lead is amazing at not putting things in writing, this is not a personality conflict but I need concrete things. How do I go about doing this?

I could go into details but they don't matter: micromanagement, general incompetence, tries to run all aspects of the project including folder naming. They're very, very good at making the problem look like other people's problems but are taking up time and budget. Since they don't write things down, or when they do are unclear, it is easy for them to come back and say that we did not do things right.

For context I'm a software developer. Non-technical people know there's a problem but the project lead does have good people skills and is good at talking their way out of us not knowing or listening to their direction. For software people this isn't minor things this is not understanding the difference between code executed in the browser versus the server. They also pride themselves in over-engineering solutions. The other engineers who have different bosses from different offices have also the same concerns but we are trying to figure out how best to approach this. We don't care if this person is on the project or not as long as they aren't constantly making us rewrite working software, work weekends, etc. A vague example, everything written is couched in political terms of "I"ll guess I have to work this weekend" with people working the weekend being soft rewarded even though the weekend work was unnecessary. By soft rewarded I mean those who do not work weekends will get micromanaged even though they accomplish their task and are on budget.

Furthermore they do not believe in agile or the concept of ticketing so nothing is written down (Apple doesn't do it!). When we try to get them to say this in writing but they give vague replies like, "I'm willing to work with any process that works," though obviously when pressed that doesn't happen.

I'm purposely trying to not give specific examples but I hope my problem is understood. Any guidance would be helpful. We're all very senior developers from big tech companies, and this is by far the worst situation we've all been in. We have backing of management not connected to the project but of course they can't just go in without things in writing or something concrete. We're used to being on bad projects but this person with I'm hoping best intentions is completely killing morale and the ability to get the project done.

For technical people reading this, to give an idea of what we're dealing with, one of the people involved was involved in creating the Visual Studio compiler toolset in the early 2000s and is being told how to structure CSS (obviously before this they were using a framework that compiled to CSS).

posted by anonymous to Work & Money (10 answers total)

one of the people involved was involved in creating the Visual Studio compiler toolset in the early 2000s and is being told how to structure CSS (obviously before this they were using a framework that compiled to CSS).

Well, I wouldn't use this example, as such, since having worked on Visual Studio compilers has no relevance to if a person knows CSS or not. Writing some kind of code that something else transforms into CSS is not knowing CSS, after all. It could sound like you are just saying it is beneath this person's station to take direction. Did they in fact know how to structure CSS? Was there a problem with how they were doing it? Or, was it fine, but they are being told to do it wrong? If that is the case, then you'd have to give some examples, and this would be part of a case that the PM is incompetent and is actively telling people who know what they are doing to do things badly.
posted by thelonius at 10:58 PM on May 11, 2021 [2 favorites]

It is my experience that slippery people are hard to pin down. I would try to document things proactively by sending them emails confirming their instructions. "Thanks for the input. Confirming as per your instructions that you want me to do X again and before Y." Even though they won't put it in writing, you can. Either they reply yes or change it or do not reply which is a tacit agreement.
posted by AugustWest at 11:19 PM on May 11, 2021 [54 favorites]

Just to build on what AugustWest said - think about how you are going to demonstrate the problems to your boss (who will probably care mainly about cost/time overruns on the project, risks of project failure, and risks that their staff will get demoralised and leave). You want your emails to the PM to tell a story even if the PM doesn't respond.
Email one "as we discussed in the call, we're going to continue working from vibes rather than introduce a ticketing system". Email two "requirements for this story weren't clear and its going to take 2 more days to finish". Email three "just to confirm you want me to come in at the weekend to bring us back on schedule".
posted by crocomancer at 12:59 AM on May 12, 2021 [4 favorites]

If the other side isn't willing to do stuff with a digital history - go old school; contemporaneous notes.

I always keep a (physical) notebook and write down, with date and time, notes on such interactions. My specific situation was incompetent micromanaging by a showboat COO.

Was asked for "evidence," and my bolus of notes helped ... resolve ... a situation as supporting evidence but the problem was ultimately severed through sexual harassment complaints - which were detailed in other people's contemporaneous notes.

Encourage your coworkers and reports to keep similar kinds of notes.
posted by porpoise at 1:18 AM on May 12, 2021 [4 favorites]

I hear you, and come from, a workplace with that culture of praising those who work nights and weekends (when it's most emphatically not their expected schedule) as if it were the ultimate sacrifice and indicator that those people cared the most and deserved bonuses and praise and all that. Once that becomes normalized, ugh. Woe to all. Those who are efficient, good time managers, etc. who get their work done in 40 hours a week (or less!) become pariahs. Oddly enough, no one cared about all the money being spent on this BS. The PMs and managers and directors all 100% bought in to the cult. Another insidious evil of that culture is how sexist it is. It's hard for anyone to have to work all that non-standard time, but many women (as least, those in my department) were working moms with families and many single moms. Several of them, myself included, all quit.

Try as best you can to translate the PM's incompetence into dollars spent (wasted). Time is money, people = money, systems being down/less available = money. Working weekends = staff dissatisfaction = people quitting = need to hire/onboard new people, all of which = $$$. Managerial incompetence ALWAYS = money.
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 3:22 AM on May 12, 2021 [5 favorites]

As others have said, your own notes are evidence, especially if you can clearly link them to conversations and such e.g. OneNote meeting notes. You can just keep adding to the tab for every call you have with that person.

And it is absolutely good practice to summarize decisions and actions coming out of calls, especially team calls, and to circulate such actions to the group.
posted by koahiatamadl at 4:17 AM on May 12, 2021 [1 favorite]

(Perhaps I missed your point with the person being told how to structure CSS - if I managed a senior developer, I wouldn't do that unless there were a problem like the way they were doing it wasn't adhering to the conventions chosen for the project; it would be normal to assume they'd go learn themselves how it is normally done, if they did not already know. So you meant this as an example of micromanaging, condescension, other fun stuff).
posted by thelonius at 4:42 AM on May 12, 2021

I think by "concrete examples", what's being asked for here is things like, "On March 14 Project Lead told us verbally that there would be a meeting at 9:15pm that night. Coworkers X, Y, and Z told me that they attended." and "April 9, 10:30am, Project Lead came to my office and had me show them my folder structure and told me to rename 3 folders and watched while I did it."

A complaint like, "you're always calling late night meetings!" is hard to pin someone down on, but "Anon reports that on March 14 you called a meeting for 9:15pm, is that the case?" And if they try to deny it the boss has corroboration from X, Y, and Z.
posted by heatherlogan at 6:22 AM on May 12, 2021 [13 favorites]

I'm not in a technical role, so please take that with a grain of salt, but when I was in management, the most effective cases like this - for both promotion and for demotion/PIPs - were the same documentation. Basically, a three-column sheet.

Column 1: A situation which required or involved direction by Team Lead. Describe problem, describe how Team Lead got involved. Background is helpful.
Column 2: The advisement or direction explicitly from the Team Lead.
Column 3: The results of this advisement or direction (or lack thereof), laid out as detrimental to the company in time, money, morale, etc.

Here are two examples that might fit what you're talking about:

Column 1: "Despite previous history of successful project management, Joshua determined that his involvement was required for naming individual folders on my computer. No explanation was given."
Column 2: "Joshua held me late after everyone had gone home, came into my office, and watched over my shoulder as I manually changed the names of folders on my computer. He indicated verbally and through body language (arms crossed, frown) that he was dissatisfied with my work, but so far there have been no issues with my work raised by customers or other team members or leadership."
Column 3: "As a result of this incident, Joshua has indicated to me and the team that he values compliance with arbitrary preferences that have no impact on the product over the functionality of the product. This is highly demotivational to programmers."

or

Column 1: "ABC Program is operational and we have no negative feedback from customers or users. Despite this successful track record, Joshua insists that we continue to spend our time on it."
Column 2: "On 5/1/2021, Joshua requested that Anne work over the weekend to re-write an area of the program, which she did. On 5/3/2021, Joshua requested that Anne, Katherine, and Milad stay late to continue rewriting the program to his specifications. He did not indicate why we were being asked to rewrite a working program, and refused to answer when asked. He told us that it wasn't good enough but there were no metrics provided for this assertion, and so it appeared to be subjective."
Column 3: "As a result of these requests, our team is spending time iterating an already-working program instead of solving other pressing problems such as X, Y, and Z, and has less time available to produce new work. At the same time, our performance is evaluated by our outputs on X, Y, and Z and producing new work, so insistence that we go back to work we have already done and iterate on it, during times outside of working hours, leaves the team vulnerable to negative performance evaluations."
posted by juniperesque at 7:11 AM on May 12, 2021 [6 favorites]

Every time this person gives you information, requests, or anything, write an email and BCC a copy to an external address set up only for this purpose. as we discussed, you requested that component %Thing have %Attribute %Y. This affects the timeline in %Way. It may be perceived as hostile, but it documents the behavior. I had to do this; it was effective when my boss claimed that I had not communicated information, or that events hadn't happened.
posted by theora55 at 7:24 AM on May 12, 2021