Twelve engineers agreed on a tech stack. Two engineers are fiercely fighting against it. Is the fight worth it?
An engineering manager at an enterprise company found themselves with two resentful engineers that couldn’t accept a majority decision.
They voiced hurt feelings. They thought the company didn’t care about their wishes. They continued to sabotage team morale by complaining about the majority decision in front of their co-workers and manager.
Don’t be like these two engineers.
The fight is fruitless and harms the engineer and the company. Some software developers grow too attached to their code.
If you work for a company then the code you write is not yours. The company pays you to deliver value.
Who determines what is valuable in this exchange? The company does. It’s not your ship to steer. A craftsman paints and sells his paintings. Once sold, it’s out of their hands. You’re a craftsman and your product is code.
God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.
— Serenity Prayer
Behind every line of code is a person. Behind every algorithm is a person. Demoralizing a team is detrimental because the people around you will take notice and assume you’re a pain in the ass in other spheres of your life and you drain mental energy.
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said,
people will forget what you did,
but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
— Maya Angelou
Looking for future jobs becomes hard because you can’t count on referrals from people.
The current work situation continues to get worse as the complaints continue to alienate co-workers. Then you get PIPed (performance improvement plan).
Everybody loses.
The fight to prove you’re right and to protect your ego is not worth it. If you feel passionately about your decisions, then switch teams or jump ship.
It’s easier to find a team or company that has the tech stack you’d prefer to work with rather than continue staying miserable where you’re at.