How To Make Your Team Hate You #1

I was thinking about the colleagues I’ve legitimately despised (and it’s not just my opinion), and most of them have something in common: they have either been promoted, or told they will get promoted if they prove themselves. So here is story number 1.

When I was a Tester, I was on an important project and was pushing the time. It wasn’t my fault, it was just the nature of the project, the nature of the testing, and the fixed deadline. I always knew it would be a  tight schedule. I didn’t want to sacrifice quality though and I knew the only way I could get it out in time if everything just worked, with no bugs and technical problems, and I needed 100% concentration to prove it.

I get interrupted by the newly promoted Test Lead. He sits there for several minutes berating me for the slow progress and starts reeling off a speech about how important the project was to the company. I kept on telling him I already understood and his speech was wasting my time and delaying me further. Obviously in addition to demoralising me.

After he finally left, the Lead Developer on my team exclaimed “who the hell does he think he is, talking to you like that?”

I’d never seen this developer angry before. He always had a calm demeanor. But he was furious.

The next day, the Test Leads line manager pulled me into a meeting and said the matter had been dealt with and that will never happen again. I then realised the Lead Developer must have reported him.

The lesson here is that if you do get promoted, make sure it doesn’t go to your head. Yeah, you have to manage people, but having a new fancy job title doesn’t mean you have to go wild. You are working with people. You are still working with your old colleagues. Treat them with respect and be more understanding. I think a lot of managers lead by example and gain respect by being nice.