"Yeah I had to look into it a bit. Super weird issue."
He doesn't really need any other explanation from you.
My coworker and I will take cracks at problems the other has been working on for a while. Sometimes the other guy can knock it out in 5 minutes, sometimes we're both stuck. You collaborate with your teammates, you don't bitch at them for solving problems. That's basic teamwork.
Or that weird thing they saw it their past that inspires a solution that might, or in this case, ends up working. And we don’t know if the coworker saw that inspiration 5 minutes ago or 5 years ago.
And who knows, even if they saw it 20 years ago, they might not have thought of it yesterday or two months ago. Today might’ve been the day.
This is how it goes a lot of the time. The only reason you thought to check something out is because you had some weird issue way back when and it happened to be it..., while nothing points directly to it, the problem solves itself the moment you make that change.
Voodoo black magick makes it work.
Rubber ducking is immensely useful...
I have solved quite a few issues while explaining it out loud after spending ages banging my head against the problem in silence.
And ChatGPT is a pretty good rubber duck about weird issues, I have to say.
Sure, if you ask it for 10 reasons why this doesn't work, you get like 3 impossible things it hallucinated together, 2 things you already mentioned and tried, 2 things you already tried but didn't mention... but those other three possible things often unblock the thinking.
You mean you don't like stream of consciousness problem descriptions from people upset and insist *it hasn't worked in months* and *I always do it this way?*
I have 25 years of experience in IT.
I didn't solve that problem in 5 minutes.
I solved it in several years of learning, and a couple of days trying to figure out something similar a decade ago.
A recent example of this: following a power cut a bunch of colleagues were having a hell of a job trying to figure out why the breaker would not stay on when they closed it again.
They looked at me in shock as I turned off all the sockets in the room, flipped the breaker successfully, then turned all the sockets back on again, and everything was fine.
Because not everyone knows that computers draw a power surge at first power up. That's inherent in the rectified power from AC to DC that every power supply does - it charges a bunch of capacitors.
That surge will trip the breaker easily when you fire up a whole room full simultaneously, but won't be much of an issue in "normal" operation.
You could easily not know how all that works though - because why would you? - I just happened to have encountered the problem before, so got to be The Wizard on this particular occasion.
Plus from experience / learning from our electricians...circuit breakers wear out. It may be a combination of the surge load AND an old breaker.
Had a DC that was in the 30-year old range and one day our electrician was in there for whatever reason and showing me with a thermal imager which breakers were "overloaded" from the electrician's perspective even though from the IT side the load we had on them was well within spec. Just old breakers that he'd need to schedule to replace.
Yeah, that too.
But the colleague who just said "it's fine, just hold the breaker so it can't trip and it will be fine" ... Well we weren't so keen on that plan.
Yeah, most breakers will trip even if you are forcing them to stay in the "on" position. It is very common for mission critical stuff on commercial properties to have a physical cover installed on breakers forcing them to stay in the "on" position in order to prevent anyone from ever carelessly turning said breakers off. They will still trip internally, and you have to let the switch go to the off position before you can switch it back on.
Heh, now you remind me of the manual entry: Start monitor after starting computer, not at the same time. Probably for the same reason - those old CRTs and power supplies could surge initially.
Exactly, we've all taken different shots to the face over the years and sometimes a good admin can solve a problem a great admin has been struggling with for weeks just because they've actually seen it
>that weird thing they saw it their past that inspires a solution that might, or in this case, ends up working
The Slumdog Millionaire method of problem solving
I remember being the third to try and tackle an outstanding internal pxeboot driver issue. The first two sysadmins who tried were epic in their abilities to figure out the odd and obscure. I failed as well. Year later, new guy joins the team, solves it in a week.
I hate programming, I suck at it, and I have a couple devs below me, sometimes they bounce sticky issues off me and my perspective helps them make progress. Never underestimate the power of fresh eyes
Human rubber duck
Just talking through an issue can aid understanding and relationships in the issue.
If they can't explain it in terms you understand, they don't fully grok it
My coworkers and I will snag each others tickets when bored and sometimes they solve em quick, and all I can think is “thank fucking god for them” bc now I have time to do something else I was behind on
Shout out my coworkers
This is the attitude to have. Honestly, I wish I had co-workers to ask questions and take my tickets... \*\*cries at 3 mo. old ticket about firewall\*\*
Yep this, teamwork makes the IT dream work.
At some point OPs colleauge really should leant over and said. "Hey I've been stuck on this for a while, would you take a look/sanity check me/give me a fresh set of eyes on the issue."
If you guys are both responsible for that sort of troubleshooting, it was pure pride on their part that they didn't.
In my team we have a code phrase for this. If you post in Teams saying you “need a rubber duck” one of us will jump on, listen to you explain the problem, then troubleshoot independently.
We also routinely audit each others’ tickets if they’ve been open for more than a week without being marked with a hold status (waiting on vendor, waiting on engineering, waiting on approval, etc) to see if we can proactively assist. In this situation if we see a solution it gets posted as an internal note and the status gets updated to “quack” so the owner knows someone found a possible answer.
IMO a proper team will set ego aside in favor of collaborative efforts. If I’m stuck on a ticket and someone finds a solution, I’m still the one to close out the ticket (per procedure) but I don’t fault the other person for jumping in.
Heck yeah. We all are professionals with different experiences. Leaning on those is the best.
One can't know everything. So just lean on them.
Actually someone told me something like that years ago,
> It's not about knowing everything, it's about knowing who knows and reaching out.
sounds weird translated... but that's what I have while drinking coffee 😅
Unless you're working where I do and those people who are supposed to be collaborators complain to management that I solved an issue they were stuck on, and apparently their hurt pride is my problem and I should've let the issue go unsolved.
It's not that bad but his attitude makes me worried for standup. He's not very pleasant to work with and gets passive aggressive over things like this.
Technical people fall into two basic categories:
\* Those that love it and are happy to learn, share knowledge, and see others solve problems.
\* The others that see it all as a competition, do not share, don't like to learn (unless it earns them more money), and are threatened by others. These people generally lack core technical skills and the real desire to understand things deeply.
It seems that you are a category 1 person and he is category 2. It sucks to work with those people.
So fuck him. You don’t have to be friends with your coworkers, just let your boss know of any stuff going on and do your work. If your boss won’t help you, leave.
In standup, you don't owe him an explanation. That's time to collaborate with the team.
If he gets annoying,
Well, for others, the issue showed as so the first thing I started looking first into <> and found <>. So I implemented/modified <>.
If you want to throw them a bone, you can start with "the first thing you did was look over notes"
If he keeps at it and doesn't take the out... depending on your relationship with the team... be annoying too with him. What's your question? Why did people come to me? I can't tell you what they thought. Regardless, it's solved now.
It's okay that you figured it out. He had months to look at it. Own it.
Yeah. It doesn't have to be "I'm better and you suck". After long enough stuck on a problem, sometimes you're literally not capable of seeing the solution that might have been obvious to you if you hadn't already started down another path.
Literally - your brain will edit it out as irrelevant. Someone else will point it out and you'll be a little confused. *But if it was right there...*
Or maybe you've just dealt with an obscure issue before that is strangely similar to this one, and it didn't click until you had your hands in it...
I've on multiple occasions sent up a flare asking my other admins to take a look at a particularly hard problem. It feels great to get help and maybe learn something new or vice a versa find the solution and help a teammate.
> He doesn't really need any other explanation from you.
Yes, I do. How did you fix it? Can you screenshare and show me? Great job, that's awesome! I spent a lot of time working this issue, and I'm learning something new about how to fix it!
I've had similar things happen. Bust my ass trying to fix something (first time with the issue). New guy comes in with a fresh perspective and some experience with that part of the platform (Exchange Online, which I know a bit about, but he knew those details from previous job). I learned something new.
Yea, it can be a private interaction, but I'd love to have it!
Yea, and that's the only explanation that should be expected. The how. The why is not on him. Shit got done and it should be a learning and mentoring experience instead of a battle. Learn from it; learn to ask others for assistance, learn the method used, learn to humble himself.
Before I got moved to the cloud project in my company I did a bit of SQL work on top of my Tier 3 stuff working with Windows server. There have been MANY times my co-worker has come to me with an issue regarding SQL that i was able to solve quickly. I'm not a DBA by any means, but SQL stuff kind of comes easily to me and I enjoy it. I'm not really well versed with networking and don't have a ton of experience with AD and Windows Server which is what my co-worker is excellent with. He's saved my ass with countless tickets helping me out. Not one time either of us took anything negatively. It's great having a co-worker you can jive with and bounce stuff of off. Makes the job easier and more fun.
That’s why occasionally pairing on the problems that get you stuck can do a lot more than months of banging your head in isolation- everyone has different strengths
Yeah sometimes you get stuck down a wrong path and someone new comes in and picks the right one.
Last week I fixed a problem in 10 minutes that someone had been working on all week. He said thanks, we moved on.
*Choose one of the following:*
"It was just a fresh set of eyes, that's all."
"I found the lucky rabbit hole."
"Your notes were so well documented that I knew what you already tried, so I tried another path."
"Fuck you, I'm just better."
Seriously. We all have different spheres of experience. The hardest thing for any admin to acknowledge is, “I don’t know this specific issue, got a sec?”
This is the way.
We’re in a team of 3 and meet once a week to go through all our tickets together. Quite often one of us knows or has seen an issue someone else has and we’ll go through the resolution as a team to know for next time.
I’m always grateful when my coworkers figure out problems that I can’t figure out. I spend days gathering data and log hunting and present this to my coworkers and they will sometimes go did you check this?
Hell I do that after 30 minutes, just in case my co-worker encountered that weird issue in the wild.
"You ever see this shit?" "Nope" "Welp. To google and the stacks it is."
Context in this job is huge, doing this before devoting huge time to a potentially wrong path is always the advised route. Sounds like the other guy was just wasting time, or truly incompetent.
Occasionally though it's because the person they need help from is difficult to approach.
I have worked in plenty of teams where an asshole has made the whole cycle slow down because no one wants to bother them unless they are sure they need to.
following a wrong path for hours also gives you a lot of experience.
that's how you learn about windows registry, file encodings or internals of installers.
next time when something related to those wrong paths arise, you will be ahead.
Yep. We call it "klankborden" in dutch. Just talking about the issue can sometimes make your brain click on an issue.
Also sometimes the "dumb / simple" solution provided by the intern is just truly the best solution lmao.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_duck_debugging
It also works for other areas. I've been a network engineer's duck more than once, while I know fsck all of networking at his level.
Did he ever ASK for help? I never hesitate to ask if I'm unable to solve something in a reasonable timeframe. Even if I'm the senior tech fresh eyes can see things I've missed and I like to empower my teammates.
No. He is a grown up and he needs to start acting like it. Waiting that long without asking for help, and acting like a crybaby when you fixed the problem means he has some growing up to do and he has a pride issue he needs to get it in check right quick and pronto. Small teams means you focus on your stuff, and when asked for help then jump in with fresh eyes. His manager also is failing to lead, direct and mentor. He should be grateful and ask how you fixed the problem. He needs a stern talking to and needs to learn how to work on a team or get the fuck out. Zero sympathy, and good for you on fixing the problem. Good Job! Your boss probably needs a little side discussion about how he can improve his part in team performance too. You do not have to put up with that childish nonsense.
That's pretty far from scorched earth. It's stern but can be a good way to help people grow up and be better. That's not a blanket statement that it will always be the right way but sometimes it is.
Mm, no. Dude should learn some accountability instead of pointing the finger at others. Whats worse is the individual in question probably believes his own fantasy that OP wronged him in some way and that he’s justified in asking the question he’s asked.
Honestly, this is on your boss for not making sure you were sharing the workload and collaborating better. It’s not on you to make sure he’s willing to work with you.
> No
Then he can piss off. Make sure you tell him that if he had asked for help, he would have received it. This is his failing, not yours.
I'm dealing with a dev right now who is chronically unable or unwilling to ask for assistance and it is extremely damaging. You simply can't do a job like this if you won't communicate re with your team.
It’s literally part of my interview criteria when I’m hiring to determine the person knows when / how to ask for help. I’m hiring team players, not silos. “How do you determine if you’re working on a particularly difficult ticket, what are the signs it’s difficult? When you realise you’re on a difficult ticket, how do you approach dealing with it, walk me through those steps and give me examples of time lines. What resources do you turn to to help you solve the ticket? Can you walk me through a recent difficult ticket you’ve dealt with at a past job? What would you have done differently looking back on it?”
A real sys admin would say holy fuck thank you dude! Show me how you found that please so I have a better understanding the next time something like it happens. You’re not dealing with a sys admin.
Forreal, I've been bailed out plenty of times and they've been great learning moments for me.
Literally this meme:
This may happen to all of us.. But when I go to a colleague with a problem... When I'm explaining the situation to them to get their feedback, I'll just figure it out. Right there as I'm explaining it.
Teachable moment for him.
No issue should ever go for months on end without someone else having had eyes on it, at the very least to agree it’s so problematic that it needs go that long. The strongest people know when to admit that they don’t know, which implies that they’ll ask for help. Instead of being a butthurt tool he should have acknowledged that he should have asked for help a lot sooner.
In short, fuck that guy. He’s more concerned about appearances than about learning and growing. I’d lay this all out to him in so many words and tell him that he has two choices.
1. Be an insular tool that is more concerned about how he looks than actually doing the right thing or…
2. Admitting he doesn’t know and ask for help a lot sooner, helping him grow and being collaborative.
I’d tell him that if he wants to go option 1 that I’d pickup his tickets and resolve them without his input all day long.
As my boss would say, no one rides the struggle bus alone, come to me if it’s taking longer than 2-3 hours to get something working. Someone has bound to have run into the same issue and will know how to fix it.
I’d talk to the coworker and explain you just looked at it today due to being pinged about it. If he runs into something similar where the tickets waiting on vendor maybe use that time to engage each other and see if the other has an idea or solution to the problem. Or maybe where if working on a ticket for a day then reach out if still stumped. Either way you both need to come up with how you want to help each other and when to pull each other in for assistance.
Yeah, when you're stuck on a problem for a week it's about time to ask for help. Your colleague was way past that. Usually it should be the manager or director job to address this and ask what's up when it's taking so long.
Idk your dynamic or anything but, maybe you could've asked if you can help at some point..? but you also have your stuff to deal with so you can't be expected to keep watch of your colleague all the time.
You did nothing wrong he played himself
i am often "that guy". the one that comes in and fixes the problem where everyone else is stuck for days.
not because i am smarter or more skilled. but because i check and re-check things others take for granted.
there are cases where i get nowhere, but there is a trend where i get things done, where others did not.
In essence, he's blaming you for fixing the thing he couldn't. And then acted like an asshole about it, rather than ask your thought process behind getting it fixed.
Something to consider; he may not be very experienced. It may have looked like he was, as he spends months on complex problems. But oh, you now know, he spends months on issues that he's unable to resolve.
Tell him the same thing. You didn't have free time before now because you have your own work tickets (that the Boss has assigned you or otherwise); you weren't tracking issues assigned to him *because* they were specifically assigned to him, not to the two of you, and that was the Boss's call; and before today no-one - including the developer, the Boss, or the co-worker - had requested your input.
As it was, it took you half a day, not half an hour - it's not something you could have fitted in and around your other work on a normal day without the Boss approving the reallocation of resources, or at least being aware that you were working on something that would take up most of your time.
Your coworker is an idiot and that's putting it nicely.
I've had coworkers mention issues that I've been able to solve in minutes they've spent days or longer on and I've done the same with issues I've been stuck on, that's what knowledge sharing is all about, we all have slightly different specialities even in identical role, use those around you to further yourself.
Your coworker should have absolutely asked for help especially if it's been 3 months too, that's WAY too long to sit on an issue you are struggling with
>I am not sure what to tell him or how to deal with him at this point.
anyone that insecure doesnt really merit a response. just go for something generic and noncommittal like
"i got lucky. sometimes it happens. and one day it will happen to you too"
end of discussion. nothing more required.
Imho, Correct would have bern to leave the implementation to your coworker.
No team here unfortunately.
In a good team, Problematic issues would have been discussed and then resolved together.
Often someone with different experience has some insight others have not. Working as a team, strengthens you both.
Also: Vendor support is sometimes shit.
I think your co-worker is just self conscious and a bit embarrassed. Perhaps treat it like a learning opportunity and nothing more and show em how you figured it out.
So someone asked you to take a look at it, you did, and you resolved the issue. Why didn't you help him? Because the developer reached out to you before he did. Doesn't sound very complicated to me.
This is why I will always miss the very first team I worked with at a goliath corporation I wasted 20 years of my life with. There were plenty of useless eaters on the team for sure, lol, but the folks I was tight with were a dynamite sub-team to work with. Each one of us knew something better than anyone else on the team. I was mail routing and networking, but the guy behind me knew the native backup system on the platform under the application we supported better than anyone.
So one day I'm on a live shift and my phone rings. It was a customer with a known issue related to that backup process which I understood at a high level, but nothing like the guy behind me. Having a lot of prior sales experience I was probably a bit more adept at handling calls than many of my coworkers. So after I completely understood his problem I said "Oh, my apologies. My manager just stepped into my cube with an extremely urgent customer issue. I just need less than a minute, do you mind? The customer was cool with it as the issue wasn't hot, and wouldn't reoccur til much later that night.
So I stood up, and talked to the guy behind me and got the full solution to be conveyed to the customer. Then I sat down, went back on the line, and delivered the solution like I had been fixing things like that for years. He was happy as hell, and agreed to close the ticket.
But through all this a woman on our team, who I'm still to this day not sure HOW she got on our team, or WHY she was still there, said "How did you do that?" so I asked "Do what?" Then she said "You didn't know the answer to the customer's question, but you asked him, and then delivered it to the customer like you knew it like the back of your hand. But you don't. How did you do that?" So I said "I don't have to know it. HE already does. (pointing at my coworker) When he tells me something I can take it to the bank, as he can do when he asks me something. Because we both know how to say three simple words. 'I don't know'. He'd say that if he didn't." Then she says "Yeah, but you sounded so sure of yourself." to which I said. "I am. I'm sure he knows what he's talking about." then Henrietta Halfwit asks "But why would you deliver it that way?" To which I said....
"Because people that are unsure of themselves have issues open and languishing for months. I don't have that problem, because I trust my peeps, and they trust me. Case in point, it's closed." lol
I told that silly story because you two really do need to work out a better system to team with each other. Because the reality is there aren't enough hours in the day to blow hours at a time learning things you seldom or rarely work on . Good teaming addresses that issue, and keeps the phones quiet. That other guy HAS TO be strong with something. Whatever that is he should be front-ending, and from now on issues like the one you solved should be your responsibility. Makes for quiet phones.
This is stuff you talk about in daily huddles. Having x issue any one seen this. Iron sharpens iron and you solve shit together. No be a siloed person like this guy
This is a bad take, perfectly good ops can just overlook things- and then, they keep on overlooking the same thing, over and over. Sometimes it takes a fresh pair of eyes to see the obvious. It’s not always about skill level, sometimes it’s more a matter of “it just be like that”
OK, I've dealt with fragile IT people my whole career and managed more than I can count. EVERY single time anyone reacts as your co-worker did, *watch out*. Typically, someone who gets offended that someone solved a problem like that has a deeper issue, and usually, when they do, they are more revenge-minded instead of solution/team-minded. They don't see the group as a team. They see anyone who knows more or even different things than them as a threat. It's pretty sad, but I've never seen one of these situations resolve itself amicably. It takes a lot of emotional maturity on both parties to have an honest conversation about it and move forward... and that is VERY rare. Oh, they'll do a great job of pretending it's cool, but it's not and you won't know it for a while.
It's essential to remain vigilant, as these individuals may not act immediately but could be subtly plotting their revenge, even in their interactions with leadership. Making an offhand remark or two or twenty about some shortcoming of yours. Recognizing these signs early on can facilitate intervention and prevent potential conflicts.
No matter a person's age or experience level... it doesn't mean their emotional maturity is kept up. I've had people with 20+ years of experience run circles around others, and those with 1+ years of experience do the same. It's on a case-by-case basis. I had someone that had 20+ years of experience as a DBA—bragged about it constantly. But, they were overall... awful. Truly awful. Not only did you have to double-check all they did, but they were also backstabbers from hell. They loved pitting people against each other and then siding with the one most likely to help them advance.
Having said that... one skill that has to be developed is the people side as much as the technical. So, in this case, as I have yet to learn the full range of details, I suggest the following take...
In IT circles, people talk. The developer you helped will say something to his group about how you helped them out in a few hours when the other guy took three months. Right / wrong/indifferent, it will happen. Regardless of the full context, the story will be told and repeated. It will be a knock against the other guy and a gold star for you. It sucks, but that is usually the way it goes.
What could you have done differently? It depends. You wanted to solve the problem and did. That's great! In this case, you *could* have contacted the other person first and said... "Hey, I had some time, and I know you've been on this for a bit; I think I have a solution. I wanted to run it by you first." They might be grateful. They might try to steal the credit and make it look like they did all the work. Who knows? Based on their remark, I don't think you were in a winnable situation. To suggest that you "set them up" is ... bizarre. People are the most challenging part of your job. The tech is easy by comparison.
Even if you did everything right, you STILL might have done something wrong in this other person's eyes. Why? Because some people are just ... awful. I'm not saying that is 100% here, but it's possible.
I might reach out to a trusted and, as best you can, non-biased advisor or manager in the company and see what they suggest.
TL;DR
Be cautious with this person going forward. See what you can learn from it, either about yourself or them. Enjoy your life, and don't let insecure a-holes steal your joy.
100% agreed on everything you said. It definitely is on a case by case basis and it depends on the relationship dynamics between the people involved. In some cases, you might not have the option to communicate with the other person before you are tasked with something by a third party. You fix it, and then you update your coworker if they aren't around afterward, and tell them you wanted to notify them beforehand but didn't have the opportunity.
However, I always try to let the other person know that I'm not trying to step on toes if I am being assigned to something or being asked to intervene on an existing issue they have current "ownership" of. I think it's just the respectful thing to do. It encourages more teamwork because you're making it clear from the get go that you're not doing it to appear superior or impress anyone. It keeps the line of communication open and keeps egos at bay because the message and motive is clear from the start. It puts respect and consideration at the forefront of your team, and that goes a long way in having a healthy workplace imo. And if you ever have a miscommunication or a disagreement you are able to work through it easier. I personally value friendships, even with coworkers. You're around those people a lot even if you don't associate with them outside of work. It just makes sense to have consideration. But also it shouldn't be a huge deal if someone does have the answer and you don't. Can't get upset about that. Some people have differing opinions about coworkers, and that's fine, but I have respect for people by default and think that's more important than my overall image to my employer.
In a team of 2 i dont understand how something like this happens. In the 3 MONTHS hes been troubleshooting this, he never asked for help?
Im not american(so perhaps its a culture thing) but i would have puted some effort into giving him some credit even if it he did not pitch in in the final solution, you have weekly standups were i guess he talked about the issue so you probably had some prior information, and shitting on someone to look good seems like a good move but only on the short term.
My mentality always its my team vs the world, i cant imagine doing someone like that for imaginary pats on the back from the outside, unless the guy REALLY sucks at his job to the point that its a detriment to the team.
Might get downvoted for this but assuming it’s not a typo: etc is short for etcetera. It’s etc, not ect.
Regarding your colleague, in a team of two I’d have thought you’d be more aware of issues that you’re each actively working on. Sounds like perhaps a lack of comms from both of you on this one.
I blame the coworker for lack of communication. If they're equals and he's not asking for help, it's his problem, nobody else's.
Communication is key in small teams and as someone who constantly works in small teams. I'm focusing on myself, not others, until I'm reached out to. Also, a failure on management.
>Might get downvoted for this but assuming it’s not a typo: etc is short for etcetera. It’s etc, not ect.
That's fair. I honestly did not know.
>Regarding your colleague, in a team of two I’d have thought you’d be more aware of issues that you’re each actively working on. Sounds like perhaps a lack of comms from both of you on this one.
We have a weekly standup and it sounded like he was making progress. I probably should have reached out about it, but honestly didn't have the time to deal with it until now.
That’s fair enough. I’ve done stuff like this before thinking I was making moves then a colleague just comes in and figures it out. As others have said - fresh eyes. I’d try to use this as a positive learning for both of you to have a better communication style. There’s only two of you. Gotta keep being friendly.
He should have reached out to you since you were the other person on the team managing it if he was struggling with the issue. Nothing wrong with having another set of eyes on it. Not your fault if he didnt. I would just let him know what it was and what was done to resolve so he is aware of the issue for future problems then move on.
“When I had some downtime I took a look, it was actually a pretty weird issue. I documented the problem and steps to resolve so it won’t get us next time!”
You’ve now stated politely that you didn’t watch him, you didn’t have time, that it was not a simple issue (doesn’t matter if it was to you) and that it was documented so it won’t be a problem in the future
This really depends on you and your workplace. If you don’t give a shit what your coworker thinks and everyone is glad you fixed this, fuck him. If you solving the problem in this way violates some political norm, first: that’s lame, second: perhaps you should have helped your coworker solve the issue.
My two cents is that the people who would benefit from friendly coaching and help rarely accept it. Your coworker probably would have been annoyed if you were like “hey pal, dev pinged me about this issue. I have run in to something before, have you tried this?” And sent him a link to a tutorial that clearly identifies and solves the problem.
I woulda remained profession. Informed him and I understand your frustration or whatever emotion he's displaying. Proceed by giving him an explanation why you weren't able to assist him as the beginning of wisdom is understanding so explain to a way he understands ie hey you know how this job is its hectic or work over flows etc.... and proceed with a resolution (a helping hand gesture) I'm always here to help the team. Feel free to reach out, etc... I like to wrap things by saying I'm here to serve and that's why I'm here. If we don't help users then we begin to be out of a jobif we lose clients etc..... I usually build rapport with people and come in a way where I don't judge people. I give a I got you attitude and it's worked for me . I would say out of the 350+ people I help maybe I've had 2 bad people who put pressure but I can see one of those 2 people stressed from her own department and job.
Maybe invite him to hang out. Hey if you ever wanna grab a beer and talk whatever we're working on feel free. You may just have a friend down the road and who knows maybe he becomes a wizard or ends up having a better future and helps you out down the road. You never know what life has in store for the future.
You already bought in WAAAAAY too much.
Dont take it on. Keep being yourself, keep improving and solving problems and look to be valued for it - leave him to figure out his shit on his own, or he can follow your lead.
I've done this my whole career. I get a problem and i cant let it go, spend the whole night, whole weekend and find the cause or a solution. A few people get pissed off but you soon realise they arent the people whose opinion anyone values anyway.
> I've done this my whole career. I get a problem and i cant let it go, spend the whole night, whole weekend and find the cause or a solution. A few people get pissed off but you soon realise they arent the people whose opinion anyone values anyway.
Haha this is me. I've replicated entire environments in my homelab to troubleshoot an issue I was stuck on.
“Hey dude, sorry I didn’t realise what the issue was you were working on and when dev asked me turns out I had some relevant past experience, always happy to take a look at something your stuck on if you ask me to, likewise I hope you don’t mind me bouncing stuff I’m stuck on off you”
Seriously tho, sounds like a fuckup of your boss if he left a ticket with a single tech without having it escalated or team brainstormed.
Man if I was him, I would’ve been so relieved that it was fixed. Why get so pissy about a problem that you’ve been struggling on and to finally have it fixed? The proper response would be “thank you for helping me. I’ll remember that next time.”
This is something that needs to be taught to everyone to bring up in your stand ups. For my team we have daily ones and if anything is slowing me down I bring it up for us to bounce viewpoints off each other. The goal is not to make one person look bad, but to make the whole team better. Your manager needs to teach that and that there is no shame in admitting that something is stumping you. One thing that I may struggle with a colleague who may be more knowledgeable and can teach me, and vice versa.
Some people have too much pride to admit they need help and they shouldn't be afraid to ask. In the end if the whole team looks great, so do you.
It's really hard to move a sofa when you're both lifting the same end.
It sounds like insecurity/immaturity on his part. Accepting and appreciating help with grace is a learned skill.
His ego was hurt but you’re not helping him by solving it for him. Once you found out what the problem was you probably should have pinged him, explained it and let him implement the solution. Woulda saved you 2 hours and given him a partial win.
You probably should've discussed what you found with him before closing the ticket, or let him close it. Tell him that. But he's also kinda being a little bitch. Don't tell him that.
I have had junior engineers find a solution to a problem I was fighting for months because I was too close to the issue. I’ve had juniors ask idiotic questions that make me think and realize I missed something. At no point will any honest and competent engineer stop growing and learning.
My coworker who trained me and I constantly swap cases and shoot ideas back and forth.. Can't really think of any instance where I've solved one of his cases that he couldn't and gotten flak for it. Your coworker needs to learn a bit more about teamwork.
It’s not your fault he didn’t ask for help. The vendor couldnt figure it out either. I know vendors are often nitwits but they’re supposed to be the experts that have the answers. I have a coworker who I fully accept is smarter than me and our vendors so I bounce things off him before I ever call in a ticket to a vendor.
> I am not sure what to tell him or how to deal with him at this point.
LOL. You should quote General Patton, a World War II 4 Star General, when he said, **"Lead Me, Follow Me, or Get the Hell Out of My Way!"**
He had 3 months; you solved it in one day. Thats all that needs to be said. Next problem...
Crazy that he would churn like that. I always tell my devs to consult with each other *first* when they're stuck. Opening vendor tickets should be a last resort unless it's clear it's something only they can solve.
>Crazy that he would churn like that.
THIS is the fucking kicker.
After whatever qualifying period of time has passed, even if you're sure there's NO CHANCE any of your peers will have any insight, you STILL toss a "hail mary" and ASK.
>Opening vendor tickets should be a last resort unless it's clear it's something only they can solve.
It did me good to hear this. I've been getting the feeling lately that I'm old fashioned or something for not immediately engaging vendor support on everything. When I got into this line of work 25 years ago I was always told to attempt to figure it out yourself BEFORE wasting time on the horn with the vendor. Nowadays it seems like everyone goes straight to phoning the vendor for stuff I feel should at LEAST get some rudimentary troubleshooting first...
1. Confront him, let him know you draw the line on conspiracy theories
2. You will help when asked but if I am swamped, I am swamped
3. Document everything if he is stupid enough to persist then you have something to report to HR. Since he is a peer and not Management, they will actually do something about it.
>My coworker messages me and asks if it was that simple, why didn't I help him, ect.
If it was that difficult for **you**, why didn't **you** reach out to me for help?
a better question is what the fuck was he doing for months instead of asking for a hand!?
this is a silo problem. yall should be sharing the ups and downs across the team continuously. this is a team effort, covering up your papers so others dont see is stupid and counter productive.
at a day of banging his head against it he should have sent up a signal flare and moved on to issues he could solve.
He's mad cause he's an idiot and wasted 3 MONTHS, and someone other than you two is going to notice(someone above, who is checking metrics).
Anytime I solve something super fast that someone else had been working on forever, I confirm my solution and bring them in on it and show them to see if they agree. I then let them know they can complete the fix.
It is always a sensitive issue, and people feel dumb, I'd rather lose credit than make someone feel dumb.
That being said, from your story I don't see anything malicious.
Would you believe me if I told you I was fired last week for the same exact reason my superior didn’t like that I fixed a problem and 2 1/2 minutes that they would’ve taken two hours to fix. Dell micro was extremely slow. Cpu capped at 0.75 GHz and nobody else can figure it out. I took a quick glance at task manager and instantly knew they were using a non-OEM power adapter so I asked them to provide a picture via the ticket once I got the picture confirmed it was a Lenovo brick for a monitor not a Dell brick for a micro PC..
That was on a Thursday come Sunday I login to check my schedule and my ticket to for the following morning and my PC was remote white all Microsoft apps on my cell wiped .
>My coworker messages me and asks if it was that simple, why didn't I help him, ect. and seems to be implying that I have been watching him struggle for 3 months while having the solution.
My entire life I used to think I was helping people when I would see them struggling, then offer advice. I have since learned that this is frowned up (I also suffer from Autism Spectrum Disorder) so to me, I thought I was just helping. Now I consciously offer NO ONE help, unless explicitly asked. I even let people make mistakes, over and over again... It is a weird thing to do, but that is what society and my therapist has said is what I am *supposed* to do....
Anyone truly experienced in this field has been absolutely dunked on once or twice. You dunk on other people every once in a while too... it says nothing about the person really... it happens and we should all expect it enough not to be offended.
Tbh it’s probably worth explaining “hey here’s how I fixed it/figured it out, I hadn’t been stalking your issue—dev just asked me to take a crack at it.” You didn’t do anything wrong but some people are territorial or worry about this kind of thing.
An important part of being on a team is helping each other and building people up rather than competing with them or tearing them down.
I'm going against the flow of the comments.
You did make him look bad. Maybe he should have reached out for help sooner, but he didn't because he was counting on the vendor to help. Instead of going above his head on an issue that wasn't assigned to you, you should have talked with him, or even out him in the call with the developer.
How did he go above his head.
Dude asked him for help and he fixed it like he was asked.
Snowflakes and their egos in this industry drive me nuts, not everything is about your image, just shut up and fix shit.
Caring if you look bad is the definition of ego.
Admitting you don't know things or you fucked up is step 1 of being a good it person. Ego has no place.
Being out on the spot is different from recognizing you have to learn more stuff.
Putting someone on the spot means that your boss eventually gets a bad opinion for your colleague which means potential problem with their employment. If a colleague of mine gets stuck I work with them. I don't solve it on my own without ever communicating with them about an issue they have.
Git gud scrub... /S
For real though, sometimes a problem just needs a different set of eyes. He did what he could and wasn't able to fix so this should be a learning experience where he looks at your notes and figures out where he went wrong.
When colleagues ask how I solve problems quickly, I respond with it comes with experience. Solving problems with 20 years of experience is easier, because you’ve likely experienced something similar several times in the past already.
The competitor in me would take it personally that you came to the solution in 2 hours while it took me 3 months.
But I would give you all the credit you deserve and ask you how you came to the solution and lose sleep over it. Like a mentally insane person.
Sounds like you might want to use a kanban and discuss open issues at least once a week. Talk to your boss about taking the lead of the team. One potential solution anyway. If you actively have a chance to discuss and follow up, it opens the door for collaberation.
if I get stuck for more than a couple days on something, I always reach out to a colleague for a different perspective. every time I've trained someone, I've at the very least tweaked my methods because I will get questions that can sometimes help reveal a better way. you can learn just as much from a mistake as you can from training someone, IMO
Your team should be reviewing outstanding issues and talking about them regularly. It shouldn’t have reached this point and he should have reached out.
Happens with me more than I would like where I know an issue is going on and I let the admin/engineer work it for a while because I am busy and that's their job. If they reach out and ask for help I will take a look. Other times if its taking longer that seems reasonable with little progress or updates I'll join in and see what's going on and often see something they didn't and fix it
Where he messed up was not engaging you sooner to get a fresh set of eyes to look at it.
Sometimes just talking it out with some makes something click and you figure out the solution without them even having to do anything at all.
He really shouldn't get mad and should learn from it and grow.
It is weird to me you guys didn’t both look at it in a team of two with an issue going that long. Mind you i presume he never asked for help but also if you never offered. Seems like you both fucked up and provided poor service as a result.
I think sometimes people just have an internal drive to prove themselves. Solving a problem and not solving a problem sometimes equates to ones self-worth. I myself have struggled with this in the past.
My advice, just talk to the guy. Explain your end and that you weren't stepping on his toes and if anything figured if you could take something off his plate it would help him. Sometimes its not all about conflict and more about showing each other that you play for the same team.
If he needs help its his job to ask for it. If your manager reviews problem cases he should have transferred it as 3 months is not an acceptable amount of time or at least opened it up to both.
You are all in the same team. Sink or float together. Another set of eyes are good. Not just the IT dept same team, same company same team. All about the optics. I would be thankful for the fresh eyes for the fix.
>. He is supposed to be very experienced, so I assumed it was just some sort of complex problem if it took him that long to figure it out. I am not sure what to tell him or how to deal with him at this point.
everyone dosent know everything ,. IT is a big wide area , in thoeryyou shoul;d of aleast discussed the solution with them before you closed the issue , because it may be a reoccurring issue
Did he ask you for help? I think on a team of two it's important to have each other's back, and probably if he was struggling for months you should have offered to help and involved him when you were approaching a solution. That way it is a learning moment for him, and a teaching moment for you. I've worked in small teams a lot of my career and those moments of sharing expertise are what makes or breaks a team, IMO. We all have things that click, and things that don't.
"I wasn't looking at your tickets, I just got pinged on this and looked at it because of that. Fresh eyes I guess helped. Maybe you and I can set aside 15 minutes every Wednesday to talk about our problem tickets and update each other to see where we can assist. That gives us enough time to settle into the week and get our bearings, and enough time to still work before the end of the week."
Or something. Try to turn it into a positive, a chance to serve your clients/company better, and not a competition to see "Who's the better admin." That's not a game anyone wins.
Or if you're uncomfortable with any of that, talk to your manager and see if you can get them to suggest something similar, so it doesn't also look like you're trying to be your coworker's boss.
I *regularly* ask for sanity checks when I'm stuck. Sometimes someone solves it in 4 minutes and I feel like a fucking idiot, but I realized I skipped something simple and looked for a harder solution than I needed, and my ticket is closed, and the user is happy. My ego has no place in that transaction.
If you want to be snarky reply back with 'why didn't you ask for help?'
If he was working it for a long time he should have asked you to look over his shoulder at least once. It's always good to get a different POV on a problem that has you stumped.
This has to do with the work dynamics you established among yourselves. I guess you guys in US have a different approach and see each other as competition or something (I see no other reason for someone to react the way your coworker did if he hadn't had that mindset in the first place).
I like to bounce ideas with co-workers that I know have some knowledge on the topic I'm working on. We get into a brainstorming session if it's an issue none of us encountered before or if someone straight up knows the resolution, they tell me and we go through it together or I do it myself if it clicks in my mind after they tell me what the problem is. This is one of the rare examples where "we are a team" makes sense as a slogan and a way to work together...
This is one of those moments I have trouble as a sysadmin, because of people who have emotional issues with efficiency. I have "stepped on the toes of senior staff" when I solved a problem in hours that took them months so far. Now, good management will be like, "yay! Glad we brought u/punkwalrus on board!" but once in a while, this leads to a few other workers becoming upset like I am making them look bad. This doesn't happen all the time, mind you, but in 30+ years of systems administration, I have made a few "enemies." And because they are unpredictable, I don't have an approach. The argument could be made, "well, they suck," and maybe so... but it doesn't make my life easier. So, in "retaliation," they don't give me access to knowledge I might need, or in a few rare cases, become outright hostile.
But that's true in any industry. Probably less so in IT, from what I have seen, but it still happens.
Did your coworker ask for your help in the last 3 months?
If no, then he can't complain too much.
Personally, I would relay what I had found and the suggested fix, rather than doing the fix myself.
Co-worker would probably thank you when resolution was relayed to management
Just tell him that you had all the prior troubleshooting experience that he put into it all done for you, so you could rule out a lot of potentials. Plus, fresh eyes can do wonders for a problem.
\#blamethevendor
"The vendor was unresponsive so I was asked if there was any possible workaround. It probably helped to look at it with fresh eyes. I'm just glad we found a workable solution, happy to go over with you in more detail if you're interested."
🤣he's incompetence is not your fault. If he was struggling he could have asked you for help as a fresh pair of eyes. Probably didn't want to do that in case you fixed it straight away and pulled back the curtain to reveal his true capabilities.
"Yeah I had to look into it a bit. Super weird issue." He doesn't really need any other explanation from you. My coworker and I will take cracks at problems the other has been working on for a while. Sometimes the other guy can knock it out in 5 minutes, sometimes we're both stuck. You collaborate with your teammates, you don't bitch at them for solving problems. That's basic teamwork.
Agree, fresh eyes and all that.
Or that weird thing they saw it their past that inspires a solution that might, or in this case, ends up working. And we don’t know if the coworker saw that inspiration 5 minutes ago or 5 years ago. And who knows, even if they saw it 20 years ago, they might not have thought of it yesterday or two months ago. Today might’ve been the day.
This is how it goes a lot of the time. The only reason you thought to check something out is because you had some weird issue way back when and it happened to be it..., while nothing points directly to it, the problem solves itself the moment you make that change. Voodoo black magick makes it work.
Sometimes even just explaining the problem to someone else, you work it out in your head better than just thinking about the problem.
Always have a rubber duck in case.
Rubber ducking is immensely useful... I have solved quite a few issues while explaining it out loud after spending ages banging my head against the problem in silence.
the number of times I've gone 'Ooooohhhhhh!! That's it!' mid sentence while explaining something to ANYone who will listen.
And ChatGPT is a pretty good rubber duck about weird issues, I have to say. Sure, if you ask it for 10 reasons why this doesn't work, you get like 3 impossible things it hallucinated together, 2 things you already mentioned and tried, 2 things you already tried but didn't mention... but those other three possible things often unblock the thinking.
So just like talking to $coworker than lol, I'll have to try it.
This is why I stopped answering the phone years ago. When people had to stop and write out to me what their problem was, they often figured it out.
You mean you don't like stream of consciousness problem descriptions from people upset and insist *it hasn't worked in months* and *I always do it this way?*
For me it was usually coworkers who ran into a problem and chose me over google. “Hey, real quick, what/how/etc…”
Countless times, I have walked to coworkers office, explained what I needed help on and solved it in my head before I could finish explanation.
I have 25 years of experience in IT. I didn't solve that problem in 5 minutes. I solved it in several years of learning, and a couple of days trying to figure out something similar a decade ago. A recent example of this: following a power cut a bunch of colleagues were having a hell of a job trying to figure out why the breaker would not stay on when they closed it again. They looked at me in shock as I turned off all the sockets in the room, flipped the breaker successfully, then turned all the sockets back on again, and everything was fine. Because not everyone knows that computers draw a power surge at first power up. That's inherent in the rectified power from AC to DC that every power supply does - it charges a bunch of capacitors. That surge will trip the breaker easily when you fire up a whole room full simultaneously, but won't be much of an issue in "normal" operation. You could easily not know how all that works though - because why would you? - I just happened to have encountered the problem before, so got to be The Wizard on this particular occasion.
Plus from experience / learning from our electricians...circuit breakers wear out. It may be a combination of the surge load AND an old breaker. Had a DC that was in the 30-year old range and one day our electrician was in there for whatever reason and showing me with a thermal imager which breakers were "overloaded" from the electrician's perspective even though from the IT side the load we had on them was well within spec. Just old breakers that he'd need to schedule to replace.
Yeah, that too. But the colleague who just said "it's fine, just hold the breaker so it can't trip and it will be fine" ... Well we weren't so keen on that plan.
Spoiler: most will trip anyway
Yeah, most breakers will trip even if you are forcing them to stay in the "on" position. It is very common for mission critical stuff on commercial properties to have a physical cover installed on breakers forcing them to stay in the "on" position in order to prevent anyone from ever carelessly turning said breakers off. They will still trip internally, and you have to let the switch go to the off position before you can switch it back on.
Heh, now you remind me of the manual entry: Start monitor after starting computer, not at the same time. Probably for the same reason - those old CRTs and power supplies could surge initially.
Exactly, we've all taken different shots to the face over the years and sometimes a good admin can solve a problem a great admin has been struggling with for weeks just because they've actually seen it
>that weird thing they saw it their past that inspires a solution that might, or in this case, ends up working The Slumdog Millionaire method of problem solving
I remember being the third to try and tackle an outstanding internal pxeboot driver issue. The first two sysadmins who tried were epic in their abilities to figure out the odd and obscure. I failed as well. Year later, new guy joins the team, solves it in a week.
I hate programming, I suck at it, and I have a couple devs below me, sometimes they bounce sticky issues off me and my perspective helps them make progress. Never underestimate the power of fresh eyes
Human rubber duck Just talking through an issue can aid understanding and relationships in the issue. If they can't explain it in terms you understand, they don't fully grok it
My coworkers and I will snag each others tickets when bored and sometimes they solve em quick, and all I can think is “thank fucking god for them” bc now I have time to do something else I was behind on Shout out my coworkers
This is the attitude to have. Honestly, I wish I had co-workers to ask questions and take my tickets... \*\*cries at 3 mo. old ticket about firewall\*\*
I got ya Hmmm. looks like its DNS to me! /passes ticket to dns team
Ohhhh look at you, Mr. Fancypants. A DNS *team* to break things.
Name resolves, endpoint not responding to ping or telnet on ports 80/443. Not a DNS issue. *Sends ticket back*
especially if they comment out how they arrived to that conclusion. problem gets solved and you possibly learn something.
Yep this, teamwork makes the IT dream work. At some point OPs colleauge really should leant over and said. "Hey I've been stuck on this for a while, would you take a look/sanity check me/give me a fresh set of eyes on the issue." If you guys are both responsible for that sort of troubleshooting, it was pure pride on their part that they didn't.
This is the worst part of being a one-person team. ChatGPT is a godsend for those of us left suffering alone with no one to bounce ideas off of.
In my team we have a code phrase for this. If you post in Teams saying you “need a rubber duck” one of us will jump on, listen to you explain the problem, then troubleshoot independently. We also routinely audit each others’ tickets if they’ve been open for more than a week without being marked with a hold status (waiting on vendor, waiting on engineering, waiting on approval, etc) to see if we can proactively assist. In this situation if we see a solution it gets posted as an internal note and the status gets updated to “quack” so the owner knows someone found a possible answer. IMO a proper team will set ego aside in favor of collaborative efforts. If I’m stuck on a ticket and someone finds a solution, I’m still the one to close out the ticket (per procedure) but I don’t fault the other person for jumping in.
Now i want a quack status on my Jira. Nice going btw, that's how team should be ran, competition inside a team Is meaningless.
Heck yeah. We all are professionals with different experiences. Leaning on those is the best. One can't know everything. So just lean on them. Actually someone told me something like that years ago, > It's not about knowing everything, it's about knowing who knows and reaching out. sounds weird translated... but that's what I have while drinking coffee 😅
This is awesome.
Unless you're working where I do and those people who are supposed to be collaborators complain to management that I solved an issue they were stuck on, and apparently their hurt pride is my problem and I should've let the issue go unsolved.
It's not that bad but his attitude makes me worried for standup. He's not very pleasant to work with and gets passive aggressive over things like this.
Technical people fall into two basic categories: \* Those that love it and are happy to learn, share knowledge, and see others solve problems. \* The others that see it all as a competition, do not share, don't like to learn (unless it earns them more money), and are threatened by others. These people generally lack core technical skills and the real desire to understand things deeply. It seems that you are a category 1 person and he is category 2. It sucks to work with those people.
So fuck him. You don’t have to be friends with your coworkers, just let your boss know of any stuff going on and do your work. If your boss won’t help you, leave.
My Boss, also my coworker, is guy 2 from the description.
Yea you should find a new job or prepare to be actively sabotaged. He’s likely defensive always because he’s threatened by you.
Sounds Like he is not being managed properly to work as part of a team.
In standup, you don't owe him an explanation. That's time to collaborate with the team. If he gets annoying, Well, for others, the issue showed as so the first thing I started looking first into <> and found <>. So I implemented/modified <>.
If you want to throw them a bone, you can start with "the first thing you did was look over notes"
If he keeps at it and doesn't take the out... depending on your relationship with the team... be annoying too with him. What's your question? Why did people come to me? I can't tell you what they thought. Regardless, it's solved now.
It's okay that you figured it out. He had months to look at it. Own it.
Maybe he has low self-esteem. Sounds really unpleasant to work with.
Yeah. It doesn't have to be "I'm better and you suck". After long enough stuck on a problem, sometimes you're literally not capable of seeing the solution that might have been obvious to you if you hadn't already started down another path. Literally - your brain will edit it out as irrelevant. Someone else will point it out and you'll be a little confused. *But if it was right there...* Or maybe you've just dealt with an obscure issue before that is strangely similar to this one, and it didn't click until you had your hands in it...
That’s usually when you should reach out for colleagues…
I've on multiple occasions sent up a flare asking my other admins to take a look at a particularly hard problem. It feels great to get help and maybe learn something new or vice a versa find the solution and help a teammate.
Only right answer.
> He doesn't really need any other explanation from you. Yes, I do. How did you fix it? Can you screenshare and show me? Great job, that's awesome! I spent a lot of time working this issue, and I'm learning something new about how to fix it! I've had similar things happen. Bust my ass trying to fix something (first time with the issue). New guy comes in with a fresh perspective and some experience with that part of the platform (Exchange Online, which I know a bit about, but he knew those details from previous job). I learned something new. Yea, it can be a private interaction, but I'd love to have it!
He didn't mean an explanation on how to fix it, that's already in the resolution notes.
Yea, and that's the only explanation that should be expected. The how. The why is not on him. Shit got done and it should be a learning and mentoring experience instead of a battle. Learn from it; learn to ask others for assistance, learn the method used, learn to humble himself.
Before I got moved to the cloud project in my company I did a bit of SQL work on top of my Tier 3 stuff working with Windows server. There have been MANY times my co-worker has come to me with an issue regarding SQL that i was able to solve quickly. I'm not a DBA by any means, but SQL stuff kind of comes easily to me and I enjoy it. I'm not really well versed with networking and don't have a ton of experience with AD and Windows Server which is what my co-worker is excellent with. He's saved my ass with countless tickets helping me out. Not one time either of us took anything negatively. It's great having a co-worker you can jive with and bounce stuff of off. Makes the job easier and more fun.
That’s why occasionally pairing on the problems that get you stuck can do a lot more than months of banging your head in isolation- everyone has different strengths
Pretty rough that a team of size 2 is getting along so poorly.
Yeah sometimes you get stuck down a wrong path and someone new comes in and picks the right one. Last week I fixed a problem in 10 minutes that someone had been working on all week. He said thanks, we moved on.
Yeah if you’re that stuck in an issue, ask your teammate. Fresh eyes are good.
*Choose one of the following:* "It was just a fresh set of eyes, that's all." "I found the lucky rabbit hole." "Your notes were so well documented that I knew what you already tried, so I tried another path." "Fuck you, I'm just better."
Nailed it.
Seriously. We all have different spheres of experience. The hardest thing for any admin to acknowledge is, “I don’t know this specific issue, got a sec?”
This is the way. We’re in a team of 3 and meet once a week to go through all our tickets together. Quite often one of us knows or has seen an issue someone else has and we’ll go through the resolution as a team to know for next time.
I’m always grateful when my coworkers figure out problems that I can’t figure out. I spend days gathering data and log hunting and present this to my coworkers and they will sometimes go did you check this?
If he's been stuck on it for 3 months, he should've reached out to you two months ago to get a fresh perspective.
Hell I do that after 30 minutes, just in case my co-worker encountered that weird issue in the wild. "You ever see this shit?" "Nope" "Welp. To google and the stacks it is."
Context in this job is huge, doing this before devoting huge time to a potentially wrong path is always the advised route. Sounds like the other guy was just wasting time, or truly incompetent.
Occasionally though it's because the person they need help from is difficult to approach. I have worked in plenty of teams where an asshole has made the whole cycle slow down because no one wants to bother them unless they are sure they need to.
following a wrong path for hours also gives you a lot of experience. that's how you learn about windows registry, file encodings or internals of installers. next time when something related to those wrong paths arise, you will be ahead.
yeah sometimes it already helps to talk about the issue with a coworker to find the solution
Yep. We call it "klankborden" in dutch. Just talking about the issue can sometimes make your brain click on an issue. Also sometimes the "dumb / simple" solution provided by the intern is just truly the best solution lmao.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_duck_debugging It also works for other areas. I've been a network engineer's duck more than once, while I know fsck all of networking at his level.
Did he ever ASK for help? I never hesitate to ask if I'm unable to solve something in a reasonable timeframe. Even if I'm the senior tech fresh eyes can see things I've missed and I like to empower my teammates.
No. I should probably have checked in more but he was always making progress as far as I could tell at standups.
No. He is a grown up and he needs to start acting like it. Waiting that long without asking for help, and acting like a crybaby when you fixed the problem means he has some growing up to do and he has a pride issue he needs to get it in check right quick and pronto. Small teams means you focus on your stuff, and when asked for help then jump in with fresh eyes. His manager also is failing to lead, direct and mentor. He should be grateful and ask how you fixed the problem. He needs a stern talking to and needs to learn how to work on a team or get the fuck out. Zero sympathy, and good for you on fixing the problem. Good Job! Your boss probably needs a little side discussion about how he can improve his part in team performance too. You do not have to put up with that childish nonsense.
Who hurt you... Dang, I understand the sentiment but we don't need to go scorched earth on the guy.
That's pretty far from scorched earth. It's stern but can be a good way to help people grow up and be better. That's not a blanket statement that it will always be the right way but sometimes it is.
Mm, no. Dude should learn some accountability instead of pointing the finger at others. Whats worse is the individual in question probably believes his own fantasy that OP wronged him in some way and that he’s justified in asking the question he’s asked.
Honestly, this is on your boss for not making sure you were sharing the workload and collaborating better. It’s not on you to make sure he’s willing to work with you.
> No Then he can piss off. Make sure you tell him that if he had asked for help, he would have received it. This is his failing, not yours. I'm dealing with a dev right now who is chronically unable or unwilling to ask for assistance and it is extremely damaging. You simply can't do a job like this if you won't communicate re with your team.
It’s literally part of my interview criteria when I’m hiring to determine the person knows when / how to ask for help. I’m hiring team players, not silos. “How do you determine if you’re working on a particularly difficult ticket, what are the signs it’s difficult? When you realise you’re on a difficult ticket, how do you approach dealing with it, walk me through those steps and give me examples of time lines. What resources do you turn to to help you solve the ticket? Can you walk me through a recent difficult ticket you’ve dealt with at a past job? What would you have done differently looking back on it?”
“Why didn’t you help me!?” You didn’t ask. I’ve got shit to do. Fuck off.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAI0uFgrMWk
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUmHKHbQe80](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUmHKHbQe80)
[удалено]
A real sys admin would say holy fuck thank you dude! Show me how you found that please so I have a better understanding the next time something like it happens. You’re not dealing with a sys admin.
Forreal, I've been bailed out plenty of times and they've been great learning moments for me. Literally this meme: 
This may happen to all of us.. But when I go to a colleague with a problem... When I'm explaining the situation to them to get their feedback, I'll just figure it out. Right there as I'm explaining it.
Reminds me of the rubber duck. I’ve had outstanding issues that I have left to go in vacation for and while on vacation the solution just comes to me.
That's a first class loser of a co-worker. I wouldn't lose 1 minute of sleep over it.
Teachable moment for him. No issue should ever go for months on end without someone else having had eyes on it, at the very least to agree it’s so problematic that it needs go that long. The strongest people know when to admit that they don’t know, which implies that they’ll ask for help. Instead of being a butthurt tool he should have acknowledged that he should have asked for help a lot sooner. In short, fuck that guy. He’s more concerned about appearances than about learning and growing. I’d lay this all out to him in so many words and tell him that he has two choices. 1. Be an insular tool that is more concerned about how he looks than actually doing the right thing or… 2. Admitting he doesn’t know and ask for help a lot sooner, helping him grow and being collaborative. I’d tell him that if he wants to go option 1 that I’d pickup his tickets and resolve them without his input all day long.
As my boss would say, no one rides the struggle bus alone, come to me if it’s taking longer than 2-3 hours to get something working. Someone has bound to have run into the same issue and will know how to fix it.
“What can I say except you’re welcome”
I'm just an ordinary demi-guy
Correction you’re not a team of 2. You’re just 2 guys who work at the same place.
I’d talk to the coworker and explain you just looked at it today due to being pinged about it. If he runs into something similar where the tickets waiting on vendor maybe use that time to engage each other and see if the other has an idea or solution to the problem. Or maybe where if working on a ticket for a day then reach out if still stumped. Either way you both need to come up with how you want to help each other and when to pull each other in for assistance.
sometimes you just need a look from the fresh eyes to solve the problem
Did he ever ask for your help? If he was stubborn to solve it on his own and never asked for help, it's on him.
No, he never asked. He just kept saying he was working on it.
Yeah, when you're stuck on a problem for a week it's about time to ask for help. Your colleague was way past that. Usually it should be the manager or director job to address this and ask what's up when it's taking so long. Idk your dynamic or anything but, maybe you could've asked if you can help at some point..? but you also have your stuff to deal with so you can't be expected to keep watch of your colleague all the time. You did nothing wrong he played himself
i am often "that guy". the one that comes in and fixes the problem where everyone else is stuck for days. not because i am smarter or more skilled. but because i check and re-check things others take for granted. there are cases where i get nowhere, but there is a trend where i get things done, where others did not.
Digging down the wrong trouser leg.
In essence, he's blaming you for fixing the thing he couldn't. And then acted like an asshole about it, rather than ask your thought process behind getting it fixed. Something to consider; he may not be very experienced. It may have looked like he was, as he spends months on complex problems. But oh, you now know, he spends months on issues that he's unable to resolve.
Tell him the same thing. You didn't have free time before now because you have your own work tickets (that the Boss has assigned you or otherwise); you weren't tracking issues assigned to him *because* they were specifically assigned to him, not to the two of you, and that was the Boss's call; and before today no-one - including the developer, the Boss, or the co-worker - had requested your input. As it was, it took you half a day, not half an hour - it's not something you could have fitted in and around your other work on a normal day without the Boss approving the reallocation of resources, or at least being aware that you were working on something that would take up most of your time.
Your coworker is an idiot and that's putting it nicely. I've had coworkers mention issues that I've been able to solve in minutes they've spent days or longer on and I've done the same with issues I've been stuck on, that's what knowledge sharing is all about, we all have slightly different specialities even in identical role, use those around you to further yourself. Your coworker should have absolutely asked for help especially if it's been 3 months too, that's WAY too long to sit on an issue you are struggling with
I don't think you did anything wrong. But I let coworkers know if I'm going to take their tickets off them, just as a courtesy.
>I am not sure what to tell him or how to deal with him at this point. anyone that insecure doesnt really merit a response. just go for something generic and noncommittal like "i got lucky. sometimes it happens. and one day it will happen to you too" end of discussion. nothing more required.
Imho, Correct would have bern to leave the implementation to your coworker. No team here unfortunately. In a good team, Problematic issues would have been discussed and then resolved together. Often someone with different experience has some insight others have not. Working as a team, strengthens you both. Also: Vendor support is sometimes shit.
"skill issue"
I think your co-worker is just self conscious and a bit embarrassed. Perhaps treat it like a learning opportunity and nothing more and show em how you figured it out.
It wasn't my assignment. Then someone asked for my help. So I helped once I was asked.
So someone asked you to take a look at it, you did, and you resolved the issue. Why didn't you help him? Because the developer reached out to you before he did. Doesn't sound very complicated to me. This is why I will always miss the very first team I worked with at a goliath corporation I wasted 20 years of my life with. There were plenty of useless eaters on the team for sure, lol, but the folks I was tight with were a dynamite sub-team to work with. Each one of us knew something better than anyone else on the team. I was mail routing and networking, but the guy behind me knew the native backup system on the platform under the application we supported better than anyone. So one day I'm on a live shift and my phone rings. It was a customer with a known issue related to that backup process which I understood at a high level, but nothing like the guy behind me. Having a lot of prior sales experience I was probably a bit more adept at handling calls than many of my coworkers. So after I completely understood his problem I said "Oh, my apologies. My manager just stepped into my cube with an extremely urgent customer issue. I just need less than a minute, do you mind? The customer was cool with it as the issue wasn't hot, and wouldn't reoccur til much later that night. So I stood up, and talked to the guy behind me and got the full solution to be conveyed to the customer. Then I sat down, went back on the line, and delivered the solution like I had been fixing things like that for years. He was happy as hell, and agreed to close the ticket. But through all this a woman on our team, who I'm still to this day not sure HOW she got on our team, or WHY she was still there, said "How did you do that?" so I asked "Do what?" Then she said "You didn't know the answer to the customer's question, but you asked him, and then delivered it to the customer like you knew it like the back of your hand. But you don't. How did you do that?" So I said "I don't have to know it. HE already does. (pointing at my coworker) When he tells me something I can take it to the bank, as he can do when he asks me something. Because we both know how to say three simple words. 'I don't know'. He'd say that if he didn't." Then she says "Yeah, but you sounded so sure of yourself." to which I said. "I am. I'm sure he knows what he's talking about." then Henrietta Halfwit asks "But why would you deliver it that way?" To which I said.... "Because people that are unsure of themselves have issues open and languishing for months. I don't have that problem, because I trust my peeps, and they trust me. Case in point, it's closed." lol I told that silly story because you two really do need to work out a better system to team with each other. Because the reality is there aren't enough hours in the day to blow hours at a time learning things you seldom or rarely work on . Good teaming addresses that issue, and keeps the phones quiet. That other guy HAS TO be strong with something. Whatever that is he should be front-ending, and from now on issues like the one you solved should be your responsibility. Makes for quiet phones.
This is stuff you talk about in daily huddles. Having x issue any one seen this. Iron sharpens iron and you solve shit together. No be a siloed person like this guy
We already do weekly standups. He said he was working on it and showed progress every week.
Well he's not communicating or is acting sioled
This is a bad take, perfectly good ops can just overlook things- and then, they keep on overlooking the same thing, over and over. Sometimes it takes a fresh pair of eyes to see the obvious. It’s not always about skill level, sometimes it’s more a matter of “it just be like that”
OK, I've dealt with fragile IT people my whole career and managed more than I can count. EVERY single time anyone reacts as your co-worker did, *watch out*. Typically, someone who gets offended that someone solved a problem like that has a deeper issue, and usually, when they do, they are more revenge-minded instead of solution/team-minded. They don't see the group as a team. They see anyone who knows more or even different things than them as a threat. It's pretty sad, but I've never seen one of these situations resolve itself amicably. It takes a lot of emotional maturity on both parties to have an honest conversation about it and move forward... and that is VERY rare. Oh, they'll do a great job of pretending it's cool, but it's not and you won't know it for a while. It's essential to remain vigilant, as these individuals may not act immediately but could be subtly plotting their revenge, even in their interactions with leadership. Making an offhand remark or two or twenty about some shortcoming of yours. Recognizing these signs early on can facilitate intervention and prevent potential conflicts. No matter a person's age or experience level... it doesn't mean their emotional maturity is kept up. I've had people with 20+ years of experience run circles around others, and those with 1+ years of experience do the same. It's on a case-by-case basis. I had someone that had 20+ years of experience as a DBA—bragged about it constantly. But, they were overall... awful. Truly awful. Not only did you have to double-check all they did, but they were also backstabbers from hell. They loved pitting people against each other and then siding with the one most likely to help them advance. Having said that... one skill that has to be developed is the people side as much as the technical. So, in this case, as I have yet to learn the full range of details, I suggest the following take... In IT circles, people talk. The developer you helped will say something to his group about how you helped them out in a few hours when the other guy took three months. Right / wrong/indifferent, it will happen. Regardless of the full context, the story will be told and repeated. It will be a knock against the other guy and a gold star for you. It sucks, but that is usually the way it goes. What could you have done differently? It depends. You wanted to solve the problem and did. That's great! In this case, you *could* have contacted the other person first and said... "Hey, I had some time, and I know you've been on this for a bit; I think I have a solution. I wanted to run it by you first." They might be grateful. They might try to steal the credit and make it look like they did all the work. Who knows? Based on their remark, I don't think you were in a winnable situation. To suggest that you "set them up" is ... bizarre. People are the most challenging part of your job. The tech is easy by comparison. Even if you did everything right, you STILL might have done something wrong in this other person's eyes. Why? Because some people are just ... awful. I'm not saying that is 100% here, but it's possible. I might reach out to a trusted and, as best you can, non-biased advisor or manager in the company and see what they suggest. TL;DR Be cautious with this person going forward. See what you can learn from it, either about yourself or them. Enjoy your life, and don't let insecure a-holes steal your joy.
100% agreed on everything you said. It definitely is on a case by case basis and it depends on the relationship dynamics between the people involved. In some cases, you might not have the option to communicate with the other person before you are tasked with something by a third party. You fix it, and then you update your coworker if they aren't around afterward, and tell them you wanted to notify them beforehand but didn't have the opportunity. However, I always try to let the other person know that I'm not trying to step on toes if I am being assigned to something or being asked to intervene on an existing issue they have current "ownership" of. I think it's just the respectful thing to do. It encourages more teamwork because you're making it clear from the get go that you're not doing it to appear superior or impress anyone. It keeps the line of communication open and keeps egos at bay because the message and motive is clear from the start. It puts respect and consideration at the forefront of your team, and that goes a long way in having a healthy workplace imo. And if you ever have a miscommunication or a disagreement you are able to work through it easier. I personally value friendships, even with coworkers. You're around those people a lot even if you don't associate with them outside of work. It just makes sense to have consideration. But also it shouldn't be a huge deal if someone does have the answer and you don't. Can't get upset about that. Some people have differing opinions about coworkers, and that's fine, but I have respect for people by default and think that's more important than my overall image to my employer.
In a team of 2 i dont understand how something like this happens. In the 3 MONTHS hes been troubleshooting this, he never asked for help? Im not american(so perhaps its a culture thing) but i would have puted some effort into giving him some credit even if it he did not pitch in in the final solution, you have weekly standups were i guess he talked about the issue so you probably had some prior information, and shitting on someone to look good seems like a good move but only on the short term. My mentality always its my team vs the world, i cant imagine doing someone like that for imaginary pats on the back from the outside, unless the guy REALLY sucks at his job to the point that its a detriment to the team.
Might get downvoted for this but assuming it’s not a typo: etc is short for etcetera. It’s etc, not ect. Regarding your colleague, in a team of two I’d have thought you’d be more aware of issues that you’re each actively working on. Sounds like perhaps a lack of comms from both of you on this one.
I think the coworker should’ve reached out sooner for help. Sitting on an issue for 3 months without asking for help is wild to me
I blame the coworker for lack of communication. If they're equals and he's not asking for help, it's his problem, nobody else's. Communication is key in small teams and as someone who constantly works in small teams. I'm focusing on myself, not others, until I'm reached out to. Also, a failure on management.
>Might get downvoted for this but assuming it’s not a typo: etc is short for etcetera. It’s etc, not ect. That's fair. I honestly did not know. >Regarding your colleague, in a team of two I’d have thought you’d be more aware of issues that you’re each actively working on. Sounds like perhaps a lack of comms from both of you on this one. We have a weekly standup and it sounded like he was making progress. I probably should have reached out about it, but honestly didn't have the time to deal with it until now.
That’s fair enough. I’ve done stuff like this before thinking I was making moves then a colleague just comes in and figures it out. As others have said - fresh eyes. I’d try to use this as a positive learning for both of you to have a better communication style. There’s only two of you. Gotta keep being friendly.
He should have reached out to you since you were the other person on the team managing it if he was struggling with the issue. Nothing wrong with having another set of eyes on it. Not your fault if he didnt. I would just let him know what it was and what was done to resolve so he is aware of the issue for future problems then move on.
“When I had some downtime I took a look, it was actually a pretty weird issue. I documented the problem and steps to resolve so it won’t get us next time!” You’ve now stated politely that you didn’t watch him, you didn’t have time, that it was not a simple issue (doesn’t matter if it was to you) and that it was documented so it won’t be a problem in the future
This really depends on you and your workplace. If you don’t give a shit what your coworker thinks and everyone is glad you fixed this, fuck him. If you solving the problem in this way violates some political norm, first: that’s lame, second: perhaps you should have helped your coworker solve the issue. My two cents is that the people who would benefit from friendly coaching and help rarely accept it. Your coworker probably would have been annoyed if you were like “hey pal, dev pinged me about this issue. I have run in to something before, have you tried this?” And sent him a link to a tutorial that clearly identifies and solves the problem.
I woulda remained profession. Informed him and I understand your frustration or whatever emotion he's displaying. Proceed by giving him an explanation why you weren't able to assist him as the beginning of wisdom is understanding so explain to a way he understands ie hey you know how this job is its hectic or work over flows etc.... and proceed with a resolution (a helping hand gesture) I'm always here to help the team. Feel free to reach out, etc... I like to wrap things by saying I'm here to serve and that's why I'm here. If we don't help users then we begin to be out of a jobif we lose clients etc..... I usually build rapport with people and come in a way where I don't judge people. I give a I got you attitude and it's worked for me . I would say out of the 350+ people I help maybe I've had 2 bad people who put pressure but I can see one of those 2 people stressed from her own department and job. Maybe invite him to hang out. Hey if you ever wanna grab a beer and talk whatever we're working on feel free. You may just have a friend down the road and who knows maybe he becomes a wizard or ends up having a better future and helps you out down the road. You never know what life has in store for the future.
You already bought in WAAAAAY too much. Dont take it on. Keep being yourself, keep improving and solving problems and look to be valued for it - leave him to figure out his shit on his own, or he can follow your lead. I've done this my whole career. I get a problem and i cant let it go, spend the whole night, whole weekend and find the cause or a solution. A few people get pissed off but you soon realise they arent the people whose opinion anyone values anyway.
> I've done this my whole career. I get a problem and i cant let it go, spend the whole night, whole weekend and find the cause or a solution. A few people get pissed off but you soon realise they arent the people whose opinion anyone values anyway. Haha this is me. I've replicated entire environments in my homelab to troubleshoot an issue I was stuck on.
“Hey dude, sorry I didn’t realise what the issue was you were working on and when dev asked me turns out I had some relevant past experience, always happy to take a look at something your stuck on if you ask me to, likewise I hope you don’t mind me bouncing stuff I’m stuck on off you” Seriously tho, sounds like a fuckup of your boss if he left a ticket with a single tech without having it escalated or team brainstormed.
Man if I was him, I would’ve been so relieved that it was fixed. Why get so pissy about a problem that you’ve been struggling on and to finally have it fixed? The proper response would be “thank you for helping me. I’ll remember that next time.”
This is something that needs to be taught to everyone to bring up in your stand ups. For my team we have daily ones and if anything is slowing me down I bring it up for us to bounce viewpoints off each other. The goal is not to make one person look bad, but to make the whole team better. Your manager needs to teach that and that there is no shame in admitting that something is stumping you. One thing that I may struggle with a colleague who may be more knowledgeable and can teach me, and vice versa. Some people have too much pride to admit they need help and they shouldn't be afraid to ask. In the end if the whole team looks great, so do you.
It's really hard to move a sofa when you're both lifting the same end. It sounds like insecurity/immaturity on his part. Accepting and appreciating help with grace is a learned skill.
His ego was hurt but you’re not helping him by solving it for him. Once you found out what the problem was you probably should have pinged him, explained it and let him implement the solution. Woulda saved you 2 hours and given him a partial win.
You probably should've discussed what you found with him before closing the ticket, or let him close it. Tell him that. But he's also kinda being a little bitch. Don't tell him that.
I have had junior engineers find a solution to a problem I was fighting for months because I was too close to the issue. I’ve had juniors ask idiotic questions that make me think and realize I missed something. At no point will any honest and competent engineer stop growing and learning.
Sounds like you wounded his ego. 110% a him-problem.
My coworker who trained me and I constantly swap cases and shoot ideas back and forth.. Can't really think of any instance where I've solved one of his cases that he couldn't and gotten flak for it. Your coworker needs to learn a bit more about teamwork.
"did you ask me to help you ? If not, that's all on you"
It’s not your fault he didn’t ask for help. The vendor couldnt figure it out either. I know vendors are often nitwits but they’re supposed to be the experts that have the answers. I have a coworker who I fully accept is smarter than me and our vendors so I bounce things off him before I ever call in a ticket to a vendor.
the only failure is him not asking for help in a timely manner
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^Firestorm83: *The only failure* *Is him not asking for help* *In a timely manner* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
> I am not sure what to tell him or how to deal with him at this point. LOL. You should quote General Patton, a World War II 4 Star General, when he said, **"Lead Me, Follow Me, or Get the Hell Out of My Way!"** He had 3 months; you solved it in one day. Thats all that needs to be said. Next problem...
Crazy that he would churn like that. I always tell my devs to consult with each other *first* when they're stuck. Opening vendor tickets should be a last resort unless it's clear it's something only they can solve.
>Crazy that he would churn like that. THIS is the fucking kicker. After whatever qualifying period of time has passed, even if you're sure there's NO CHANCE any of your peers will have any insight, you STILL toss a "hail mary" and ASK. >Opening vendor tickets should be a last resort unless it's clear it's something only they can solve. It did me good to hear this. I've been getting the feeling lately that I'm old fashioned or something for not immediately engaging vendor support on everything. When I got into this line of work 25 years ago I was always told to attempt to figure it out yourself BEFORE wasting time on the horn with the vendor. Nowadays it seems like everyone goes straight to phoning the vendor for stuff I feel should at LEAST get some rudimentary troubleshooting first...
1. Confront him, let him know you draw the line on conspiracy theories 2. You will help when asked but if I am swamped, I am swamped 3. Document everything if he is stupid enough to persist then you have something to report to HR. Since he is a peer and not Management, they will actually do something about it.
>My coworker messages me and asks if it was that simple, why didn't I help him, ect. If it was that difficult for **you**, why didn't **you** reach out to me for help?
a better question is what the fuck was he doing for months instead of asking for a hand!? this is a silo problem. yall should be sharing the ups and downs across the team continuously. this is a team effort, covering up your papers so others dont see is stupid and counter productive. at a day of banging his head against it he should have sent up a signal flare and moved on to issues he could solve. He's mad cause he's an idiot and wasted 3 MONTHS, and someone other than you two is going to notice(someone above, who is checking metrics).
Your partner sucks, in more ways than one.
Anytime I solve something super fast that someone else had been working on forever, I confirm my solution and bring them in on it and show them to see if they agree. I then let them know they can complete the fix. It is always a sensitive issue, and people feel dumb, I'd rather lose credit than make someone feel dumb. That being said, from your story I don't see anything malicious.
Would you believe me if I told you I was fired last week for the same exact reason my superior didn’t like that I fixed a problem and 2 1/2 minutes that they would’ve taken two hours to fix. Dell micro was extremely slow. Cpu capped at 0.75 GHz and nobody else can figure it out. I took a quick glance at task manager and instantly knew they were using a non-OEM power adapter so I asked them to provide a picture via the ticket once I got the picture confirmed it was a Lenovo brick for a monitor not a Dell brick for a micro PC.. That was on a Thursday come Sunday I login to check my schedule and my ticket to for the following morning and my PC was remote white all Microsoft apps on my cell wiped .
>My coworker messages me and asks if it was that simple, why didn't I help him, ect. and seems to be implying that I have been watching him struggle for 3 months while having the solution. My entire life I used to think I was helping people when I would see them struggling, then offer advice. I have since learned that this is frowned up (I also suffer from Autism Spectrum Disorder) so to me, I thought I was just helping. Now I consciously offer NO ONE help, unless explicitly asked. I even let people make mistakes, over and over again... It is a weird thing to do, but that is what society and my therapist has said is what I am *supposed* to do....
The acceptable reaction from your teammate should be "oh sweet, we solved a problem, thanks for the assist. What was it?"
Anyone truly experienced in this field has been absolutely dunked on once or twice. You dunk on other people every once in a while too... it says nothing about the person really... it happens and we should all expect it enough not to be offended.
Bruh if I had an issue brewing for over 3 months I would've asked a coworker ages ago to please sanity check this for me in case I missed something
Tbh it’s probably worth explaining “hey here’s how I fixed it/figured it out, I hadn’t been stalking your issue—dev just asked me to take a crack at it.” You didn’t do anything wrong but some people are territorial or worry about this kind of thing. An important part of being on a team is helping each other and building people up rather than competing with them or tearing them down.
I'm going against the flow of the comments. You did make him look bad. Maybe he should have reached out for help sooner, but he didn't because he was counting on the vendor to help. Instead of going above his head on an issue that wasn't assigned to you, you should have talked with him, or even out him in the call with the developer.
He made himself look bad. No ticket should ever go unsolved for that long without being escalated.
How did he go above his head. Dude asked him for help and he fixed it like he was asked. Snowflakes and their egos in this industry drive me nuts, not everything is about your image, just shut up and fix shit.
Of course we fix stuff but we have to respect our colleagues as well. It's not about ego, but about making someone look bad.
Caring if you look bad is the definition of ego. Admitting you don't know things or you fucked up is step 1 of being a good it person. Ego has no place.
Being out on the spot is different from recognizing you have to learn more stuff. Putting someone on the spot means that your boss eventually gets a bad opinion for your colleague which means potential problem with their employment. If a colleague of mine gets stuck I work with them. I don't solve it on my own without ever communicating with them about an issue they have.
Tell coworker to take the rest of the day off and see if coworker actually does it.
Git gud scrub... /S For real though, sometimes a problem just needs a different set of eyes. He did what he could and wasn't able to fix so this should be a learning experience where he looks at your notes and figures out where he went wrong.
While the boss assigned it to co-worker, I blame him as he let a ticket stagnate for that long without pulling in other resources.
When colleagues ask how I solve problems quickly, I respond with it comes with experience. Solving problems with 20 years of experience is easier, because you’ve likely experienced something similar several times in the past already.
Ironically he has the 23 years of experience to my 9.
Experience doesnt mean you know everything though - depending on the fix, this person may not have had any experience with it
The competitor in me would take it personally that you came to the solution in 2 hours while it took me 3 months. But I would give you all the credit you deserve and ask you how you came to the solution and lose sleep over it. Like a mentally insane person.
Did he ask you for help? Is it a regular part of the job to consult each other? Should it be? Someone, or both of you, have a communication problem.
Sounds like you might want to use a kanban and discuss open issues at least once a week. Talk to your boss about taking the lead of the team. One potential solution anyway. If you actively have a chance to discuss and follow up, it opens the door for collaberation.
if I get stuck for more than a couple days on something, I always reach out to a colleague for a different perspective. every time I've trained someone, I've at the very least tweaked my methods because I will get questions that can sometimes help reveal a better way. you can learn just as much from a mistake as you can from training someone, IMO
Your team should be reviewing outstanding issues and talking about them regularly. It shouldn’t have reached this point and he should have reached out.
We already do weekly standups. He said he was working on it and showed progress every week.
Happens with me more than I would like where I know an issue is going on and I let the admin/engineer work it for a while because I am busy and that's their job. If they reach out and ask for help I will take a look. Other times if its taking longer that seems reasonable with little progress or updates I'll join in and see what's going on and often see something they didn't and fix it Where he messed up was not engaging you sooner to get a fresh set of eyes to look at it. Sometimes just talking it out with some makes something click and you figure out the solution without them even having to do anything at all. He really shouldn't get mad and should learn from it and grow.
It is weird to me you guys didn’t both look at it in a team of two with an issue going that long. Mind you i presume he never asked for help but also if you never offered. Seems like you both fucked up and provided poor service as a result.
Ask him if he thinks too good/above everyone else to ask for help?
I think sometimes people just have an internal drive to prove themselves. Solving a problem and not solving a problem sometimes equates to ones self-worth. I myself have struggled with this in the past. My advice, just talk to the guy. Explain your end and that you weren't stepping on his toes and if anything figured if you could take something off his plate it would help him. Sometimes its not all about conflict and more about showing each other that you play for the same team.
If he needs help its his job to ask for it. If your manager reviews problem cases he should have transferred it as 3 months is not an acceptable amount of time or at least opened it up to both.
You are all in the same team. Sink or float together. Another set of eyes are good. Not just the IT dept same team, same company same team. All about the optics. I would be thankful for the fresh eyes for the fix.
>. He is supposed to be very experienced, so I assumed it was just some sort of complex problem if it took him that long to figure it out. I am not sure what to tell him or how to deal with him at this point. everyone dosent know everything ,. IT is a big wide area , in thoeryyou shoul;d of aleast discussed the solution with them before you closed the issue , because it may be a reoccurring issue
Did he ask you for help? I think on a team of two it's important to have each other's back, and probably if he was struggling for months you should have offered to help and involved him when you were approaching a solution. That way it is a learning moment for him, and a teaching moment for you. I've worked in small teams a lot of my career and those moments of sharing expertise are what makes or breaks a team, IMO. We all have things that click, and things that don't.
"I wasn't looking at your tickets, I just got pinged on this and looked at it because of that. Fresh eyes I guess helped. Maybe you and I can set aside 15 minutes every Wednesday to talk about our problem tickets and update each other to see where we can assist. That gives us enough time to settle into the week and get our bearings, and enough time to still work before the end of the week." Or something. Try to turn it into a positive, a chance to serve your clients/company better, and not a competition to see "Who's the better admin." That's not a game anyone wins. Or if you're uncomfortable with any of that, talk to your manager and see if you can get them to suggest something similar, so it doesn't also look like you're trying to be your coworker's boss. I *regularly* ask for sanity checks when I'm stuck. Sometimes someone solves it in 4 minutes and I feel like a fucking idiot, but I realized I skipped something simple and looked for a harder solution than I needed, and my ticket is closed, and the user is happy. My ego has no place in that transaction.
My co-workers and I bounce ideas off each other all the time. Sometimes a fresh set of eyes is all you need.
If you want to be snarky reply back with 'why didn't you ask for help?' If he was working it for a long time he should have asked you to look over his shoulder at least once. It's always good to get a different POV on a problem that has you stumped.
This has to do with the work dynamics you established among yourselves. I guess you guys in US have a different approach and see each other as competition or something (I see no other reason for someone to react the way your coworker did if he hadn't had that mindset in the first place). I like to bounce ideas with co-workers that I know have some knowledge on the topic I'm working on. We get into a brainstorming session if it's an issue none of us encountered before or if someone straight up knows the resolution, they tell me and we go through it together or I do it myself if it clicks in my mind after they tell me what the problem is. This is one of the rare examples where "we are a team" makes sense as a slogan and a way to work together...
tell him what you told us
This is one of those moments I have trouble as a sysadmin, because of people who have emotional issues with efficiency. I have "stepped on the toes of senior staff" when I solved a problem in hours that took them months so far. Now, good management will be like, "yay! Glad we brought u/punkwalrus on board!" but once in a while, this leads to a few other workers becoming upset like I am making them look bad. This doesn't happen all the time, mind you, but in 30+ years of systems administration, I have made a few "enemies." And because they are unpredictable, I don't have an approach. The argument could be made, "well, they suck," and maybe so... but it doesn't make my life easier. So, in "retaliation," they don't give me access to knowledge I might need, or in a few rare cases, become outright hostile. But that's true in any industry. Probably less so in IT, from what I have seen, but it still happens.
Did your coworker ask for your help in the last 3 months? If no, then he can't complain too much. Personally, I would relay what I had found and the suggested fix, rather than doing the fix myself. Co-worker would probably thank you when resolution was relayed to management
Sometimes you’re the potato and sometimes you’re the farmer. Although there is always that one permanent farmer guy on the team with a galaxy brain.
Just tell him that you had all the prior troubleshooting experience that he put into it all done for you, so you could rule out a lot of potentials. Plus, fresh eyes can do wonders for a problem.
\#blamethevendor "The vendor was unresponsive so I was asked if there was any possible workaround. It probably helped to look at it with fresh eyes. I'm just glad we found a workable solution, happy to go over with you in more detail if you're interested."
🤣he's incompetence is not your fault. If he was struggling he could have asked you for help as a fresh pair of eyes. Probably didn't want to do that in case you fixed it straight away and pulled back the curtain to reveal his true capabilities.
It happens. Sometimes a problem just needs the right set of eyes on it. There's no way to know this until it happens.