Ask HN: My team mate took credit for my work. What do I do

27 points by nuna 7 years ago | 22 comments

I refactored our code and made a library that improved our work. It wasn't a big deal and I didn't even mention except to share with my team mates. Our boss is non technical. In our team meeting he congratulated team mate on taking the initiative and creativity in making this library. I don't think he was banking on boss mentioning it. I was so shocked all I can muster was "You mean the library I made?". This has weighed on me a lot and I don't feel like sharing anything anymore. I mentioned to the boss later that I made this, but I don't think they really care or understand. What do I do?

itamarst 7 years ago |

There are two issues here:

1. Is your boss misinformed/clueless/you're misunderstanding?

2. Does your boss not care about you?

#1 can be cleared up, as others here say, by better communication and by making sure your boss knows your accomplishments.

If answer to #2 is "boss doesn't care" you'll want to start thinking about new job, or new team at least, because this is just a symptom of a deeper problem.

phakding 7 years ago |

I would go talk to both your team mate and your boss, in that order. I would also be very cordial and professional. Learn why the teammate took the credit or may be the boss is just mistaken. Find out the truth and then set the story straight with the boss without bad mouthing the teammate.

If this happens again, then you can be little more direct.

It would also behoove you to mention your accomplishments in passing to your boss during a casual chat in the morning while you are talking about weather or current events. Bosses for most parts don't have all the minute details of who is doing what.

georgeam 7 years ago |

Another thing that would be useful is for your version-control systems (git/svn etc) to be able to say precisely who made which changes. That gives you proof of who did which work. Even if your company/org does not use version control, you can use it independently as an individual, and have a complete development history of your own which documents your work. It would be harder for someone to claim your work if you have a ton of incremental check-ins and they don't.

nuna 7 years ago | |

I version control everything, but my boss is not technical so this all seems like magic and you can make something simple a big deal easily.

ninjaa 7 years ago | | |

Don't work under non-technical people who believe in hand-waving.

Even if they are well meaning and fair, eventually they will hit a comprehension limit. At that point arbitration for any technical debate should be escalated to a board of suitably qualified people, but they will be unwilling or literally unable to do it. Eventually as a consequence bad technical decisions will be made.

That's the best case scenario. In the worst case scenario you're already undergoing, your boss has no clue who's the better dev or why in your team.

pcunite 7 years ago |

The feeling of being relevant and contributing is a very powerful force. Its why people will take enhancers that help them win and place high in local 5K run races. Like it even matters, but to them it is everything. Worth cheating to get it they think. Something that has always helped me is knowing that cheaters can't lead, they can only follow. He'll need to steal credit from someone else to keep this "look" going.

So, for now ... I say to keep the peace - take it on the chin. Good learning experience for you. You did not properly credit yourself and made the way for this to happen. Note that you must be balanced in life too and not toot your horn too loudly. Have balance, allow others to succeed and get credit too. Maybe you saw the sample code on stack-overflow and refactored it. We all learn from others anyway.

The real problem here is the pat on the back from the boss, not the code itself which you saw as trivial anyway. Be aware of how this company operates. However, don't stop contributing! That will cause you to die inside. Your contributions are great and will help you to grow. So, no matter who gets the credit, keep doing it so that you'll be better off when you leave this place.

slededit 7 years ago | |

"Visibility" is one of the major drivers of promotion in every organization. They don't know your good if they can't see it.

If there are no mitigating circumstances here, like "actually we worked together but I did most of it". Then it should be a simple matter to talk to the boss and get to the bottom of how it was misattributed. No accusations, no assumptions but a fact finding mission. The goal here is to find out how it happened so you can avoid it in the future, and as a secondary bonus it will obviously alert your boss to the fact you are the real author.

If people are able to take credit for your work it indicates a larger problem with your visibility in the organization and it should be dealt with swiftly if you care about your career.

nuna 7 years ago | | |

There wasn't collaboration other than plugging it into his code. It was not an oversight it was very clear he claimed to have written it all.You are correct though, partly my fault, why not mention it first myself, why wait for someone else to.

nuna 7 years ago | |

Thank you your reply made me feel confident. I think it was an initial shock, I haven't had anything happen like this since university CS.

staunch 7 years ago |

Chalk this event up to a lesson learned. Now go back to doing great stuff and, from now on, make sure your boss is aware of it.

Also, this is an example of having a bad boss and is one of the reasons technical people generally prefer working for other technical people.

saluki 7 years ago |

It could have been a simple misunderstanding and your boss crediting the wrong person.

In the big picture these things don't matter a whole lot, I wouldn't take the time to discuss it with your boss any further.

Maybe talk to your teammate and see if he was trying to take credit for it or if it just happened to look that way.

Try to bring up more what you are working on and ideas you are executing on with your team and boss in the future.

kudos are nice but very minor in the big scheme of things. You are all cogs in a machine to your company and boss. So I wouldn't let it get you down and it's not worth making waves over.

ak39 7 years ago |

If you can ascertain objectively that your boss doesn't care or understand about your work, you can pretty much conclude that your environment is not emotionally healthy for you. Leave if that is the case and if you can find another gig elsewhere.

anthonys 7 years ago |

This happens almost everywhere unfortunately.

If you want to 'compete', the way to play the game is to promote yourself as most of the time, no one else is going to. This is obviously what your colleague is up to.

I used to get mad about the same thing happening to me and it happened a lot. After talking to different people about ways to manage it, I decided to come to terms with it because I wasn't that interested in the alternative (self-promotion). Now I take comfort from the fact if they have to take credit for it, they are obviously worried about something that I am not.

JSeymourATL 7 years ago |

> I refactored our code and made a library that improved our work. It wasn't a big deal ...

Significance, Contribution, Growth are core Human Needs.

Was this a big deal or NOT?

Can you quantify the improvement in your work?

Decide what you want -

Guy Kawasaki — 'If you don't toot your own horn, don't complain that there's no music.'

rasz 7 years ago |

It sounds like your one liner made the boss appear misinformed/easy to manipulate, in public. This never goes over well.

macca321 7 years ago |

who wrote the code that is inside the library?

the takeaway would be that you should promote yourself and your work preemptively.

linkpuff 7 years ago |

Your boss may not be technical but did you try to get your teammate to explain step by step how did he thought while making the library?

skolemtotem 7 years ago |

I suggest you try asking on Workplace.StackExchange, too, since the people there have more experience answering this kind of question.

raztogt21 7 years ago |

Your teammate should said immediately that it was you who took the initiative and creativity on that refactor.