Ask HN: I just hate working in teams

9 points by tomcat27 3 years ago | 12 comments

What do I do?

I prefer crafting projects myself with a staff engineer's approval. I want to reach out for support when I think is needed. I don't like standups, sync up meetings.

I prefer to work with engineers who know what they want to do and like to majorly self run.

Software Engineer.

My boss expects me to lead junior engineers next year.

superchroma 3 years ago |

Well, you should clearly communicate your career desires to your manager, for starters. If you don't want a leadership position and you're being groomed for it, say so. As for meetings, they're for your manager's benefit, so they have visibility on what you're working on and can identify blockages in a timely fashion. More broadly, I would suggest finding a smaller company or start-up that doesn't have a lot of formalized processes and will allow you to run with something.

That said, I've got bad news for you: most people like working alone. Everyone wants to "own" the thing they're working on and not depend on others. It's not special, and it's really a baseline expectation of a programmer. What companies want is team players who are often fun, light and friendly, actively work to build trust with a team through socialization, promote good practices and patterns and don't begrudge the fact that a portion of their day is to be spent in meetings, reviewing others' code and generally communicating. These behaviors increase in value in a larger organization with heavy processes in place to compensate for scale and variable talent.

perilunar 3 years ago | |

> most people like working alone

I don't agree. Extroverts love working with other people, and love having meetings and 'catching up'. I suspect most engineers, scientists, and programmers lean towards introversion, so we like working alone, but it's not true of most people.

tomcat27 3 years ago | | |

I just can't think well on interesting problems while someone's talking to someone behind, someone at my face at the cubicle trying to hit a conversation. Hence, WFH.

Don't like team because finding good team 10xs everything but bad team 1/10xs everything.

It's way more likely the team is a misfit in real world unless of course there are no hiring constraints due to elitism.

tomcat27 3 years ago | |

> What companies want is team players who are often fun, light and friendly, actively work to build trust with a team through socialization, promote good practices and patterns and don't begrudge the fact that a portion of their day is to be spent in meetings, reviewing others' code and generally communicating.

It seems ok for a company to seek these from their engineers. I think, I want these too. I just don't like forced standups and sync up meetings. If someone did something cool and want to pull me aside to show? I'm all in. If someone wants help on something, I'll be there..

but it's just that the way things are managed is just dull.

let's do a standup meeting for 15mins where people explain - what they did yesterday - what they will do today - what are impediments

I propose an idea and the TL arbitrarily pulls off a blog post reference to shut down by saying "there's no business value".

umm. effing nonsense.

dam_broke_it 3 years ago | |

Small companies are the WORST for meetings about meetings about meetings....

fbrncci 3 years ago |

Go into contracting. At some point in my career I decided that I did not like meetings either. While still in a job, I started advertising my skills online, and offering them as a freelancer/contractor. When some of my content caught on, and generated interests with potential employers/clients, I was able to pick and choose on both terms and compensation. It moved me from being a senior with 20-30hrs of meetings per week, to 2-4 hrs of meetings per week.

tomcat27 3 years ago | |

Don't like to be a contractor.

mooreds 3 years ago |

Become a contractor and focus on staff aug with yourself; charge a high hourly rate and have a focus.

I did this for years and it was great: I got to work with good engineers, didn't have to manage or mentor anyone, worked extra when I wanted to, got a good hourly rate.

Unless of course you are in the USA and need good health insurance and the exchange doesn't meet your needs. But otherwise, this is a good path for a half decade or more.

inphovore 3 years ago |

Go contractor!

You can bill up to four times as much per hour and become respected for competence in your niche.

Finding work sucks at first, though after a while you will develop long term relationships which are consistent and flexible.

I’ve had my #1 client for ten years and can do as much or little work as I want! I’ve only visited their office once every few years. It’s such a good relationship my client let’s me run my projects however I think appropriate.

Just remember, do the work!

As_You_Wish 3 years ago |

You took time and effort to learn engineering, or whatever you do.

You have to spend time learning how to communicate, work with team members. Learn how to intereact with others. It is do-able. There are many reasons why you don't like to work as a team, none of the reasons are very good and will hold you back in your career.

bradwood 3 years ago |

As a CTO at a startup I use a flavour of this.

http://www.engineeringladders.com/

There is a difference between leading, managing and mentoring or coaching juniors.

Maybe using a flavour of the above in your conversation with your boss will help?

tomcat27 3 years ago | |

This sounds like useful advice. Thank you.