Because one is an internal problem and one is an external problem. There might be a time when you need to escalate the problem outside of your team but you should be trying to solve the problem internally first.

You missed my point. "Ignoring dead-weight" (which isn't even really the problem described here) is very far from the "best thing to do". I generally try to solve my problems instead of just ignoring them. In extreme cases that starts with talking about the problem and offering suggestions and can end with someone getting fired or quitting.

This is not what's being alleged here. He hasn't said he doesn't have the information to do the tasks asked of him.

Let's review what the problem is:
It is possible that the problems are well defined but the team members step on each other. Are they? or are they vague?

i have some experience, i've been working 5 years in software development, mostly java,php, c

my skills i think are ok and i'm good at learning

in this job i have near 10 months ... and the company develops systems to give payment services to banks, there are some legacy systems (that i hate the most) but new tech as well, so developing here is ok

mostly i know how i have to do the tasks, but i would say they are vague cause we don't know the overall picture and some systems interact with others so we can't react very well if some problem happens

months ago, our team had to develop a new system, and our leader developed the main core and gave us only the configuration and test to the team, that was kind of annoying, and we have not meeting nor anything

I still have no idea what's going on. What do you need from him? Why do you need it? Why can't you get this from other people? For instance, you wrote you don't know what other people on your team are working on - this seems like something you can ask them. As for the big picture, do you not have access to those other parts of the system? Source control? Occasional chats with people in other parts of the company? Are you cut off from the rest of the company with your boss as your only conduit or is there some reason you wouldn't feel comfortable talking to other people? There are so many possibilities here and I have no idea how to venture a guess.

the problem is he isn't doing the boss part, like u said i practically have to ignore him

yes i can ask to another people and i've done, but still is that annoying part when i have to receive tasks and interact with my boss, i have to do alot of questions, ask to another people and to do what? tests, configurations and small updates, and if i ask him to do interesting stuff like design and discuss the project in the team he says he will do it but nothing happens

No I didn't say that - what do you mean you have to ignore him?

Why is this annoying? It seems a matter of course that the person who gives you work isn't the only person you have to talk to get the job done.

This seems like how it is in every technical position - you have to talk to people to get stuff done. Maybe documentation can be improved? If things were better organized and better documented, would you feel better? This seems like something you can help accomplish.

This is the only thing I understand - you want him to involve you in what you see as the more interesting part of the project and he has shown little interest in doing so. I don't understand any of this him not doing the boss thing or not communicating.

It seems like your boss doesn't trust you to do much more than what you're currently being asked to do. This could be because he doesn't trust anyone or because he doesn't trust you specifically. In the latter case, it could be because he doesn't feel you're ready yet, or because he doesn't feel you're good/trustworthy/etc enough.

Here are some questions for you to ponder:

1. Do you feel that you are doing your job sufficiently well in your boss's mind to give you additional responsibilities?

2. Is your job presently easy enough for you to easily take on additional responsibilities?

3. Are you being fairly compensated relative to the market?

4. Are you learning more or less than you would at another job? How about compared to your past jobs?

cause there is a reason that there is a team leader, if i try to do all stuff asking another people and trying to involve the team, that would be a leader team part

yes this in every technical position, but when the taks are just these it's is annoying

i want him to be involve here and in all the whole project and work like a team
and this hard to do cause he postpones every meeting and it's hard to communicate with him

last monday i ask him for a meeting and today nothing happens, it is almost funny like he doesn't have 15 minutes, indeed it's funny how lack of communication he has u wouldn't believe, sometime i said to myself lol wtf!

so u beging to ask why is he ignoring me? am i doing it bad? , etc

Hey guys,

I'm interested in finding some sort of programming mentor. I'm a very novice programmer and have been taking a few programming courses online and doing OK with it but it seems like it would be immensely helpful to have someone on skype or whatever that I could come to when I get stuck or just need something explained further or need to be pointed in the direction of some other good leraning resources etc. I'd be willing to pay for the help. PM me if interested.

Anyone have any good advice for dealing with recruiters? I feel like I'm constantly getting lowballed when they ask for a salary range and I say "at least x" and the offer is always exactly x which really means I'm leaving all kinds of money on the table.

I have no idea what it is that you expect him to do and why. And I thought he was your boss, not just a team lead? And no it's not necessarily the case that the team lead's job or the boss's job includes handling communication for you. Assuming his time is more valuable than yours, if you can do it, it's probably best that you do it.


We're back to, you don't like the work you're asked to do, you want to do more interesting stuff. The problem here is that the "interesting" work is also probably more difficult and important. It's not clear from what you've written here that you've clearly communicated to your boss through action and attitude that you are willing and able to take on more difficult work. You appear to be frustrated and annoyed by the easy stuff. The harder important stuff is even more frustrating and annoying and others are less able to tolerate your moods.


I still have no idea what you mean. Why is it hard to communicate with him? Different teams have different team dynamics and not everything has to involve everyone. You don't get to make up the rules either.


What information is he withdrawing from you that's business-critical? Businesses don't have meetings just so that you can have a communicative boss - meetings are scheduled to solve specific business problems.


No, it's more that you've have a bunch of posts now and I've wasted a bunch of time reading your posts and responding and I've gathered these facts so far:

1) You find much of the work that you're supposed to do annoying and you'd rather have someone else do it for you.

2) You want to be involved in doing some of the work that you're currently not responsible for, that you find more interesting.

3) You're vaguely blaming all this on your boss's communication problems, without specifics as to what he is doing wrong.

4) You have not been very effective at communicating your concerns and problems in this thread.


It's possible that your job is terrible, your boss is terrible, etc, but it's impossible for anyone to help unless you can communicate clearly what your problem is.

Assuming you're reasonably in demand (the recruiter fears you may have multiple offers), this means closer to the opposite. The more you're offered over your minimum, the more money you're leaving on the table - it means your minimum asking price is so little relative to what they are willing to pay that they're adding some cushion in case you have another offer or to make you feel better. If they are not doing that, this means they like you but think your asking price is kind of high. Which is the opposite of leaving money on the table.

In most reasonable business transactions, both sides are leaving at least some money on the table.

Obviously ask for more. Do some research on pay rates around the country. You will get low balled a lot. Personally I think it is fine if the recruiter states you are too expensive. It is either a cheap ass outfit or you have a ceiling. Consider what kind of work you want to vs what job is being pitched to you.

1) Do some research on glassdoor / etc. for prices.

2) Do research on the companies, tasks they want you to program for.

For me programming jobs are a balance between a project I want to work on , autonomy and price.

*I had one project i did for half the price of the other and was perfectly happy about it due the level of autonomy I had on the cheaper one.

The more hierarchical the company is the higher I'm going to quote.

Lastly, come with a number you want and divide it by between .8-.95 . Tell that number to the recruiter--most importantly act like you believe it.

Was does the team leader do that keeps him so busy?

Edit : I am guessing that your team leader has a substantial software development assignment in addition to his team leader responsibilities.

You could try just starting a thread and posting stuff there asking for feedback. I (and lots of others) don't mind giving feedback some times but I don't want to be obligated to do it.

Candybar, I might be projecting my past experiences but I feel like Vamoz's problem is pretty clear.

he is the team leader and my direct boss, he says what i do and i have to ask him if i need to do anything. There are 5 teams in our development area and a boss in charge of it (actually this would be my main boss and somehow he has a clue about this problem)

And yes, it's hard to communicate this problem (even more since english isn't my first language), that is why i asked if someone have worked with an uncommunicative boss, cause if u didn't u won't understand this 100%

if u don't think an uncommunicative boss is a problem ,then there aren't so much else i can say

if ignoring meetings to talk about the work isn't a problem for u so again, nothing else i can say

this meeting that i asked for , it's a meeting that we have to do once a month to talk about my current status, that is for every team, and i've not have this meeting about 5 months
Apart form that we are supposed to have weekly meetings in the team, and the last one was 4 months ago

so the only instance where we can talk he ignores it

and i don't get it why is hard to understand for u that it's hard to communicate with him

it's easy .... he DOESN'T TALK about anything, u ask for something and he says we see it later or says a short answer

just one example , we are supposed to begin a new project, but obviously i knew it for other team, and we are supposed to implement a new tech so our team is supposed to research about it

but our boss haven't said anything, and i asked what about the new project ... and he says is ok we see it later, and i asked if he needs i do something he says no nothing, so i was expecting the meeting to talk about it but i can't

so, since is hard to deal with this problem , why bother a terrible boss? i realized that just look for other job options would be the easy thing to do

and sorry for spam this thread

At a certain point (and it sounds like you might be there) it becomes acceptable to go over your bosses head. Sounds like its time to talk to his boss (your main boss?) about your concerns.

i thought about this too, but i didnt want to make a huge thing and innocently i was expecting things were going to improve

grue,

read this. you can take me out to dinner later with all the extra money it earns you:

http://www.kalzumeus.com/2012/01/23/salary-negotiation/

Who hired you? The direct boss or the main boss? Who do you talk to about your compensation? And if the main boss is aware that there's a problem - frankly, that you're unhappy with the situation, for whatever reason, is a problem - what's he doing about it?

In my first job, I didn't talk to my boss much the first few months. It's not a problem per se. Not knowing what you're supposed to do is a problem. Not talking to a specific person isn't. Also, why are meetings the primary mechanism for communication among presumably busy, technical people? Do you guys have emails? IM? Wikis? Source control? Task/project management tools? He's doing all this work himself and he's not leaving anything anywhere you can look? And how is he giving you things to do without communicating?

What do you mean by current status? What do you mean you are supposed to have these meetings? Are they mandated by your main boss or something? What is the purpose of these meetings? Can you have this meeting without your boss?

So you don't have to do anything. It's possible that having an idea ahead of time is helpful, but it's also possible that it's just distraction from current tasks. It depends on the situation.

Yes, obviously. If the job sucks, you don't need our approval or sympathy. There are plenty of programming jobs out there. We can't do the cost-benefit analysis for you.

my main boss hired me, at the moment he is doing nothing cause i've not talked seriously about this with him, just mentioned it that is hard to have meetings with my leader and there some communication problems

ok, i know what i have to do, but not having feedback about what are u doing nor knowing the status of current projects, not knowing how the project interact with other projects and even not knowing the gantt of the project u feel like in the dark

and we have mails, source control, wiki, but there are some things that is better to discuss in person

that is why we have these meetings, that are mandated by my main boss, i think he knows there are communication problems in some teams so this is good way to talk about projects status

and the meeting about my current status is to talk about how i feel in the job and how my leader feels about my job

yeah maybe it's a distraction, but the thing about how it communicates i don't know if it's a distraction or just he doesn't want/trust i do it