Coworker implied I set him up for failure by solving a problem faster than he did

Posted by littlespaceman@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 361 comments

We're both linux admins on a team of two. We were both recently assigned to a new group of systems we have very little experience with. A developer raised an issue with a plugin on one of the sites they were using and said it wasn't working. Boss assigned it to the coworker. It's been three months and he's opened tickets with the vendor, troubleshot it himself, did screen shares with the developers and was unable to solve it. The developer pinged me today and I had some time, so I looked into it. It took me about 2 hours to find the problem and another 2 hours to implement a solution. I update ticket with resolution notes and close it out. 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. While I was aware that he was working on it, I never had the time to ever bother looking into it until today. 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.

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361 Comments

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Sparky101101@reddit

Bigger question though, is it troubleshot or troubleshooted? Neither seems right and I’ve often wondered…

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littlespaceman@reddit (OP)

Troubleshote for sure.

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xboxhobo@reddit

"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.

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chipredacted@reddit

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

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366df@reddit

especially if they comment out how they arrived to that conclusion.

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cats_are_the_devil@reddit

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\*\*

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satanclauz@reddit

I got ya Hmmm. looks like its DNS to me! /passes ticket to dns team

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Dekklin@reddit

Name resolves, endpoint not responding to ping or telnet on ports 80/443. Not a DNS issue. *Sends ticket back*

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Rincey_nz@reddit

It's always networks, except when it's dns

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RevLoveJoy@reddit

Ohhhh look at you, Mr. Fancypants. A DNS *team* to break things.

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thecellpunk@reddit

I've had so many stupid ass issues with simple explanations that I was just too close to get corrected. My coworkers have been in the same boat. Seems like the dude OP helped doesn't need to be in this industry. There are WAY too many defensive and egotistical assholes in this industry and it hurts everyone.

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Amazing_Secret7107@reddit

I remind my team constantly to ask for help... not just from me but other team members. No one is an island, and knowledge can be shared. The guy with 1 year of experience vs. the one with 25 leads to vastly different approaches to some problems.

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Sirbo311@reddit

Agree, fresh eyes and all that.

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jslingrowd@reddit

In other words, someone starts down a path in a maze.. gets closer to the exit but path leads to dead end.. doesn’t know yet, sunk cost fallacy doesn’t want to start from beginning.. someone else start from beginning takes another path and finds exit.. yea can happen to anyone..

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alnyland@reddit

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.

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sobrique@reddit

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.

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Dal90@reddit

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.

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sobrique@reddit

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.

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jamesholden@reddit

Spoiler: most will trip anyway

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Mr_ToDo@reddit

That's why you have to take the breaker out and bridge the terminals with a screw driver. Obviously the breaker was faulty anyway.

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jamesholden@reddit

I thought you were supposed to use a binder clip and live .308?

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khaeen@reddit

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.

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ubernerd44@reddit

Things like that should be part of the SOP for restoring service.

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cybot904@reddit

This.

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DaelonSuzuka@reddit

> because why would you? Well, because this is a real phenomenon that actually happens and if one doesn't know these very basic physics concepts then you'll be completely helpless when Murphys Law shows up to fuck you? This is very similar to, let's say, programmers who have only ever used a big fancy IDE that magically automates the environment setup and build process: that's great until Visual Studio or PyCharm shit the bed because then what can they do? Ask an adult for help?

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Tetha@reddit

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.

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what-the-puck@reddit

Y'all need switched PDUs with a startup delay configured. Or, I'm pretty sure you can do it in DRAC or iLo or CIMC or whatever they call those nowadays

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MostlyVerdant-101@reddit

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. Black magick makes it work.

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Sirbo311@reddit

Sometimes even just explaining the problem to someone else, you work it out in your head better than just thinking about the problem.

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Fred_Stone6@reddit

Always have a rubber duck in case.

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Tetha@reddit

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.

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sysadmin420@reddit

So just like talking to $coworker than lol, I'll have to try it.

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panzerbjrn@reddit

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.

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Tymanthius@reddit

the number of times I've gone 'Ooooohhhhhh!! That's it!' mid sentence while explaining something to ANYone who will listen.

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nihility101@reddit

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.

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cybot904@reddit

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?*

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nihility101@reddit

For me it was usually coworkers who ran into a problem and chose me over google. “Hey, real quick, what/how/etc…”

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car1os_danger@reddit

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.

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legacymedia92@reddit

Inodes issues in a nutshell.

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azephrahel@reddit

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.

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TeaKingMac@reddit

>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

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falconcountry@reddit

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

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upnorth77@reddit

Yup, sometimes it just needs a different set of eyes and experiences. I've been on the giving and receiving end many times. No big deal.

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bofh@reddit

Was going to say this. I've been on both ends of this - sometimes a fresh set of eyes will spot somthing because you've gone down a rabbit hole. Sometimes you'll come in as the fresh pair of eyes and realise an error you find (after digging in, so non-obvious) reminds you of something you saw 10 years ago and that allows you to make a jump to a solution that it wouldn't be reasonable for anyone without that experience to make. Kinda fragile of this guy to assume it's being done to make them look bad.

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perthguppy@reddit

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

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Moontoya@reddit

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

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tech2but1@reddit

I can spend days on an issue, shelve it and then days/weeks/months later look at it again and solve it in 5 minutes. OPs coworker is just a bellend that can't work well with others.

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WranglerSpecialist38@reddit

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.

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littlespaceman@reddit (OP)

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.

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sharp-calculation@reddit

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.

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techforallseasons@reddit

Category 2 can change into Category 1 * evidence: me

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Unable-Entrance3110@reddit

Reminds me of the joke "There are 10 types of people in the world. Those who understand binary and those who don't" I am a 0011rd type. I recoil from competition, see most of my peers as better than me and tend to hoard knowledge for fear of losing my value. But I love to learn and figure things out and write down all of my learning in the form of team-accessible documentation. So, in that way, I am sharing, if they bother to look. I like being the hero, but am (too?) quick to say "I don't know". I am the first to take responsibility for my mistakes and own them. I am impulsive in some ways and conservative in others. I am very iterative in my approach to things and will often rewrite scripts, rename things and move things around no matter how much work until I feel that it is complete. I am a strange mix of passive-aggressive, helpful, introspective, extroverted, humble, egotistical, self-aware, people-pleaser. I certainly don't fall cleanly into one of the two camps you define. I contain multitudes...

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llDemonll@reddit

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.

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MatrixTek@reddit

My Boss is guy 2 from the description.

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llDemonll@reddit

Yea you should find a new job or prepare to be actively sabotaged. He’s likely defensive always because he’s threatened by you.

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fgben@reddit

How's the job hunt going?

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Jaredismyname@reddit

oof

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mrcaptncrunch@reddit

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 <however the symptom showed up> 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 <mr attitude's> 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.

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perthguppy@reddit

Sounds Like he is not being managed properly to work as part of a team.

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Mike_Raven@reddit

Maybe he has low self-esteem. Sounds really unpleasant to work with.

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BrokenZen@reddit

*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."

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stignewton@reddit

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.

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Model_M_Typist@reddit

Damn, not being alone sounds awesome

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mrcaptncrunch@reddit

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 😅

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ricblah@reddit

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.

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jeromeza@reddit

This is awesome.

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PC509@reddit

> 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!

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thefreshera@reddit

He didn't mean an explanation on how to fix it, that's already in the resolution notes.

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PC509@reddit

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.

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thefreshera@reddit

Yeah! I admit I misread your comment, I realize you were roleplaying how the other guy should have acted

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OzymandiasKoK@reddit

The correct response should have been "thank you". If anyone made someone look bad, it was themselves for spending months on it.

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DeepNavigator111@reddit

There was no collaboration here… the other engineer did most of the work for him to swoop in and solve the issue by most of the wrong things being figured out. Y’all’s ego in this industry is why we can’t stand working with you people any longer. Ya treat your fellow engineers like shit, get called out and then come to Reddit to ask “ was I in the wrong” Lmao gtfo

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CleaveItToBeaver@reddit

Other guy may have spent three months loosening the jar of pickles, but this thread is about how it doesn't matter who opened it, but that we now have pickles again. Way to miss the point in your bitterness.

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ka-splam@reddit

> by most of the wrong things being figured out. This is a thing, but it's not the good rebuke you're using it as. "Trying everything one at a time" is a brute-force search, it's the worst way to get to any result and something you only fallback to if you have nothing better. Understanding a system gives you knowledge of what parts it has and how they fit together, experience tells you which parts cause problems more often and what those problems look and feel like, the skill of troubleshooting is knowing techniques to isolate and test individual parts and pulling it all together to narrow down on the problem. Skill is being able to better than brute-force. It's possible the other engineer was methodically working through things which could be wrong; also possibly they randomly checking who had the credentials last and what's their star sign, whether the datacenter is on an ancient burial ground, what colour the server mainboard is and if it's an unlucky shade, and whether the government could have drained all the data using 5G towers. (And don't tell me you've never had coworkers, customers, vendor support with that level of troubleshooting ability).

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InevitableOk5017@reddit

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?

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TheThirdHippo@reddit

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.

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HayabusaJack@reddit

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?”

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Donut-Farts@reddit

Yeah if you’re that stuck in an issue, ask your teammate. Fresh eyes are good.

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Sparcrypt@reddit

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.

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Centimane@reddit

Pretty rough that a team of size 2 is getting along so poorly.

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Trickshot1322@reddit

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.

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fluffywindsurfer@reddit

Team works make the dream work 🤮🤮 that phrase is so f annoying

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IdiosyncraticBond@reddit

That's if a manager above you claims it. If the team itself works well together and accepts no single person holds the truth over all subjects, then colleagues improve each other and value input from others. That specifically includes talking to the outside world as a team: _We_ solved the issue, not _I_

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sunny_monday@reddit

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.

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much_longer_username@reddit

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...*

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gregsting@reddit

That’s usually when you should reach out for colleagues…

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jadraxx@reddit

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.

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Cinderhazed15@reddit

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

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battleBrew@reddit

I've on multiple occasions sent up a flare asking my other admins to take a look at a particularly hard problem. If feels great to get help and maybe learn something new or vice a versa find the solution and help a teammate.

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jdlnewborn@reddit

Nailed it.

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CryptoWig@reddit

Only right answer.

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PropertyUpset1895@reddit

I think his request makes sense. Why didn't you reach out to him and offer to help teach him how to find the problem and then let him develop the solution or coach him on how? This was a great teaching moment and you just stole someone's work. Next time ask first and offer to share your knowledge

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littlespaceman@reddit (OP)

Because he's generally combative when you step on his toes. I didn't have the solution until I had it, I didn't have time to look at it until I was asked to look at it, he said he was making progress during weekly standups, and he never said he needed help.

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PropertyUpset1895@reddit

You are taking the word steal too personally and too literally. It isn't theft, but it was in his queue and you took over. Personally, I get very irritated when people take over my work without asking. My point was that, having found the solution you had every chance to take it to him and share so that he could also learn from the experience. Now I get it, if the guy is an asshole then he's an asshole and you didn't want to try to show him anyway. Totally understandable. But taking over someone's project without talking to them or giving them a chance to see what is happening and learn... It just seems rude to me and if I were him I would also feel salty. However, I'm not an asshole and I am happy to learn. Not everyone is and he should wake up and realize his bad attitude makes him unapproachable. But he isn't wrong to be caught off guard here

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littlespaceman@reddit (OP)

That is fair and I see where you are coming from. Thank you for clarifying. I do try to help out other juniors, but this guy in particular is difficult to deal with so perhaps I need to work on fixing the relationship with him.

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jsgfjicnevhhalljj@reddit

If you can - some people are just unapproachable assholes, I've definitely worked with a few of those in IT 😅

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roadit@reddit

If you had been struggling with an issue for months, your cowirker took a look, and fixed it in an hour, how would you feel? Consider responding to how he feels rather than to how it is coming out. Frustration, humiliation and the like don't ususally bring out the best communication in people. If you want to continue being on a team wirh this person, maybe cut him some slack.

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littlespaceman@reddit (OP)

I would never be stuck that long because I'd ask for help. If I somehow got into that situation, I'd be glad it was off my plate.

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roadit@reddit

Yes .... that attitude would have helped him here. But he's not you.

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MYSpouti@reddit

I think his request makes sense. Why didn't you reach out to him and offer to help teach him how to find the problem and then let him develop the solution or coach him on how? This was a great teaching moment and you just stole someone's work. Next time ask first and offer to share your knowledge

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yParticle@reddit

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.

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littlespaceman@reddit (OP)

No. I should probably have checked in more but he was always making progress as far as I could tell at standups.

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FrostyMug21@reddit

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 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!

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cats_are_the_devil@reddit

Who hurt you... Dang, I understand the sentiment but we don't need to go scorched earth on the guy.

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Synstitute@reddit

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.

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neon___cactus@reddit

That's pretty far from scorched earth. It's stern but can be a good way to have people grow up. That's not a blanket statement that it will always be the right way but sometimes it is.

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itishowitisanditbad@reddit

> It's stern Its assuming a dozen things too. You're jumping the gun on assumptions and need to chill tbh. I'm an asshole and even I read your post like "damn thats harsh"

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mmmeissa@reddit

Nah its not harsh . Just realistic. No hand holding. People at the Admin level should be fully grown adults. Why are we treating them like children? People are so soft these days.

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itishowitisanditbad@reddit

>People are so soft these days. Yep. *They* sure are.

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Tzctredd@reddit

You don't know any of that, your stunning too much, you don't have enough information to pass such summary judgement.

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ruyrybeyro@reddit

We all not that lax, many of us come from cultures and times that value hard work, respect for others and adult accountability. Not cry babies with fake crocodile tears over their own faults.

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wad11656@reddit

All of that is true imo, but I don't understand leading with "No." I don't think you're saying anything contrary to OP's comment

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perthguppy@reddit

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.

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Tymanthius@reddit

> your boss for not making sure ~~you~~ *they* were FTFY. I'm sure you meant plural 'you' but it's not super evident.

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nascentt@reddit

Are you guys manager? Why would it be your responsibility to check other members of staff's workloads?

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dvali@reddit

> 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.

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Suicide_anal_bomber@reddit

Honestly just say it was an odd one and to next time just hit you up to take a fresh look at things, encourage him more to ask rather than trying to fix something yourself, I mean it's always good to try and fix but this is work, things need to get done and a lot of times, it's not even a skill issue, it just needs is a pair of new eyes. These types of situations, a good manager is handy to have.

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perthguppy@reddit

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.

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oopspruu@reddit

I would haves said "I never knew you needed help because you never asked for it. Anyways...."

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unkleknown@reddit

Had a coworker working with MicrO$haft on an issue. He put 60+ hours on over 3 months. I decided to take a look. 2 hours later, issue is solved. I tried to give him some ideas as to what he should do, but what do I know? He would just sit on the phone while M$ support fiddle farted around when he worked with them. Could not think outside the box. I spun up a win 10 VM, blocked all GPOs to an OU, joined said machine to AD domain and placed into this new OU. Worked great. Applied one GPO at a time until it became unusable. Identified what in the GPO was specific to win7 and killed win10 and done. Freaking magic. Exactly what I told him to do but...like I said, what do I know. He quit before he got fired. Good job, Garth. I do feel your pain. Some ppl are just aSS hATs.

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littlespaceman@reddit (OP)

Dude is 8 months into a 12 month contract, so I think he's just spinning his wheels until he's out the door. Starting to see the signs of it the more I look.

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Rincey_nz@reddit

The number of times I have collaborated with a colleague on a problem, and in the process of me describing the problem, I've spotted the solution. Sometimes that's all it takes

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Quirky-Jackfruit-270@reddit

cron a message to him every 3 months explaining root cause analysis

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ReactionOpposite2328@reddit

I used to be the last chance hotel before tickets went to die. It wasn't that others were generally stupid or incompetent, but I'm an aspie and the computer and I understand each other. Often a fix would take me minutes where others struggled for weeks. The most Id do is show someone the solution and why I believed it would work, and then was proven to work. One of the groups I got assigned to assist was payroll after they didn't pay me. They never had an issue again... Ok did nothing wrong. Coworker needs to get over the god complex.

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dracotrapnet@reddit

Fresh eyes sometimes finds things. Sometimes some people are deeply involved in a system or series of systems that give them advantage or insight on how to handle another system. I get asked all the time to look over something when someone is stuck. Sometimes I can point them in the right direction or documents. Sometimes I got an idea and shadow/guide them through the process. Sometimes it's a complete hand-off and I just report what was found, changed, and share expected manage points.

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Majestic-Banana3980@reddit

You work with a little bitch. It's common now. Be ready to argue about his perceived slights and emotions on the regular.

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AntiqueBread1337@reddit

Is this a common problem with him? Perhaps he drags things out on purpose so he can slack off and now he’s worried you’ve exposed the sham.

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littlespaceman@reddit (OP)

Common, yes, but he's only been on the team about 8 months so I expect some level of slowness. But every task he's assigned he says it'll take him significantly longer than I would expect it to take.

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AntiqueBread1337@reddit

You might want to poke around a couple other things he’s been “working on”. Could be weapon used incompetence and if there are only two of you that’s pretty rough for you.

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MustRunAsRoot@reddit

First and foremost, you're a real shitty teammate. I'm glad I don't have teammates like you. Second, he probably could have just asked you for some help.

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littlespaceman@reddit (OP)

How?

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Drylnor@reddit

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.

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LowestKillCount@reddit

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.

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Drylnor@reddit

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.

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LowestKillCount@reddit

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.

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Drylnor@reddit

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.

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ruyrybeyro@reddit

Dude, you understand this is a global world, and some cultures value more work ethics and getting things done than saving face?

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Drylnor@reddit

You can adhere to work ethics, while also respect and care for your colleagues.

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ruyrybeyro@reddit

His mate is the one four times at fault, for not doing his work, not asking for help, dragging his feet for too long and then whining like a little kid. As you can see on the thread, in bri culture we would be told to f off on no uncertainty terms. There seems not to be any foul play here, he was finally asked to look at the situation. The only wrong play here is someone doing psychological manipulation over the work was already done I am the first helping colleagues, I spend hours doing that nowadays. however won't hesitate to put someone on the spot if he is compromising or sabotaging the work of my team and my sanity repeatedly, especially when doing that intentionally.

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Drylnor@reddit

I agree with you, it's just that it didn't seem to be the case in this situation. It seemed to be just someone who got stuck at a problem.

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ruyrybeyro@reddit

We are not taking about the stuck part, we are talking about he behaving like a little whiny kid doing psychological manipulation after being caught with his pants down. He failed there too, you need to be an idiot that besides your customer does not trust you anymore, you also erode your team expectation of you functioning as a non-psycho adult.

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ubernerd44@reddit

He made himself look bad. No ticket should ever go unsolved for that long without being escalated.

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VarmintLP@reddit

Show him how you solved it and maybe he xan accept that you just either got lucky on solving it or that sometimes people just think different enough that the issue was solved immediately. Sometimes people with 0 experience on a tool give me the hint that is needed to solve issues I got stuck on for a long time

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investorhalp@reddit

What was it?

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littlespaceman@reddit (OP)

A plugin was making a request to another service and was being blocked by the firewall.

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sableknight13@reddit

> 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. He was frustrated, it's normal to sometimes overlook super simple things and jump ahead to other things. He's probably been wracking his brain over this issue for some time. Then you just swooped in and finished it in a day. Just be genuine, don't look down on him, you didn't look at it earlier. Go through your diagnosis process and let him know what you looked for and how you found it, and solved it. I'm sure it will help him learn in the future. Maybe have a plan so if there's stuff you guys are stuck on in the future for long times (week +) you look at it for the other, just to make sure you're both not missing something simple. In a week or two you guys will be laughing about this fix. He's just frustrated in the immediate aftermath.

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MDA1912@reddit

What you tell him is that the next time someone contacts you about a ticket he owns, you'll be sure to let him know, make sure he's cool with you working on it, and brief him on what you find. Because you aren't a piece of shit teammate, you just made a mistake. You say this even if the guy is a complete asshole, and you say it because *you* aren't one. (...and no, reddit, I'm not his coworker.)

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Hairy_Scholar9751@reddit

Your coworker is a effing jerk. Sadly IT is littered with narcissistic people who can’t swallow their pride and feel like a godsend because they type in Dvorak and know some weird obscure stuff about computers and networking. I enjoy my current coworkers. We’re all a bunch of nerds that shoot the shit and make light of a lot of situations but we get shit done. It’s dynamic and amazing when we’re all in the zone helping each other out. My boss is a fucking Linux Wizard and can do some amazing command line magic plus he has wicked sense of humor. His depth and breadth of knowledge is bar none. My other coworker is very technical and methodical only been with us for a bit but man does he ever gel with the group. Great with hardware kit. I’m the one that is more interested in front end technologies, cloud, software defined stuff. Can write up good documentation. Each skill set complements the other. I would never feel like my coworkers would ever do something to put me out. When they figure something out faster than I do or vice versa we just give the kudos, crack a self deprecating joke and move on. Don’t bother with your coworker. He doesn’t deserve working with you.

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gurilagarden@reddit

You didn't have any time. For 3 months. the developer contacts you directly. Suddenly, the planets have aligned and you have 4 hours available to work on it. Yourself. Without the other person's involvement. The person that has 3 months of experience working on the problem. You don't consult them. You just work on it. For four hours. There's parts of your story that don't add up. Tell us you and your co-worker don't get along, without telling us you and your coworker don't get along. "He is supposed to be very experienced" is not the same thing as having answers to every problem that exists. Sometimes issues need a second set of eyes. It's perfectly normal. You're on a team of two, but you're not a team player.

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littlespaceman@reddit (OP)

I never have time, but if the developer is reaching out to me, then I make time. Didn't consult him because he had exhausted all his options and was reaching out to the vendor. I wasn't at that point yet and had options I wanted to try.

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gurilagarden@reddit

You said the same thing to me that you said in the original post. I think maybe the issue here is one of culture. Every business has it's own culture. Even small teams can have their own culture. Ways of interacting with each other that are considered normal, or expected. I have no idea what your work culture is. All I really know, from what you've written, is that you're a busy guy. Generally know how to do your job. Consider developer requests to be top priority. And have a meaningful level of disdain for your team member. I guess we'll see how things go when you get a ticket you can't fix and your team member knocks it out on the first try and gives you that "what, are you stupid?" look. I've been in the business a long time. Some days I'm fucking superman, other days I'm the guy that brings down the entire northeast region because I tripped over a wire. You're that guy too. What you need more than just team building skills is perspective.

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Bright_Arm8782@reddit

That bit actually makes sense, I'd rather come to a problem with fresh eyes, my thoughts unclouded by someone else's' findings.

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RCTID1975@reddit

If a task is given to someone, and they're actively working on it, it's their task. If they need help with it, they should be asking for help with it. It's not OP's responsibility to check on their peers to make sure they aren't spinning their wheels. There's an argument here that the manager maybe should've been involved 2 months ago, but we don't have information on what the other admin was doing/saying.

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Dismal-Spell3068@reddit

A fresh set of eyes looking at a problem always helps. Your co-worker never asked you for help when they were stuck? WOW. It took the dev to reach out to you for you to look at it. Hmmm. What we have here is a failure to communicate.

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undyingSpeed@reddit

The proper response would be to ask for help before it gets to 3 months or even just asking how you got to the solution. Collaboration in IT is extremely important. Especially because all other departments shit on IT

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lboredatwork@reddit

Three months and neither of you even brought it up with each other? Three months is pretty long to work on an issue. Teams should probably meet on occasion to discuss weird happenings or bounce things off each other. Maybe you two are spread out, low bandwidth, or don't have time to bounce everything off each other though? Granted, I've been in a situation where a coworker watches over my shoulder on a tough problem that they know the solution to. It's could piss someone off when the other person is a know-it-all. But if you honestly didn't have the time to even peek at the problem and if it never came up in conversation between you two... then just let him cool off and learn his lesson.

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littlespaceman@reddit (OP)

He brought it up in weekly standups. He said he was making progress.

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dfctr@reddit

That means there is no teamwork there. Or at least your peer didn’t know how or when to ask for help. Alas, you wasted some opportunity for your coworker to owe you one. Within my team we talk a lot. Issues are sorted out quickly because of this. But, between our and the networking team, there was a huge gap and they didn’t want our help for anything. They had this weird issue with meraki stuff and 802.1x/WPA-Enterprise. They never accepted our help and the issue persisted for 8 good months and even blamed us for the issue but never allowed to participate in the troubleshooting process. It escalated enough our manager required them to involve us. We identified the issue within two hours (really werid issue with meraki, windows 10/11 and the supplicant). Got a recommendation within an hour. Shit was fixed after two days (they changed all meraki crap and put proper Cisco APs). Now…here came the lesson for them: everyone internally knew who fixed that. However, we reported externally that we all as a team fixed the issue and even thanked the networking team leader. Things changed afterwards and communication has improved a lot. And, they now owes us one and involve us in all hardcore issues.

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JimmyScriggs@reddit

My coworkers often have this issue with me. I have been a sysadmin for my company for several years , but am actually now the CIO. I assign them tickets all the time and if after a while I see they have not closed it out, I will discuss it with them. After 24 years, I have seen a lot of weird stuff. A lot of the time I will show them the fix and they will be mad that "I held out on them". They have also bailed me out sometimes so I just figure it all evens out for the team. I'm years past my "saviour" days and just want the shit fixed so I can get back to the next distro to mess around with. I would just tell your coworker you had some time, had a hunch, and got lucky.

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DeepNavigator111@reddit

So why didn’t you get with the original engineer while you were working on it and share your findings and you both come to the table with the resolution? His work obviously gave you some idea of what not to check or where he’s already looked…. Seems like you used the opportunity to gain clout and prominence as a new guy. Bravo, you’re well on your way to be just like the vast majority of engineers in this industry.

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littlespaceman@reddit (OP)

When did I say I was new? My coworker is the new hire.

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DeepNavigator111@reddit

I seee.. my mistake.

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thenewguyonreddit@reddit

“Sorry mate, didn’t know you were struggling with it”. …anyways

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ruyrybeyro@reddit

I would say sorry to a lazy manipulator.

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Thegoatfetchthesoup@reddit

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 .

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Thegoatfetchthesoup@reddit

For context, I’m a tier one specialist and my superior is a tier 3 specialist and his superior was the owner small person company

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littlespaceman@reddit (OP)

That sucks hard, sorry to hear that. However it sounds like they did you a favor. You will find something better and be happier in the long run.

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Thegoatfetchthesoup@reddit

Luckily I’ve got an interview at one of their competitors in the same town on Wednesday. Fingers crossed. Tier 1 for 55-60k/yr is fine by me, around 26$/hr+. Wish me luck boys.

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NuAngel@reddit

"Oh, you're still working on that? Let me take a look with you, bounce some questions off of me." -This should have been you 10 weeks ago. That being said, you just say "I just got lucky, you exhausted every other avenue, even working directly with the developer. I had all that and a fresh set of eyes. No worries, man, remember that time you solved \[xyz\]? That's why we're a good team!" And you move on. If he can't get over it after that, then you let him steam about it. If he's afraid he's being shown up, he'll step up his game or find a new job. Not your problem.

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kryten121@reddit

Apparently, his experience hasn't given him the ability to reach out to you in 3 months and ask for your assistance/opinion, imo he has made himself look silly. But he can either wallow in self-pity or learn from the experience and move the fuck on. My bet is wallow for longer than is nessecary.

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NetworkN3wb@reddit

I'm a junior network engineer...I think going on about 9 months on my first job. I am sometimes tasked with solving problems and doing new set up work and all that. I'm much slower than the senior engineer. Sometimes what might take me a few hours, he figures out in minutes. I have just accepted that I'm still in my "stupid" phase. It will happen.

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littlespaceman@reddit (OP)

I wouldn't call that a stupid phase. As long as you are confident in what you are doing and know when you ask for help, you will be alright.

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StiH@reddit

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...

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littlespaceman@reddit (OP)

I don't see it that way, but I could see how he might. He's new to the team and is contract-to-hire, so he might be struggling to find ways to prove himself. We're also remote and he keeps to himself, so there's that.

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Telzrob@reddit

This competition isn't "typical" in the US. That's a lame stereotype. There are some companies that foster it though, especially when they want to reduce headcount. Or when the overly competitive executive class sets HR policy and they think everything could be a competition because they don't understand collaboration. It varies place to place everywhere, all over the world. And sometimes people are just very insecure and all questions, can't take responsibility for their failures and/or have a bad case of imposter syndrome.

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StiH@reddit

I was going off the reaction of his co-worker so apologies if it came out as a stereotype. Like I said, I'm not from US, what I know about US labour is from Reddit (I'm also a lot on antiwork subreddit so that might create some bias) which ultimately isn't a very reliable source... Still, it's weird to me that two people are assigned on same type of project and one doesn't reach out to another when they encounter a problem. This would be a first step from my experience as there's always someone out there that has at least heard of a similar issue if not encountered it himself. I also don't know what the ages and experiences of people in question are so maybe younger generation relies more on google than co-workers. I'm from the time before google existed and we could only rely on co-workers/friends or if we knew of a good BBS with people that shared knowledge could provide answers, and then came forums from where Reddit evolved and here we are. I still google, but I like to bounce off ideas and brainstorm with co-workers just as much. Granted, this only happens on in-office days, less on WFH, where I post my issue or question on our teams group and maybe get an answer or not...

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B3S3SS3N@reddit

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.

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littlespaceman@reddit (OP)

That's fair. I do have a meeting scheduled with him to show him exactly what I did. It was a problem neither of us had seen or dealt with before, but I think I had more experience in this particular area to solve it faster.

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techforallseasons@reddit

This is a teachable moment for you, your co-worker and your boss. Any issue that takes too long ( what is too long? come up with some "timeboxes" based on expected complexity - for this call it 2 days ). If no progress is made within the timebox then one or more others get asked to review, because WE ALL MISS THINGS and it is often something simple. This is a policy / process issue right now, not an issue your co-worker caused.

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CrazyInspection7199@reddit

Did he even ask for help? If you’re in a team and you can’t figure out a problem, why wouldn’t you just ask for an outside perspective? I always ask for help when I can’t figure stuff out. It helps me because I can start looking at different avenues and thinking about a solution in a different way.

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BeenisHat@reddit

The last MSP I worked at, all the admins on one team would have a weekly meeting with our team lead and run down the list of open tickets. We'd spitball things and sometimes reassign tickets if another guy knew the fix or had more experience in it. No pressure. No concern of being seen as inept. No ego, just get it fixed and close the ticket. Was the most refreshing system I ever worked under. If I ever end up leading a team like that, this is how I'll be doing it.

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LiberateMainSt@reddit

If anyone set your coworker up to fail, it was 1) himself, for never asking for help, and 2) his boss, who never tried to find out why it was taking so long to get the work done. You were simply not involved.

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Sudocomm@reddit

Obviously, you either have more experience or a better way of troubleshooting than your coworker does. That helped you to be able to troubleshoot the problem faster than he was able to. No, without knowing specifically your level of experience and everything you’ve done throughout your career, no one can say whether you or he set him up for failure what I can say is the fact that he came at you this way after the fact is setting himself up for future failure. Because now he’s not gonna get the experience or gain the knowledge of how exactly you tackled this problem so when he runs into it in the future, he’s not gonna be able to fix it himself he’ll struggle just like he did this.

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jantari@reddit

Just tell him you didn't look into it before today.

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CracklingRush@reddit

He seems like a real pussy. It's so toxic being around teammates like that.

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uptimefordays@reddit

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.

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BloodFeastMan@reddit

Perhaps stuck in the wrong paradigm. How many times have we all just struggled with something for hours with no progress, only to wake up in the middle of the night with a super simple solution that went a completely different direction.

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CyramSuron@reddit

I had a 'senior' network engineer expose snmp to the Internet. This isn't his first time and first I approached him and told he should fix it. A week later it wasn't addressed so I politely let his boss know. It was a new deployment so mistakes happen. Well, I found he did it again but this time with the internal monitoring system (it broke hence my discovery). I reported it to security this time, because the first time is a mistake. Second time is just negligence. Yea, they weren't happy.

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BamaTony64@reddit

soothe his injured little weenie by updating the ticket that he had done most of the ground work you just tied the bow. It's the old, "No, No honey, you loosened the jar lid. I swear."

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IndependentTiger2174@reddit

I had a coworker like that, I wanted to automate things and he says he doesn’t want things automated so he can keep his job… fucking retard…

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AspectAdventurous498@reddit

Too bad if he couldn't solve it. He should be grateful for your help instead of complaining.

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changework@reddit

“Why didn’t you help me!?” You didn’t ask. I’ve got shit to do. Fuck off.

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PrettyFlyForITguy@reddit

I don't know, I sort of get what the other guy is getting at. I think the other guy assumes that since he fixed it so quickly, he already knew what was wrong. OP seems to indicate that wasn't the case, but it's possible the other guy didn't get that impression. It would be a dick move to see someone struggling with a problem and simply let them fail. That's something you do if you don't like the guy. The nice thing to do for a teammate is reach out and say "hey, did you check this?" or suggest your best ideas. Again, it sounds like OP didn't do this, but I'd bet the other guy expects this is what happened.

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noxbos@reddit

If OP swept in and fixed it in five minutes, I could potentially see the setup for failure perspective. But it reportedly took two hours to fix. That's just fresh eyes looking at the issue differently and working through it.

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changework@reddit

The point is that he’s hallucinating the other guys intentions. It’s a presumptive accusation.

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PrettyFlyForITguy@reddit

I'm not going to say there was ample cause to believe this... It could totally be an irrational assumption, but we really have zero insight into the relationship here. Every attempt to delve into someone's intentions or motives is presumptive. You will never know and will always have to guess about what is going on in someone's head. Like, does your wife secretly despise you, or maybe love you more than you ever realized? You don't know, and you really can only read into their actions.

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Retired-Replicant@reddit

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUmHKHbQe80](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUmHKHbQe80)

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jamesaepp@reddit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAI0uFgrMWk

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DamiosAzaros@reddit

Stuff like this happens all the time. Two similarly experienced techs can look at the same issue from different angles. One of them might just have seen the issue before, or even get "lucky" and find the solution

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noxbos@reddit

It took him three months and never bothered to ask for your help or opinion? He set himself up for failure.

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unethicalposter@reddit

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.

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rootbeerdan@reddit

Same thing happened to me once, stuck on an issue for weeks and my coworker came in and figured it out in a few hours after I walked him through what I did. Left a bottle of whiskey on his desk the next day, stuff like that is a learning experience.

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itishowitisanditbad@reddit

> A real sys admin A true scotsman would.... Shut the fuck up.

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Whyd0Iboth3r@reddit

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.

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unethicalposter@reddit

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.

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Whyd0Iboth3r@reddit

sitting there, staring at the fire. Something reminds you of the issue... 10 seconds later the solution comes to you. "Shit! WHere's my notebook? My phone... I have to write this down!"

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mysidianlegend@reddit

This.

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GENERIC-WHITE-PERSON@reddit

Forreal, I've been bailed out plenty of times and they've been great learning moments for me. Literally this meme: ![gif](giphy|800iiDTaNNFOwytONV|downsized)

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microrwjs@reddit

And why didn't he just ask for help

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linuxlib@reddit

Hi Everybody! There's a coworker who got assigned to my team a while back. Not only does the motherfucker do his job, but he does it WELL! I'm really pissed because this makes me look bad! AITAH? /s (yes, you the asshole, asshole)

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Invoqwer@reddit

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

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middleflesh@reddit

Fellow Linux server admin here. That is quite typical in our daily job, too; quite often I am the person who can think out of the box, but sometimes it’s one of my colleagues who figures out the solution.

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Bubby_Mang@reddit

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.

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Mikeyc245@reddit

The acceptable reaction from your teammate should be "oh sweet, we solved a problem, thanks for the assist. What was it?"

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Tzctredd@reddit

Rule number one of support: you don't grab other people's problems without telling them first. It is just good manners.

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RandoReddit16@reddit

>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....

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ITguydoingITthings@reddit

Beginning of that third paragraph is all he needs...

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thejohnmcduffie@reddit

How dare you! Good job. There are always going to be those types in any work environment with 2 or more employees. Leave it alone and know you did a good job.

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ukulele87@reddit

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.

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anonymousITCoward@reddit

Wow... i usually get more work because I fix things faster than others...

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Starfleet_Auxiliary@reddit

youtookeverythingfromme.jpg idontevenknowyou.jpg "Hey coworker, I didn't even see the issue until $DEV reached out and asked about it. But let's sit down and hammer out a code review schedule for the two of us so we can compare outstanding issues and stay on the same page." This will: 1. Establish your situation 2. Encourage best practices 3. Tamp down whatever fired him up 4. Show your boss you have upward mobility potential

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smart_ca@reddit

![gif](giphy|73xDSbNcMXNRk3MAOg|downsized)

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OneOfThose9294@reddit

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.

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fade2clear@reddit

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

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Abracadaver14@reddit

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.

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AtarukA@reddit

Hell I do that after 30 minutes, just in case my co-worker encountered that weird issue in the wild.

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SAugsburger@reddit

This. YMMV depending upon your workload and your coworkers, but usually it wouldn't seem odd after an hour getting nowhere to try get a second pair of eyes on whether this is something that they have seen before or at least a sanity check.

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Sunsparc@reddit

That's usually my first step. Poll the team to see if they've seen it. If not, then troubleshooting. Can't tell you the number of times I've been saved hours of googling because one person just happened to know the answer off the top of their head.

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jaydizzleforshizzle@reddit

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.

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Sparcrypt@reddit

Yeah if I have no idea after an hour it goes in the team chat. Sometimes I feel really dumb cause someone else instantly solves it but now I know for next time.

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Pusibule@reddit

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.

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sobrique@reddit

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.

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vhalember@reddit

Yeah, I'd put this back on him. Many people, especially in IT, struggle with you are not paid to know the answer. You are paid to be able to find the answer. This means talking to coworkers and colleagues. Doing research. Reaching out to forums and sub-reddits for help. I wouldn't be rude to the co-worker, but I'd be firm in letting him know it is his responsibility to look at all avenues to find a solution. He should have contacted his co-worker for help/ideas within a couple days of being puzzled in how to proceed with the ticket.

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wellmaybe_@reddit

yeah sometimes it already helps to talk about the issue with a coworker to find the solution

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Abracadaver14@reddit

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.

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Windows95GOAT@reddit

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.

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CrudProgrammer@reddit

I mean it’s jealousy over you being more competent. It was his issue assigned by his boss. You couldn’t intervene here without potentially looking condescending or being accused of giving unsolicited advice. You had no responsibility here to make sure your coworker asked for help when stuck. You had no responsibility for your coworker being assigned the task in the first place. It was his and his bosses failing and it’s been taken out on you to save face. I’d just ignore it but maybe tell your boss what happened.

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gothicel@reddit

Sounds like co-worker needs a talking to, he needs to sharpen up and be part of the team. You don't sit on an issue for 3 months, either he's an idiot or milking the issue and not doing jack diddly, either way he's dragging you down.

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SilentLennie@reddit

I also recently solved a problem, mostly luck, by listening about what they had tried for a month and deduction, 10 minutes... As I said mostly just luck. Probably a video card driver issue on that specific machine.

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Maverick_X9@reddit

Sometimes it just happens that way, he should just buy you a six pack

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RCTID1975@reddit

Shrug your shoulders and move on. Nothing you say here is going to change his already skewed view of what happened. And any conversation is likely going to be extremely confrontational/accusatory.

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UltraEngine60@reddit

If he's not asking HOW you determined the proper solution and only upset that YOU found the solution, that's an asshole. You can't fix asshole. Move on.

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ToastieCPU@reddit

I think he just got lost in the rabbit hole and became frustrated. He should of asked for help or just ask for input. I think he wasnt in the right state of mind when your argument happened.

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BillySmith110@reddit

“What can I say except you’re welcome”

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dark-DOS@reddit

I'm just an ordinary demi-guy

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atw527@reddit

Just tell him that sometimes an issue just needs a fresh set of eyes.

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solarsense@reddit

Obviously this is office politics. What's more important is where his comment came from. Did it come from a toxic work environment where they would punish him and reward you for a team effort? Or is this from himself, just angry that you found a solution he didn't? If the first, there is a corporate problem, if The second, it's his problem.

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BloodyIron@reddit

"Why didn't you ask for help?"

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AnotherAverageITGuy@reddit

Lol, I start probing my peers if I spend more than an hour working an issue. There's too much to be done to sit on a single issue for hours or days if it is not a project, and I have trained my employees to ask questions and seek help constantly.

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TikiTDO@reddit

There's many versions of [this story](https://medium.com/@oceanbcreative/the-ship-repair-man-story-dd959a4469d8) out there, but the idea is universal. Experience is it's own type is knowledge, and it's up to every individual to know where to seek such experiences. Part of being a professional is knowing when to eat crow and go ask for help from others. The proper time to do it is after days or at most weeks of being stuck. If your co-worker waited for months to ask for help, that's on them

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Xaphios@reddit

The number of times I've called a colleague to help and either seen the issue myself or had them fix it before I finish explaining the issue is too damn high! On the other hand, I'm also regularly on the receiving end of that same call so it all works out in the end.

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ImpostureTechAdmin@reddit

"i thought you'd have reached out if you wanted help" Also, what was the issue?

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Sasataf12@reddit

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.

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PaintDrinkingPete@reddit

That’s fair…but it’s a bit different when it’s 3 month old “cold case”that’s probably not being actively worked day-to-day at this point, and one that I’ve been asked and agreed to put some eyes on…in a situation like that, especially if I went in with low expectations but was able to find a solution that quickly, I’m probably also only mentioning after the fact. Now, if it’s a recent case that my co-worker is actively working and appears to be stuck or struggling to find a solution, sure, I’d definitely be like, “I’m gonna put a set of fresh eyes on this, if you don’t mind…”

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Sasataf12@reddit

I don't think it matters if it's a recent case or a centuries old case. If it's assigned to someone else and I'm going to be taking it, I'll let that someone know. "Hey, this case you've been working on, I've been asked to look at it." Took me 5 seconds to type that out, would take 2 seconds to say that to your coworker. Is it worth 2 seconds of effort to avoid the drama that OP has posted about? Yes.

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cats_are_the_devil@reddit

Drama would still be had. Co-worker isn't upset about him stepping on his turf. He's upset about making him look bad.

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Sasataf12@reddit

To me, it sounds like the coworker assumed OP knew the answer all along, and instead of helping, just sat back and watched. OP talking to the coworker first would've avoided that incorrect assumption. And even if it didn't, it's still courteous to let someone konw if you're taking tickets off them.

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PaintDrinkingPete@reddit

I guess the difference is that any similar shops I've worked in, taking a stab old, un-closed tickets is just what you do when time is available, whether assigned to you or not...i.e. there's a statue of limitations where it's no longer stepping on someone's toes, but rather trying to get a win for the team. Having said that though, I think the only thing I would have done differently than OP would have been to let my coworker know I had a solution before closing the ticket and/or notifying the customer

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rubs_tshirts@reddit

Your partner sucks, in more ways than one.

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notHooptieJ@reddit

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. 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 else is going to notice.

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eulynn34@reddit

It happens. Sometimes a problem just needs the right set of eyes on it. There's no way to know this until it happens.

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keivmoc@reddit

Kind of sounds like he was keeping this "problem" in his back pocket as busy work. I was an analyst in a previous role and worked alongside another, we managed different systems but would occasionally back each other up. He was assigned a project to explore viability of a new solution. For the next year or so, that's all he worked on. Every stand up he would give an update about waiting for the vendor to respond, or testing a new component, waiting for a software update, that sort of thing. He declined meeting invites and refused to take on tasks related to other projects as he was "too busy with \[vendor\]". He wasn't available to assist me when I needed help with projects and over time, this meant that I also ended up taking on most of the project work for systems that he was responsible for. Eventually, he was away on leave and my manager asked if I could check in with his project because C level wanted an update. I took one look at the "product" and realized ... it was an empty box. It was just a mock up for display. I thought, surely there was something else he was working on. When I asked the company about it, they told me that product never made it past the proposal phase and they've gotten out of that market segment entirely. I didn't stick around at the company long enough to witness the fallout of that so I'm not sure what happened next.

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ghoarder@reddit

🤣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.

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retro_grave@reddit

\#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."

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Library_IT_guy@reddit

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.

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KiNgPiN8T3@reddit

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.

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thepfy1@reddit

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

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notthefuzz99@reddit

Crazy that he would churn like that. I always tell my devs to work with each other *first* before opening vendor tickets.

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Kiernian@reddit

>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...

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punkwalrus@reddit

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.

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diodot@reddit

tell him what you told us

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Tymanthius@reddit

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.

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CAPICINC@reddit

>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?

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CornBredThuggin@reddit

My co-workers and I bounce ideas off each other all the time. Sometimes a fresh set of eyes is all you need.

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jimroseit@reddit

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.

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j______7@reddit

The business is more important than their ego.

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pobtastic@reddit

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”

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never-seen-them-fing@reddit

"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.

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gtipwnz@reddit

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.

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A_Whirlwind@reddit

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.

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atworkbrowsing23@reddit

I agree with this; once the same issue has been discussed several times in stand ups, it's time to get help from the team. OPs manager should've set up a collaboration meeting to look at the issue as a team.

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TEverettReynolds@reddit

> 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!"**

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mrlinkwii@reddit

>. 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

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Firestorm83@reddit

the only failure is him not asking for help in a timely manner

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SokkaHaikuBot@reddit

^[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.

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mxpx77@reddit

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.

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Texkonc@reddit

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.

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boli99@reddit

>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.

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sarge019@reddit

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.

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EdibleTree@reddit

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, 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.

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Moontoya@reddit

"did you ask me to help you ? If not, that's all on you"

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SilentPrince@reddit

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.

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wonderwall879@reddit

Ask him if he thinks too good/above everyone else to ask for help?

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Geminii27@reddit

Just 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.

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soydemexico@reddit

People are good at different things. Sometimes it just takes a fresh set of eyes. Him complaining that you didn't step in when he didn't ask for help is ludicrous. It's on him for not speaking up. I would say exactly that, "I assumed you had it handled and if you need to bounce something off me, say something next time."

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AntagonizedDane@reddit

Sounds like you wounded his ego. 110% a him-problem.

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fourpuns@reddit

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.

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Justhereforthepartie@reddit

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.

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Last_Painter_3979@reddit

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.

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kimchee411@reddit

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.

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chocothrower@reddit

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.

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Majik_Sheff@reddit

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.

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saysjuan@reddit

Correct you’re not a team of 2. You’re just 2 guys who work at the same place.

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meandrunkR2D2@reddit

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.

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oni06@reddit

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.

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dat510geek@reddit

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

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littlespaceman@reddit (OP)

We already do weekly standups. He said he was working on it and showed progress every week.

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dat510geek@reddit

Well he's not communicating or is acting sioled

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ramos808@reddit

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.

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littlespaceman@reddit (OP)

We already do weekly standups. He said he was working on it and showed progress every week.

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USSBigBooty@reddit

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.

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littlespaceman@reddit (OP)

He already do weekly standups. He said he was working on it and showed progress every week.

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CryptosianTraveler@reddit

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.

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Xandria42@reddit

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

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Warmachine-@reddit

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.”

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perthguppy@reddit

“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.

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PaulRicoeurJr@reddit

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.

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littlespaceman@reddit (OP)

No, he never asked. He just kept saying he was working on it.

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PaulRicoeurJr@reddit

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

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MaxwellHiFiGuy@reddit

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.

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littlespaceman@reddit (OP)

> 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.

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MaxwellHiFiGuy@reddit

Me too. Long before virtualisation. Hardware and cables everywhere.

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packetgeeknet@reddit

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.

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zenmaster24@reddit

Experience does mean you know everything though - depending on the fix, this person may not have had any experience with it

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littlespaceman@reddit (OP)

Ironically he has the 23 years of experience to my 9.

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brekfist@reddit

Shame on you for throwing the dude under the bus. You didn't even let the dude close the ticket! . Who's the team lead?

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littlespaceman@reddit (OP)

How did I throw him under the bus?

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Own_Independence4188@reddit

While reading this post I think I don't want you to be my colleague.

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littlespaceman@reddit (OP)

Why?

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wad11656@reddit

A Linux admin sounds like my worst nightmare. Probably pretty Good job security though. No average user wants to touch that shit with a 10 foot pole

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littlespaceman@reddit (OP)

You mean to work with or to be one?

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wad11656@reddit

He's very embarrassed. I totally understand. Especially if he's "higher up". I'm sorry you have to deal with somebody who's so immature, prideful and defensive, even when they're in a professional setting. (Usually the professional environment dampens some people's worst traits)

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ADtotheHD@reddit

Teachable moment for him. No issue should ever go for months on end without someone having had eyes on it 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 is pickup is tickets and resolve them without his input all day long.

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texan01@reddit

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.

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the_syco@reddit

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.

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Almazxxx@reddit

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.

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Ezekiel092@reddit

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.

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Administrative_Tone4@reddit

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.

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AltOnMain@reddit

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.

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denmicent@reddit

“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

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devino21@reddit

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.

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Terriblyboard@reddit

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 them move on.

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Quiver-NULL@reddit

It wasn't my assignment. Then someone asked for my help. So I helped once I was asked.

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AR15s-4-jesus@reddit

Collaboration. Your team of two is failing at it. You should be having short 15 min meetings near every day to go over stuff your team is working on, and bounce ideas off each other.

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ObeseBMI33@reddit

I don’t keep crayons on me to help you understand

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topromo@reddit

Just in case it isn't obvious to anyone, this is a good way to make yourself look worse than your coworker.

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ObeseBMI33@reddit

I think they have a bit of wiggle room if they’re solving problems in hours instead of months

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gwig9@reddit

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.

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Problably__Wrong@reddit

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.

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jcpham@reddit

Tell coworker to take the rest of the day off and see if coworker actually does it.

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alconaft43@reddit

sometimes you just need a look from the fresh eyes to solve the problem

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Ravenlas@reddit

Digging down the wrong trouser leg.

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ITgrinder99@reddit

That's a first class loser of a co-worker. I wouldn't lose 1 minute of sleep over it.

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xDARKFiRE@reddit

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

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-guzzlers-@reddit

"skill issue"

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atribecalledjake@reddit

Might get downvoted for this but assuming it’s not a typo: etc is short for etcetera. It’s etc, not ect.

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littlespaceman@reddit (OP)

>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.

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atribecalledjake@reddit

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.

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SketchyTone@reddit

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.

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skc5@reddit

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

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idiotscareshimself@reddit

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.

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