Senior developer doesn't want or know how to guide or grow junior developers
Posted by runnersgo@reddit | ExperiencedDevs | View on Reddit | 1 comments
We have one or two junior developers who are pretty obviously lacking experience, but our bigger problem is a "senior developer" that is super critical with all the "mistakes" that the juniors are doing.
"Critical" here means "bluntly criticizing" - he doesn't seem to understand saying certain things bluntly to someone may make them either withdrawn or just demotivates them.
e.g. he once said right in front of the junior (where there were seniors in the meeting) that the "the developer is not so technical and having problems understanding fundamentals; the PR needs to be X, Y and Z, etc." - I'm of course paraphrasing but the junior was all quiet, and seen a bit withdrawn. The senior doesn't seem to care for the junior's view on what or how they went wrong.
One other major problem is this "senior developer" masks his tone softly or seems to be "diplomatical"
but his literal message is obviously not helpful not constructive.
Has anyone faced someone like this before? We don't want to lose people just because on engineer cannot keep his ego in check.
heyitsaif@reddit
I have always been critical of senior developers who do not take enough responsibility. In many of the struggling teams I have seen, the root problem often comes down to ineffective senior engineers. They fail to properly guide or support junior developers, lack the ability to help them grow, and struggle with planning and delegation. They are also weak when it comes to building redundancy within the team.
Too often, senior developers create heavy dependency on themselves, sometimes intentionally for job security. This behavior holds the team back. Organizations usually do not recognize the issue until it is too late, and by then the lack of independence makes it difficult to foster growth or develop other strong contributors. Ultimately, it slows down the entire team’s progress.
I also think organizations themselves incentivize this behavior. They tend to rely too heavily on a single individual without planning for contingencies or investing in junior engineers. There is a common belief that training junior developers is a waste of time and resources, which is not entirely true. In the modern world, especially with the rise of artificial intelligence, many assume that developing junior talent is no longer worthwhile, but that mindset can be short-sighted and harmful in the long run.