I work at a place that is actively hiring juniors. While they don’t have an explicit rating system I feel like we unconsciously follow a similar pattern with new coders and it’s unfortunate.

Given that older staff generally have a legacy of responsibility they don’t always have the time required to coach people who lack that self-starting spark. The quality of the questions and how much effort they have put in to answer things themselves are what differentiates a C from a B.

Mostly you can quickly answer something a B asks. But a C who sponges up your day quickly gets categorised into not being given fun or difficult work.

With funding and resources this wouldn’t have to happen but the industry treats mentoring time as lost time. You aren’t getting your story points done if you’re helping somebody else do theirs.

The stupid agile bollocks management style has no eyes on the future of an organisation.

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mlinhares 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Not to sound soulless but why would you want to invest on the C’s?

Unless we have no options I don’t see why so that. I’ve had to deal with people like that and it’s a tar pit.

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analog31 5 hours ago | parent [-]

One thing is that the A's are watching how you treat the C's. They might not have a good gauge of the culture from their own experience because they take care of themselves.

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mlinhares 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

They should be getting praise and more mentoring, not sure why they'd worry about how the C's are being treated. It should also be clear to the C's that they are not making the cut and either they get better or they leave.

There's something that is very pernicious in the government in Brazil (where I'm from) where in a department there's one person that does all the work while everyone else sits around. You can't fire the non-performing ones or push them because there is a very strong worker protection system for them. Back in college it took me a full week to get my grade history because the person that did all the work was on vacation and nobody else bothered to learn how to pull it or cared if students couldn't get the report.

These are the C's, people that have to be forced to do the work, and that will eventually cause all the work to pile on everyone else. There's no fun in working in an environment like that and its a quick recipe for a burnout.

	▲	brewdad 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Government work tends to also have structured pay scales that rise based on time worked and less so or not at all on performance. If the end result of working your tail off or doing the bare minimum is the same x% cost of living “raise”, no rational employee would put in any effort. It tends to be the reason so many Americans are anti-union. They do a lot of good for the average worker but they also carry along a lot of dead weight that can’t easily be shed.

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cobbzilla 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Indeed. And when the C is unmanaged, creating needless work for others (review code that doesn’t work, etc), making a negative contribution to forward progress, then the rest of the As and Bs are looking around wondering why this person is not fired.

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Eridrus 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Yes, but the takeaway is the opposite if what you're implying. Working with C's is draining for everyone and a drag on morale.

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Fr0styMatt88 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

How is the place you’re at approaching AI in this context?

As a senior I worry about the juniors coming in — Claude can do what I would have previously tasked to a junior.

I guess the shape of the junior role just changes.

	▲	smackeyacky 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		It has been interesting. The good guys got better with AI. The C grade guys mostly get confused, or follow hallucinations for a lot longer before they realise it’s a dead end. If anything AI seems to make it easier to see who is good and who isn’t. Ironically on the token use leader boards the C guys are crushing it. Edit: I was worried about Claude+junior myself but it’s not working out that way. It’s like giving an apprentice access to a full woodworking shop full of tools and expecting fine joinery, but getting a high school spice rack and 2 tons of sawdust