We spend most of our life at work. This work is often teamwork on more or less demanding tasks. It is worth making your work enjoyable. It can be more precisely indicated that work should not be a place where we are forced to go.
Have you considered the enemies of our work? My post presents mistakes that should be avoided. The order is random because each person/team may have different problems and a different view.
Blame game
One of the most dangerous threats is the blame culture. In a blame culture, problem-solving is replaced by blame avoidance. Nobody likes to be slandered.
It takes away the urge to create anything. Any mistake can be used against, to plunge, and undermine the position in the company. If conversations don’t help, your only solution may be to change jobs.
Communication inaccuracies
Communication is important in every aspect of our job. It is a myth that IT cannot communicate. Indeed, IT does not always do it fully committed.
We should pay attention to communication errors. It is crucial to develop a common language, use the same concepts, and be specific about your thinking. This can be especially important when working remotely. There is no place for inaccuracies.
Ego blown up
They are all worse than me. They don’t know their job, and without me, the whole company will go bankrupt. These are probably the most common symptoms of a person who has too much ego. Another example is not asking for help when we feel we are stuck.
High self-esteem is important. The most important thing, however, is not to overdo it. We create a team that should support each other and pursues one goal. Blocking someone else’s changes just because we disagree with them certainly does not improve the project.
Assessing others
Everyone had a situation in which we judge others rather than focus on ourselves. We often do not see mistakes in ourselves. It is much easier for us to point out the error in others.
It is not pleasant for anyone. Hardly anyone likes to hear about failures and their mistakes. We are happy with our successes. This does not mean that we should avoid pointing out errors. It’s about doing it skillfully and nicely. However, instead of judging others, it’s better to try to show how to work better.
Putting responsibility on others
Avoiding responsibility for the functionalities we created is not a good solution. Even worse when we place the responsibility and blame for any irregularities on QA or other people. Just because we have the entire testing and delivery process in place doesn’t mean that only the last person (who clicked the merge) is responsible for the bug.
A conscious programmer can avoid mistakes. And if they do happen (we can’t avoid them in 100%), we should admit to them and improve code.
Focusing only on the code
The programmer’s work is mainly focused on creating new and improving existing software. This does not mean, however, that we should focus only on created code. Code is only a way of conveying thoughts and should carry out what has been previously decided.
It is worth taking an active part in the team’s life and being interested in different parts of the project. Being a backend developer, it is worth taking an interest in what on the frontend is preparing. It is also worth supporting QA. They often work without a good context of what our change should introduce. However, they often have the best knowledge about the project. It is also worth taking an interest in what the team expects from us (for example: when certain functionalities will be delivered).
Personal development
Strange as it may be, personal development can also be a problem. We can distinguish two situations: a complete lack of development and devoting far too much time to develop.
The first situation makes our skills less and less to keep up with expectations. We may end up with technology that it no longer wants to use.
Too much commitment can manifest itself in consuming many articles that may be useful in the future. There is no guarantee that what we get to know will be of any use at all. Without using them in practice and without commitment, compulsive absorption of courses will not make us better programmers.
Just in time, learning is a much better approach. We only learn what can be helpful in our current situation. Something that might allow us to take the next step.
Summary
Life is the art of choices. There are some adversities that we should avoid. It is worth treating others as if we would like to be treated ourselves.