Fixing damage to my department due to nepotistic exec [closed]

Question

I'm working with a team of software and devops engineers, and the team has recently been shuffled due to layoffs. Our technical lead, "Alice" (not her real name, of course), who works a lot of overtime and helps over 10 teams in our department, was recently screwed over by some exec, who basically credited the exec's cousin, "Jeb", with the success for Alice's work, and gave Jeb bonuses and stock commensurate with the quality of his "work". Jeb has never touched the projects Alice leads, so, this just looks awful to everyone, especially when some random unqualified, connected guy gets credit for a hard working woman's work. The work also literally saves our department $3M/year, so this hurts Alice's career too. Tech leads were ordered not to talk about this, and that just spread it through the whole department like wildfire, and impacted morale as well.

Alice has since dropped all of her "extra" work (inventing new solutions, helping multiple teams), and we're hurting. We're already short-staffed, and this just hits us harder. To remedy this, we hired nearly 2 dozen contractors, trained them, and tasked them with handling the work Alice used to do, but they are struggling to do a fraction of the work she used to handle. To make a point, Alice steps in for 1 hour, and does the work of the entire week's worth of the 20 junior contractors.

Is Alice just flexing, or is there something I'm not seeing here? Is a 10x engineer a real thing?

I'd like to mend the bridge here, but as Alice noted, our exec "burned the bridge and p*ssed on the ashes". Is there any way to patch up this situation?

Answer 1

Is there any way to patch up this situation?

Well, how to put this...

No.

---

Look, this isn't the kind of situation in which Jeb borrowed Alice's favourite toy and you can just give it back with a cherry on top.
Alice knows she has been screwed by Jeb, by the exec, and by everyone who allowed that to happen. Every other expert worker knows Alice was screwed by Jeb, by the exec, and by everyone who allowed that to happen. If your company does not manage to keep one of their top performers saving $3M/year safe from this, who is safe?

Make no mistake, your company is seriously broken. That this happened at all shows everyone your company is seriously broken. That the "remedy" was to hire 2 dozen contractors shows everyone your company is seriously broken. That your instinct is to suspect Alice is the one exploiting you shows everyone your company is seriously broken. That you have orders to cancel bonuses and hire exploited junior engineers shows everyone your company is seriously broken.

Your best bet is to learn from this how not to manage your golden goose. And then look for a new company that still has one.

Answer 2

Answering in reverse.

Is there any way to patch up this situation?

Its called money and recognition.. IE the money and recognition that Alice was screwed out of in favor of Jeb. Literally only way to fix this bridge. Also an apology from everyone in the command chain who didn't stop that stupid idea. It might not be enough, but its the best that can be done.

Is Alice just flexing, or is there something I'm not seeing here?

Not really... There is a lot of difference in the productivity of 1 senior engineer who has been leading development on a project, and staying late for the past x years. And 20 junior engineers who have been working on a project for the past week, month, or year.

TBH it would take you at least 4-5 good senior engineers to replace Alice's productivity in the short term should she decide to leave, and by short term I mean sometime 3-6 months in the future... No way to immediately replace Alice's productivity. Long term one good engineer could probably get where Alice is in 4-5 years, if you are lucky. Though why one good engineer would stay with a company that mistreats engineers is beyond me.

TLDR: You might be in trouble, should she leave. And its unlikely that you company will be able to retain good engineers in the future. The story of how the company screwed over Alice is going to be water cooler talk/remain in the back of minds of your engineers for a long time.

Why does each and every team member supposedly need to know all 4 at the same time

Because it is an integrated system? If you divide that knowledge across 4 people instead of one, that means that you can no longer fix bugs in the system because the knowledge is too diffuse for them to make connections and see bugs that are occurring across boundaries. Also its not that hard to become proficient in all 4 just takes a couple of years of learning things.

Apparently we "need" to use shell, python, terraform, and node, instead of 1 language

You apparently don't understand your product. As an outsider looking in, I would guess:

Node for web interface. Terraform to configure the cloud architecture for scale. Python unsure. Could be business logic (though node could do that), could be database scripts, could be productivity scripts automating tedious/repetitive tasks, could be your backend, who knows? Alice, Alice knows.

Shell is just there to automate mind-numbing repetitive tasks command line tasks.

As an aside... I hate node.js a lot. javascript is a horribly designed language. A nightmare to debug/maintain compared to reasonably designed languages. Often the only person who can maintain it is the person who wrote it. On that note, Alice might be the only person at your company capable of maintaining your system. And she just started looking for a new job. I recommend that you start polishing your resume, your current employer's future prospects are a little grim.

One final thing:

to remedy this, we hired nearly 2 dozen contractors, trained them, and tasked them with handling the work Alice used to do

Why didn't you just increase Alice's pay by the amount that you would pay 1 dozen contractors? Seems like that is cheaper both short term and long term than hiring 2 dozen contractors who are going to spend the next 3-9 months figuring out what is going on.

TLDR: Screwing your principal engineer is a bad idea. Engineering is a knowledge based job. The technical lead for your product, system, whatever, has an intimate understanding of how the system works that would take someone else years to achieve, if they ever manage to achieve it. The more specialized/innovative your product is, the longer it would take for someone else to become competent with it.

As a side note you wouldn't happen to have Alice's phone number handy, would you? I know some people who are hiring

Answer 3

If I was Alice - here is what my minimum terms would be:

• The same bonus as Jeb + 50% (for stress, late payment etc.)
• A company wide meeting to acknowledge my work
• An apology from both the Exec and Jeb for stealing my work (to be delivered in said company wide meeting)
• A nice healthy Salary increase
• A Guarantee that Jeb and the Exec will never interfere with my work again

So - unless you have the power to do all that the answer to your question:

I'd like to mend the bridge here, but as Alice noted, our exec "burned the bridge and p*ssed on the ashes". Is there any way to patch up this situation?

Is: You have more chance of walkin barefoot on the moon than you have of repairing the bridge that your management has burned with Alice.

Your best option is probably to find out where Alice is applying for a new job and ask if you can transfer with her. Then give a really spicy exit interview.

Answer 4

Your question is a little confusing. You described Alice outpacing 20 juniors, but you want to know if that's actually possible? Did she do it or not? A 10x engineer is obviously a real thing you have one working for you.

I think it is unlikely that there's something you're missing. An incredibly capable engineer who is intimately familiar with multiple projects at your company was screwed over and now you're paying the price. Choosing to think that she intentionally made her work hard for someone else to take on, as opposed to valuing her skills, is probably only going to bite you in the ass.

• Is there any way to patch up the situation?

If I were you I would be doing everything I could to patch up the situation, but honestly the answer is probably not and you have to come with terms with that. If I were Alice, I would need at least a formal apology and my compensation that Jeb was given. However I also would imagine that someone with her skills could get another job fairly easily, and why would she stay somewhere that clearly doesn't value her like they should? More to the point, why do you want to stay at a company that gives out bonuses and rewards to people like Jeb and screws over people like Alice?