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I've always been the type of guy that doesn't care what my co-workers / team mates are doing because it doesn't affect me one bit. If the project fails because of them, thats on them, not me. If the boss comes and asks me why my piece isn't done or whatever, I just usually say I'm waiting on Bob to finish his piece and I've been asking him for it for 2 weeks. I usually say it with a slightly sarcastic tone and let the boss worry about getting through to Bob. I'll usually just bug Bob for a week or so before giving up and figure he doesn't want to do his job for whatever reason.
So on my current project, I've got a Bob. Bob is responsible for the web site and the database and database layer and he used to be responsible for the WCF service, but he is so completely worthless, I just took it myself and did it.
1 month ago I asked Bob to finalize out ObjectA and ObjectB. ObjectA is basically a single table. ObjectB is more complex and probably involves ~5 or so tables. First time I asked him for it, I got "Oh,I can't work on it now, they are changing the specs all the time, I'm waiting for the final specs". This was complete BS as both objects were 90%+ defined by the business unit.
A couple of weeks later, Bob got the official specs and still hasn't done it. He (at the time) was responsible for the WCF service. I built it and stubbed it out for him. All he had to do was drop in a single line of code. return databaseLayer.GetObjectA(); After a week, I finally get an IM saying he checked in the code and he tested it briefly with the WCF test client and it looked to be working.
LMFAO... REALLY? You tested it in the WCF test client? REALLY? You mean the one that comes with Visual Studio?? REALLY? I was in disbelief, but I didn't say anything at the time cuz I got better things to do then argue with worthless co-workers.
How exactly did he test it with the WCF test client?
1) the project I sent him was a console app in debug mode and a service in release mode... he had somehow jacked up the project setting and made it a windows app. Wouldn't even run if he tried.
2) the service was self hosted to support SSL & REST. Last time I checked, the WCF test client doesn't support either. It only supports http/wsdl.
Holy crap. So now I just think he is a complete BSer who never does crap. To this day, I still have not gotten ObjectA and ObjectB.
I mention it every day in the scrum meetings that I haven't gotten it yet and they are blocking items, but the PM doesn't seem to care, she just jots it down. Lol.
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I agree with you, it just happens in every company. You may find one or two in a company which you work with.
There are only 2 options for you now.
1. Just switch the company where you are working and join some other company. However don't keep much expectations.
2. Don't bother about that poor guy, Though the biggest mistake you have done is work on his code part. I agree you could have helped him to some extent but don't ever make a habit of working on some one else code completely.
Thanks,
Ranjan.D
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Yeah, I know doing his job for him is just enabling him... but I have ZERO interest in working evenings and weekends because of his crap. I'm thinking I'm just going to have a talk with the boss tommorow in case he doesn't know whats going on.
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Yeah that would be great!
Also next time you never forget to keep your manger in loop through email when ever you are asking him about the work done. I have seen while working with out mates we become close friends and mostly discuss in formally and when it comes to the end of the day all that is required is the formal communication that has happened through emails/chat/groups etc else the manager will not come to know what;s really going on.
Really surprises me about your manager not much bothering about when you say something in your daily scrum meetings
Thanks,
Ranjan.D
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Some of us are old. We can't help it. 
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I feel like making a cow joke with reference to your profile image, but I don't want to offend any members on the site.
Soren
"When you don't know what you're doing it's best to do it quickly" - Jase #DuckDynasty
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Bull. 
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Jibesh V P
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May be he is suited as "Bob the Builder" job not developer job 
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Discuss it privately with your manager/scrum master/whatever. You can be sure that he is putting his point of view across to them, and that he will be assigning blame to (i.e. sticking knives in the backs of) others, to cover his @rse, and one of those he's blaming will be you.
If he does that, and you do nothing to counter it, people will believe him, and you'll get the blame.
And make sure that he's not telling everyone that you're difficult to work with. That's a usual tactic that's employed by the incompetent, and, again, if no-one says anything to counter it, it will be believed.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Mark_Wallace wrote: And make sure that he's not telling everyone that you're difficult to work with
If it gets to that stage it is time to move on, thankfully, as a contractor, I only had to put up with that sort of crap short term. Only once have I packed up my bat and ball and gone elsewhere to play!
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity
RAH
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I like to kick the @rses that offend me, before moving on.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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SledgeHammer01 wrote: I've always been the type of guy that doesn't care what my co-workers / team
mates are doing because it doesn't affect me one bit.
So we've learnt you've always been the type of guy that doesn't care what your co-workers / team mates are doing as long as it doesn't affect you one bit.
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That was exactly what was going through my mind +5
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
modified 14-Jan-13 4:32am.
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Team player.
Peter Wasser
Art is making something out of nothing and selling it.
Frank Zappa
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That's Bob for you. I've had my fair share of them but none half as kak as yours. I had a total prick of a project manager once. He was forced to take over our projects but it was clear he had no interest in us. Eventually, he thought it would be a good idea to arrange a team-bonding night out which nobody really wanted to do, with him at least. He decided that we'd go to the dog-racing in Brighton and eat there. He said the company's contribution was £20. Someone asked if that was £20 per head or £20 in total. If the latter we could buy a pizza and a 2 liter bottle of Coke from Lidl and heat it up in the microwave at work and then have a team hug afterwards. The tosser said, of course it was £20 per head. Like, wake up you useless prick, the guy was only kidding. The project manager's name was not Bob, but he was a waste of space all the same.
"I do not have to forgive my enemies, I have had them all shot." — Ramón Maria Narváez (1800-68).
"I don't need to shoot my enemies, I don't have any." - Me (2012).
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You need to send him a fart bomb.
If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.-John Q. Adams
You must accept one of two basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe, or we are not alone in the universe. And either way, the implications are staggering.-Wernher von Braun
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.-Albert Einstein
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SledgeHammer01 wrote: I've always been the type of guy that doesn't care what my co-workers / team mates are doing because it doesn't affect me one bit. If the project fails because of them,
Have you ever thought that perhaps it is you that is the problem? With an attitude like that, I expect you bring out the worst in people. This is why you find yourself surrounded by Bobs!
I would recommend two things:
Firstly, you either start to become a better team-player, or become an independent developer. Stay at home, work from your garage, choose solitude!
Secondly, if you do encounter an under-performer at work, don't ignore it, don't bitch about it on forums. Do something about it! If, after you have tried to help, they just can't cut it, politely inform your manager. They might have personal issues that you are unaware of, or, they might not like their job, or ... all sorts of things might be affecting their performance.
Who knows, one day you might be the 'Bob'.
Regards, Colin E.
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Me too - where's the vote button?
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Umm... why *should* I care about what somebody else does? I'm going to stress out about what my co-workers do??? Lol. Do you? Are you one of those co-workers who goes to your manager and reports your co-workers for only working 7 hours and 45 minutes per day when you are working 10 hours? Do you report your co-workers for standing around their cubicles chatting about the game when you are sweating it out implementing code?
I'm not Bob's boss, nor am I his mother, his parole officer, his wife, his therapist, etc. Not my job to care about what he does or why.
If Bob is not cutting it because he doesn't like his job, that sounds like Bob's problem. And Bob's boss's problem.
If Bob asked me for help, or had a ton of stuff to do or whatever, then I would probably feel different. However, its obviously Bob is a worthless piece of crap who BSes people and is an outright liar.
Really? He tested a REST/SSL service with the WCF Test Client? Lolz. What a waste of DNA.
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I always have a special place for people who go on public to complain about other people, who are not there to respond.
modified 20-Oct-19 21:02pm.
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You need to talk to your team lead and functional manager, to verify they are aware that Bob is a problem. They may have been working on Bob for weeks, counseling him, giving him that, "Are you happy working here?" talk, writing him up preparatory to letting him go. Don't assume that they don't know that Bob is a problem. If they know, they have probably already mentally compensated for his drag on the schedule.
You also need to be sure they know you have been bringing up this issue. I once had a manager who, it turned out, never read more than the first couple of lines of any email. So my detailed reports describing exactly why we were gradually sinking had totally escaped his notice. With some managers you pretty much need to grab them by the lapels and shake them into wakefulness. Then they massively overreact of course, firing Bob on the spot and also the whole rest of the team, and everyone else in the company who looks like they might do software. So careful what you wish for.
I also second the recommendation about finding a new employer if your current employer tolerates Bob.
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Yeah, I used to work with a guy everyone called 80% Rob. He'd do 80% of the work, declare victory and move on. He was one of those guys who was grooming himself to be a manager. He'd wear the white shirt and red "power" tie, as well as red suspenders. He would position himself as a facilitator, meaning he didn't have to do the work, but made sure he was the one with you when you handed in your work so it looked like he helped. If he was good, he'd convince you to give him the material so he could hand it in for you and let you get back to your work. I fell for that trap once, the work I gave him involved three files, he handed in only two. I made accidental enemies because they came at me claiming I hadn't done the work. It took about a half hour to convince them I had done the work, while they insisted I had screwed up. When I confronted him about it later he said, "Somebody dropped the ball." He couldn't bring himself to admit he was the one that did it.
I had another one give me a component my project needed that he insisted he had tested and then went on a two week vacation. His code GPFed immediately, not after using it or stressing it, but immediately. We were on a tight schedule so I dived in and cleaned up the POS. I think I gutted over a third of the code that was redundant and/or non-functional. In the end, I kept only subroutine that worked, in the most retarded manner possible, just so I could point to it and say, this is his usual programming style. Wanna know what it was? A routine to center a message on the screen (back in text display days). Did he take the length of the line, subtract the length of the string to print, and then divide that by two, so he would know how many spaces to print before printing the string? No, that would have been too easy and too fast. Instead he filled a buffer the length of the line with spaces and placed the string at the beginning of the buffer. He would then count the number of spaces in front of the string and the number of spaces after the string. If the leading count was less than the trailing spaces, he would move the string one byte over, add a space at the beginning and start again, finally finishing when the number of leading spaces was equal to or greater than the number of trailing spaces. I'm sorry to say that code was almost sensible compared to the code in the rest of the application that consultants had spent six years writing. The company had finally figured out it was being taken for a ride and assembled an in house staff to do the clean up. When he got back from vacation I grabbed him and started taking him through the changes I had made and he looked at it and said, "Yeah, that's my code." I fumed thinking this idiot couldn't even recognize how or even that it had been changed. I advised him to take a tube of KY jelly with him when he went to so our manager because he was going to be reamed for handing me the POS.
Psychosis at 10
Film at 11
Those who do not remember the past, are doomed to repeat it.
Those who do not remember the past, cannot build upon it.
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