News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on People prefer friendliness, trustworthiness in teammates over skill competency.

Re:People prefer friendliness, trustworthiness in teammates ... by TrackerFF on Tuesday November 02, 2021 @11:43AM (#29082929)
My take is that as long as your workers are above a certain threshold (as far as technical competency goes), a team with healthy culture will on average outperform a team with toxic culture - even though the latter may have members that are more technically proficient, than in the former team.

By toxic culture, I mean:

- Poor communication

- Abrasive or toxic personalities

- Bullying and harassment

etc.

I think that in most normal people, stressors like those can affect their performance. And I don't mean full-blown hazing rituals - even more subtle actions (poor communication, for example) can lower morale. More so if you feel that said poor communication is deliberate.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:People prefer friendliness, trustworthiness in teammates ... by MudAndGears on Tuesday November 02, 2021 @12:33PM (#29083614)
Absolutely. I worked on a team where the lead engineer would be out of the office for weeks at at time, and then when he'd return he'd skim in-progress code and request radical revisions, only to criticize those decisions the next time he was in the office.

I was actively looking for a new job when he quit, and it was such a relief. My productivity (and happiness) went through the roof, and a couple months into the year my manager told me that I'd already accomplished everything he hoped I'd accomplish _for the year_.

By exchanging a some technical skill for a better work environment our whole team benefitted.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:People prefer friendliness, trustworthiness in teammates ... by calyth2018 on Tuesday November 02, 2021 @02:01PM (#29085031)
I've seen that so many times in my current office, it's not even funny at this point.

And I couldn't agree with you more. As long as a set level of competency is there, I'd rather work with friendly people than a bunch of know-it-mosts that don't know tact.

[ Parent | on HN ]