Programmers Aren't Confrontational. F**k You!

mikecavaliere.com

7 pointsmcavaliere5 comments

" I’ve worked at places where it’s prominent, and worked at places where it’s completely absent."

You need to look no further than your manager and other senior leaders. Everyone will take their cues for behavior from those people. If they are confrontational, the people who work for them will be, if they aren't that way (and they call out as bad behavior such things) then the behavior won't be present.

How the manager and senior leaders are could also be linked to a hiring bias tending to make everyone else that way.

Great points, I agree 100%

I think that is a big part of it, but I have also witnessed organizations change 'tone' when a new leader was installed. Perhaps the most diverse were the transitions of "VP of Engineering" at NetApp between 2001 and 2006. Different styles of leader, and different behaviors in the organization as a whole.

There's an article I read a few years ago that I thought was spot on on why programmers tend to be seen as such:

http://www.computerworld.com/article/2527153/it-management/o...

Personally, I don't believe we are confrontational in general, but we respond badly to because-I-say-so situations.

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