Re: Mentoring a Coworker

raisenero wrote:
Lately I've had a problem trying to mentor a co-worker. Strictly
speaking, it's not my job to mentor them. But if he doesn't get
better, the rest of us can't get real work done. I'm hoping someone
has some suggestions to approach this in as friendly a way as possible.
I don't want to have to approach our manager if there's some way we
can fix it. So far it's been a problem for about 2 months.
....
I don't mean to sound like an elitist. When I first started here, I
know I made mistakes too. But I like to think I learned faster, that I
didn't need to be told dozens of times about the same thing. I'm just
uncertain, is this par for the course? It's my first programming job,
and the first time working with someone new (up until he came I was the
new guy). Is this just what it's like breaking in a new programmer?

No, it's not. A new programmer who has potential asks questions, learns on his own, and most importantly (as you said), s/he does not repeat past mistakes.

The team needs to do one of two things:

1) Fire him. He's slowing down everyone else, and that's not fair to them. It also hurts morale when the rest of you have to do his work.

Or, 2) Involve the manager in suggesting that s/he officially devise a mentor relationship (a lead programmer) who will shepherd this guy through the process of becoming productive. This will require that someone define specific steps for the guy to do, and after a few examples, the expectation that he masters them. In some sort of efficient up front way, you need to find out whether he has potential or whether he doesn't. The way to do this is to set goals with/for him, help him to reach them, then sit down with him and evaluate how he did. If he doesn't get better at reaching such goals, then your manager needs to let him go.

Randy
.

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