I've just been asked to give my opinion of a dev as they're on the chopping block.

I don't want people to loose their jobs over my verdict 🫠

Any advice?

Company: We've just sucked 1 year of your life away. We might one day go as high as 5, but I really don't know what that would do to you. So, let's just start with what we have. What did this do to you? Tell me. And remember, this is for posterity, so be honest. How do you feel?

Employee: <crying>

Company: Interesting.

Be fair and honest I guess.

I chopping blocked the other dev

he harassed me about code he said the CEO wanted me to review, but because I gave him comments to change stuff he argued with me at my desk for 2 hours. I wasn't even on their project. fuck that guy.

he was the office clown, and it's great and funny when you're not working with him. evidently he was so stubborn with one of the architects they got into a swearing match, so HR was calling around asking about him

and then I inherited his codebase... I didn't even know you could make java syntax do that shit. the code was entirely unreadable. it's like he wrote in minified js, but it was java. thankfully auto format exists.

Choppedy chop.

If you have something positive to say about them, tell it.

Just say nice things. If he’s really bad, the majority will still vouch for his firing and his firing won’t be your fault.

Honestly just say what you think. That's why they're asking your opinion in the first place. If he's dropping the ball then I'm sorry, but if *you* don't get him fired someone else will anyway...

I guess the main reason to be dishonest is if you know that HR values some information differently from you, such as if you empathize with the reason why he's unproductive, if he's harmful to something you personally dislike, or if he's enthusiastically participating in some toxic practices management endorses.

from personal experience, it's pretty important that you avoid reporting that they're harassing someone else without at least informing the person on behalf of whom you're complaining, but preferably consulting them in advance.

This is apparently common sense but I had to learn from experience that it's very easy to create massive chaos and make everything worse with the purest intention.

If this is a healthy workplace and this person is simply bad, you need to be honest. Bad developers cause trouble for everybody around them.

Come up with three talking points and prepare a real-life example for each one. Don't make it personal. Also, be ready with at least one suggestion for how this person could improve.

If it's a toxic workplace, do the political calculus and god speed.

Thank you all x

@MammaNeedHummus

I just served on a jury today. We let the dude go. Sometimes we get rare input on someone's life. Just be honest. It wasn't really much of a case though. The State's evidence was really weak.

That's a tough place to be in.
Thanks for caring that this affects a person's livelihood.

Be honest, and not just about the questions that they ask directly. If they have good qualities, make sure to present those too.

If you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything at all