74

If you routinely “get heated” at work, the best-case scenario is that you’re part of a tight-knit team of confident people who aren’t put off by it. No harm, no foul. But the second someone comes onto your team who’s not so confident, or you have to communicate outside of your team, it becomes a big problem. It’s a bad way to treat your colleagues — even undirected or casual anger intimidates and alienates the people around you — and it makes you a less effective engineer.

top 19 comments
sorted by: hot top new old
[-] Kissaki@programming.dev 11 points 2 days ago

Hating on Jira and Confluence together is a great team bonding experience.

[-] Dnb@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 2 days ago

Why is the start stand up button in a hidden menu while complete sprint not? One you do daily, the other once a sprint.

[-] brisk@aussie.zone 3 points 1 day ago

There's a start stand up button?? I've never seen that - what does it even do?

[-] Dnb@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 23 hours ago

It's used for stand up meetings, puts everyone in a list on the side too go through their tasks

[-] Kissaki@programming.dev 5 points 2 days ago

When I get genuinely frustrated and irritated, when I communicate that it's typically still with a smile. Dark humor, if you will. I'm mostly thinking of team-external factors, though.

Within team, it's mainly about one specific colleague's work. I've voiced issues and frustrations, to them, teammates, and HR. Nothing fundamentally helped, though. By now, I try to act and think in damage-control mode. To not waste too much time and effort or mental capacity on their work. Still a waste to go through review iterations you feel are useless and wasteful, that they should have noticed and solved beforehand on their own.

Only once have I used harsh, blunt wording in an email to an admin after prod was down yet again, and there was no upfront or at any point communication regarding that they made some changes. It didn't have a lasting (negative) effect, at least.

[-] thedeadwalking4242@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

I'm dealing with similar issues except it's most of my team.

[-] Kissaki@programming.dev 1 points 2 days ago

That sounds like it's unmaintainable. No chance to guard against (severe) consequential issues(?).

[-] thedeadwalking4242@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

It's insane, I've burned the candle at both ends, I'm looking for a new job now

[-] compostgoblin@piefed.blahaj.zone 56 points 4 days ago

Nah, it’s okay to be angry. It’s not okay to express that anger as hostility.

[-] A_norny_mousse@piefed.zip 23 points 4 days ago

This is valid not only for engineers. Possibly for all work situations.
A lesson I too had to learn the hard way.

OTOH expressing anger in your life must be possible. Maybe it's possible to do that constructively.

[-] tatterdemalion@programming.dev 18 points 4 days ago

I don't regret the times I show anger at work, but it's a definitely a fine line that can leave me feeling a bit uneasy afterwards. It's one of the "social capital" things; you need to earn enough good will to spend your anger on the battles that really matter to you.

[-] jtrek@startrek.website 15 points 4 days ago

I used to care more about work. But this job pays garbage and is frothing over AI, so fuck them.

[-] Kissaki@programming.dev 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

That sounds more like frustration and resignation than (heated) anger.

Or do you mean you don't care about the fallout of getting angry?

[-] viking@beehaw.org 5 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

In my previous job, if I was angry, it wasn't at my colleagues. It was at upper management. My colleagues were in the trenches with me. We suffered together. Being angry at work isn't bad in itself, imo. I did use that anger as motivation to get another job. I felt incredibly lucky to do so, however.

[-] ianhclark510@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 points 4 days ago

tell this to my fucking manager LMAO

[-] spacegoat@lemmy.world 5 points 4 days ago

Flips table

[-] FizzyOrange@programming.dev 1 points 4 days ago

Yeah there's no need to get angry. It's just a job. If it doesn't work without anger you can always get another one (or probably most people here can anyway).

[-] Triumph@fedia.io 8 points 4 days ago

I'll just go down to the job tree.

[-] FizzyOrange@programming.dev 0 points 4 days ago

I mean if you're a decent programmer, totally! AI hasn't destroyed the job market quite yet. But I wouldn't wait too long...

this post was submitted on 22 Aug 2026
74 points (89.4% liked)

Programming

28251 readers
273 users here now

Welcome to the main community in programming.dev! Feel free to post anything relating to programming here!

Cross posting is strongly encouraged in the instance. If you feel your post or another person's post makes sense in another community cross post into it.

Hope you enjoy the instance!

Rules

Rules

  • Follow the programming.dev instance rules
  • Keep content related to programming in some way
  • If you're posting long videos try to add in some form of tldr for those who don't want to watch videos

Wormhole

Follow the wormhole through a path of communities !webdev@programming.dev



founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS