My current "boss" is a real noob when it comes to programming. The problem is that he's the "chief technical officer" of the team, and he's supposed to write specifications, write code, and take care of the project.
He's younger than me (and I'm almost 30, he's just out of school), can't write C++, he sucks at C#, doesn't know what SVN is, and think that everything should not take more than 15 minutes (you have to port Windows to the iPhone? that shouldn't be longer than one hour, after all it's just some drag-and-drop and recompile). Also he sucks at grammar, and, well, everything else when I think about it.
WTF can I do? I'm not about to quit because of this moron, but I'm a bit depressed.
How did somebody just out of school end up a CTO? I think your company's problems go a bit deeper...
Does he show any motivation to improve?
He's not really the CTO of the company, he's just the "leader of a small team of programmers" but still it's scary enough as he's just out of school.
He has no motivation to improve, he always talks to others as if they were his slaves. "you're on my team, you'll do this and nothing else" OTOH he's respectful to other "bosses" and team leaders of the company (I guess that's because he's lying all the time about his competences) and if I disagree with him, I'm the bad guy (the bad guy who rewrote all the kernel of their application but they forgot about it very fast).
I've seen his source code, it's awful. He shows no remorse when I tell him that "maybe he shouldn't return a value after having thrown an exception." He just doesn't give a fuck because he's the new boss, and I would be the biggest asshole of the company if I talked about it to others.
</rant> sorry...
I would strongly recommend saving all emails. If he wants you to do anything, make him tell you over email. Or issue it to you over the bug tracker, where the bug tracker sends you an email; if he wants you to do anything, refuse to do it without an issue. And if you need to tell him anything, use email too.
Basically keep records of all interactions with him that you can (and keep them backed up). Sooner or later it sounds like he'll pin the blame for something he did at on somebody else. When that happens your only defense -- either at work or with a lawyer when you're after severance -- is what you've documented.
You should do this as a matter of course, even in normal workplaces.
Otherwise I can only suggest it's time for a new job and a new pay hike. Once things start tanking, I've never seen them get better.
Oh, also, try not to get caught alone in an office with him. Witnesses are good. So are tape recordings if it's legal where you are to do so without his consent.
I realize this sounds paranoid, but your lawyer will love you, and I've seen what happens when somebody doesn't do this.
When the going gets tough, the tough start documenting.
Do you and this dickbag work for a Telecom in NE Ohio by chance?
OP here.
I won't get a lawyer or a new job. I like my current job (I have to write iPhone apps, I learned a lot by myself for my job). I will follow a few things though, and I'd like to thank you for those advice.
I will try to keep all my e-mails, it's invaluable. I will definitely avoid "private" meetings with him. He did it twice already and, every time, I feel like shit and he's not accountable for what he tells me to do. The rest of the developers already know what he's capable of, they don't like him either and avoid to work with him.
>>6 and 7
I'm in Europe, not in the USA, but I feel like there are a lot of guys like him in every country :)