alt Hacker NewsI've received questions like this from very good, very reasonable, very technically carefully managers. What happens is, Mike complains and tries to throw you under the bus, and the manager reaches out to hear your side of it. You tell them Mike is trying to ship code with a bunch of issues and no tests, and they go back to Mike and tell him that he's the problem and he needs to meet the technical standards enforced by the rest of the team.
Just because management asks doesn't mean they're siding with Mike.
I have been on both - actually on all three - sorry, make that four - sides.
1. I tried to ship crap and complained to my manager for being blocked. I was young, dumb, in a bad place and generally an asshole. 2. I was the manager being told that some unreasonable idiot from X blocked their progress. I was the unreasonable manager demanding my people to be unblocked. I was without context, had a very bad prior relationship with the other party and an asshole - because no prior bad faith acts were actually behind the block - it was shitty code. 3. I was the manager being asked to help with unblocking. I asked to understand the issue and to actually try to - based on the facts - find a way towards a solution. My report had to refactor. 4. I was the one being asked. Luckily I had prior experience and did this time manage to not become the asshole.
I am glad I had the environments to learn.
Edit: Format.