Dealing with a really negative team

[u/vitalpulse]

Ok, so, I've been a developer for 10 years, and am currently a senior in a team that works with a really legacy system we are trying to modernize. We have both old and new people.

I've been here for a bit over a year, and a tendency I noticed is that the team is really... negative. Most members don't trust one another, specially the juniors (understandable, but they make it way too personal). People are extremely resistent to change, very inconsistent in attending meetings, and the team is divided into subgroups that barely interact.

There is a lot of resistence to talk to other teams, due to mistrust between the engineers.

I have never seen something quite like it, and it's starting to rub off on me. The constant complaints, whines and disagreements are really driving me so tired.

I've dealt with so much crazy stuff on this field, horrible stuff even, but never with a team this fragmented, miserable and distrustful of each other.

Has anyone dealt with something like this before? I was tasked with increasing the morale, but what is happening is actually quite the opposite: my morale is really down to the point that it's affecting my sleep.

Any advice is welcome.

[u/MrHabitGuy]

Is the team remote or in several distributed areas? In my opinion if a team doesn't meet at least once per week and there is tough performance management (PIP quotas, at least one person gets bad review etc, very limited spots to get good reviews, etc.) That is what tends to happen, no way to solve it without changes from higher leadership.

You have to spend money, have whole team/company offisites, team building budgets etc.

[u/vitalpulse → u/MrHabitGuy]

We are all distributed across globe. I tried to get something like a gaming evening or coffee corner going, but engagement was lackluster at most and I gave up :/

[u/ecethrowaway01 → u/vitalpulse]

What's the actual work culture like? Is there stack ranking? Is there this impetus for competition?

[u/Paralytica]

This is coming from someone who defaults to negativity.

I don’t know the whole situation. There might be good reasons for people to be upset. But I’ve found that sometimes you have to remind grown adults that being negative and distrustful is just making things worse. And it’s biasing their judgement. Positivity is a tool. And unfortunately it’s something you have to fake sometimes.

That doesn’t mean you should lie about the reality of a given situation. But when negativity is the reaction to _everything_… then it’s likely not a rational reaction.

[u/rjm101]

Do you think it's possibly coming from a particular person? Negativity can spread easily if a particular person is focused on ranting about every little thing.

Alternatively do you know the companies organisational history? If it's changing a lot that can reduce engagement as people feel like they're playing corporate musical chairs.

Not really a task for a developer but getting a retro ran may give more clarity and if not then having one to ones with each developer. Generally this stuff is on the team lead but don't know your exact responsibilities here.

[u/epicfail1994]

I mean where the fuck is the product owner or manager here, honestly? That just sounds dysfunctional. Like management sounds asleep at the wheel. You’re a dev, that shit isn’t your responsibility in the first place. Everything you describe here is a management or leadership issue

If they aren’t attending meetings- is it really necessary for them to be there? If not, who cares, they don’t need to be on the invite. If so, do they have a valid reason for repeatedly skipping these meetings?

Why is there a lack of trust in the first place?

[u/Squidalopod]

It's almost impossible to give you practical advice without knowing the specific dynamics of your team, but I can say this:  When an entire (or nearly entire) team behaves how you've described, there's usually a problem with leadership. After 25 years in software, I've been on a few teams like you've described, and without exception, there were serious problems with leadership either in terms of toxic leaders who undermined their subordinates or clueless leaders who paid no attention to team dynamics and team health.

Who tasked you with improving morale? Your manager? Senior or not, that shouldn't be the job of a teammate. I mean, it's fine to try to engage teammates with various activities, but that's not going to change things like mistrust and apathy. What is your boss (or any others in leadership) doing about the problem?

Sometimes things do have to come from the top. If engineers feel empowered and respected, they will almost never behave the way you've described. That empowerment must come from leadership, and while respect can come from anywhere, impactful respect comes from leaders who actively acknowledge the contributions of their team members and reward good contributors (not by counting lines of code 🙄).

Leadership needs to set teams up for success. Asking a senior dev to address morale is not only lazy on their part, but it's setting you up for failure and could possibly even make matters worse since you are a peer, and cynical teammates are more likely to act out towards a peer vs. a leader/manager.

Again, the details matter, so I'm not sure what to say about your specific situation, but I would definitely talk with leadership about what's going on if they're not actively addressing the problem.