No, not the Mac kind of apples. I’m talking about the problem team member - someone who is working on a team, but really ends up working against the team. I found this quote from McConnell’s Rapid Development to really ring true:
…the most consistent and intense complaint from team members was that their team leaders were unwilling to confront and resolve problems associated with poor performance by individual team members.
Everyone knows that there will be conflicts whenever a group of people attempt to work towards some goal. But once in a while, the entire team suffers because of just one person constantly going against the grain. And it’s frustrating when your leadership seems to refuse to do anything about it, even after you’ve made the situation crystal clear to them. As Jeff says on his blog: “…if your team leader or manager isn’t dealing with the bad apples on your project, she isn’t doing her job.”
Sometimes the problem isn’t that a team member is necessarily doing negative things, but rather not doing anything at all. Why keep someone around when he’s completely unproductive? Unless, of course, you only care about spending your client’s money.
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