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Ask HN: How to deal with people who rapidly introduce changes?

1 points by remoteworkerJ ↗ HN
So we've some remote contributors who rapidly introduce changes to product pages without any split testing and we do not have enough traffic to reach statistical significance but we are getting on that level slowly

If you try to stop these contributors, they get angry and make you out like a dictator who rejects their contributions on whims.

What can be done?

6 comments

[ 1.9 ms ] story [ 23.9 ms ] thread
cimmanom
Who is responsible for managing these contractors? Is that person on board with the changes? If yes, why are you going to the contractors with your concerns? If no, why haven’t the contractors been fired yet?
sidcool
It is a bit convenient point of view to say 'fire contractors'. It is important to consider any associate an integral part of team and understand the motivations behind actions. What if the contractor has the right point of view which the OP fails to understand? Contractor may be trying to move fast and deliver things because he/she is competent, while others aren't.

I don't disagree with you, but the dismissive attitude won't help solve problems. Contractors also have aspirations and motivations . :)

[dead] remoteworkerJ
You are right. They aren't acting in bad faith I believe. It's just that they've too much motivation and energy.
cimmanom
Then whoever is managing them should find a way to redirect that motivation and energy in a positive direction to accomplish what the company needs.

They need to put on guiderails around how you do and do not approach things at your company and what types of changes are useful vs problematic.

cimmanom
Someone should be managing them and telling them what is and is not OK to do.

If it’s OK to do, the manager can explain why to the OP.

If they’ve been told multiple times not to do someyting and won’t listen, firing is in order. If they haven’t been told they need to be told.

If what they’re doing is right (which may be subjective anyway or subject to conditions the contractors don’t know about), either the person managing them will or won’t agree.

If they do agree, the manager can explain that to the OP.

If they don’t agree, then the manager and OP are jointly wrong; but if the contractors continue to make changes when the manager asks them not to, that probably means they’re not a good fit and shouldn’t try to work together - that is, the contractor should be fired. A contractor or employee who does things repeatedly when you’ve explicitly told them not to (and ideally explained why not) is counterproductive and should not be kept around.

What it comes down to is that someone is responsible for making the decision about whether what the contractors are doing is OK.

That person needs to hear what the contractors are doing and why the OP thinks it’s not ok, so they can either make it clear to the contractors that and why it’s not ok or make it clear to the OP that and why it is ok.

If the OP is the one managing the contractors, then they need to make it clear to the contractors that and why they don’t think this behavior is ok. If it continues nonetheless, they need to make a decision whether they’re willing to continue to work with someone who repeatedly ignores directions.

Yes, the contractors are human beings and not robots. Taking initiative can be great; but also always risks that your initiative will run contrary to someone else’s idea of how something should be done. Nor is taking initiative synonymous with asking forgiveness instead of permission.

Having aspirations and initiative doesn’t mean it’s acceptable to act contrary to your managers’ instructions in the workplace, or that you can expect to continue to be employed if you do so repeatedly.

tomohawk
Instead of trying to directly control their actions, propose some processes that everyone should be following.

These processes should be based on the values your team is trying to achieve. So, you need agreement on that first.

There is an old saying. If you want to build a product, you must first build the team. Don't skip that team building step. As part of that step, you will come to agreement on the team values. Once you have team values, you will be able to make progress on anything that is out of bounds.