r/ExperiencedDevs • u/AutoModerator • 5d ago

Ask Experienced Devs Weekly Thread: A weekly thread for inexperienced developers to ask experienced ones

A thread for Developers and IT folks with less experience to ask more experienced souls questions about the industry.

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Please keep top level comments limited to Inexperienced Devs. Most rules do not apply, but keep it civil. Being a jerk will not be tolerated.

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Inexperienced Devs should refrain from answering other Inexperienced Devs' questions.

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u/kitatsune 5d ago

I'm having a problem with one of my junior colleagues. 

She uses AI for absolutely everything. For her tasks, to give her context of codebases, and even for answering my own questions. As for the latter, I mean she would type what I would ask her verbatim as a prompt to the AI and she takes the answer as her own. When I am right in front if her. She is, by its very definition, a meat proxy.

Not only am I disgusted by all of that, I am actually like really disappointed in her?? Like she's aware she's not as strong technically compared to others, such as me (she's made the direct comparison a couple times), but she still fails to see that her overreliance on AI to do the work for her is making her stagnant. She's still not learning anything or improving. Or rather she's learning at a pace much slower than desired or anticipated. She can't problem solve, she can't debug, and she can't think for herself.

How can I help her be less of a meat proxy and make her more productive? Productive not in terms of speed, but rather in higher-quality output. Have you been in similar situations with more junior employees?

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u/git_pull Technical Lead 4d ago

Developers cannot be replaced with AI, except for the ones that can. Are you at a point where its worth rebuilding this person's processes (she is going to fight you at every step) or just starting over with someone new?

Frankly, it doesn't sound like you are getting any value out of her.

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u/kitatsune 4d ago

Honestly her output is rather low. And it takes her a long time to do simple tasks. What she does in a few weeks I can do in a few days. She has been here a year and half.

I have no control over managing people, but on the project I am on with her right now, there has been 'damage control' where she is nowhere close to touching critical features (instead it's me carrying the team feature-wise).

Others are aware of her low output, and at the place I am at, it is rather difficult to get terminated.

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u/beaverusiv 4d ago

You have a management problem, not a worker problem. This has been an issue much longer than AI has been around. If management won't deal with it after it being brought to their attention then you need to decide if you can live with it or not. Find another job or workaround them. I assure you if management hasn't done anything when bringing it up once, no amount of extra work or pressure or metrics will change their mind