Taking The Credit
It comes so easy to Management and HR, have you not noticed?
There’s nothing quite as disappointing in the grand game of software engineering as someone stealing the limelight then going on to take total credit for something that really had nothing to do with them.
I mean, I believe it’s a whole chapter of the “Project Manager’s Guide to being a Project Manager¹” that they should always be front and centre when the praise is being given out, the fruits of developer labour are ready to harvest, or the customer pays up for a job well done — but immediately melt into the background like a cloaking Bird of Prey skimming the neutral zone or Homer Simpson in the privet when things go fully tits-up.
The same goes for higher level management, but it’s far easier for them to lift the winning cup to the cheering crowd², as it were, as they’re generally so far away from the actual coalface of work that they can’t even see the pit head let alone the coalface itself. (And, of course, hunting down the perpetrators of credit stealing means going up against the company itself which tends to be a career limiting move at least.)
Human Resources, which were the original reason behind this particular post, are also well versed in soaking up adulation when it comes around as the result of someone else’s actions too.
