My fellow tester at work startled me today! In my free time I was going through some testing blogs
and suddenly my fellow tester Tom (name changed) shot a statement and for a second I was like what
the hell!? I tried to explain why he was wrong.
The discussion between us went something like this,
Tom: we should log a hell of lot of bugs against the programmers we don't have a healthy relationship.
Me: what the hell? (Not out loud).
Me: why exactly should we do that?
Tom: since they are not very nice to us we should make their life miserable by logging more bugs against their projects?
Me: how does that help the software?
Me: do we get to software or a person?
Tom: we most definitely get paid to test software!
Me: then why log more bugs against some programmers' work and less against others' ?
Tom: that way they will learn not to mess with us!
Me: are you telling me that you are willing to screw up your career to take out your personal grudge on someone?
Tom: what does this have to do with screwing up my career?
Me: your job is to test software. Help make software better by giving valuable information and by doing this you are doing exactly the opposite!
Me: when you log less bugs for projects programmed by your favorite people your on purpose letting bugs slip away!
Me: on the other hand when you take out your personal grudge on your least favorite people it will be noticed by the management.
Me: you must better understand not to let your personal relationships with people influence your work otherwise you loose credibility not only in their eyes but also of the management, because you will end up shitty job.
Me: your job is to test software and not test people. That's what the company pays you for. As far as your personal issues with a teammate are concerned, you better talk it out and resolve them or try to avoid creating a scene since you will be working on the same team with those people.
Me: by logging bugs against a person you may screw up somebody's weekend, but you better think beyond that. If you don't you will be screwing up your career sooner or later because this practice of your will become a habit. One weekend for your whole career is a very big price to pay!!! Better start using your head right and start testing software.
Let's hope he has understood what I tried to explain. He did seem to nod and agree but whether he really learned from it or not, time will tell...
Disclaimer: This incident may/not be fictional. Any resemblance to a person living or dead is up to your imagination! ;) the author does not claim any responsibility of this incident. :p
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