I guess this is more office politics (and rant!) than careers... but anyway so how do you tell/say/inform someone that their particular work may have some problems?
Here's my situation that just happens. I'm a new junior guy on this job. So recently I got an issue (software/hardware) to work with, which I almost pinpointed what may be causing it. Then someone (we mostly communicate though company emails) remembered there might be a similar issue that was apparently fixed recently in another component team, and cc the email thread to that person who coded the fix. The "fix" was only in a different code branch (say branch-B), and I'm working on a different but very related branch (say branch-A). The "systems" we are using are the same, so the "fix"'s person replied to the thread telling me I can try branch-B codes. So I did. While that "fix" made my issue disappeared, I noticed on the "background" the hardware doesn't seem like working the way it's designed to (sorry have to be vague here), and that appears to be the reason the issue goes away. So I replied to the email thread (~10 ppl) with what I did and what I saw, mostly copy/paste output, with NO PERSONAL feeling/comments (NOTHING like "I think the fix is wrong", etc).
Then an hour or so later, a guy walked into my cube, without introducing himself whatsoever, asked me "what team you working for?", "I'm confused, why are you working on this issue?", blah blah.
Well I kinda guessed who he was... but had to quickly glance over his company ID card to make sure... yep that's the guy who did the "fix" in branch-B. Basically he kept asking "why are you working on this?", plus telling me "that branch you're on is released already", "my (referring to himself) issue was already fixed, and it's closed", "why are you mixing 2 issues together, I'm confused", "if you want to dig keeper into your issue, fine, close the issue coz it's solved, and file a new issue coz it's different and I have no problem with that".... blah blah. Considering the email thread is titled with my issue ID (vs his claims of no knowing what I'm doing), and he walked into my cube (instead of replying to the thread saying I did something wrong)... I think we can guess what's going on here.
So really what else I could have done? I was already being very polite in the email thread... thanking him for telling me there may be a fix in branch-B, and then being non-personal with the technical details, basically "ok I tried branch-B code, it passed the tests for my issue, but I noticed the hardware may not be doing [....], and here's the output: [.....], Thanks". That's all I typed.
kinda deflating, as this' the first real task I got to do and it may be decently important. And I got to face an angry mid-senior for "non-technical" reason... sighhh :( :|. Good thing my own team seems to be all nice and easy-going...
Here's my situation that just happens. I'm a new junior guy on this job. So recently I got an issue (software/hardware) to work with, which I almost pinpointed what may be causing it. Then someone (we mostly communicate though company emails) remembered there might be a similar issue that was apparently fixed recently in another component team, and cc the email thread to that person who coded the fix. The "fix" was only in a different code branch (say branch-B), and I'm working on a different but very related branch (say branch-A). The "systems" we are using are the same, so the "fix"'s person replied to the thread telling me I can try branch-B codes. So I did. While that "fix" made my issue disappeared, I noticed on the "background" the hardware doesn't seem like working the way it's designed to (sorry have to be vague here), and that appears to be the reason the issue goes away. So I replied to the email thread (~10 ppl) with what I did and what I saw, mostly copy/paste output, with NO PERSONAL feeling/comments (NOTHING like "I think the fix is wrong", etc).
Then an hour or so later, a guy walked into my cube, without introducing himself whatsoever, asked me "what team you working for?", "I'm confused, why are you working on this issue?", blah blah.
Well I kinda guessed who he was... but had to quickly glance over his company ID card to make sure... yep that's the guy who did the "fix" in branch-B. Basically he kept asking "why are you working on this?", plus telling me "that branch you're on is released already", "my (referring to himself) issue was already fixed, and it's closed", "why are you mixing 2 issues together, I'm confused", "if you want to dig keeper into your issue, fine, close the issue coz it's solved, and file a new issue coz it's different and I have no problem with that".... blah blah. Considering the email thread is titled with my issue ID (vs his claims of no knowing what I'm doing), and he walked into my cube (instead of replying to the thread saying I did something wrong)... I think we can guess what's going on here.
So really what else I could have done? I was already being very polite in the email thread... thanking him for telling me there may be a fix in branch-B, and then being non-personal with the technical details, basically "ok I tried branch-B code, it passed the tests for my issue, but I noticed the hardware may not be doing [....], and here's the output: [.....], Thanks". That's all I typed.
kinda deflating, as this' the first real task I got to do and it may be decently important. And I got to face an angry mid-senior for "non-technical" reason... sighhh :( :|. Good thing my own team seems to be all nice and easy-going...