Working with Dominik
So, I had this task, right? Needed to get some data pipeline sorted out. Everyone kept saying, “Go see Dominik, he knows this stuff.” Fine, I thought, let’s track down Dominik.
Found him eventually, nice enough guy on the surface. I explained what I needed. He nodded, said he got it. We agreed on the steps:
- He’d pull the raw data first.
- Then, he’d run his script to clean it up.
- Finally, he’d drop it in the shared folder for me to pick up.
Seemed simple. He said, “Give me two days.” Okay, two days it is.
Two days pass. Nothing. I ping him. “Oh yeah, nearly done, just hit a snag.” Another day goes by. Still nothing. I walk over to his desk. He’s not there. Ask around, someone says he’s working from home. Try calling, goes to voicemail. Sent an email, no reply for hours.
Finally, end of the third day, he sends a message. “Got pulled into something urgent. Can’t finish this week.” Just like that. Left me hanging, project deadline breathing down my neck.
Why does this stick in my mind? Because it reminded me so much of my time at that startup, the one before this gig. Place was chaotic.
We had this one manager, let’s call him Dave. Dave was the king of over-promising and under-delivering. He’d tell clients we could build the moon on a stick in two weeks. Then he’d dump the work on us, the developers, with zero actual plan or resources.
I remember one project, absolutely critical for funding. Dave swore to the investors it was 90% complete. Truth was, we hadn’t even finished the basic framework. We were pulling all-nighters, fueled by stale coffee and panic. Dave? He’d pop in around lunchtime, ask “How’s my moon stick coming along?”, grab a free snack, and disappear again.
We missed the deadline, obviously. Lost the funding round. Layoffs followed. I was one of the lucky ones, kept my job, but the place never recovered. Morale was shot. Good people left.
That whole experience taught me a lot about accountability, or the lack of it. When Dominik just dropped the ball like that, with that casual “got pulled into something urgent,” it just brought all those memories flooding back. It’s that same pattern, you know? Makes you wonder how some places even function.
Anyway, I ended up figuring out a workaround for that data pipeline myself. Took me an extra day and a half, but got it done. Didn’t bother updating Dominik.
