Soft Skills Engineering · Jamison Dance and Dave Smith

Episode 464: Rehiring an overpaid boomerang and AI has taken over my teammate's brain

·50 min·4 clips

Dave argues you should not rehire a former low performer, even if they want to return.

This episode of Soft Skills Engineering features hosts Dave Smith and Jameson Dance answering listener questions about workplace dynamics and software development practices. The hosts share a humorous anecdote about a developer who replaced the number one with a constant named "ONE" to comply with a no-hardcoded-numbers policy. A listener writes in about a former team member who was a low performer at a high salary and has now applied to return after leaving the company. The hosts analyze whether to rehire this "boomerang" employee, considering past performance and team morale. Another listener describes a teammate who excessively relies on AI code generation, producing working but poorly structured code that harms maintainability. Dave and Jameson discuss the balance between AI-assisted development and maintaining code quality and shared team understanding. They explore the economic externality where one developer's AI-generated code increases the review burden for teammates. The conversation references the concept of "programming as theory building," emphasizing the importance of a shared mental model over just functional code. Insights include the observation that a single, well-timed phrase like "stop being a jerk" can sometimes catalyze profound personal change. The hosts caution that being the highest-paid person on a team is a risky position if your performance doesn't justify the salary. They note that AI tools currently struggle with codebase context, leading to duplication and entropy that neither humans nor AI may easily fix later. The tone is conversational, humorous, and advisory, blending personal stories with practical management and technical guidance. This episode would appeal to software engineers and engineering managers navigating interpersonal conflicts and modern tool adoption. Listeners seeking highly technical, code-deep dives or those averse to lighthearted banter might find it less engaging.

As heard by us

A practical hiring conversation that stays grounded through the awkward parts.

The episode opens with a goofy magic-number story, then settles into a practical question: how much should human awkwardness shape a hiring call?

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Why you'd press play

A software-career advice episode about hiring someone you know and refusing to let awkwardness make the call.

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