Follow-The-Sun, Code Review, Pecking Order, and Freedom

The next Monday after Agile training, I joined L and three others                                            
including an Indian, a Thai, and a native (born in US), at lunch. The
subject came up naturally and it turned out that I missed or simply                                      
forgot one important lesson. To the question "How do we work with                                            
colleagues across time zones under Agile", Bob replied with a vehement                                       
"Don't!" and spent the next half hour bashing the Follow-The-Sun idea.                                       
Sitting in the front, our CTO, who championed out-sourcing to India,                                         
must have been kicking himself for inviting the fellow.                                                      
        
The Indian guy then told us about how Chennai managers pushed their                                          
teams hard and engineers there preferred White to Indian bosses. I                                           
understood from firsthand experience. Tough bugs were pushed their way                                       
and the poor guys often had to attend meetings passing 12:00am their                                         
time, especially before a release.                                                                           
        
My co-workers at lunch saw eye-to-eye with me on our code-review                                             
practice. Once a piece of code is ready, at least two engineers,                                             
theoretically, have to eyeball it. Any can give a "+1" vote to accept
the work but only a few can give a "+2" necessary to merge in the code                                       
base. The idea was to give more experienced programmers the final say.                                       
        
This double-checking sounded thoughtful and rigorous but it turned out                                       
that +2-voting served more to divide people than to ensure quality.                                          
It created a group more equal than others and some +2 folks
tried to assert their positions in the pecking order by wielding their                                       
votes. As one submitted her work, she had to approach a +2 guy as if 
asking for a favor. The latter had the option to treat her high-handedly                                     
if that pleased him.                                                                                         
        
I have since learnt not to ask for reviews. After submitting code, I                                         
would act as if nothing happened. When the manager or team lead got                                          
around to ask about the task assigned to me because some dog higher on
the corporate ladder was kicking their butts, I would tell them the code                                     
was ready. It would be their job to get the votes and that would have                                        
nothing to do with me anymore.                                                                               
        
In reality, nobody tried hard to vet others' code. Under this power                                          
structure, reviewing was a mere ritual with no liability attached. +2s                                       
were readily granted to members of the mini-tribe and selectively                                            
withheld from those rejecting the order. No one would've guessed but the                                     
practice had created distinct bands of engineers, discouraged innovation                                     
and destroyed morale.                                                                                        
        
The root of the problem seems to be our tribal origins. The Indians grow                                     
up in the caste system and know all about power-struggle and fear for
survival but next to nothing about treating people as equals. And some                                       
have brought the rules of that land to the US. Threat is a major weapon                                      
in some managers' arsenal which is very effective on people of similar                                       
backgrounds.
        
Chinese immigrants face similar challenges. Many come for the famed                                      
American (material) Dream but refuse to learn how to navigate the land                                       
of the free. As practiced in the old tribal society, we can never bring                                      
ourselves to treat each other as humans with similar needs and equal                                         
rights. Our deep-rooted strict hierachical views limit the appeal of our                                     
stories no matter how much we achieve or sacrifice.