While Jasmine is enjoying her office sauna, our friend, “Hank” is ready to burn bridges. So the heat is high across the board, but while one situation has vacation vibes, the other is centered around an overqualified engineer.
This week, we’re getting into the chaos of tech teams, where legacy systems, ego battles, and one very opinionated senior dev threaten to tear it all down. From the drama of refactoring a hot mess of code to meetings derailed by a team member who just can’t help but feel strongly opinionated, the struggle is real.

Want to ask us something or share your own work drama? Hit us up at jellyfish.co/offthevpn. And don’t worry—we’ll keep it Off the VPN.

Highlights:

• Egos on Fire: When one dev’s talent causes a maelstrom of team-wide burnout.
• Spaghetti Code & Sabotaged Meetings: How a single codebase becomes the stuff of nightmares.
• The Price of Talent: What happens when you let one person dominate the team’s rhythm?

Jump into the conversation:

(00:00) Intro

(03:52) The Tale of Maria

(05:54) Legacy systems built by one person

(06:30) No documentation or code reviews

(09:01) Refactoring an old convoluted system

(11:20) Balancing tech debt and new features

(17:36) Maria managing more than just Hank’s KPIs

(21:36) Psychological safety with Hank

(24:47) Hank’s behavior impacts team morale

(28:54) Leadership challenges for Maria

(32:22) Emotional toll of managing Han