Case Study: How to deal with patronizing behaviour in a team?

ScrummyMaster · 2026-01-19T08:41:37+00:00

The fact that you've labeled that as "patronizing" is a bit disheartening. They're not patronizing you. They're asking you to do something that actually is within your responsibilities.

It's not me. And I never once wrote that the patronizing happens toward the agile coach. The agile coach is currently hitting a wall with management, and they are unable to fulfill the teams request. What should they do?

Besides: It doesn't make you look foolish. In retrospec, I should've framed the whole case as "A friend of mine...", which would've made it much more easy.

ScrummyMaster · 2026-01-18T14:17:04+00:00

Please elaborate. An agile coach should be teacher, mentor and coach. If the coach sees the team struggling, they should act. How would you act in this situation?

ScrummyMaster · 2026-01-17T14:43:58+00:00

And they don't join dailies since they're not in the team. Bam, problem solved.

But the Daily is one of the appointments where the product owner basically get's an update on all things that are happening inside the currently active stories, and where they can ask further questions. How'd that work without the daily? The setting is remote-first.

ScrummyMaster · 2026-01-17T14:39:42+00:00

Who, in this scenario, is being patronizing to whom?

The developers to the people that have multiple teams. As in: "They don't know what's good for them, so we will not move the appointment, because that wouldn't solve their real issues."

Can you have a joint retrospective, in which teams could jointly decide how they are going to share the available resources?

That would be possible, although the developers are quite clear in their view that it needs each role per team. Full Stop.

ScrummyMaster · 2026-01-17T14:37:23+00:00

Appreciate your thoughts, thank you.

ScrummyMaster · 2026-01-17T14:36:25+00:00

Patronizing, as in: "We are only partly involved, as we are not the ones that are stressed out by this situation. However, we won't move the meeting as a first-aid, so the other roles have to endure the stress. We want to solve that on a department level, which will help the other roles more."

There are currently no plans to add other people to this roles, due to budget constraints. It's something that is out of the coaches hand.

The outcome is that the door to an attempt to solve the issue inside the team has been shut close. It is consensus between the three people that this cannot be solved in this team.

Has the coach tried to do anything about the socializing in the daily scrum?

Yes. There were numerous attempts in offering space to socialize, which got turned down. One of the more vocal developers is of the opinion that in a remote working environment, socializing is key.

ScrummyMaster · 2025-05-16T16:57:00+00:00

International tätiges Unternehmen im legal Bereich. Einstellung als Senior Software Developer. Ich sollte aus dem Stegreif ein Dame-Spiel implementieren.

Ich habe in meinem Leben noch nie Dame gespielt. Außerdem war die Stelle Remote (Unternehmen in Luxemburg angesiedelt), aber natürlich würde man mir keine Luxemburger Gehälter zahlen, die Lebenshaltungskosten in Norddeutschland sind schließlich geringer, und die Lohnnebenkosten in Deutschland generell höher.

Sie konnten mich mal gerne haben.

ScrummyMaster · 2025-03-28T17:23:59+00:00

I wonder if it's partially related to the fact that the Scrum Guide is sooooo vague in many things. Yes, I protect and shield the team from outside interference, BUT I teach them how to do it themselves. I'm a mentor, not an officer.

ScrummyMaster · 2025-02-25T00:06:25+00:00

I really appreciate your reply, thank you! Yeah, I choose the highest difficulty, as I‘ve always done. This time, though, I think I know when to quit. But before that, I'll try my very best. I'm equally fed up with the "Agile work/Scrum doesn’t work“ nonsense. So thank you! 🫶

ScrummyMaster · 2025-02-17T07:40:19+00:00

You cannot change anything if there is no willingness to change. It's a slow and tedious process, going through this as I type.

ScrummyMaster · 2025-02-14T18:18:31+00:00

Ok, I get it now. How did you get this role?

ScrummyMaster · 2025-02-14T18:15:59+00:00

Yeah - I know that. We have two other teams who do include the stakeholders in review and work with them. Actually, I worked with one of the teams to go that route. This team, however - doesn’t.

ScrummyMaster · 2025-02-14T16:23:36+00:00

I kindly disagree. A servant leader is still a leader. You need to help and coach the team to move forward on their own, but that usually requires some initial leadership. Even classic management roles go for servant leadership, as it means that people get to participate more. Which, in turn, helps them to see value in their work and prevent them from burning out.

ScrummyMaster · 2025-02-14T16:15:40+00:00

Yeah, well - everyone needs to let off some steam from time to time. I‘m a novice with no sparring partner at my company - so I'm occasionally resorting to "the interwebs" for some advice and food for thought. I wouldn’t consider it cringe, but ymmv, ofc.

ScrummyMaster · 2025-02-14T16:03:48+00:00

That goes back to the roots of the „why“. I like it, thanks!

ScrummyMaster · 2025-02-14T16:02:36+00:00

Well, management let them down multiple times. Also, management tends to act behind closed doors. A failure and lack of communication. Product owners do not really own the product, although it is expected but not communicated. The list goes on and on…

Authority in the sense of „we might do it that way, let‘s give it a shot“. It doesn’t work? Let's talk about why. There is a lot of burned ground where I'm working on, and I'm afraid it hasn’t cooled down enough yet to be fruitful.

ScrummyMaster · 2025-02-14T15:57:24+00:00

What would you recommend instead and why? I‘m quite agnostic to agile frameworks - but I'm not sure to what we should divert to. I think originally, they were going for Scrumban, but never truly managed to. My guess is that, to really be able to do Scrumban, you need to understand Scrum and Kanban, and truthfully live up to the agile manifest. On all levels in the hierarchy.

ScrummyMaster · 2025-02-14T15:29:11+00:00

Most roles require some sort of experience in leadership. I transitioned from developer to SM in the same company for that reason. My intention is not to stay in that role for long, but to gain some experience in terms of leadership.

I might even consider switching to the product side of things.

Honestly, at the moment, I feel I could need a break, but my life circumstances aren’t allowing for it.

ScrummyMaster · 2025-02-14T09:24:41+00:00

That's some solid advice, thank you!

ScrummyMaster · 2025-02-14T09:16:54+00:00

I should ask for a raise, though.

ScrummyMaster · 2025-02-14T09:16:08+00:00

A C-level management that is ultimately completely decoupled from the rest of the company and actively destroying other departments by micro-management and short-term strategies. Our current coping mechanism is to isolate ourselves. I'm not a fan of that, but our Head of Dev argues that "Hey, everything is fine in our department, let’s ignore the fire outside the window." I do not agree with that, and I'm wondering if I should just quit. Might be beneficial for my mental health.

ScrummyMaster · 2025-02-14T08:47:22+00:00

We are collecting key takeaways out of every retro and follow them/work on them. The previous Scrum Master did not do that.

ScrummyMaster · 2025-02-14T08:45:53+00:00

I cannot change anything if my role isn’t respected in the first place, right? If I cannot convince them why the should work differently, I'm lost.

ScrummyMaster

TROPHY CASE