Sock Puppets

“He’s the most amazing developer I’ve ever seen. He’s fast, he writes code that’s maintainable whether it’s by him or by anyone else. It’s secure right out of the gate, and he gets everything spot on in the first shot.”

There was a pause on the other end of the line.

“In fact, I’d absolutely recommend Lucas for any developer role on the planet—he’s worth whatever he’s asking now in terms of salary—there’s only one gotcha.”

Another, shorter pause on the line.

“He communicates well over email, but he won’t use a phone or any collaboration app. He’s also not ideal to have in meetings, especially with new customers who aren’t used to his communication style. And while it takes a while for some people to get used to him and his communication style—and some never do—I swear he’s worth it. I’d hire him again in a heartbeat, but my management burned that bridge when they didn’t respond well to the raise he demanded. My loss, I guess.”

What on earth did the reference Lucas had given me mean by “his communication style”.

I asked, “Can you explain what you mean by his ‘communication style’?”

The reference quickly responded, “Nope. Legal and HR here told me that I can’t explain it in any more beyond that if I was asked to reference for him. Just that I’d absolutely hire him again if I could. Interview him over email, or in person – but be prepared for something you’ve never seen before. He’ll blow away your expectations.”

I replied with a simple “Thanks so much for your time and the detailed answer – I appreciate it!”

The reference replied, “No worries!” and we ended the call.

Over lunch, I pondered my next move as to whether I should hire Lucas or not. He was beyond a perfect fit, a friend of a recruiter I knew had passed off his resume to the recruiter, our email conversation had gone well, and now I had a nearly perfect reference for him.

How could I not hire him?

Sending his resume up the management chain, they approved him and the salary range I’d asked for, and then HR saw no problems with it. As the day wrapped up, I decided to email Lucas and offer him the job, at the high end of the salary range he had requested, but not quite the top.

I was at dinner with my wife a few hours later when his response came. He slyly asked for the same amount above the salary range he’d asked for, that I’d gone below. I thought to myself about that reference’s words for a moment, and considered the salary note he had offered.

Lucas’s emails were so clear and concise, and he was good at gaming the HR process. I was still befuddled about the whole “communication style” comment. While I thought it was peculiar from the start that Lucas hadn’t wanted to interview in person or over a collaboration app, this seemed like a no-brainer.

We finished our dinner, and as my wife drove us home, I replied to the email from Lucas with an offer to start on the first Monday in July—two weeks from now—at the higher salary he had requested.

Within a minute, his short reply came back, “Excellent, thanks. Looking forward to it. See you in July.”

At least I’d get to meet him in person in a few weeks.

The next day at the office, I ordered all the hardware and software—the exact hardware and software—that Lucas had requested. I wasn’t going to screw this up.

At our early morning stand up meeting, I told the rest of the developers on the team about his start date. Sam, who had a friend that had a distant connection to a former colleague who had worked with Lucas got a subtle smirk on his face.

Looking at Sam like a disapproving parent, I inquired, “Sam, anything you’d like to comment?”

Sam just tersely replied, “Nope. I’m looking forward to it, everyone says he’s an amazing developer. I’m excited to see him work here… particularly given your management style.”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” I blurted out, as I thought the devs and I had a pretty decent rapport.

“It’s all good, Ian. He’s a good hire.”

More confused than before, I wrapped up the standup meeting and we got started on our day.

Two weeks passed faster than I expected, but thankfully we had everything set for the day Lucas would start. On Friday evening the week before, I set everything out on his new desk, with the very specific chair he had requested. I was hopeful and cautiously excited to have him start.

Heading out of the office, the door closed with a precise “click” behind me as it locked shut. I was spending the weekend out of town with my family, so it was good to have everything wrapped up and locked away so it wouldn’t be whirling around in my mind all weekend.

Monday morning arrived, and we started with our stand up as usual. I went back to my desk after to keep muyself busy for the hour until Lucas was going to come in for his welcome meeting, to get introductions to everyone and meet the team before we headed to lunch. I responded to the emails that had collected in my inbox over the weekend, and waited.

Just a few minutes before 10, a 30-something white male walked in the door. He was dressed neatly. Honestly much better than most of the developers I already had. The only thing about him that was noteworthy was his backpack. Made of bright red canvas, it was far too small for him, like a backpack you might give a third-grader to carry their papers to and from school in. I shrugged it off.

He headed in to my office, quickly offering his right hand to me for a handshake.

His left hand lifted from his side. I could now see the small white puppet on his hand as he held it up as if it was speaking for him. The puppet was very simple, with a white cloth “shirt” around the speaker’s hand, and a smiling doll’s head from a craft store sewn into it. It looked like something my daughter might have sewn together when she was six.

“Ian, it’s a pleasure. I’m Simon. We’re all excited to meet you.” The voice had a distinctly British accent to it; specifically, it seemed like a proper London accent to me.

“Who the fuck is Simon?” I thought to myself.

Blurting out thoughts faster than I could process them, I responded to the bizarre introduction with, “Nice to meet you. You’re Lucas?”

The gentleman in front of me seemed slightly flustered for a moment. Following a brief pause, he replied with that same British accent, “No, I’m Simon. I’m one of Lucas’s assistants who help him with communication. It’s really great to meet you. Would you like to introduce Lucas to the rest of the team? He’s quite excited to get things set up and start working on your application.”

I felt like I was being punked. I thought to myself, “Is this Lucas, wearing a simple homemade puppet on his hand?”

Not wanting to screw anything up with Lucas, I decided to roll with whatever was happening. I simply replied, “Nice to meet you, Simon. Let’s go by the desk I’ve set up for Lucas, and I’ll introduce you to everyone on the team. Give me a minute to go gather the team.”

Without a moment’s pause, the puppet replied, “Excellent. Lucas and I are excited to meet everyone.”

Walking out to the cubicles where the dev team sat, I said, “Everyone, Lucas is here. I may understand what was meant by ‘communication style’ during the conversation with his reference. Let’s all be welcoming of someone who may be a little different than us.”

That same sly grin returned to Sam’s face. I was nervous about how the developers would react to Lucas.

I walked back to my office and gathered Lucas and his things, and showed him the way back to where the developers sat.

“Everyone, this is Lucas, and his associate, Simon.”

With his British accent stronger than ever, the puppet interjected almost before I could finish, saying “Assistant. I am an assistant to Lucas. Lucas and I are delighted to meet you all.”

Lucas said nothing. Sam smirked. The other developers seemed somewhat stupefied.

Jonathan, usually one of the more quiet developers, responded back to Lucas and Simon with a simple, “It’s nice to meet you both.”

Chase, one of the developers who tended to have a shorter fuse, mumbled under his breath, “Wait. So he doesn’t talk?”

A quick glare in Chase’s direction showed that his attitude wasn’t going to be welcome if we were going to succeed with Lucas as a part of the team.

Lucas seemed slightly nervous. He swung his tiny backpack around so he could unzip it. Digging around in the backpack, he pulled out another nearly identical puppet and tucked “Simon” away. The only difference was that this new puppet had gray fabric – a gray “shirt”, but the same head.

After an uncomfortable pause following the arrival of his new puppet, it responded with a much quieter voice, in a Minnesota/upper Midwest accent, “So sorry if Simon, Lucas, or I made you uncomfortable. We’re just trying to get to know you all.”

Not sure how to proceed now, I asked the new puppet, “Thank you – would you mind introducing yourself to the team as well?”

The puppet, stunned, said in an apologetic tone, “I’m so sorry, I can’t believe I forgot. I’m Jack, another assistant who helps Lucas.”

Trying to break the tension, I said, “No problem Jack, it’s great to meet you all. Does Lucas have any other assistants?”

To which Jack replied, “There are several more, but they will introduce themselves to you when their assistance is required.”

Chase had shifted attitude now. Instead of disbelief, he seemed stunned at the arrival of the latest puppet.

I pointed out the desk, chair, and workstation that I had set up for Lucas, and said, “Jack, would you mind coming with me to help get everything set up for Lucas?”

Lucas paused and performed the same fumbling replacement of the puppets, putting the white Simon puppet back on.

Simon confidently responded, “Let’s go get things set up for Lucas.”

We walked away from the dev team and towards the office I had set up for Lucas, as he had requested and the reference had strongly recommended that we proceed with.

It didn’t help things with the developers that Lucas would be the only dev with his own office, but I had broached that topic with them already earlier the month before.

The communication style challenges were just going to be something we’d all either get used to, or we’d lose the potential talent Lucas brought to the team.

As Lucas sat down at his desk, he swiftly put Simon away and pulled out a new puppet, with a blue shirt on.

In a lovely Scottish accent, the new puppet quickly blurted out, “Nice to meet you, Ian. I’m Bill. Lucas and I have had a good look at the code you sent us, found a few issues, and have a couple ideas about how to significantly improve the performance of it. Let me know when you’d like to discuss it.”

A smile spread across my face. Sure, this was going to be an unusual arrangement, but right out of the gate it seemed like Lucas and “his team” brought some much needed skills to the team, and this would significantly improve what we could build, and how fast we could do it.

“Absolutely, Bill. Looking forward to it – I’ll get something on our calendars.”