So I asked this question yesterday:
How to handle senior developer shirking his work and giving it to interns instead of doing it?
And while some people tried to actually answer my question, most of the people are spending their time trying to tell me that I can't be right about what I'm saying because I'm an intern.
Should I have phrased it another way or is it just that you're not supposed to ever question what a colleague does if you're an intern on The Workplace? Where did I go wrong?
I think your problem was more that you assumed the senior was acting in bad faith by doing what he was doing in your question. Questions are best recieved when they come from a neutral tone, state facts rather than opinions and thoughts, and have a clear goal. Yours lacks all of these. And your question:
How can we make him code without burning bridges?
Is very very slanted. It reads like a rant. If you want to be taken seriously just spell out what is going on, then say what your concerns are, and what you want to achieve by asking the question. If that goal you want to achieve is reasonable you should get good answers. If you insert your opinions into the facts of what is going on it looks bad.
The problem is that instead of coding, as our manager told him to before going in holidays, he keeps just telling us to code things saying "he's too busy to code", most of which are easy things to code that would be perfect for him to familiarize with the code.
There is nothing in this paragraph that is factual except that he says "he's too busy to code" all of the rest is full of your opinion of what the manager told him and what you think he should be doing. None of this makes for a good question. Your whole question is full of places where you inserted your opinion into the issue instead of just telling us what is going on and what you would like to see changed. That makes it feel very ranty.
I think it is odd that any manager is going to give this much information about a senior team member not doing his job in front of other employees. It's normally done in private behind closed doors. The fact that you are an intern makes it even more suspect.
Up to a point, I could see that you were told to do your part and the boss may have even mentioned that the senior member was told to do his part, but mentioning this has been a problem before should have never been mentioned.
We're all human and sometimes we hear different things, assume others and fill in the blanks when possible. As an intern or when you are new to a company or position, operate as if you don't know everything that is going on until you do. Make sure you know what is required of you, but be careful how you question the actions of others. They're called rookie mistakes for a reason.
