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Good article, bad HN title. Of COURSE any new employee, especially someone with less experience, will flounder if not given proper support. The prescriptive advice here is also key. Give small bite size tasks, check in often!
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IMO, an expensive keyboard/mouse/monitor isn't necessary for a junior to succeed. Plenty of coders learned on much worse.
I actually find it hard to switch from my "bad" hardware, I'm so used to one single small screen and average keyboard that it's how I do all my coding, despite having enough money to buy an expensive set up. I find it distracts me from my actual job, which is thinking.
This isn't just nitpicking. If the intuition here is true then it's important to understand the extent of the problem in more quantifiable detail. The general up skill table doesn't do that, and their simple survey shows a pretty even split, so nothing conclusive there.
As a suggestion, the article lists benchmark developments where new hires progress from up skill to simple changes to regular work. This seems like a good starting places to measure how long it takes new hires, remote vs. onsite, to progress through that process.
This is not a surprise to me. I think it also applies to some people who are senior and new on a project or team. Or people with a more synchronous working style. I think remote has been toxic to productivity in all sorts of companies and for all sorts of people. I think there's in general a "personality type" that does really well with remote in a certain kind of job and thrives with fairly asynchronous disconnected…
I have a hunch that as more work shifts remote, new ways of working will evolve.
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If it's really that much of a problem, most companies will let you bring your own. Everyone at my last place did that with no issue.
It's been the norm for decades that companies provide workers with the tools they need to do their job. And good companies provide good tools. If you're bringing in your own means of production, what is the company for?
I don't think that's true. Trades usually have their own equipment. At least for the small stuff on the order of keyboards and mice.
Before remote, the office was already increasingly hostile. Open floor plans, some groups having shared seating, and offices for roughly no one. Now, it’s worse. Everything is “reservable equipment” of garbage monitors, windows keyboards, and 400 dpi mice. I suspect it’s harder for a junior to succeed anywhere today vs 2012. The office is not built to foster development or innovation. It’s an exec’s idea of what a so…
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Your comment reminds me of all the people screeching about their good school district, as if it is somehow capable of covering for them if they choose to be a crap parent. In both cases the stuff people are fussing over is basically a rounding error compared to the big factors. Beyond some basic utility, e.g. being able to compile the code in under 5min, the hardware one uses is of negligible impact to their success.…
A glitchy mouse sends the message that a company is not willing to spend $35 on a mid-tier Logitech mouse for the benefit of a resource they are likely spending six figures on (not just in salary but other costs). If they are making this easily fixable mistake, imagine what else they're doing poorly.
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IMO, an expensive keyboard/mouse/monitor isn't necessary for a junior to succeed. Plenty of coders learned on much worse.
Feeling valued is necessary for a junior. They deserve the same three monitors everybody else gets.
I wouldn't make a strong statement like that. As a junior, you're just excited to be there, and gain experience. If the company policy is that you don't get the top-of-the-line hardware until you reach a certain professional milestone and this policy is applied equally then it's not the end of the world.
Before remote, the office was already increasingly hostile. Open floor plans, some groups having shared seating, and offices for roughly no one. Now, it’s worse. Everything is “reservable equipment” of garbage monitors, windows keyboards, and 400 dpi mice. I suspect it’s harder for a junior to succeed anywhere today vs 2012. The office is not built to foster development or innovation. It’s an exec’s idea of what a so…
IMO, an expensive keyboard/mouse/monitor isn't necessary for a junior to succeed. Plenty of coders learned on much worse.