Why is someone's name humorous? The name Mr. Tu is humorous to the author of the post. I find this mildly insulting.
Because the author’s name is “Jason Tu”. That’s what they said “no relation”.
Thanks for clarifying. Didn't notice that.
How to feel engaged at work: a software engineer's guide
111–120 of 183 posts
Re: How to feel engaged at work: a software engineer's guide
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure but I guess depending on the place I'd think unless you had an explicit agreement about leaving early that there would be pushback. "If you have enough free time to leave early you have enough time to pick up another ticket"
I've left these "time to lean, time to clean" jobs in the dustbin of my teens where they belong. It's a seller's market for us geeks right now; we should take advantage of it while it lasts and find good conditions for ourselves to work in.
How do you filter for that in your job search? Questions during the interview help but it's easy to misunderstand.
Re: How to feel engaged at work: a software engineer's guide
#113Another way to do this that isn't about escaping from your boring work is... well, making your work more interesting. Have a good idea? Coordinate with the right people and go for it. Even if nobody asked you to. You should never feel like you need someone's authorisation to do a good job. Becoming free anywhere, even within one's regular work, is not about asking for freedom -- it's about insisting to act as if one…
This is what I try to do, but at the org I work for there's a low key assumption that Devs are too stupid to do anything but what can be implemented in a sprint, no matter the complexity of the problem (which obviously leads to poor engineering outcomes). Teams are criticized when there're no 0-burndowns by people upstairs so everyone adapted by vastly simplifying solutions/work to fit that expectation.
Re: How to feel engaged at work: a software engineer's guide
#114Eh. These all seem fine. My route? I work less. I have a typical 9-5 but 1-2 days a week I leave a little early and go to do something engaging. Never when I have meetings. Never when I have deadlines. Never when someone is waiting on something from me. But I, and I suspect most engineers, have the capacity to get my work done for a week in less than 40 hours. I used to spend time dicking off on my computer to fill t…
Same, I get all my work done in 4 hours a week. The rest is "me" time and chores
Re: How to feel engaged at work: a software engineer's guide
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
If managers are spending their days watching the color of the circles next to their team member's names, maybe the managers need more work to do in order to "stay engaged" at work. Of all the bad heuristics for trying to determine whether someone is being productive, this has to be near the bottom of the list. It's the digital equivalent of measuring engineer productivity by looking around the room and seeing who is…
Even if that's true, this unengaged manager still has the power to make your life difficult if they think you're not doing enough
And you have the power to schedule a skip-level 1-1 or leave the team.
Re: How to feel engaged at work: a software engineer's guide
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
That sounds... unnecessary. There is always stuff to refactor, and tests to add, folks showing up at the last minute with new requirements. Or you can just wait a day to push commits, etc. More honest, I think.
Refactoring and adding tests can be (and very often are) pushed into the backlog, and then never done. "We'll circle back to that after this sprint (narrator: they would not circle back to it) but for now focus on these new features" Bugs are more urgent.
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Re: How to feel engaged at work: a software engineer's guide
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
Totally agree but from a SWE perspective on any kind of Agile/Scrum team I think the expectation is usually that you pick up another task if you finish early and there's still time during a sprint for example. This also obviously breeds other bad incentives i.e. the faster you work the more work you get.
>the faster you work the more work you get. It took me about 2 months to learn this after getting my first job. Nowadays I intentionally add minor bugs that turn up during demos so I have stuff to "go back and fix" later.
Also called “The Queen’s duck”.
Re: How to feel engaged at work: a software engineer's guide
#118Adding my voice to the consensus that this article is trash. As always, the blackest of falsehoods are dressed up in platitudes.
Re: How to feel engaged at work: a software engineer's guide
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is your manager just next level laid back? I feel like most places are going to notice and be bothered seeing the yellow circle on your Teams or Slack status consistently for long periods of time.
Ha. I refuse to play the game. I set my slack to away the day I start and never turn it back to green. I've done this at every job during the pandemic. The stupid green bubble vs gray or yellow or whatever is a form of always being at your desk micro management and it isnt productive. I'll happily explain that to anyone who asks but I've only had a few people ask. Again, if you get your work done most people dont giv…
Yep. After a while I disabled notifications, so Slack just doesn't disturb me when working. Sometimes I just quit it completely for an hour or two so I don't look at it because it usually sits on screen 3(the laptop) and I see stuff moving in the corner of my eye.
If someone would question my work ethic or similar because of my Slack status I would explain to them that this is bogus. If they insist, I would complain about them with their boss. If that all is not futile I would just find another job.
Re: How to feel engaged at work: a software engineer's guide
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
I used to have so much anxiety about trying to fill 40 hours days. It led to me getting great performance reviews but feeling like shit and burning out at multiple places. During the pandemic I work maybe 4 hours a day. I wake up late, go for a walk, review some PRs, and then dig into a task. Meetings in the afternoon, another walk, maybe a bike ride. After dinner if I have something on my mind I'll log back on and d…
This is very similar to my schedule right now. Everything gets done. I don't feel burnt out. I'm actually able to feel healthy because I can workout during the day. It's great and no one gives a shit as long as I'm doing well. In fact, it's much better for the company in the long run because I'm likely to stay for more than a few years because I actually enjoy my wlb.
This happened with me, and I thought to myself "how does this work? How am I still as productive as before?" And I tried to recall what life was like in the office. Turns out a lot of my time was spent trying to look busy, rather than actually being busy. It's not like I was Peter Gibbons from Office Space, I wasn't lazy or jaded. But sometimes my brain just wouldn't do what I needed it to do. And instead of doing the correct thing, which is stepping away from the computer and taking a walk, or doing the dishes or whatever, instead I just sat there and mimicked my working routine. Tons of wasted time, wasted potential, and yet it still drags on your energy just as if you were actually working. All of that was because of the social pressure due to being physically in the office.