41–50 of 60 posts
It is ok to be grumpy. We are all human beings after all. What is not ok is when you start using your grumpiness against the people you work with. If team morale is down because of your grumpiness, no one really gives a shit how good of a developer you are. It is that simple. I remember one of those project management training sessions where we were taught T E A M = T ogether E veryone A chieves M ore
Grumpiness, at least for me, comes from the frustration of dealing with people who don't understand the ramifications of their change-requests. "Can this app run in offline mode?", "Can you make it run in 128k RAM?", "Your software doesn't work right if I run a butter knife across my motherboard when I start it up!" What seems like a simple change to them is actually a large change to me, and the pushback/explanation…
You can't control what other people think or say, but you can control how you respond. I think I learned that from some TV character in anger management classes, but it seemed like a good nugget of wisdom. I don't think it's a wise idea to get grumpy (particularly visibly grumpy) with people who make unreasonable change requests. They don't do it to be mean, they do it because they are ignorant. So, it's up to you to…
Customer: "Your site went down right in the middle of an edit I was making."
Me: "Argh! That sucks! You're probably really frustrated right now. Let's see what we can do to get the bottom of it."
Just showing a little empathy can go a long way .
"Praise Publicly, Criticize Privately" This point got me thinking. Public criticism of specific individuals is not something I ever to publicly, but I have been all too quick to compose tweets about things like "wishing that Internet Explorer had a face so I could punch it", or how terrible healthcare is in the US, etc. It seems obvious in hindsight, but refraining from putting too much negativity in my public stream…
"Praise Publicly, Criticize Privately" This point got me thinking. Public criticism of specific individuals is not something I ever to publicly, but I have been all too quick to compose tweets about things like "wishing that Internet Explorer had a face so I could punch it", or how terrible healthcare is in the US, etc. It seems obvious in hindsight, but refraining from putting too much negativity in my public stream…
Taken too far, this seems like yet another way our online image becomes fractured from our identity. And maybe its better that way. I just detest the feeling of always giving people what they want.
If you are working for me, my expectation is that you will treat everybody (both on my team and not) with professionalism and respect, even if you feel you aren't getting enough respect from others[1]. Even if you are doing that, if you are continually negative and surely (e.g. not quite grouchy, but certainly not pleasant), your tenure on my team will be short[2]. Negativity spreads like a cancer until it destroys m…
If you are working for me, my expectation is that you will treat everybody (both on my team and not) with professionalism and respect, even if you feel you aren't getting enough respect from others[1]. Even if you are doing that, if you are continually negative and surely (e.g. not quite grouchy, but certainly not pleasant), your tenure on my team will be short[2]. Negativity spreads like a cancer until it destroys m…
What kind of person turns into a "0.1x" developer because of another person's grumpiness? Seem to me, those are the ones who should be fired.
A better question to ask is, "Why are developers grumpy?"
Yes, that is the question to ask! What bothered me most about this essay was one point near the end: "Ask yourself, 'Am I being grumpy right now?'. If the answer is yes, then stop!" This is a non-realistic response to an issue of moral with a real underlying cause. What bothers me most about this is that it will only cause further issues with the developer as they cover the problems with the group they are working wi…
I've been a grumpy developer before because I didn't like my job and was constantly getting asked to work on waste of time projects that ended up getting thrown out, which I knew would happen. I should have fixed my attitude and been a more productive member of the team or quit and given professional feedback in the exit interview that might have helped them.
I've been called a grumpy developer because I pushed back against a culture of unpaid overtime and 60 hour weeks for the developers and 4 hour days for everyone else.
I've been called a grumpy developer because I pointed out technical problems with a proposed project or insisted that someone technical be involved in setting deadlines for the technical portion of a project.
First you need to describe what you mean by grumpy. It's a broad word. I was interested by the headline, developers have to deal with always trying to find problems or potential problems in things and it can colour how you view the world. We do seem more grumpy than average. It turned out be be a bunch of words tacked around the idea of "don't be sad! be happy!". We aren't in kindergarten, if I wanted childish advice without nuance I will go to the self help industry.
Also the advice telling developers not to publicly critique issues they disagree with is insane. The goal is a community striving towards improvement. Your self esteem issues can be handled by learning to ignore online idiots and learning to separate your self worth from your code (and definitely from the software tools you have chosen).