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How to feel engaged at work: a software engineer's guide

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Re: How to feel engaged at work: a software engineer's guide

#91

Post by digisign »

corrral wrote: post #86
digisign wrote: post #84

Earlier 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.

Disagree. This is a misconception junior devs often have... that you need to ask permission to do your job. (Not unless the boss is dysfunctional, in which case it's time to leave.)

Tests and refactoring should be done as part of every ticket and typically don't need to be explicitly called out. This naturally pushes "done" so you don't run out of tickets early.

Re: How to feel engaged at work: a software engineer's guide

#92

Post by AlwaysRock »

dijonman2 wrote: post #85
adamsmith143 wrote: post #37

Earlier 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.

I use it as a recruiting tool. I can’t compete with FAANG salaries so one thing I do is make it clear performance objectives are accomplishment based not time based. Most of the time my team has a good work life balance. They will all buckle up if shit hits the fan then we go back into normal mode.

Totally. Right now we have a few tickets in the sprint that have hard deadlines. I'm actually excited to work on them because its a bit of a challenge. Most of our tickets, like most tickets regardless of if people want to admit it or not, don't have hard deadlines so we can actually get things done in a reasonable timeframe.

I don't think there is a single thing that helps retention better than WLB. Comp is a close second but someone will always pay better that you. You cant win that battle. WLB is hard to screen for while interviewing so when you find it you are less likely to take a chance on losing it by taking a new job.

Re: How to feel engaged at work: a software engineer's guide

#93

Post by corrral »

digisign wrote: post #91
corrral wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Disagree. This is a misconception junior devs often have... that you need to ask permission to do your job. (Not unless the boss is dysfunctional, in which case it's time to leave.) Tests and refactoring should be done as part of every ticket and typically don't need to be explicitly called out. This naturally pushes "done" so you don't run out of tickets early.

Yes, but the point of this was to generate (easy) work that others want you to do so they won't ask you to do other (more time-consuming) stuff instead.

You'll have a very different experience telling the product owner you spent the whole week working on bugs that they noticed and they told you to fix (even if you left them in originally on purpose) than telling them you spent all week refactoring code. The former is an instant "great!". The latter is gonna get a concerned look and more questions.

The topic wasn't correctly doing development work, but finding ways to slack off while looking good.

Re: How to feel engaged at work: a software engineer's guide

#94

Post by fruit2020 »

adamsmith143 wrote: post #37
AlwaysRock wrote: post #22

Eh. 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…

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.

Wait. Does slack show idleness? Maybe it’s disabled in my org. Never seen it on any of my colleagues. We are either green or gray

Re: How to feel engaged at work: a software engineer's guide

#95

Post by digisign »

corrral wrote: post #93
digisign wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disagree. This is a misconception junior devs often have... that you need to ask permission to do your job. (Not unless the boss is dysfunctional, in which case it's time to leave.) Tests and refactoring should be done as part of every ticket and typically don't need to be explicitly called out. This naturally pushes "done" so you don't run out of tickets early.

Yes, but the point of this was to generate (easy) work that others want you to do so they won't ask you to do other (more time-consuming) stuff instead. You'll have a very different experience telling the product owner you spent the whole week working on bugs that they noticed and they told you to fix (even if you left them in originally on purpose) than telling them you spent all week refactoring code. The former is…

You don't tell non-technical folks technical details, you deliver finished tickets on schedule, which makes them happy. Would you discuss what algo's you used with them? Database schema? No, then talking about unit tests is a non-sequitur as well. Complete snoozefest for non-geeks anyway.

In fact I'd be disappointed by a dev that constantly introduces careless bugs, it's a dev smell. Most bugs should be unique and result from ambiguous/incomplete specs.

Don't agree it is good advice to build a career being dishonest to others. I'm not even a goody-two-shoes... it's just not necessary in all but the most dysfunctional of places.

Re: How to feel engaged at work: a software engineer's guide

#96

Post by xboxnolifes »

dairylee wrote: post #25
tstrimple wrote: post #19

I know that this wasn't the point of the article, but please don't ever do this. > Why do web applications have no sound? Why can't we make boring internal tools come to life with sound, in the same way that UI on a Nintendo Switch pops and clicks and whistles?

Sound can work well on the web[1], as long as it isn't over the top, there's no reason it couldn't be used more. I've been considering adding some sounds[2] to the project I'm working on. 1: https://www.joshwcomeau.com/react/announcing-use-sound-react... 2: https://github.com/snd-lib/snd-lib

If you add sounds to anything on the web, please, please, make a top-level, easily identifiable mute button.

Re: How to feel engaged at work: a software engineer's guide

#97

Post by kqr »

Another 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 is already free.

Or, as Grace Hopper put it, "it's far easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission."

----

Sometimes this will lead to wonderful things.

Sometimes, sure, this will get you into a mess, but honestly, weren't you sort of already? Spending a 25 % of your life somewhere you are unable to engage is messed up.

Re: How to feel engaged at work: a software engineer's guide

#98

Post by camtarn »

0xbadcafebee wrote: post #26
yaysyu wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bouldering seems to be really popular amongst Software Engineers I know. Taps into many things that Software Engineers typically like. Walls often require problem solving as well as physical ability. Walls are shorter than rock climbing walls (fast iteration cycles/“dev loop”) Lots of different difficulties for a clear sense of progression. Indoors (usually). Can be done solo.

Bouldering has to be the nerdiest sport. You spend most of your time sitting and problem-solving with intermittent short bursts of work, you can do it at any level of fitness, and there's no competition. I'm kind of surprised nobody has combined a math game with it yet, where as you climb you uncover numbers that tell you where the next hold is so you can't pre-plan your route.

I remembered coming across an interactive bouldering game a while ago, which used a projector to light up holds to create a custom problem each time. I couldn't find it with a quick search, but I did find this list of bouldering wall games:

http://www.canadarockclimbing.com/games.html

which includes 'Pointer', where a partner uses a broomstick to point out the next hold in the sequence just as the climber has reached the previous hold.

Re: How to feel engaged at work: a software engineer's guide

#99

Post by z3c0 »

adamsmith143 wrote: post #37
AlwaysRock wrote: post #22

Eh. 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…

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.

Mouse jigglers are quite liberating.
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