4 ms·

You can't miss random days for no real reason. "I worked until 2am" isn't really a good reason... you're paid to come into work. Not to fuck about at home.

jsprogrammer 11y ago
My impression was that this was a project contract. There would be no obligation to make paid appearances in this case.
- tptacek 11y ago
  I didn't see him say that, but that's really not my point. I'm not commenting to criticize him. I'm offering the consulting survival advice, which I'm pretty sure is generally applicable to all contracting gigs: don't work late for clients unless you absolutely have to.
  - jsprogrammer 11y ago
    I consider calling someone's behavior a pathology to be criticism.
    - tptacek 11y ago
      That's fair, but that's not how I meant it.
- monk_e_boy 11y ago
  They were obviously not impressed that he missed a day of work, one of many. I'm not surprised they let him go.
  - sysreader2016 10y ago
    Consultants are not employees. Consultants are allowed to take off days anytime. They're allowed to start work at anytime and end work at anytime.
- spinlock 11y ago
  If they got this pissed about it, my guess would be that the client called Pillar and complained. Pillar must have felt that the author not going into the office made them look bad.
st3v3r 11y ago
If you're working for the company, then yes, working until 2am is very much a good reason. Any company that doesn't see this as such is a shit company, plain and simple.
- tptacek 11y ago
  No. Really, really no. Don't work until 2AM for contracting clients. They won't appreciate it; they may the-opposite-of appreciate it.
- mryan 11y ago
  > Any company that doesn't see this as such is a shit company, plain and simple. Nothing is ever that simple. There are perfectly valid reasons for some companies to be unhappy with a contractor unilaterally deciding to work until 2am, and then not turning up for work the next day. Falling asleep after your manager texts you to see why you haven't turned up for work today is unprofessional, whether you were staying up late night to code or to binge watch Netflix. Please note that I am talking about this specific situation here. If you are working on your own products or in a team where people view this as expected behaviour, staying up late to take advantage of as many 'in the zone hours' as possible seems like an effective use of a programmer's time.
ianstallings 11y ago
If that's what my client wants then yes I'll be there on time and in my seat coding. But I set my own hours as a contractor. How? Communication. You have to communicate what you are doing to your client and that is the OP's greatest failure here. It's a weakness of a lot of programmers given our general solitude and my own miscommunication in the past has lead to way more problems than any coding problem could.

jsprogrammer 11y ago

My impression was that this was a project contract. There would be no obligation to make paid appearances in this case.

tptacek 11y ago
I didn't see him say that, but that's really not my point. I'm not commenting to criticize him. I'm offering the consulting survival advice, which I'm pretty sure is generally applicable to all contracting gigs: don't work late for clients unless you absolutely have to.
- jsprogrammer 11y ago
  I consider calling someone's behavior a pathology to be criticism.
  - tptacek 11y ago
    That's fair, but that's not how I meant it.
monk_e_boy 11y ago
They were obviously not impressed that he missed a day of work, one of many. I'm not surprised they let him go.
- sysreader2016 10y ago
  Consultants are not employees. Consultants are allowed to take off days anytime. They're allowed to start work at anytime and end work at anytime.
spinlock 11y ago
If they got this pissed about it, my guess would be that the client called Pillar and complained. Pillar must have felt that the author not going into the office made them look bad.

st3v3r 11y ago

If you're working for the company, then yes, working until 2am is very much a good reason. Any company that doesn't see this as such is a shit company, plain and simple.

tptacek 11y ago
No. Really, really no. Don't work until 2AM for contracting clients. They won't appreciate it; they may the-opposite-of appreciate it.
mryan 11y ago
> Any company that doesn't see this as such is a shit company, plain and simple. Nothing is ever that simple. There are perfectly valid reasons for some companies to be unhappy with a contractor unilaterally deciding to work until 2am, and then not turning up for work the next day. Falling asleep after your manager texts you to see why you haven't turned up for work today is unprofessional, whether you were staying up late night to code or to binge watch Netflix. Please note that I am talking about this specific situation here. If you are working on your own products or in a team where people view this as expected behaviour, staying up late to take advantage of as many 'in the zone hours' as possible seems like an effective use of a programmer's time.

ianstallings 11y ago

If that's what my client wants then yes I'll be there on time and in my seat coding. But I set my own hours as a contractor. How? Communication. You have to communicate what you are doing to your client and that is the OP's greatest failure here. It's a weakness of a lot of programmers given our general solitude and my own miscommunication in the past has lead to way more problems than any coding problem could.