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When I read the original article I was immediately curious how Rick would've written about this, and whether he was really as bad as he sounded, because I also

by mercer 9y ago

When I read the original article I was immediately curious how Rick would've written about this, and whether he was really as bad as he sounded, because I also have been, at least, a semi-Rick. Or at least I can imagine someone writing about me in a way similar to this. There's a lot I could say about my experience, but it boils down to a combination of bad practices/behavior on both sides (that I learned from immensely), broader circumstances, as well as a bad fit between me and my direct superior(s) or the nature of the company. I think the latter is often underestimated. I believe that the 'true' story of bad employee/employer is often a lot more like a romantic relationship than we care to admit. And while my impression is that Rick was more at fault in this situation, I'd say that just like a romantic relationship, the best lessons to draw from these events are not the blame-game ones. (of course, maybe that says more about my romantic entanglements than about work hierarchies...) EDIT: tangentially related, but I just realized that one of the few ways in which I feel I can say I've 'matured' on my path to 'adulthood', is having experienced multiple sides of, in essence, the same situations. It makes empathy and productive solutions so much easier, even if not always in the moment. This kerfuffle is a good reminder for me to keep an eye out for these types of lessons and to avoid reflexively looking for someone or something to blame.

scarface74 9y ago
I’m in the opposite position now. When I see a developer complaining about working hard having to learn all of the new stuff I’m pushing on the department - unit testing, dependency injection, CI/CD, etc. since I’m not technically management, I’m not in a position to do anything but allow for comp days and put in a good word for the FTEs and sign the time sheets of the contractors. But anything they learn will help them in the future either at the current company or the next. I want everyone to come from the job with a mixture of doing grunt work - Yet Another Enterprise CRUD app — and learning something new cool and useful. I don’t want anyone stuck on the same app forever.
fortythirteen 9y ago
Having an entire product rest on your shoulders sucks and emotionally drains you rather quickly. In my case it was a startup with a technology I created on the side that became the main business and eventually became the sole earner for a company whose other business had already been dwindling. At the time there were maybe half a dozen people in the country that even worked in this particular niche. If I left the company it would likely go down, and the CEO kept telling me how many people would lose work if I left. And the pressure and responsibility kept growing and growing. And the sales people, who made up half of the staff, kept getting more and more antagonistic, as I couldn't meet their constantly larger expectations, which were often technically impossible (like sci-fi movie level). This situation lasted for over a year, culminating in a huge blowout between the CEO and I when I left. I became a Rick real fast. I still feel like shit for being a Rick, and it's taken years for me to move that experience out of my "work baggage".
lynnetye 9y ago
I agree with you 100%. Our relationships with our employers and with our work is very much like our romantic relationships. It sounds like Rick and management were both inexperienced and focusing too much on the short-term. Similar to breakups, sometimes we draw them out over many months (or years...) because we've invested so much into something already, it's hard to just pull the plug. And certainly the idea of the "frog in the boiling water" applies to both types of relationships. When things get bad slowly over time, we don't notice. I also feel like I've been a little like Rick before (though in a non-developer role). I learned a lot from that experience and, like you, have matured as a result.

by mercer 9y ago

scarface74 9y ago

I’m in the opposite position now. When I see a developer complaining about working hard having to learn all of the new stuff I’m pushing on the department - unit testing, dependency injection, CI/CD, etc. since I’m not technically management, I’m not in a position to do anything but allow for comp days and put in a good word for the FTEs and sign the time sheets of the contractors. But anything they learn will help them in the future either at the current company or the next. I want everyone to come from the job with a mixture of doing grunt work - Yet Another Enterprise CRUD app — and learning something new cool and useful. I don’t want anyone stuck on the same app forever.

fortythirteen 9y ago

Having an entire product rest on your shoulders sucks and emotionally drains you rather quickly. In my case it was a startup with a technology I created on the side that became the main business and eventually became the sole earner for a company whose other business had already been dwindling. At the time there were maybe half a dozen people in the country that even worked in this particular niche. If I left the company it would likely go down, and the CEO kept telling me how many people would lose work if I left. And the pressure and responsibility kept growing and growing. And the sales people, who made up half of the staff, kept getting more and more antagonistic, as I couldn't meet their constantly larger expectations, which were often technically impossible (like sci-fi movie level). This situation lasted for over a year, culminating in a huge blowout between the CEO and I when I left. I became a Rick real fast. I still feel like shit for being a Rick, and it's taken years for me to move that experience out of my "work baggage".

lynnetye 9y ago

I agree with you 100%. Our relationships with our employers and with our work is very much like our romantic relationships. It sounds like Rick and management were both inexperienced and focusing too much on the short-term. Similar to breakups, sometimes we draw them out over many months (or years...) because we've invested so much into something already, it's hard to just pull the plug. And certainly the idea of the "frog in the boiling water" applies to both types of relationships. When things get bad slowly over time, we don't notice. I also feel like I've been a little like Rick before (though in a non-developer role). I learned a lot from that experience and, like you, have matured as a result.