4 ms·

> I seriously have weeks were I spend a single hour writing code. So what do you accomplish in the rest of that weeks? What does your org expect you to do? (Ge

by thex10 5y ago

> I seriously have weeks were I spend a single hour writing code. So what do you accomplish in the rest of that weeks? What does your org expect you to do? (Genuine question, I'm just curious).

ipaddr 5y ago
You usually end up making and changing product plans. Meeting with others about changing the product plan. Code reviews.. standups.. I guess you have never ended up in meetings about meetings. I've been there. People schedule meetings for a living. It took 9 months to add a field once.
irrational 5y ago
Meetings. I am absolutely astonished at the number of meetings IT managers come up with. I'm 100% convinced that the purpose of meetings is for managers to be able to claim that they did something this week to their higher ups (who, of course, are doing the same thing).
- nine_zeros 5y ago
  I concur. Managers really don't have anything tangible to show for themselves. Enter bureaucracy, tickets, meetings, docs and more docs. More meetings. Their status report is more meetings.
- tharkun__ 5y ago
  I get it, that manager of yours has lots of meetings to go to or hold himself. Being in the same spot (tho "IT Manager" is not my title and I hope it never will be lol) I do understand how it gets to be this way. I have weeks where I only get to code 0 hours. Others I code for maybe a day total across the whole week or maybe 2. It comes and goes. When we on boarded 3 new guys on the team in the same weeks for example I got to not code at all for a few weeks as I'd rather unblock each of them, answer their questions etc. That's OK by me. I was able to do that because I do code myself still, I know our systems etc. and the regular 1:1s we gotta do (which are important as well) are mixed in with this as well and become actual "meetings" in WFH situations instead of "accidentally bumping into them at the coffee machine". Now as for IC developers only coding a single hour in a week, there's something very wrong indeed if you ask me. I'm thinking "The Office" here. If you don't mind my asking what kinds of meetings did they invent for ICs to attend for 39 hours a week?
ALittleLight 5y ago
My experience is that you spend lots of time producing and reviewing documents. Most of these documents, in my experience, aren't really used or consulted much. Sometimes the feature gets completely shelved, often changed so much that the document is out of date, and if the document disagrees with the decision makers then the document loses so it's better to just track what they say rather than what's in the document.

by thex10 5y ago

> I seriously have weeks were I spend a single hour writing code. So what do you accomplish in the rest of that weeks? What does your org expect you to do? (Genuine question, I'm just curious).

ipaddr 5y ago

You usually end up making and changing product plans. Meeting with others about changing the product plan. Code reviews.. standups.. I guess you have never ended up in meetings about meetings. I've been there. People schedule meetings for a living. It took 9 months to add a field once.

irrational 5y ago

Meetings. I am absolutely astonished at the number of meetings IT managers come up with. I'm 100% convinced that the purpose of meetings is for managers to be able to claim that they did something this week to their higher ups (who, of course, are doing the same thing).

nine_zeros 5y ago
I concur. Managers really don't have anything tangible to show for themselves. Enter bureaucracy, tickets, meetings, docs and more docs. More meetings. Their status report is more meetings.
tharkun__ 5y ago
I get it, that manager of yours has lots of meetings to go to or hold himself. Being in the same spot (tho "IT Manager" is not my title and I hope it never will be lol) I do understand how it gets to be this way. I have weeks where I only get to code 0 hours. Others I code for maybe a day total across the whole week or maybe 2. It comes and goes. When we on boarded 3 new guys on the team in the same weeks for example I got to not code at all for a few weeks as I'd rather unblock each of them, answer their questions etc. That's OK by me. I was able to do that because I do code myself still, I know our systems etc. and the regular 1:1s we gotta do (which are important as well) are mixed in with this as well and become actual "meetings" in WFH situations instead of "accidentally bumping into them at the coffee machine". Now as for IC developers only coding a single hour in a week, there's something very wrong indeed if you ask me. I'm thinking "The Office" here. If you don't mind my asking what kinds of meetings did they invent for ICs to attend for 39 hours a week?

ALittleLight 5y ago

My experience is that you spend lots of time producing and reviewing documents. Most of these documents, in my experience, aren't really used or consulted much. Sometimes the feature gets completely shelved, often changed so much that the document is out of date, and if the document disagrees with the decision makers then the document loses so it's better to just track what they say rather than what's in the document.