3 ms·

I don't think I have ADHD, but I burned out pretty quickly after a few months of 8h/day pair programming. I started taking medication and took some extended vac

by ratww 5y ago

I don't think I have ADHD, but I burned out pretty quickly after a few months of 8h/day pair programming. I started taking medication and took some extended vacation. Thankfully the CEO of the company wasn't much into it, so he forced our pointy-haired boss of a manager to make it optional. The whole team unanimously decided to never do it again.

brailsafe 5y ago
This almost made me tear up. I've genuinely never thought before this thread that there were companies that did this, and that it's just not a big deal to people with decision making power. I don't do anything for 8 hrs a day, but if I had no choice but to be doing 8 hrs per day of pair programming, I'd really be having some dark thoughts. Not exaggerating, this scares the shit out of me. Thanks for sharing. I actually feel like I need to step away from my computer and relax a bit just trying to imagine myself in that position.
- smaudet 5y ago
  Makes me almost wonder what management is actually good for, besides a high level filtering system... I like continous pair programming, but not because I actually continuously pair - if someone wants to watch me work, or is too green to go it alone quite yet, its fine. But usually we only pair when it makes sense to, i.e. we are at the beginning of something and figuring out what to split up. If management tried to force real continuous pairing down everyone's throat all the time....yeah no. That management should be fired, they don't understand how people work.
  - brailsafe 5y ago
    Ya, seems reasonable enough. You have control over the gate, either to teach or to work something out. People are allowed to have an opinion on this in general.
- ratww 5y ago
  Yeah, in this case was a single manager abusing his power, who doubled down whenever we aired our grievances, to the point of forbidding talking about it. The CEO however was more sympathetic to our pleas. The 8h shift looking at a shared screen was absolute terror. No privacy, a lot of machismo with people claiming "I don't need to look at the documentation", terrible productivity when pairing with certain employees that didn't really took the work seriously. Mandatory pairing simply doesn't work, period. It's like they say about therapy, wanting to do it is a pre-requisite for it working...

by ratww 5y ago

brailsafe 5y ago

This almost made me tear up. I've genuinely never thought before this thread that there were companies that did this, and that it's just not a big deal to people with decision making power. I don't do anything for 8 hrs a day, but if I had no choice but to be doing 8 hrs per day of pair programming, I'd really be having some dark thoughts. Not exaggerating, this scares the shit out of me. Thanks for sharing. I actually feel like I need to step away from my computer and relax a bit just trying to imagine myself in that position.

smaudet 5y ago
Makes me almost wonder what management is actually good for, besides a high level filtering system... I like continous pair programming, but not because I actually continuously pair - if someone wants to watch me work, or is too green to go it alone quite yet, its fine. But usually we only pair when it makes sense to, i.e. we are at the beginning of something and figuring out what to split up. If management tried to force real continuous pairing down everyone's throat all the time....yeah no. That management should be fired, they don't understand how people work.
- brailsafe 5y ago
  Ya, seems reasonable enough. You have control over the gate, either to teach or to work something out. People are allowed to have an opinion on this in general.
ratww 5y ago
Yeah, in this case was a single manager abusing his power, who doubled down whenever we aired our grievances, to the point of forbidding talking about it. The CEO however was more sympathetic to our pleas. The 8h shift looking at a shared screen was absolute terror. No privacy, a lot of machismo with people claiming "I don't need to look at the documentation", terrible productivity when pairing with certain employees that didn't really took the work seriously. Mandatory pairing simply doesn't work, period. It's like they say about therapy, wanting to do it is a pre-requisite for it working...