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That's a really interesting approach. Do you think that was too extreme? Like you could've at least done some documentation work in that time perhaps, or that i

That's a really interesting approach. Do you think that was too extreme? Like you could've at least done some documentation work in that time perhaps, or that it went well enough that you'd approach it that way again in the future?

HenryBemis 1y ago
There are two parts on this approach. The 1st one is the positive "hey, chillax, transfer knowledge, don't be stressed, etc." The 2nd is security: "this guy cannot be trusted to 'touch' anything, we don't want him to plant a timebomb, we don't want him to mess things up, etc." It's not 'polite' to bring up the 2nd, but it _is_ there. Imagine me/you/him/her doing something wrong and bringing down Prod for X hours. Then imagine your manager telling the director "oh, and btw he submitted his resignation 2 weeks ago, and in confidence he told me he goes to our ABC competitor". That-Looks-BAD, even if it was the most honest of mistakes and even someone else's fault. Once you 'stop playing', don't touch that jenga tower!!
- HappMacDonald 1y ago
  Sure, but writing documentation doesn't touch the Jenga tower. :)
glenngillen 1y ago
I struggle to justify it from a cost and utilisation perspective. Given how well it went, I've run the hypotheticals in my head a few times about what the optimal case might have been. If you discount the cost of my time to zero and you assume the company could mandate whatever period is optimum for them I think the duration ends up being around 2 months. Mostly because we had a monthly billing/invoicing cycle we were part of. So one month as the forcing function to catch and document all the process, and then a 2nd cycle just to make sure you can apply everything you learnt. My time wasn't at a zero cost though. But... at a high level, given the size of the company I worked for + the potential impact of getting something wrong, ~6 weeks of my time is pretty close to zero from their perspective. It also probably helps that we had pretty low employe churn. But from my perspective it did feel like a bit much. Within a couple of weeks I was pretty bored. I was itching to help and do things like you suggested such as documentation, but the team saw doing the work of writing the missing documentation being part of the work of learning what the gaps were so I had to stay away. Ultimately I spent most of my time planning the next phase of my life and hacking on side projects, or hanging out in the common areas with my wife and newborn son when they'd come in.

HenryBemis 1y ago

There are two parts on this approach. The 1st one is the positive "hey, chillax, transfer knowledge, don't be stressed, etc." The 2nd is security: "this guy cannot be trusted to 'touch' anything, we don't want him to plant a timebomb, we don't want him to mess things up, etc." It's not 'polite' to bring up the 2nd, but it _is_ there. Imagine me/you/him/her doing something wrong and bringing down Prod for X hours. Then imagine your manager telling the director "oh, and btw he submitted his resignation 2 weeks ago, and in confidence he told me he goes to our ABC competitor". That-Looks-BAD, even if it was the most honest of mistakes and even someone else's fault. Once you 'stop playing', don't touch that jenga tower!!

HappMacDonald 1y ago
Sure, but writing documentation doesn't touch the Jenga tower. :)

glenngillen 1y ago

I struggle to justify it from a cost and utilisation perspective. Given how well it went, I've run the hypotheticals in my head a few times about what the optimal case might have been. If you discount the cost of my time to zero and you assume the company could mandate whatever period is optimum for them I think the duration ends up being around 2 months. Mostly because we had a monthly billing/invoicing cycle we were part of. So one month as the forcing function to catch and document all the process, and then a 2nd cycle just to make sure you can apply everything you learnt. My time wasn't at a zero cost though. But... at a high level, given the size of the company I worked for + the potential impact of getting something wrong, ~6 weeks of my time is pretty close to zero from their perspective. It also probably helps that we had pretty low employe churn. But from my perspective it did feel like a bit much. Within a couple of weeks I was pretty bored. I was itching to help and do things like you suggested such as documentation, but the team saw doing the work of writing the missing documentation being part of the work of learning what the gaps were so I had to stay away. Ultimately I spent most of my time planning the next phase of my life and hacking on side projects, or hanging out in the common areas with my wife and newborn son when they'd come in.