• (cs) in reply to Ugh.
    Ugh.:
    Damn. I've been fighting the same problem recently, and it only seems to be getting worse. I've heard of people saying they're "burned out", but I can't help but wonder... is this what it feels like? Do you feel like you've recovered after your hiatus?
    I don't know whether I've recovered, really - I did a bit of contract work, then decided to embark on a degree, made a royal screw-up of that, and now I'm heading off to see if I can find some more contract work, and study part-time. Hopefully I have a better idea of what I can or cannot tolerate now; and I do miss working! But I'm scared that I haven't recovered, so I'm somewhat tremulous as I head back into that world.

    As to whether it's burnout, I can't say - sure as hell felt like it! About the only thing I can do in future is try and limit my exposure to stress - and my expectations of myself; to not accept mistreatment or believe myself trapped in a job (the old advice "find a new job before you quit your old one" just doesn't work for me); and to make sure I have interests away from computers and coding (part-time study, nice juicy synth rig).

  • Eternal Density (unregistered)

    //hmmm!!!!! //no quack How to build is an interesting question... today I was compiling one half of my program in Visual Studio (2005) and the other half in SharpDevelop (I'm the only person using it since I happen to be writing half of my program in Boo (for good reasons). The upshot of this is that to build I either press F8 or F6 depending on which part of the app I'm building. As for committing my changes, I generally do that whenever my code compiles again after a change (and occasionally when not, since it doesn't effect anyone else) which is generally multiple times an hour. I managed to make version 10000 and version 11111 :D captcha = quake (no, but a bunch of us software engineers played some laser tag this afternoon)

  • (cs) in reply to MrJohnson
    MrJohnson:
    Maybe he was a British.
    *looks in vain for the missing noun*
  • Jens Fudge (unregistered)

    Well, as a contracter... I must say not all contracters are like that.. However I will quote someone else:

    "If you are not part of the solution, there is good money to be made by prolonging the problem"

  • CD (unregistered) in reply to Dustin

    <quote>Just wanted to point out that not all contractors are incompetent. Some certainly are, but not all.

    That is all.</quote> I agree, I contracted for a while and there were good and bad contractors. The same story easily could be about a full timer that just extends his/her stay and hides in the shadows forever. I have seen it!

  • Thomas (unregistered) in reply to Karl von L.
    Karl von L.:
    OMG, I would *love* to work at a company where they wrote detailed specs that answered every possible question about the design, and then just handed them to me to implement. Where do I apply?
    I fully agree with this guy, where do we apply?
  • fy (unregistered) in reply to Fudge Packer

    what do you mean H-1B? do not generalize. Also incompetence is not restricted to contractors. Employees are allowed to get away with much more. Ask any contractor.

  • Manu (unregistered)

    I feel kind of sorry for the contractor..

  • Billy B. (unregistered) in reply to Fudge Packer
    Fudge Packer:
    However, this guy though takes the cake. Wonder if he was H-1B or somethin'.

    What? and native developers are perfect?, whatever you're smoking must be really something, where can we get it?

  • The Truth (unregistered)

    The truth is a contractor is only as good as the Project Manager. I have worked for companies like this that have no business hiring people. These are the same people that are willing to pass the work off to a contractor but scramble to assign blame when things don't go as planned. A real PM would have sniffed this loser out from the start.

  • (cs) in reply to ElQuberto
    ElQuberto:
    Harry:
    I fired one guy because he changed the brace style on an entire project and then committed the change.

    I once fired a guy for looking at a man page. He's supposed to know what's going on. NO EXCUSES

    Surely you are joking.

  • (cs) in reply to vr602

    It is common knowledge that the British race.

  • anon (unregistered) in reply to Jerim

    Don't call me Surely.

  • (cs) in reply to Harry
    Harry:
    gwenhwyfaer:
    Harry:
    When I was supervising contractors I was set up to get emails every time they committed something in order to take a look at exactly what was going on.
    So you're a confessed micromanager...
    I fired one guy because he changed the brace style on an entire project and then committed the change.
    ...with an overactive trigger finger and a "zero-tolerance" approach to mistakes.

    Yeah, I bet you're a real joy to work for...

    Actually I think I am a pretty laid back guy, however there are some things that you have to do to protect your code base. Changing the brace style on an entire project and then committing the result isn't just a normal mistake - it is an utter disregard for company standards.

    Especially if said company/coding standards are spelled out explicitely in a style guide document.

    Were they?

    Jerim:
    ElQuberto:
    Harry:
    I fired one guy because he changed the brace style on an entire project and then committed the change.

    I once fired a guy for looking at a man page. He's supposed to know what's going on. NO EXCUSES

    Surely you are joking.

    Nope, can't do that here, irony on TDWTF is verboten, and the thought police will get you if you use it.

  • Another Infidel (unregistered) in reply to Fudge Packer

    Fudge Packer, I have seen bad H1Bs contractors and worse (much worse, actually) "paleface" ones who were probably at least 5th generation citizens. But I wouldn't generalize ... : )

    Also, a H1B is not a pure contractor - he is employed by the Consultancy Co. that got him the H1B - and you can rest assured that they would have been alerted by any dud H1B that he wasn't able to deliver and was on the verge of being discovered, and they would have got him backup from outside talent to get the job done and stay undiscovered.

    So, nope, this one was prob'ly not a H1B/Injun.

  • Another Infidel (unregistered) in reply to dcardani

    dcardani, I would respectfully disagree that not all of IBM was/is packed with duds - look at all the powerful (well, klunky, too, but powerful nevertheless) software they write. Accenture, on the other hand ... : )

    I hope you recovered your dues from the crooked contracting co.

  • Janeth (unregistered)

    I would say the incompetent person is the person that hired the guy.

  • Who's the idiot? (unregistered)

    I'm sure (I hope so anyway) that someone has pointed this out before but who exactly is the idiot here?

    Sure, the contractor is a moron. But what are you called when you:

    a. Hire the moron in the first place b. File the moron off in a dark place with an important assignment and then don't bother to check their work until near the end of the contract?

    The real WTF here is that MarkB's company expects that, by creating these neat little specifications packages, no one ever has to bother reviewing any work.

    Frankly, I'd almost rather be the contractor than work at MarkB's company.

  • Clueless (unregistered)

    I have the wonderful opportunity to work for local government and contract with the feds. I work with Enterprise systems and software. The only time we higher short term contract programmers is to complete a whole project, start to finish, not tying up loose ends. Programs are too dynamic with languages and systems it is hard to just pick up and run with a project. The use of contractors on O/S software, hardware and system configuration are highly more productive and useful. With the local government all the contract programmers are retired workers, people who know where everything is and how it works.

    Really, the company's business model needs to be reworked if they think that hiring a programmer for a few weeks will be cheaper and more productive to the budget. Oh well, soon we'll all be replaced by some robot who can do it better and can barely speak English.

    He should have written, "Sorry, I'm a n00b"! No other explanation would be needed.

  • yeah, yeah... (unregistered) in reply to Dustin

    so get back to work then! you're not paid to surf!

  • Another Infidel (unregistered) in reply to StressBomb

    StressBomb - OOP isn't the only way to code. Procedural, functional, OO, all have their place.

  • El Quberto (unregistered) in reply to vr602
    vr602:
    I think you should restrict yourself to saying something relevant, rather than merely making racist comments which give away your ignorance. Why should being "a British"(sic)

    British is now a race? I must of missed that in my reeducation

  • El Quberto (unregistered) in reply to masklinn
    masklinn:
    ElQuberto:
    Harry:
    I fired one guy because he changed the brace style on an entire project and then committed the change.

    I once fired a guy for looking at a man page. He's supposed to know what's going on. NO EXCUSES

    Surely you are joking.

    Actually it wasn't that much of a joke -- a former boss fired a friend after he thought he was looking at documentation too long to get a job done. The boss just wanted to get rid of him.

    And who did I see at my current contract job? None other than the former boss. He fired me too, but because I wouldn't go on full time. Yeah cut my salary by more than half so I can get some stock in a worthless company. This was 1999 when everyone there thought they were going to get rich, thankfully I saw past all that crap.

    Don't think he's seen me, which is good as I'm perfecting my Inigo Montoya speech.

  • El Quberto (unregistered) in reply to darin
    darin:
    Holy crap! I've rarely worked on a system so simple that a new hire could be checking in code in the first week. It takes almost that long just to get through all the HR paperwork, get the computer set up, arrange for source code control and bug database access, read through the procedures, etc.

    I have, and it was because the devs wisely choose to follow an open source framework that I was familiar with. The last time I wasn't productive was when they followed whatever was hip that year.

    If your devs can't be productive within a week or two it usually means there's something way too complex (and this is the "complex" as in "wacky") in your system. If making a change to the layout of a UI takes hours of reading and then 5 minutes to test out there's a problem with the current system that should be fixed.

  • Daniel (unregistered)

    This guy's handwriting is exactly like mine. If it were not for the fact that I never contracted, and I live on the other side of the globe, I could have sworn that it was my writing on that note.

  • Guything McThingGuy (unregistered) in reply to Harry
    Harry:
    gwenhwyfaer:
    Harry:
    When I was supervising contractors I was set up to get emails every time they committed something in order to take a look at exactly what was going on.
    So you're a confessed micromanager...
    I fired one guy because he changed the brace style on an entire project and then committed the change.
    ...with an overactive trigger finger and a "zero-tolerance" approach to mistakes.

    Yeah, I bet you're a real joy to work for...

    Actually I think I am a pretty laid back guy, however there are some things that you have to do to protect your code base. Changing the brace style on an entire project and then committing the result isn't just a normal mistake - it is an utter disregard for company standards, plus all of the other people you are working with who are accustomed to a particular style. Plus it destroys the ability of code analysis tools to produce usable change summaries and can make the project history in your VCS almost worthless. It is why many open source projects do not accept changes that are mere code reformats. If you think that is just a simple mistake, think again.

    Sorry, I do think it's a simple mistake. Simple == not complicated. Mistake == fuckup, but not on purpose.

    More to the point, this is a mistake that could have been avoided in the future with a stern talking-to. Not just in the future at your company, but at all companies the contractor works for in the future.

    Maybe he's used used to working on smaller projects where that sort of thing flies. I certainly wouldn't consider it a firing offense - especially considering that the whole problem is reversible in about 30 seconds.

  • Grumpy Young Man (unregistered) in reply to Guything McThingGuy
    Guything McThingGuy:
    Maybe he's used used to working on smaller projects where that sort of thing flies. I certainly wouldn't consider it a firing offense - especially considering that the whole problem is reversible in about 30 seconds.

    Sorry, I'm with Harry on this one. Mucking with the brace style on the entire project to fit his own personal preference shows absolutely incredible lack of judgement. If the guy hadn't been fired for that, he would have been fired for something else eventually.

    (And where, other than an individual project, do you think this sort of thing would have flown? "Hay, guyz, I switched the formatting style on all of your code last night. Hope U don't mind.")

  • JTK (unregistered) in reply to gwenhwyfaer
    gwenhwyfaer:
    Ugh.:
    Damn. I've been fighting the same problem recently, and it only seems to be getting worse. I've heard of people saying they're "burned out", but I can't help but wonder... is this what it feels like? Do you feel like you've recovered after your hiatus?
    I don't know whether I've recovered, really - I did a bit of contract work, then decided to embark on a degree, made a royal screw-up of that, and now I'm heading off to see if I can find some more contract work, and study part-time. Hopefully I have a better idea of what I can or cannot tolerate now; and I do miss working! But I'm scared that I haven't recovered, so I'm somewhat tremulous as I head back into that world.

    As to whether it's burnout, I can't say - sure as hell felt like it! About the only thing I can do in future is try and limit my exposure to stress - and my expectations of myself; to not accept mistreatment or believe myself trapped in a job (the old advice "find a new job before you quit your old one" just doesn't work for me); and to make sure I have interests away from computers and coding (part-time study, nice juicy synth rig).

    I had the same problem when I went through a whole year experiencing "life events" about every three months. It turned out that the stress of that year took a huge toll on my adrenal glands. The cure was simple -- cut out sugar, starch and caffeine from my diet (pretty much everything I ate) and load up on protein and complex carbs. The difference was almost immediate.

    Read up on "adrenal fatigue" and "reactive hypo" if you are in a slump that you just can't seem to crawl out of. Worked for me!

  • Anon (unregistered)

    Wow, that's crazy! I've worked with idiots before but they never leave notes admitting they messed up and turning down money!

    The thing i never understood was: even if you don't want to ask questions, you can find an example of how to do just about anything online and get something working in about 2 hours with no previous experience. Seriously. I don't understand why the guy couldn't find some web service tutorial online and figured this out?!

  • tinkerghost (unregistered) in reply to Rob

    In the US a contractor looses 4.5% off the top because they are both employer & employee for SS taxes. Next they loose out on all the bennefits - health, training, etc. In general, a contractor needs to make about 15-20% more than an employee just to break even.

  • tinkerghost (unregistered) in reply to Harry
    I agree that equating checkins to work is dumb. But if you have a new hire and he doesn't check in anything in his first week of work you should be asking some questions. Is he stuck? Does he realize that not checking in means that he's likely to be causing merge problems? Intelligent management is catching problems before they get out of hand. Monitoring VCS activity is one of the best ways to do this
    Actually, I don't think I would have a problem if a guy I handed a full spec to, did nothing but read the spec & check the existing code for a week. If at the end of the week he didn't start asking questions or start writing code, then I would be worried, but that first week I think I might be more concerned he was writing to write than if he was contemplating.
  • Rahul (unregistered)

    A friend of mine ran into something like this in Florida. He replaced a contractor who left on vacation to get married. Since that contractor's marriage was coming close, he 'worked hard' to finish the code. His report showed that the code compiled properly. So his manager let him go on vacation.

    My friend took over and found that the code did compile, but did nothing else. Previous contractor used slash and asterisked through the code. He was an old COBOL programmer; no knowledge of C. So he /* commented out */ the part of code that caused compilation errors.

    Thanks to SCCS, my friend was able to save his rear end. Manager saw the light. My friend, who went there for a week, ended up staying for over six months and got good reference from the manager for bailing him out.

  • ZMXJ (unregistered) in reply to Dustin

    Seems the employer could have checked on the guys progress at least once during the process

  • Arthur (unregistered)

    I'm wondering WTF how can Mark possibly not check up on the contractor and review his code weekly? He's equally incompetent.

  • wiggly (unregistered)

    Just my 2 cents here...

    I"m a contractor (web designer/front-end developer).

    In my experience, the opposite is true. I really have to know my game because I work with all levels of geeks in all kinds of situations and the market is highly competitive.

    True, there is free time now and then but I always use it to read industry news or study something.

    Regards, wig

  • Anonymous (unregistered) in reply to suetanvil

    The truly competent - and therefore the true authorities - are the people who can produce RESULTS in the field(s) they work in.

    It amazes me that, one for one, incompetents in any field never realize this one basic fact. Hence their blindness.

    This guy, like suetanvil pointed out, at least was able to grasp the fact that the company was looking for results, which he had none to provide. I wonder if he ever took the next step, which is: decide whether to become competent at this field, or go to another field where he could become competent. So close...

  • (cs) in reply to Billy B.
    Billy B.:
    Fudge Packer:
    However, this guy though takes the cake. Wonder if he was H-1B or somethin'.

    What? and native developers are perfect?, whatever you're smoking must be really something, where can we get it?

    Must be something brown - with jackboots on doing the goose step.

    F---ing racist. crap.

  • Roger Wolff (unregistered) in reply to Shaun

    ... asking many questions ...

    Right! However, the crowd here is used to questions like: "What is a compiler?" from the "C kernel programming expert".

  • Ross O'Carroll Kelly (unregistered) in reply to jtsampson

    No typo there mate. What's wrong with "focked up" - maybe he's from South County Dublin, roysh.

  • Homer (unregistered)

    Amazing that he did not bill extra for the note...

  • (cs)

    Hmmmm!

    Perhaps the company should realise the value of putting interviewees through theory and practical tests now!

    Hmmmm!

  • BruteForce (unregistered) in reply to vr602

    Actually, thats nationalistic, not racist, since brittish is not a race.

  • BruteForce (unregistered) in reply to vr602
    vr602:
    MrJohnson:
    Dan:
    So, your contractor can't spell. He (obviously) has a hard time with basic grammar.

    Maybe he was a British.

    I think you should restrict yourself to saying something relevant, rather than merely making racist comments which give away your ignorance. Why should being "a British"(sic) and having an understanding of grammar be mutually exclusive? What on earth makes you think that your race has somehow cornered the market in intelligence or knowledge? Ffffft!

    Damnit. ;) Hit the wrong button. ;)

    Actually, thats nationalistic, not racist, since brittish is not a race.

  • JT (unregistered)

    I'm a contractor and i'm incompetent. It's never stopped me.

  • sjn (unregistered)

    "I won't bill obviously" --> "I will bill sneakily"

  • genius (unregistered) in reply to hwiz

    I'll give you 100 to 1 odds that he wasn't reading thedailywtf

  • (cs) in reply to Harry
    Harry:
    Not only was the contractor incompetant, so was the manager. When I was supervising contractors I was set up to get emails every time they committed something in order to take a look at exactly what was going on. I fired one guy because he changed the brace style on an entire project and then committed the change.

    You can be I'd be on a new guy if weeks went by and there were no commits from him.

    Want to register, Harry? Preferably with your company name and title?

    What sort of insane dick-head fires somebody for "changing the brace style?"

    What sort of insane dick-head doesn't realise that -- if you really do have both thumbs up your anus, wiggling as they go -- it is fairly trivial, in most cases, to roll the change back and tell the guy not to do it again? (Although, admittedly, I do find Subversion a bit of a pain in this respect.)

    How about things like fixing bugs, adding functionality, or ... ummm ... actually doing stuff?

  • Swoozie (unregistered)

    And he probably still gets paid more than me.

  • Swoozie (unregistered) in reply to real_aardvark

    Brace style? Maybe yours was just plain wrong.

  • Swoozie (unregistered) in reply to tharfagreinir

    Why would he stay for so long and not bill? Maybe he jus wanted friends

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