I often see this in job descriptions for Software Developer positions. I don’t know about you but to me this kind of description is just getting ridiculous these days and I’m seeing this language more and more. I mean is this kind of statement really necessary? We’re all adults and professionals here. Personally when it’s that strongly stated in such a passive aggressive tone, it turns me off. Yea yea, you’re telling me your environment is hard core and extremely high pressured. Wonderful, as I woke up this morning I was thinking wow, I really need a lot more stress than I really already have at work. That’s just what I was looking for. Is that what you’re offering/selling to me, a potential candidate as I read your job description? Lame. Why would I want to work in an environment where I’m going to be constantly whipped which is what you’re telling me here.
Because to me when stated so bluntly like this, it’s saying we don’t care if you get sick over the task you’re working on, just get it done. That “pulling the load” to you most likely will mean not to ask any questions or hit any walls whatsoever during normal development because “that’s what you’re paid to do, to be perfect essentially”. That we don’t care how many hours you work, or if you have to work till 2am and were dedicated (and also sacrificed personal time and family time) enough to come in and work that long for me; you better just have it done or you’re fired kind of lame attitude. I think a lot of the managers who post this shit probably have no idea what reality is or they’re basically lead developers who really have lost touch with reality.
Obviously you hear time and time again that “we have to do what it takes for the business”. Give me a break, we know this. But when the business is such a dictatorship that employees lives are ruined, I take that statement and shove it down the toilet.
Personally I am very motivated and hard working (very entrepreneur). My friends tell me I work way too hard for my employer but hey, I can’t help it. I sincerely truly care about delivering for anyone I’m employed with and you can ask any of my collegues now or in the past to confirm. However these kinds of statements from management is simply overboard, even unprofessional at times. This kind of rigid no room for error, learning, or family life has to be discouraging to our profession. While many of us get paid top dollars, we also have a LOT to deal with today in programming.
What would be appropriate and sane? Probably something like this: “Looking for a developer who is willing to learn new technologies quickly and apply them where needed while working with the team together to deliver results”. Why is this better? Because it emphases working as a team and it emphases a positive working environment in order to “make it happen”. It is saying hey, we expect you to pull your load, but also we’re a team here (we’re human) and sometimes we need to help each other out when we’re stuck. That’s what a development team should be. Not this dictating “You figure out everything on your own, I don’t care, leave you in the mud, get it done or you’re fired tomorrow” kind of luda overbearing attitude.
I also love the “fast paced environment” statement in job descriptions and statements like this in interviews. What environment is not “fast paced” these days including in far too many cases a run & code shop. I mean is this really necessary to put in a job description? This is common knowledge. Do you think with today’s pace with technology, that development is so easy that we’re going to have a lot of spare time? Definitely not the case even if you’re not running at blazing speeds. So why the hell state that in a job description. It’s obvious. I if you keep stating to me how face pace your environment is, it’s going to really make me think you truly are a code & run shop with no real management skills as the cause. There’s a reason you keep saying this to me. Therefore I can read between the lines if you keep repeating it.
Take all the new languages, techniques, and changes that are happening day in and day out and it’s enough to really challenge any programmer these days anyway. So we don’t need someone standing behind us with a whip every day with the fear of losing our job when we’re already busting our ass and have a fear of hitting any walls during the development process. This expectation to “make it happen” has to have some flexibility somewhere and some sort of saneness and breathing room!
There are many surprises that come up in software development, and often many walls daily. We try hard to get past them as quickly as possible. But when you have managers and leads just acting like assholes because you couldn’t figure something out in 2 seconds (and they say they can) it’s becoming unhealthy bullshit for employees. Look, I’ll say it. Sometimes we CAN’T figure out the work-arounds or fixes or whatever that quickly even after spending many hours working very hard on something. Even the best developers get stumped and I’ve seen even my own leads say NO. Sometimes they offer the business alternatives sometimes they say there is none. While we are definitely supposed to and I agree to expect to be thinking about alternatives, work-arounds, etc. sometimes some things are not possible. That could be because of resources, bad or lack of planning, or whatever the case might be. That’s when you come together as a team to discuss. And that old saying “The business doesn’t want to hear not possible” fine. But you know what? The business better damn well be able to compromise and listen to their developers to the alternatives and move forward with them.
Now I’m not saying we should not do our best, not have deadlines, or not work our asses off to deliver results. But there is a point where this kind of expectation to get things done or get fired attitude has got to stop in development environments especially as our jobs are requiring us to master much much more (too much) than we had to 10 years ago. I remember when I could easily get out a huge application using classic asp.net, SQL, and JavaScript. But now, we have to go way beyond just mastering 3 areas like this and supposedly the business is supposed to care about good design when most of them could care less (design patterns, useable code, testing, etc.). To come at your developers with a breathing down your neck attitude every day nowadays makes it even worse.
And I’m also not saying we as developers won’t have late nights at times. But if the environment is so ridiculous that you’re up every night till 12 am coding because of the statement and attitude that you must produce perfect code and expect no stumbling blocks exists, you gotta ask wtf. This extreme hang me over a cliff if not done in 2 days kind of attitude is ridiculous and really just plain stupidity.
Am I alone on this? Does anyone else see this trend becoming more and more “In your face” type of attitude from management so much so that we’re getting to a point were IT and American business will eventually come to a bubble and fail? And where developers are just going to get burned out and turnover is going to get even more ramped because of the lack of reality in expectations?
There will be a point where businesses will just have to realize that they are becoming way too ridiculous in their delivery expectations and tone of language to the people they employ. This unforgiving passive aggressive tone coming from management is becoming extremely abusive. How about suggesting alternatives to help your team succeed rather than threatening ? And they will also always eventually realize that hey, after all these years of “Get it done lightening fast” was implemented, they now have a pile of shit to either refactor or throw away losing many $$ because of this kind of slave driven environment. And that they’ve lost many good developers and GOOD CAPABLE PEOPLE and most likely ruined a lot of lives because of this carelessness.
I’d love to hear your thoughts and also what position you hold (meaning title) as you reply. Hopefully this will be an interesting discussion.
Print | posted on Wednesday, July 08, 2009 11:14 PM
