True story
Reminds me of an old rolling mill controls system engineer that worked at the
same company I worked at in my earlier days.
Seems that he once worked as a permanent employee for a steel mill where they
installed a new rolling plant - about 3 to 4 years worth of work. He was
doing great getting promotions to chief engineer until he fixed the control
system and made it work.
Since the control system worked the steel mill had no need for a controls
engineer - so they surplussed him.
A very big deal is the ear of life time employment.
Took him a while but based on reputation he got a job with the manufacturing
company. The company we both worked for.
You know who the manufacturing company's big client was of course and who was
most qualified to service that client.
Now steal mills being steal mills what worked yesterday had an uncanny nack of
not working today.
Their cost went up.
His income went up because he now got paid for overtime.
His time on the job went down as when there was no problem the manufacturing
company let him stay at home.
The steel mill offered him his old job back.
He laughed [for years] on his way to the bank.
Last time I saw the steam mill it was a plowed field.
On Friday 15 August 2003 10:03, Meyer, David R wrote:
> Normally, I'd say no. But in this case, with the economy being so ugly
> right now for techies, I'd say "suck it up..." It's not your
> code...it's their code. It is not a reflection of you or your work...it
> is a reflection of the company. Yes, you are a part of the company, but
> you have done your best and were slapped for it.
>
> Having attempted (and failed) to run my own business and struggling
> through nine months of no paycheck, let me tell you...it
> sucks...bigtime. There are plenty of good software development shops
> that don't compromise. I'm fortunate enough to be in one of those.
>
> Start looking for something else.
>
> Dave
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: slug@nks.net [mailto:slug@nks.net]On Behalf Of Russ Wright
> Sent: Friday, August 15, 2003 8:13 AM
> To: slug@nks.net
> Subject: [SLUG] Good, Fast and Cheap?
>
>
> Hello SLUGgers!
>
> I'm having a bit of a problem with my new employer. I've spent many
> years developing software for some bigger development houses that follow
> structured development processes and created some high quality, stable,
> and maintainable software. I recently took a job with a small three
> developer shop.
>
> Here is my problem. Their code is crap. I mean lousy, patched togeher
> and undocumented. I've been assigned to fix some bugs in the app and I
> took the time to analyze and document the proper solution. It seems
> that my method of analysis was and I quote "a waste of time... if we all
> took that much time to look at the problem we would go out of business"
>
> My boss further explained that I should just find a quick solution,
> patch it, slam it out and let the user community test it in production.
> To say the least I'm perplexed. My years of development experience
> tells me this is a BAD trend that will come back to bite me in the arse
> later. I understand being nimble and staying profitable. I've tired to
> explain that good code takes some time and fast code cost more money
> later but he will not listen.
>
> I need the income, but should I compromise my standards?
>
> Any advice?
> Russ
>
>
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