[thechat] No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

Jack Timmons jorachim at gmail.com
Tue Apr 7 09:03:25 CDT 2009


On Tue, Apr 7, 2009 at 7:47 AM, Matt Warden <mwarden at gmail.com> wrote:

> I've found that if I'm patient, the topic eventually comes
> up, and people tend to remember that I had an objection 6 months ago
> and they ask me to elaborate. By that time, no one remembers how their
> ego was invested, and people tend to listen better.


I've done that a few times myself, although in some situations I bring the
topic back up again. It's a bad idea and honestly something I shouldn't do,
I just have to slowly train myself out of it. I'm getting there.


> The above picture you paint is terrible, and I agree that I don't know
> how you could ever make progress in an environment like that using the
> method I'm suggesting. My question, I guess, is with things so bad,
> why did you decide to fight the good fight and try to change
> everything rather than just leaving and going somewhere else?


Because it's a personality defect where I continue to do my best as long as
I see an avenue. I care about my work a lot. The coding and design I do hold
almost as much value to me as my own children, since it's my creation and
something I put my time and thought into doing. The last business I worked
at was the same: The employer wanted to listen to his friends and family
about how websites should be done, and the only experience out of the whole
lot was setting up a Yahoo! store. I eventually left there, once I decided
there was absolutely nothing I could do. If I can help a company break
through the canopy of years of politics and back-biting and improve, at the
very least, the department I work in, then it's worth it to me. If they let
me go, that's fine. Following this philosophy, the only time I've been let
go was because I actually did better than expected and was no longer needed.


> I have to wonder whether you might have been happier if you spent those
> years at a better-functioning company.


Possibly, but I also enjoy a good challenge, and usually more than one
challenge at a time. Besides, I live in an area where very few actually hire
for PHP developers, or web developers of any type. Finding a
better-functioning company around here that wants to put the money into an
IT/Web Developer/Design guy is nearly impossible. I'd move, but since I'm no
longer in my single days, when I could move all I own in my Explorer at a
moment's notice, I'd have to make sure the area fits a family, etc, etc.


> At some point, though, I asked
> myself whether I want to be fighting at my job all day, possibly
> risking my job and at least retarding my career advancement, just to
> push what I think is right to people who don't want to hear it. I have
> seen a marked difference since I stopped doing this.


I dn't fight them all day by any means. If they really want something done a
certain way, and they still tell me so after I pitch my approach, then
that's what I'm being paid for. But that also means I'll be more than likely
to move to a better paying job. I'm currently content because I get to enjoy
being the manager of a small web development team, and I get to guide the
course of all our work through the waters of standards- and oo- based coding
and design. I've gotten the higher-ups to accept the process of "you tell us
what functionality and general look you want, we'll create a solution, and
go from there". It's very ideal for me, and the only way it could get better
is if I worked with people more experienced than me I could learn from.

Ultimately, it just makes me feel more secure in beliving that if I try and
push and do what I can to improve the places I'm at, they'll all turn out
better in the end. Do I stand and push against the mountain all day? Hardly.
I'll throw my rock at it. If it moves, great. If it doesn't, I'm sure
there's more of a trail to follow to get where I want to go.


> The ironic thing, perhaps, is that since upper management *is*
> motivated to find the right answers, I have slowly made my way to the
> list of people who gets invited to meetings that are possibly above my
> pay grade because I "always have something smart to say", etc. I think
> there are ways to effect the change you're looking for, and perhaps
> the more passive way can work in *some* situations and be a lot less
> painful. And, if it doesn't work, then you're just left with the
> simple decision of whether you're ok with that. If you're not, make
> sure you explain why in your exit interview.


I whole-heartedly agree.


> Interesting discussion, nonetheless. Thanks for explaining your viewpoint,
> John
>

It's nice to hear another developer's approach to life in the work area, and
I always enjoy new ways to look at things.

Ron:

Do you lay out plans and file them by design flaw? When you're asked about
them, do you get giddy and fetch said plans, laying them out like Patton?

-- 
-Jack Timmons
http://www.trotlc.com
Twitter: @codeacula



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