
Are Your Programmers Working Hard, or Are They Lazy? - henrik_w
http://mikehadlow.blogspot.com/2013/12/are-your-programmers-working-hard-or.html
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zallarak
One of the most enlightening moments I had when working with engineers vastly
more capable than me was the disproportionate amount of time they spent
planning and designing versus coding, and how much faster they moved as a
result.

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innocentoldguy
It seems to me that the kind of management the article is hinting as is what I
like to refer to as ass-chair management (it's similar to asshat management,
but that's a conversation for another time). To me, this speaks volumes more
about the incompetency of the manager than the efficacy, or lack thereof, of
the engineer. Unfortunately, most managers I've had have gauged work solely on
the amount of time someone spends in an office chair.

Personally, I couldn't care less how many hours someone works. If the work is
getting done, I'm more than happy to have everyone work four hours a day from
home; then everyone is happy.

~~~
greenyoda
_" To me, this speaks volumes more about the incompetency of the manager..."_

Yes, and in particular, it may indicate that the manager knows absolutely
nothing about software development, and couldn't tell good code from bad code
if his life depended on it. Since the guy who wrote the article was working on
billing and provisioning for a cable company, it's possible that his boss was
someone like the head of the billing department - not a technical person at
all.

It's even more depressing when tech-savvy managers, who should be able to
judge employees by their actual contributions to the end-product, practice
"ass in chair" management.

Also: Lots of interesting discussion from when this article was originally
posted 2 years ago:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6895502](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6895502)

~~~
innocentoldguy
I've been programming for about 25 years now and my take on the situation is
that people learn bad habits from those they've seen, which is why tech-savvy
managers tend to act like their non-tech-savvy counterparts.

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justncase80
Hopefully they're lazy!

[http://threevirtues.com/](http://threevirtues.com/)

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rdc12
"Several of my colleagues complained that Dave made things overcomplicated.'

Maybe this is a big part of the problem, if your fellow coders don't realise
the strengths of the way you have been working either.

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banku_brougham
Lazy

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Xyik
I agree that its wrong to be giving pay raises / promotions to employees
solely based on who worked longer hours. Obviously, pay and promotion should
be judged on the value delivered not the effort put in. However, in my
opinion, great developers who build robust systems and leave at 5 are not
necessarily hard working, probably just more experienced / competent. If you
can get your job done by 5 while your co-workers are slaving away until
midnight fixing bugs, whats stopping you from putting in another couple extra
hours to deliver even more value to the company? Sometimes taking initiative
and showing passion is just as important as being smart.

~~~
zaccus
>whats stopping you from putting in another couple extra hours to deliver even
more value to the company?

Probably the same thing stopping my employer from putting in another couple
thousand dollars to deliver even more value to my paycheck?

~~~
riskable
No kidding. It's like rewarding employees for putting in 20-50% more
time/extra effort on the job with a 10% bonus. It's mathematical proof that
you don't properly value their time.

