Quite so. In addition, as a manager of a new employee I make an absolute point of being a "helicopter mom" from the moment they hit the area until about week 2 or 3.
Payment at the hotel will foul up. I want overcharges and idiocies on my card and not on my employee's.
Access cards and tokens will foul up. I need to meet the new employee the first day on the morning and probably for lunch.
Network account provisioning will foul up. I need to see what the problem is and go escort the process through.
Lots of people will blow them off for asking beginner questions. I need to be around so that people answer the question properly.
The presence of a manager means that everybody who normally just fluffs off onboarding will pay fscking attention.
As for timelines, it takes about three months for a new employee or intern to no longer be actively hazardous. It takes another three months until they become a positive force for productivity.
Yes, during that time they're doing something useful otherwise they won't learn, but they're generally a productivity drag until about 6-8 months in.
I 100 percent agree that it takes up to 6 months on average for most developers to become super productive in a code base and at least 2 months for them to be at the comfortable but still not sure on everything phase.
I also agree with the helicopter aspect as well, that’s a key insight on your part and I bet your team likes your mangement style (mostly :)
I dislike when employers don’t structure their expectations accordingly. I once worked somewhere where we almost lost one of our most talented developers (in terms of productivity and quality and insight, a real rock star) because initially failed to understand this. Thankfully our director stepped in and made it right.
Payment at the hotel will foul up. I want overcharges and idiocies on my card and not on my employee's.
Access cards and tokens will foul up. I need to meet the new employee the first day on the morning and probably for lunch.
Network account provisioning will foul up. I need to see what the problem is and go escort the process through.
Lots of people will blow them off for asking beginner questions. I need to be around so that people answer the question properly.
The presence of a manager means that everybody who normally just fluffs off onboarding will pay fscking attention.
As for timelines, it takes about three months for a new employee or intern to no longer be actively hazardous. It takes another three months until they become a positive force for productivity.
Yes, during that time they're doing something useful otherwise they won't learn, but they're generally a productivity drag until about 6-8 months in.