I've come to appreciate #8. Even where I am now, my desk is the barest in the office. People often laugh saying, "does anyone work here?" You never know when someone might not.

Documenting always reminds me of a CS professor I had..it goes something like:

"The program might be bug free, does the best thing in the world, cooks your dinner, and pays your bills..but if it isn't documented, its still bad code."

The advice on progress notes..thats pretty snappy. I'll start doing it.. Might stop the horrible code binges that I have (which leads to messy code and bad logic).

If you take #8 and #10 as far as you can you'll be able to resign over the phone on your way to work and, provided your vacation days cover your notice period, you can just turn back and not show up at the office at all. If you hold any company property (say log book, uncommited code on your laptop, etc) you can send it via snail-mail or electronic means. Been there, done that, got the P45.

addition to 3 - you never know when you will be that someone else.

4. also comes in handy during performance review time

6. start your work day late. you can work a lot more after everyone's gone home. spend the crossover time in replying to emails

10. some companies don't let you encash leave except to replace notice period. my previous company had a requirement of you working at least 5 years before you could encash leave.

I tend to not have much at work. I have a few bits and pieces ranging from a FreeBSD 4.10-RELEASE CD, Ubuntu Linux CD, to a set of headphones.

I prefer getting in earlier than the rest of the crowd so that I can get a quick cuppa coffee and then start checking mail and get on with the job.

I do very little code documentation as certain things are dead easy to figure out by oneself seeing that there are more 'tickets' to get through than time to document code properly. I suppose getting into a habit of having to write documentation would be a good thing at some stage.

I started #10 after the first round of layoffs two years ago... I've got 175hrs so far. I think that's what passes as job security these days ;o)

#8 is a good one to remember... I learned about that one the hard way when I left a job. Nothing sucks more than dragging out 5 copy paper boxes full of books.

I disagree with working extra hours. For starters, there are many better things to do with your life than give any to your employer. As I've said many times, no one ever cries on their death bed "I wish that I'd spent more time at work." There's always something else out there that is more valuable - such as spending time with your kids if you have them.

Considering the perspective on the bottom items on the list, we all know, and disgustingly accept, that our ultimate fate in a job is to be down-sized, or laid off, or otherwised disposed of. Employers will not show any loyalty to you for your extra time and effort, so what purpose does it serve to give it, other than to satisfy some disturbed masochistic needs?

If you show your employer you're willing to work extra hours on something, it will soon become an expectation. "We NEED you to work on saturday" they will tell you. No, they don't NEED you to work saturday - they need to hire extra people so things get done on time.

The first employer who dares suggest to me I need to put in a few extra hours will get a firm no. I would happily put in notice to any employer who made such demands -that's not the type of place I want to work at. Jobs come and jobs go. They are as disposable to workers as their workers are to them.

As someone who has been in this business for over 20 years I have to say all of these are excellent points. I have to disagree with Paul though. I think the attitude comes from resigning yourself to never being anything more than an "employee". Reminds me of the people in Dilbert. Extra effort in anything will ALWAYS pay off somewhere. In today's world you have to distinguish yourself from the crowd. While it may not keep you in the job your at it can lead to promotions and more importantly make you memorable when it comes time for a reference. Of course no one can say something "bad" about the guy that just works to get by but nothing stops someone from expanding on a persons abilities and motivation when the reference call comes in. Those are the guys I look for.

It's not easy to find a balance to work, family and personal fulfillment. It's something that continuously has to be worked on everyday and adapted as circumstances change. I won't be crying on my death bed that I didn't do the absolute best I could at EVERYTHING I've done.

For what it's worth....

This is all good advice. I don't follow some of it and I've been a developer for 11 years!

It's obvious that much of this list assumes a lot of turnover. Is it that hard to cling to your job? Is everyone in this much peril? I hope that my company respects my devotion, hard work, and quality.

Here's one thing I would add that I think is as important as anything else, but is often ignored by energetic new programmers:

X. Use tools, processes, and techniques oriented towards maintaining high code and product quality.

(e.g. unit+functional testing, static checkers, assertions, code reviews, design reviews, coding standards, stay cusomter-oriented, etc)

So which of these rules didn't you follow that resulted in your firing? Or do you have yet to discover more rules (such as "don't spend all your work-time blogging far-left liberal rants")?

Re 1: Employers buying books without huge bureaucracy is a new one on me.

Re 2: Work extra hours if you are interested. I wouldn't bother for tedious work.

Re 3: Document but if you comment, think carefully if you could improve the code to make the comment obsolete.

Re 4: ~/notes.txt always open.

Re 5: Never found any training worthwhile. Seems to be for people who can't think for themselves.

Re 6: I prefer to start work late and get more done when the office empties. That does rely on a good office environment so as to be in flow rather than wound up.

Re 8: I've always kept a good selection of books at work. On one occasion I did take the precaution of taking the majority home over a few days before resigning. However, I always end up missing the odd book.

Re 10: Depends if you are well paid. If you are badly paid and that is the reason for leaving, seems a bit pointless.

I would add:

o Don't take shortcuts. They will almost certainly take longer anyway, even in the immediate term. You wont be familiar with proper ways of handling the situation.

o Don't resign before getting another job. It's been almost three years now.

And if you want to get on, brown nose, back stab and steam roller.

It'll get better. Don't let the bitterness get the better of you. :-)

Between working extra hours and not taking vacation, when do you have some fun?

I will only work extra hours if the employer is in a bind and putting in a few extra hours per day over a week will bail them out.

I will not work tons of extra hours if a project is way behind. Odds are the employer understaffed the project. I have a life and I'm not living it at work.

(Upon further reflection) ...

When I was younger, my father was given "comp time" for working extra hours. If the worker put in a few extra hours to complete a project, it was documented, and he got those hours back at a later time.

Whatever happened to that? Why is it not only accepted, but EXPECTED that the workers give extra to their employers? Why hasn't the word QUALITY been brought up? Why does it have to be "extra effort" that "distinguishes you from the crowd"?

The key question though is: "What do you value in life?" I still believe that work is not at all what's important. Work, almost by definition, is something you don't *want* to do, but *have* to do out of necessity. It's the other things that make life worth living.

Remember, that extra time you put in is a GIFT if you get nothing for it in return. That project that you complete on time ends up making money for SOMEBODY. Do you get any of it? Did you get something in return, or do you just love your job so much that you give unconditionally?

Phillip, my understanding is that accrued PTO is part of the employment deal -- they cannot refuse to pay you any more than they can demand last month's paycheck back. In most parts of the USA the situation you describe is illegal.

The last job I quit, I got $14k after taxes for my accrued PTO.

Phillip, my understanding is that accrued PTO is part of the employment deal -- they cannot refuse to pay you any more than they can demand last month's paycheck back. In most parts of the USA the situation you describe is illegal.

The last job I quit, I got $14k after taxes for my accrued PTO.

> Why is it not only accepted, but EXPECTED that
> the workers give extra to their employers? Why
> hasn't the word QUALITY been brought up? Why
> does it have to be "extra effort"
> that "distinguishes you from the crowd"?

Case in Point:

A big VP in my company needs a data warehouse build over a course of a year. However, certain datamarts need to be up much quicker (3 months) for key reports for suits 3 steps higher then the VP.

The VPs neck is on the line. He needs a database guy and a SAS guy to crank this out. He gives me the database job because:

a) I know what I'm doing.
b) I do what is needed when the chips are down (within reason).

In this case, extra time was not needed, since I had scoped out the project at a earier time. However, when the chips are down the higher ups are going to go to those they know they can count on. That's what I do for those I have had under me.

Do I get the lost time back in other projects? No, but my raises are always on the high end for the industry and I tend to get more then my share of the more 'fun' projects. Plus, how many days do we work hard 8 hours a day? We all spend some time talking sports, family or whatever. I figure it balances out in the end (and if it doesn't then I change jobs).

Quality is very important and the more you rush the more it can suffer. Everyone tries to plan in someway (I hope), but even the best plans don't work out and some deadlines can't slip. That's the time to shine.

> I still believe that work is not at all what's
> important. Work, almost by definition, is
> something you don't *want* to do, but *have* to
> do out of necessity.

Not by my definition, I like work. If I was at home, I'd just be playing with my computers there anyway. This way I get paid for it. What could be better??? Outside of a Star Trek economy where there is no money and you can still do what you want. I guess it's how you look at it.

Stewart: I don't work in the US. I used to work for the Indian Government.

#2 makes no sense. It will hurt during review time because the project you are working on is off schedule. Employers pay people for 40 hours of quality work. They should not expect more.

Ah, good ol' #10. Yessir, that's one *good* tip.

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