Is this common in software engineer teams?

[Javfly33]

Asking because this is just my second project of my career. The first one was a pretty easy one and small one so was pretty 'amateur'. But this one I started 1 month ago is for a bank and is kind of more 'serious' and definitely bigger.

I feel people waste lots, lots, lots of times in meetings talking shit about how the code that has been given to us is shit, always complaining, stressing themselves out, talking talking and talking. Little actual coding. Little positivity, little clarity.

Manager saying 'Create this kind of documentation'. 

Then next week saying 'No, I didn´t meant like that, recreate everything and do it like this'. 

And so some of the team members have been spending weeks writing and rewriting docs. And much, much more dumb things like that.

It feels 50% of the team members just aren´t neccesary. Because most people don't work, just complain and lose time. HR should really focus more on soft skills. Because how some people land jobs is shocking to me. Why people stress themselves and run like a hamster on a wheel in a such a way. If it was my company they would be fired. 

Is really shocking to see this. I thought software tech companies were the top of the top of time management and effectivity. Maybe it is because we are going through a 'transition time'. We are herediting a big massive codebase and people get stressed by it. Do software teams get particularly stressed during a transition phase? 

Maybe im the stupid one and I think it all will be easy and im being very naive. But I don´t know. It doesn't feel smart to me to spend on average 1-2 hours of daily meetings just complaining. 

Edited December 11, 2023 by Javfly33

[thepixelmonk]

Yes. Welcome to the industry.

[Oppositionless]

that’s why my goal is to start my own business

[Javfly33]

On 12/12/2023 at 0:20 AM, thepixelmonk said:

Yes. Welcome to the industry.

Lol

On 14/12/2023 at 10:04 PM, Oppositionless said:

that’s why my goal is to start my own business

🙏👏🏽

[LastThursday]

It varies a lot between companies some are more into time wasting than others. There are several truths about working in software:

1. There's always a massive code base,

2. You'll spend more time with the database than writing code,

3. No coder can code for 8 hours straight,

4. There's never enough documentation,

5. If you want enough documentation you'll spend all your time writing it.

6. The spread of talent between different coders is generally huge, especially in larger companies

7. Managers are non-technical.

I could go on... lol.

[Javfly33]

7 hours ago, LastThursday said:

It varies a lot between companies some are more into time wasting than others. There are several truths about working in software:

1. There's always a massive code base,

2. You'll spend more time with the database than writing code,

3. No coder can code for 8 hours straight,

4. There's never enough documentation,

5. If you want enough documentation you'll spend all your time writing it.

6. The spread of talent between different coders is generally huge, especially in larger companies

7. Managers are non-technical.

I could go on... lol.

Nice...all those points make sense.

@LastThursday You can definetely go on lol im interested

[LastThursday]

Ok then I shall. Part II:

8. Constant context switching is guaranteed (i.e. flipping between different tasks),

9. Context switching always hurts productivity,

10. Actual project managers are super rare,

11. If you work in a big company, especially a bank, you can't touch the database (and this is always a PITA, see point 2)

12. Most projects are chaotic and unstructured,

13. Launching a new project will always be months late and this will create friction all round, someone will get fired,

14. Knowing what the hell is going on in a new job takes 6 months,

15. You'll watch other (non-coders) go on jollies and travel to nice places, you'll be chained to the monitor and keyboard forever,

16. You will have to speak to people outside the company, and it will always be a PITA,

17. Specs and requirements are rare and if they are produced nearly useless for anything except getting the gist of what's needed,

18. If you think you know better than your manager, you will eventually be fired,

19. Most software managers are egotistical or get off on their power,

20. When 13 happens, you will work unreasonable hours and not be re-compensed for it,

21. Customers are a PITA.

22. Customers will not understand or care what problems you're having with their requests,

23. Managers will always kowtow to customer's demands even if unreasonable,

24. Managers will always care about customers more than they care about you.

25. Your physical comfort is generally low priority for the company,

26. Apraisals are completely pointless, and you'll struggle every year to come up with stuff to talk about.

Ok, Ok, that's enough whining. I'm changing career right now or becoming a manager.

[Javfly33]

9 hours ago, LastThursday said:

 

Ok, Ok, that's enough whining. I'm changing career right now or becoming a manager.

😂nice

All those points are very interesting. I´m surely will be verifying them in my experience once some time passes. Some of them already have experienced them. 

Btw, I´ve been working so far 1month and a half with this team and something that has already surprised me is that the work hours are 9:00 to 5:30 from Monday to Thursday. And Friday 8:00 to 2:00. Ok, that makes 41 working hours, which is 1 hour more because then in summer there is reduced work time.

That is fine and I was used to that in my previous project. Nothing weird about it.

But, when I enter at 9 every morning to check group chat messages, I see most people log and say hi already at 8:10-8:15 time. Why people are so dumb to work more hours that they are paid????

Also in the same way we have one thing that I find quite sneaky that is the manager have recently scheduled a daily 'status meeting' at 4:45 to 5:30. So that´s a nice way to verify people are at work until the last minute lmao.

Sometimes people just talk even about non work stuff for 15-20 min on meetings but you have to stay there losing time  

Also there´s a guy the other day that we were at the 'status meetup' at 5:35 and he said he was going to look a fix after the call. So the guy, even the project hasn´t fully started but is joyfully doing more hours? Wut lol

But anyways, recently I´ve heard in a Meetup that we 'probably would be working extra hours' since is 'usual in bank projects'. So it doesn´t feel seem very optimistic lol... I should probably have gotten another tech job in a better company previous year when I had the opportunity 

Edited December 23, 2023 by Javfly33