Some Days I Want to SCREAM!
There are times I'm amazed I keep my mouth shut. Today has given me several such times. Really. I'm grateful for this job, I truly am. I like that I'm learning ruby, and there's a lot of interesting work there, to be sure. But I'm working with the Code Monkeys, and it's really getting on my nerves today. Really.
One instance today was best typified by the mental picture of working around a bunch of eighth graders. Yup, kids. I enjoy chatting just fine. There's nothing wrong with learning more about your co-workers, but there's got to be a point where you turn around and get to work. After all… we're here because it's a job, not a clubhouse.
I don't know about the rest of the group, but I'd be home if it didn't matter to anyone else. I don't love the chair, or the desk, and the commute - well… don't even get me started. But it's OK - for a place to work.
I just seem to be in the vast minority some days. They want to play around, giggle, watch bouncing cats on a 40" plasma TV for fun - for far, far too long. Again, I like my job, but this is really getting annoying.
And if I say anything, I'm the kill joy, or the "old" person that doesn't understand the value of fun. After all, they'll get the work done - eventually.
Please… if you could get all the work done in the time you give it, think of what you could accomplish if you came in before 10:00! Or stayed after 4:00. Or didn't mess with the bouncing cats. It'd be like you had an entire day extra. Wow!
But that's only part of it… the other part is what I blame on the Agile approach, and it's focus on continual refactoring.
Again, don't get me wrong, I like that there's a focus on refactoring in the workflow - it allows you to go back when things have really changed, and fix them up the way you would have if you'd have known what the end-result was really going to be. But there should be a limit to this. Fixing broken, or badly laid out code is OK - if you're adding something, but if you're just looking around and just decide to change the code "because", then what you're really doing is wasting time. Lots of it.
You're also really running the risk of breaking things - unless you're really careful. I'm not convinced a single one of the Code Monkeys I work with is really careful. Smart - yes. Careful - not in the least.
There's no solution because it's all a matter of degree. I may think it's "too much", but that's an opinion, and as long as management is OK with the productivity, then there's nothing that's going to be done about it.