There is no way you can silently stop working and turn your focus on private side projects.
At least you need to talk to your coworkers and your management about running out of work. It´s up to you.
It doesn't even matter what he was doing with his time. If his employer wasn't satisfied with what he was producing it's in their best interest to let their employee know they need to correct the situation.
Firing him means they were in panic mode because they were lazy and decided not to manage their employees.
any recommendations for approaching management on this? i know a junior dev that shows up to work with nothing ever assigned and his managers seem to give no shits about keeping him busy. is that a sign to jump shit or rephrase the conversation?
In this world, those that seek out additional responsibility thrive and those that wait for work to be handed to them die a slow death.
I dont care if its sweeping the floors, taking out the garbage, or simply asking for more work. If you cant find a way to justify your salary, how can you expect to keep your job?
Not being assigned work might he a good excuse for not doing work, but its not a justification for your salary and it certainly doesnt demonstrate a commitment to earning the right to your job.
This is a classic example of not taking responsibility for what happens to you.
Edit: didnt mean to be harsh...i think if this person started doing things around the office or proposed ideas or even executed on unassigned ideas that might move the company forward they will get recognition and likely promoted. Its mot about asking for work it is about showing how much you care.
Software engineering is not a profession with a consistent amount of workload. Sometimes there are lulls between projects, sometimes there are 10-hour workdays during crunch.
Ideally good management minimizes this, but it's never perfect.
No excuse to not have a junior dev completely busy, but there's also no excuse to go working on your personal competing consulting service while on your employer's payroll.
TBH, he's probably lucky that he only got fired, and didn't end up with a lawsuit on his hands, too. (Had he actually taken clients, I suspect he would have.)
meh. you're a startup you want to waste your precious time taking a punk kid to task over consulting? you only waste time with shit like this if it's personal. and in that case you have already lost.
Indeed, he shouldn't be doing consulting, he should be learning everything he needs to be able to do the consulting after hours. If an employer doesn't train you, you should train yourself.
I've been tempted more than a few times to take vacation days and line up another gig for the week that I'm off. Double the pay for doing normal work hours?
Got fired from my last job for them not having enough work for me. Felt pretty bad about that because it was my first job and I didn't really feel that I had learned enough to be a capable developer. Found a better job in 2 weeks :)
Last thing I heard they also are letting go one of the most capable and senior developer I know and had already fired the interaction designer/graphics girls. They're down to 5 people now.
Based on my limited experience I would say it's usually a pretty bad sign if there's not enough work for the developers...
I don't know your particular situation, however oftentimes giving a Junior developer less work is more efficient if the better developers can be more productive.
No startup ever has said "we're out of things to do". However, they often don't have time to mentor or train new employees.
This assumption is incorrect. From management's perspective it could have appeared he was not able to keep up with the workload because he was working on his projects half the time. It seems he didn't even attempt to tell them he wanted to do more and instead opted to work on his own projects.
What a strange bit of information to make public. Blogging is a good way to blow off steam, but I don't see how this could turn out to be positive for the OP. It could make it worse by publicly admitting that he went against company policies. If the company decides to pursue legal action (for whatever reason) this blog post provides them with ammunition. I'd remove it from the blog and take a couple of days to learn about the situation.
He's 20. Legal action might be sensible if there was something to gain ($). Overall, I'd say this is a relatively low risk public statement and I thought it was pretty neutral in tone.
I like his honesty. He is only 20. It wouldn't put me off hiring him, if I were in a position to do so. It's a pretty measured post too, and he's not blaming anyone, so I wouldn't think it would be something he'll regret. Hopefully not.
You make a good point. Being honest about mistakes made is very important. Not only to the world, but to yourself. It shows that the person recognizes the actions that led to this result. Yet, the internet never forgets. It might be ten years from now when this works against him. There are multiple reasons anyone could use this against the OP. Violating contract, going against what was agreed upon with his mentor, creating competing products, etc. I'm not holding this against the OP. Its great that he realized the mistakes. What I'm doing is warning him that this might turn out to be another mistake in the making. Lord knows the internet never forgets.
I think there's a difference between working on side projects that are open-source, and actually trying to build another company while you are at work - also dangerous, because they can claim ownership of what you create.
I have friends at other companies that I sometimes give a bit of advice in the evening over drinks, or even do a little work for on weekends, but when I'm at work, or even "working from home", I'm working for my employer.
You can always find opportunities to 'sharpen the saw', so to speak, when your official duties are blocked by someone else or you are ahead of schedule.
I've even heard of people being fired for connecting over ssh to external servers that clearly belonged to another company. Not only are there technical ways to avoid being that obvious, but there are other ways to balance side projects.
As tempting as it may be, never do "side" projects while in the confines of your full time gig. There are lots of sticky legal areas. Your company could possibly even claim rights to your "side" project since you worked on it using company resources (computers, office, etc).
Typical poorly managed small company. Sure, just forget about your employees and cross your fingers that they miraculously are able to figure out what they need to do, then panic and fire people when you decide to check on the state of affairs.
" One of the services I mentioned offering once online was digital signage – which was my company’s primary line of business."
Does that imply you were trying to start a competing business to the company you were working for ? I'm sorry but if thats the case... this is not a matter of feigning ignorance, this is just plain stupid.
And many fresh-out-of-schools or "no longer flipping burgers as a job" are not taught or informed on what is or isn't professional as they've never held a "professional job" before.
So what do you do when you are in the position of not having work to do, and you have asked repeatedly for more work?
Answers to asking for more work have been basically to wait.
What about if you get told not to work on stuff when asking about specific tickets or things that do need to be worked on and add company value?
If your company has an open culture, maybe you could build tools to automate, stabilize, or boost productivity. You could also work on something like a feature or component for the product and test and develop it.
These are suggestions that will play in some cultures and get you fired in others.
OP, if you do not find a way to delete this off internet and caches than you might want to borrow a brick wall and bang your head against as that is exactly the message you sent to every potential employer worldwide.
After dissatisfaction at my (then) current place, he promised challenges and warned against having side projects.
So, today, I was fired for lack of commitment, working on other things, and disclosing company trade secrets. I was warned of the complex legal issues my actions would have created had I been working at a larger company.
So, it's not enough to work...you must drink the kool-aid and forsake your own free time and creativity. Fuck startups who act like this.
If he was in a profession with a 10:1 applicant:position labour market, admitting something like this publicly would be a very bad idea. However, since it's something like the reverse for programmers (ok not quite that good but still less than one applicant per open position), he'll get a job offer soon, especially with the publicity this post got him.
We've failed as a culture to inform people that this can and will happen. No matter how trendy a company is, if there's a hint of releasing teade secrets or using company resources for side jobs - you're out.
One more vote to add to the 'remove this information' fire.
Your 20 years old. You may suddenly realize what really went wrong and that it was not your fault. Too late though, because this post is already out there.
True or not true - this post cannot help your career, only hurt you or best case do nothing.
If you have nothing to gain and only things to lose the answer is obvious.
this makes me feel old to write it (I'm only 30 believe it or not), but, I'm really struggling to understand the trend among "the kids these days" to write these too-much-information confessional blogposts. this blogpost is nothing but unchecked liability. it makes it harder for the author to maintain a professional relationship with his former employers, and harder for the author to find a new job.
in my mind a blog is for the edification of others. you write something on a blog so the readers of your blog can learn something, or at least be entertained. this is not educational or entertaining. its egotistical, even though its self-deprecating, its still 100% about the author and nothing else.
this is just a "dear diary" kind of post, but its written in an all-too-public place. I understand the need to vent and reflect on life experiences. I do it all the time. PRIVATELY.
what possible reason can a person have for making their private life public? is this just the corrosive impact of Facebook on the culture of the younger generation? not everything should be on the internet. your personal life can be personal and private. should be personal and private.
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[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 110 ms ] threadThere is no way you can silently stop working and turn your focus on private side projects. At least you need to talk to your coworkers and your management about running out of work. It´s up to you.
Firing him means they were in panic mode because they were lazy and decided not to manage their employees.
If you are in a situation that needs to change, take action. This is your responsibility and it does not matter who fucked up this thing.
I dont care if its sweeping the floors, taking out the garbage, or simply asking for more work. If you cant find a way to justify your salary, how can you expect to keep your job?
Not being assigned work might he a good excuse for not doing work, but its not a justification for your salary and it certainly doesnt demonstrate a commitment to earning the right to your job.
This is a classic example of not taking responsibility for what happens to you.
Edit: didnt mean to be harsh...i think if this person started doing things around the office or proposed ideas or even executed on unassigned ideas that might move the company forward they will get recognition and likely promoted. Its mot about asking for work it is about showing how much you care.
Ideally good management minimizes this, but it's never perfect.
TBH, he's probably lucky that he only got fired, and didn't end up with a lawsuit on his hands, too. (Had he actually taken clients, I suspect he would have.)
I've been tempted more than a few times to take vacation days and line up another gig for the week that I'm off. Double the pay for doing normal work hours?
Last thing I heard they also are letting go one of the most capable and senior developer I know and had already fired the interaction designer/graphics girls. They're down to 5 people now.
Based on my limited experience I would say it's usually a pretty bad sign if there's not enough work for the developers...
This is absolutely true. It either means resources are being inefficiently allocated or there's not enough business to justify so many salaries.
No startup ever has said "we're out of things to do". However, they often don't have time to mentor or train new employees.
Then of course there's the whole part about disclosing company trade secrets.
I have friends at other companies that I sometimes give a bit of advice in the evening over drinks, or even do a little work for on weekends, but when I'm at work, or even "working from home", I'm working for my employer.
You can always find opportunities to 'sharpen the saw', so to speak, when your official duties are blocked by someone else or you are ahead of schedule.
I've even heard of people being fired for connecting over ssh to external servers that clearly belonged to another company. Not only are there technical ways to avoid being that obvious, but there are other ways to balance side projects.
Citation: Hooli vs. Pied Piper
I applaud the apparent introspection you're exhibiting in your blog post but I would caution you against sharing it with the world.
Do yourself a favor and delete this post.
Does that imply you were trying to start a competing business to the company you were working for ? I'm sorry but if thats the case... this is not a matter of feigning ignorance, this is just plain stupid.
ESPECIALLY never try to work on something personal while at work (without written permission). Use your personal computer at home.
These are suggestions that will play in some cultures and get you fired in others.
Its not a good thing and nothing to speak about..
So, today, I was fired for lack of commitment, working on other things, and disclosing company trade secrets. I was warned of the complex legal issues my actions would have created had I been working at a larger company.
So, it's not enough to work...you must drink the kool-aid and forsake your own free time and creativity. Fuck startups who act like this.
The shortage is in good developers, not in developers...
Your 20 years old. You may suddenly realize what really went wrong and that it was not your fault. Too late though, because this post is already out there.
True or not true - this post cannot help your career, only hurt you or best case do nothing.
If you have nothing to gain and only things to lose the answer is obvious.
Good luck either way.
in my mind a blog is for the edification of others. you write something on a blog so the readers of your blog can learn something, or at least be entertained. this is not educational or entertaining. its egotistical, even though its self-deprecating, its still 100% about the author and nothing else.
this is just a "dear diary" kind of post, but its written in an all-too-public place. I understand the need to vent and reflect on life experiences. I do it all the time. PRIVATELY.
what possible reason can a person have for making their private life public? is this just the corrosive impact of Facebook on the culture of the younger generation? not everything should be on the internet. your personal life can be personal and private. should be personal and private.