6 ms·

That would be nice. I know a senior developer that doesn't actually do anything, he had like 2 small CLs this year. But apparently he can't be fired, so he is j

That would be nice. I know a senior developer that doesn't actually do anything, he had like 2 small CLs this year. But apparently he can't be fired, so he is just there, increasing work load for everyone else.

butterlesstoast 4y ago
Sorry to hear. That is honestly a huge reflection on the company and in my case for every 1 of those devs there are 9 that are incredibly talented and hard working (in my <10 year experience in the CS workforce)
teaearlgraycold 4y ago
How does he get away with doing almost nothing? Why can't he be fired?
- jnwatson 4y ago
  Lots of staff devs do nothing but coordinate and plan technology.
  - khazhoux 4y ago
    Yes. But some senior devs actually do very little, for a number of reasons.
  - drewbeck 4y ago
    "A lot of staff devs do nothing but critical organizational work"
  - eddsh1994 4y ago
    > Lots of staff devs do nothing but coordinate and plan technology. "coordinate and plan technology" can be a huge amount of effort, vastly greater than "nothing".
  - riskable 4y ago
    That's not "doing nothing" it's "doing bureaucracy" and IMHO it's a lot more mentally exhausting than coding. Imagine if every hour of every work day in your calendar is full of various forms of "planning" meetings. How are you supposed to write code and attend all this nonsense at the same time? You can't. To be fair it sure feels like doing nothing but employers consider it necessary and a job that only senior people can handle.
    - yunwal 4y ago
      I've been in one of these jobs before, and it's certainly exhausting. I'm not necessarily convinced it's useful though. It always seemed like a lot of planning and replanning of work that prevented anything from actually getting done.
  - fknorangesite 4y ago
    > Lots of staff devs do nothing but their jobs.
  - dceddia 4y ago
    It seems like a lot of replies to this are reading it as "Lots of staff devs do nothing; they just coordinate and plan technology". Another way to read this is as saying coordination and planning are the job. They "do nothing but", as in "only do".
    - jnwatson 4y ago
      Exactly. I'm staff at Google.
jvanderbot 4y ago
Does he not do anything, or does he do things you don't see? How do you know?
TigeriusKirk 4y ago
I suspect this is what he's after. For whatever reason he thinks a significant number of Twitter devs did little if anything. Maybe he's even right about that, it's not exactly unheard of in big companies. But I don't think this is a particularly effective way to root those people out. It's also possible he's reassigning teams from the ground up, and this is his sorting method.
justapassenger 4y ago
I'm a senior developer at bit tech and I had 1 small CL this year. I've spent whole year aligning a team strategy with an overall company strategy, and making sure that rest of the people on my team build is actually fitting into that strategy. In the past, team spend many years build custom stuff, that always had to be thrown away. Now, work we're doing is a part of a company direction, our expertise influenced it, and as a result we're no longer building throw away things, but also building something that impacts the whole company. I'll be blunt - I've made people on my team 10x more productive as a result. At bigger companies there's many ways you can be a senior developer. Does it sucks that people need to do stuff like that? Oh yeah, I'd prefer to have 100s of CL this year. But that's often a motion, not progress. As a senior, I'm accountable to make sure we make progress.

butterlesstoast 4y ago

Sorry to hear. That is honestly a huge reflection on the company and in my case for every 1 of those devs there are 9 that are incredibly talented and hard working (in my <10 year experience in the CS workforce)

teaearlgraycold 4y ago

How does he get away with doing almost nothing? Why can't he be fired?

jnwatson 4y ago
Lots of staff devs do nothing but coordinate and plan technology.
- khazhoux 4y ago
  Yes. But some senior devs actually do very little, for a number of reasons.
- drewbeck 4y ago
  "A lot of staff devs do nothing but critical organizational work"
- eddsh1994 4y ago
  > Lots of staff devs do nothing but coordinate and plan technology. "coordinate and plan technology" can be a huge amount of effort, vastly greater than "nothing".
- riskable 4y ago
  That's not "doing nothing" it's "doing bureaucracy" and IMHO it's a lot more mentally exhausting than coding. Imagine if every hour of every work day in your calendar is full of various forms of "planning" meetings. How are you supposed to write code and attend all this nonsense at the same time? You can't. To be fair it sure feels like doing nothing but employers consider it necessary and a job that only senior people can handle.
  - yunwal 4y ago
    I've been in one of these jobs before, and it's certainly exhausting. I'm not necessarily convinced it's useful though. It always seemed like a lot of planning and replanning of work that prevented anything from actually getting done.
- fknorangesite 4y ago
  > Lots of staff devs do nothing but their jobs.
- dceddia 4y ago
  It seems like a lot of replies to this are reading it as "Lots of staff devs do nothing; they just coordinate and plan technology". Another way to read this is as saying coordination and planning are the job. They "do nothing but", as in "only do".
  - jnwatson 4y ago
    Exactly. I'm staff at Google.

jvanderbot 4y ago

Does he not do anything, or does he do things you don't see? How do you know?

TigeriusKirk 4y ago

I suspect this is what he's after. For whatever reason he thinks a significant number of Twitter devs did little if anything. Maybe he's even right about that, it's not exactly unheard of in big companies. But I don't think this is a particularly effective way to root those people out. It's also possible he's reassigning teams from the ground up, and this is his sorting method.

justapassenger 4y ago

I'm a senior developer at bit tech and I had 1 small CL this year. I've spent whole year aligning a team strategy with an overall company strategy, and making sure that rest of the people on my team build is actually fitting into that strategy. In the past, team spend many years build custom stuff, that always had to be thrown away. Now, work we're doing is a part of a company direction, our expertise influenced it, and as a result we're no longer building throw away things, but also building something that impacts the whole company. I'll be blunt - I've made people on my team 10x more productive as a result. At bigger companies there's many ways you can be a senior developer. Does it sucks that people need to do stuff like that? Oh yeah, I'd prefer to have 100s of CL this year. But that's often a motion, not progress. As a senior, I'm accountable to make sure we make progress.