Programmer Automates his job, gets fired for forgetting how to code - Polidicks

[QUOTE=mdeceiver79;50520065]Well if the software never changed in that time when theres no reason for more testing, if software did change then the specifications it meets and things you are testing must also change so the tests must change so his tests would no longer be doing their job.[/QUOTE] He mentions that "In the past 6 years I have maybe done 50 hours of real work." so one can assume he did some minor maintenance on this to account for changes.

[QUOTE=DeEz;50520050]Except since he wrote the program his role in the process became mostly redundant. His skills could've been better spent somewhere else while his program does its thing.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE=mdeceiver79;50520065]Well if the software never changed in that time when theres no reason for more testing, if software did change then the specifications it meets and things you are testing must also change so the tests must change so his tests would no longer be doing their job.[/QUOTE] This is all on the employer. Obviously this guy reports his results to someone, and if they find out he's doing shoddy work, he's probably going to get fired. But obviously, he kept his automation up-to-date with what his employer required. He's not obligated to do anything more than his job, or to tell his employer he automated his workload.

[QUOTE=Revenge282;50520107]This is all on the employer. Obviously this guy reports his results to someone, and if they find out he's doing shoddy work, he's probably going to get fired. But obviously, he kept his automation up-to-date with what his employer required. He's not obligated to do anything more than his job, or to tell his employer he automated his workload.[/QUOTE] Absolutely, and you're completely right. But that's just it, he does the bare minimum. That's a lazy employee, and not someone I'd personally employ over someone who might automate the process and then proceed to ask for more responsibilities since they now have very little work to do.

[QUOTE=DeEz;50520211]Absolutely, and you're completely right. But that's just it, he does the bare minimum. That's a lazy employee, and not someone I'd personally employ over someone who might automate the process and then proceed to ask for more responsibilities since they now have very little work to do.[/QUOTE] What else is he supposed to do? You can't just go start stepping on other employees toes and interfering with their work. He was a QA tester, not a developer. He did the only thing he could do, and he automated it. Now if someone like a manager automated their job with shitty reports and robotic employee feedback, then that is lazy (bad lazy), as he can always expand his duties. But the QA guy can't really branch out. Also, it should be noted that if your employees don't have a drive to move up your workplace ladder, your management is doing something wrong. Good employees, lazy/efficient or not, should always be open to take advantage of what the company offers. But if they don't offer that to their employees, well guess who is at fault.

[QUOTE=Revenge282;50520336]What else is he supposed to do? You can't just go start stepping on other employees toes and interfering with their work. He was a QA tester, not a developer. He did the only thing he could do, and he automated it. Now if someone like a manager automated their job with shitty reports and robotic employee feedback, then that is lazy (bad lazy), as he can always expand his duties. But the QA guy can't really branch out. Also, it should be noted that if your employees don't have a drive to move up your workplace ladder, your management is doing something wrong. Good employees, lazy/efficient or not, should always be open to take advantage of what the company offers. But if they don't offer that to their employees, well guess who is at fault.[/QUOTE] Usually it's as simple as talking to your manager/boss about getting more responsibilities.

[QUOTE=DeEz;50520400]Usually it's as simple as talking to your manager/boss about getting more responsibilities.[/QUOTE] A very strong amount of places you work are just dead end jobs. Just as this one was described to be. The man was probably content with where he was at the pay he had, and saw no reason to not profit from his automation any more.

[QUOTE=Revenge282;50520450]A very strong amount of places you work are just dead end jobs. Just as this one was described to be. The man was probably content with where he was at the pay he had, and saw no reason to not profit from his automation any more.[/QUOTE] He even described himself as a "lazy ass", and having lost his motivation. I strongly doubt his workplace was the problem.

[QUOTE=Sableye;50515599]ikr, what he should have done was say "hey guys, i automated my entire position, so what else can i do?" i mean thats the kind of stuff that might get you a promotion and he could have moved up in the world in those 6 years. Still at his paycheck i can't believe he doesn't have any marketable skills[/QUOTE] more like it's the kind of thing that makes you redundant if there are no other vacancies

[QUOTE=Hamsteronfire;50520572]more like it's the kind of thing that makes you redundant if there are no other vacancies[/QUOTE] Straight up saying that you automated everything is probably a bad idea.

[QUOTE=srobins;50515691]$95,000 is not very much in the Bay Area as far as I'm aware.. In fact I'm pretty sure he would basically be considered poor there lol[/QUOTE] it says in the article he lives with his parents so i imagine his rent is almost nothing as are his expenses

I wish I could go some time without interacting with some programming language without getting rusty.

Technological wisdom: 10 Social and business wisdom: -1 Edit: wait how can you automate most of your job if you re an engineer (not systems)?

[QUOTE=MasterKade;50515621]That would have required admitting to your superiors that you were too lazy to do your job by hand, though...and $95k/year is plenty[/QUOTE] Eh, if you can automate your job and as a result your company thinks you're lazy then they're probably not a good company to work for anyway. I work in engineering (not the software kind, the spend-all-day-doing-calculations-and-design-drawings kind) and the last thing anyone will be upset about is anything being automated. There are a lot of calculations we do that are essentially the same but with different inputs depending on the project. Everyone is used to writing them out. Like on paper. With a pen. Implement it in excel so it no longer takes 2? You're suddenly everyone's favourite person. Honestly it really upsets me when I see people wasting time doing repetitive stuff that could easily be done by a computer. Besides, spending eight months to get it all running is hardly lazy.

[QUOTE=Cutthecrap;50522045]Technological wisdom: 10 Social and business wisdom: -1 Edit: wait how can you automate most of your job if you re an engineer (not systems)?[/QUOTE] You engineer a solution for it. Also, IT jobs generally have really bad naming conventions in the states

[QUOTE=JohnFisher89;50522123]You engineer a solution for it. Also, IT jobs generally have really bad naming conventions in the states[/QUOTE] Bad meaning conventions? What do you mean?

[QUOTE=Cutthecrap;50522296]Bad meaning conventions? What do you mean?[/QUOTE] We have some people in our organization called Software Engineers who all they do it sit and install IIS with linking it to a web app EXE the got, or Database Administrators who actually do C coding, php, and Database programing. Job descriptions and titles are not always relative to what you do in the states, as often some organizations just develop titles around pay grades.

[QUOTE=DeEz;50520005]Workers that solve one problem through automation and then proceeds to do no work whatsoever the following years?[/QUOTE] That's management's problem for giving him one problem to solve

[QUOTE=OvB;50518001]What you do, is you hire him. Give him a mundane job that can be automated. Have him automate it, then move him to the next. Once he's automated half your company and has exceeded his worth, you fire him. For the price of a temporary employee you get a handful of automated bots replacing other mundane positions.[/QUOTE] you forget about managing and updating the code periodically

[QUOTE=Socram;50519849]Then it sounds like you have never coded for any length of time before, or don't actually know it at all. It's like riding a bike, you don't just forget a skill like knowing how to program, its not syntax or other trivia, its being able to solve problems with code, and that doesn't come easy but it also doesn't just fall out your brain in a couple weeks.[/QUOTE] Almost daily for 11 years

If you want to automate your job, you don't go into software engineering. Not even QA. No, you go into system administration. System administration skills are basically [I]measured[/I] in Percentage Of Work Hours Spent On Reddit Because You've Automated Your Job Away.

[QUOTE=Llamalord;50515606]I'm sorry but if you're good enough to automate your own programming, you're not going to forget everything about coding in just 6 years.[/QUOTE] most stories on reddit are made up anyway

[QUOTE=Socram;50517487]This is such bullshit, oh my god this is like saying "oh I haven't written anything in cursive in 6 years other than my signature, I [B][I]literally [/I][/B]can not write a single word in it now." You would still be able to read it, and most likely write a good amount of it still. If 6 years ago he could automate his job, he either never could code and automated it with some other means somehow, or more likely this story is entirely made up because it makes people who don't program or understand how learning skills works, entertained. Also, $95k might sound like a shit load of money, and its great compared to a lot of positions in some other cities but in SF that is not above average, it is below if you're a software engineer or in any tech position of consequence.[/QUOTE] i'm not going to lie, i stopped writing cursive when i left catholic school because i was really really bad at it, and after a couple years i couldn't write it at all. Sometimes today i even have trouble reading it because i see it so infrequently. it doesn't mean i don't remember my signature, but it'd have a hard time writing in it now

So he was in QA. QA has a lot of menial, repetitive tasks. Most menial, repetitive tasks can be automated. It's not as if he wrote a program that can churn out a bespoke system once a week