Priority Order

I remember it was 7 or 8 years ago. There was going to be a new system designed to replace the current one we supported. So we were a bit more ambitious rolling out the last upgrades to the system. In retrospect, we pushed some things out too early. That meant a number of things were broken in Production. Not a good place to be at.

Somehow I rose up to lead the team. I figured that my job was to coach the green developers. And I would try to protect them from the crazy antics of management who thought they knew better. We were busy. I figure we were working around 50 hours a week. I did my best to keep morale up. After polling the developers, I went out and bought food they liked. Hey. I was not a saint. I billed the company. But I made sure we had some nice food to eat.

One of the developers figured out this job was not for him. So he put in his two weeks notice. The managers asked me to help him wrap up what he was working on. I had a good rapport with all the developers. This one developer who was leaving confessed that since he was quitting anyway, he was just going to slack off during his last 2 weeks of work. Fair enough.

The thing that was disappointing was that this guy was really excited about his blog. And he wanted to see if I would read his blogging. I was busy trying to keep some disasters managed as best I could. And I was still on the ship that was rocking. The last thing I needed to do was read blog posts from a deoparting slacker. But I knew diplomacy. I let the guy know that I was a bit busy at the moment. So blog reading would have to wait for less busy times.

I never did check out his blog. Can't blame the guy for leaving a challenging work environment. But then again, I can't imagine he had much worthwhile to say in his blog.