Wednesday, 8 August 2007

That's a paddling...

In one of the simpson's episodes the character Jasper Beardley is brought in to the school as a supply teacher. He gives a speech that goes like this:
Talking out of turn...that's a paddling. Looking out the window...that's a paddling. Staring at my sandals...that's a paddling. Paddling the school canoe...ooh, you better believe that's a paddling.


On my last co-op my manager took me aside at the start and gave me his "speech". He had 3 rules, and if you broke them, he'd fire you. They were 1) looking at porn at work 2) you had to come to work in presentable clothes. Jeans were okay, just not shredded ones and 3) come to work clean (shower, etc)

Both of those situations might seem a little ridiculous, but I think that they are both wonderful for what they are trying to do: establish ground rules at the start so that everyone is on the same page. After that you have an idea what is acceptable and what is not. I think that doing that is a great practice.

Think for a second before reading on what your "that's a paddling" list would be. What would you make the ground rules for your job?

Mine would include the following. It's funnier if you say "... that's a paddling" after each point:
  • commenting out relevant test cases
  • being abusive to your co-workers
  • breaking the build
  • merging out your co-workers code
  • dumbassery in general
  • breaking windows (see theory)
  • not fixing broken windows that you come across
  • not doing the best that you currently know how to do
  • not being open to new ideas
  • not doing your best to help your co-workers
  • not writing tests


The list goes on... I'd love to give a speech like that...

2 comments:

  1. Hehehe ... enjoying your new job Jim? :-)

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  2. Oie.
    These things I've seen on many different projects and places of work. The most common ones have been not fixing broken windows and not doing what the programmer knows is the "best" way to do it.
    That's actually the one that angers me the most. The others for the most part can be attributed to ignorance. Those can be fixed by teaching the "right" way to do things. Knowing a better way to do things an not doing it... ooh, you better believe that's a paddling.

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