Unstable Terrain

Jason Gorman, quoted from this discussion:

Whenever a manager asks me “but what if we only have crap developers”, my default response is “well, in that situation, standard best practice is to fail.”

Further to my previous post, I am reminded of one of the workplaces a friend works at; a government-owned corporation.

I asked her, once, what her coworkers were like, since I have little experience working in the public sector. She replied, “They’re either lifers or losers.”

“What’s that mean?” I prompted.

“Well,” she said, “Lifers are workers who lack ambition so they’re happy doing the same thing for the same company for the rest of their career. Losers are workers who are so incompetent that nobody else will hire them.”

“Surely there are people who don’t fit neatly into those categories,” I said.

“Oh, sure,” she replied. “Some people are lifers and losers.”

Overheard:

“I’ve seen their code base; it’s what I would call ‘unprofessional’”

“How unprofessional?”

“If the app were a novel, it would be written in crayon.”