As a dev, I realize things that other people who are “users” or “lusers” as in the great ATT file, do not.
For example, when I find an exploit at the store that enables me to reduce my cost, I will use that. I understand it at a level that an ordinary person with no programming may not.
For example, if the promotion is buy 20 items and get $20 off your next order and I find items on your list for $1 a piece, I will take all your free stuff. I even get out of paying tax by finding a tax free store.
If you have a Buy $15 in frozen and get $5 off deal, I will use coupons to either get the entire order free or make money. I understand that the programmer or process doesn’t take into consideration coupons. I know for a fact the company doesn’t care because I know people who are working on the coupon “project”.
Well, at any rate, what about being human?
I think we should try it for a moment.
I really can’t stand it when someone blames a machine or program for something that could have been prevented. I have actually had what I consider a good response but confuses users blaming systems.
User: Oh, it’s the system. It does it all the time. There’s nothing we can do about it.
Me: Actually, the system was designed and developed by people – maybe people who were not competent because this seems like such a simple error. This is not a glitch. This is incompetence in design, programming and quality assurance. The fact that this was released in the current state is an embarrassment and negative for the company. First of all, it is frustrating for consumers. Secondly, this is frustrating for staff. The only people it seems were not frustrated was the lazy programmers and staff that let the software be released in this state!
Did you know that there was actually a web app, at one place I consulted, that had a search option that did not have a drop down list for locations but a checkbox – for states… and would run against every single location while conducting the search by default. It didn’t even work when you checked the box. There were so many errors. Ultimately, my detecting and reporting these errors led to the person impersonating a dev pushing to have me taken off the project. What the (I use the term loosely) dev wants… the dev gets. He was less of a dev and more of a devil.
Stop blaming machines and programs and start looking to improve applications by finding the bastards responsible.
Let’s get real.
You blame the program, the customer is satisfied. Bull … Shit.
Now, let’s take for example the new employee that isn’t added to the email group. This can easily be an oversight. Just another pain in the ass problem perpetrated by lack of time for Desktop support, managers or whomever was responsible for onboarding. I’m sure the excuse is “I forgot to add you to the list”. But in the meantime, this oversight, could really hurt someone badly.
Because of this oversight, the employee doesn’t realize there is a group lunch that is required and makes plans with a recruiter for lunch. There is no chance to mingle with the team.
Because of the oversight, the employee does not receive any messages or information about pizza, cookies or snacks. There could even be a party the new hire is left out of.
Now, imagine you are this new hire. Nice, kind, beautiful, loving, sensitive… I just threw in that beautiful thing… LOL.
Seriously. You are new.
People are doing things together. They are having lunches without you. The entire team sits together. You are set apart. You spend your lunches crying in your soup. No literally, crying in your soup – alone. You are always alone. You are used to it but you can never get used to it.
Maybe your home life sucks. You are unloved but necessary wherever you go. Your entire life has been one giant vacuum of being unloved. People forget about you even in the most important of times – your entire life. You dedicate yourself to make sure that doesn’t happen to others because that pain is really sharp.
As an adult, you bring in the money at home. You manage the tasks at work. You are appreciated as a necessary evil, but no one cares about you at all. So, instead of just being uncared about at work… which is somewhat the norm these days, you are also uncared about at home. Maybe your partner told you years ago, that he/she did not love you and you knew it! But that was news to you! Or worse, maybe you don’t even have a partner or were never successful in any relationships.
You are isolated at work. You eat your lunches alone. You try to make it better by eating on the roof (where you jokingly contemplate doing a nose dive) or near pigeons. When you eat alone in the cafeteria, no one sits with you. Your life is the suck. Now, you aren’t even invited to get a cookie?! Oh, the HORROR!!!!!
Seriously. A cookie can make all the difference in the world.
The only thing that keeps you going is that at your last gig, the manager gave you a cookie from Paradise bakery on Valentine’s day because he was very thoughtful and kind. It’s the memories of those who are kind to us that enable us to say, the world isn’t entirely fucked up. Sadly, that is the only thing you got on Valentine’s day… even though your partner makes 6 figures…
You have a meeting downstairs near where the current team sits and find out there were cookies and no one cared to tell you. They offer you 5 hour old botulism flavored pizza. Yummmy… my favorite. Then, you get to hear all about how someone made cookies from scratch… buy you never got one. They are all gone and no one even told you. Left out for everyone but you!
You might get a fritter from some kind soul who actually talks to you – your boss. In fact, some days, this is the only person who does talk to you at all, with the exception of the person taking your food order at lunch. Maybe he just wants to get shit done and not have you dive off the roof because – not that he cares about you – he has a tight deadline and your death would really fuck that up.
Imagine – you work on a different floor than your entire team. You go for a meeting and see a post – 1st Floor ROcKs!. You think of grabbing a marker and writing underneath it … Ethnocentrism is #1!!! Because you are on floor 2.
You see the disrespectful whiteboard code about people going to the break room – you are one of them. They think it’s cool because only a coder could understand this SIMPLE switch statement. And of course, all coders are cold blooded… right?
Say, you even have people in your cubicle upstairs – cubemates. They don’t talk to you. When you try to… they make it clear they are busy and you are distracting them. Their guests don’t talk to you. So, you don’t get news. No one in the group bothers to tell you. You find out in other ways – from others.
At the same time, you are not invited to meetings by your boss. The only meetings you can attend are ones where someone else adds you or you make yourself. Before the meeting, the boss tells you that this is just a question session and feedback. – To put it bluntly… shut your trap, I didn’t invite you and I would never. So, if you are going, don’t talk.
Basically, you feel like shit. Then you find out people have been talking about you? People don’t want to ride with you to a meeting at another location. They make up bullshit like they have another meeting or they purposely set a meeting so they don’t have to be seen with you in public.
You have a training room scheduled to do a health check on some computers and someone asks you to cancel.
You have no idea other than deleting the item, how to cancel this so you ask your boss who wandered into your cubicle.
He innocently leans in to help you and the rest of your day is shot to shit because someone was very close to you for a moment. Even though, it was innocent, it drives you crazy. You can’t focus, you yell at yourself for desiring this and more human contact from this person because… you are so alone. You die a little inside knowing you are just stupid because 1. He is married and 2. he has a very active wandering eye which is kind of bad… you know and 3. You are the ugliest thing on the planet and you know it.
All this and you didn’t even get 1 fucking cookie…
For the love of GOD… why can’t people act like human beings.
