It Takes 6 Days to Change 1 Line of Code
This shit happens at my job and leaves me feeling depressed and at times questioning my own skills because <i>I</i> know and my bosses know that on my part, I just had to make a tiny, tiny change. But when you have a dozen such experiences, I feel like something is wrong with me because when the dust settles, this was a one line code change that took me a week to push to production. It also makes my bosses question my estimates. Of course, when I goto the other extreme and give a ridiculous estimate, that also pisses them off and makes them feel like I don't really know what I am talking about. Saying "I cannot provide an estimate" also does not cut it for the boss.<p>In the longterm, I can feel this killing a part of me. I have always been a start-up guy working for myself. Since getting my first full-time job, stuff that I would expect the start-up me to take an hour to do ends up taking days and weeks, even. I am aware of the (mostly legitimate) excuses to not take too much self-blame but at the end, it still feels shitty because I <i>know</i>, the start-up me knows, this should not have been a one week project.<p>Ah the perils of having a non-tech boss and coworkers and being the only tech guy. Reading stories like I experience at work is comforting in an odd way.<p>Here's how my typical story goes...<p>Boss: So can we make this little analytics thing your #1 priority for tomorrow?<p>Me: Yeah, as long as we don't have anything else for projectX(my #1 priority)<p>Boss: Well, do you?<p>Me: Not right now. But it can pop up any minute Jenny decides she needs something done.<p>--NEXT DAY--<p>Jenny: Hey this isn't working in ProjectX. Could you look into it?<p>Me: Sure. <i>there goes an hour</i><p>Boss: I know you're busy but this is very urgent. Can we grab you for few mins for this meeting?<p>Me: Sure <i>goes another 30 mins</i><p>...<p>Jenny: That thing you fixed. Can we undo it and push to production because I realized blabla?<p>Me: <i>thinking wtf?</i> Ok sure.<p>...<p>Amanda: Hey can you check if these 2 users signed up from same IP?<p>Me: You can check that in admin<p>Amanda: Where?<p>Me: The admin panel you emailed me info to when I joined the company..<p>Amanda: Oh right. Can you fwd me the email I sent, I can't find it. My gmail's not working right.<p>Me: Ok.<p>...<p><i>Before I know it, I have spent every day of my job troubleshooting shit to never really get in the flow of doing my own project assigned by my boss.</i><p>Boss(after a month): How's that project coming? I know you said it's a one day thing.<p>Me: Yeah but the next day we changed the specs in the meeting. Also, projectX is getting a huge rehaul.<p>Boss: But still...you said it's a week after that<p>Me: Yeah assuming I didn't have work for projectX<p>Boss: But you'll always have work for projectX<p>Me: Yeah that's exactly what I told you too<p>Boss: So where does this leave us? Can you finish it in next week? I don't think there is much work for projectX<p>Me: But...<p>Boss: You're the startup guy. We want you to push us to release stuff quick. When you give us deadlines and are so off, it makes us lose faith.<p><i>Leave work annoyed, put in a quiet weekend with no coworkers around and wrap up said project</i>