American IT Workers don't say sorry do they!?

**Churchill** · 27 February 2007, 08:23

Yanks are worse than women in the software development stakes!

Grace Hopper... Anyone?

**The Lone Gunman** · 27 February 2007, 08:25

There should be no need to apologise, just fix the fault.

An apology suggests guilt and that suggests blame and we do not encourage that.

Try "The Egoless programmer" for inspiration.

**shoes** · 27 February 2007, 09:54

I've worked with some yanks in the UK, their work culture seems to be one of utterly avoiding any responsibility for anything and having no desire to accomplish anything. They sit there for a long time though, which they think makes them really good. I am not going to call it 'working long hours' like they would, because they don't do anything of any use. Occasionally they may 'high five' one another and talk about asses (kicking other peoples, putting theirs on some kind of a line, people having other peoples), none of these things relate to any accomplishment but they like to do it anyway.

**BlasterBates** · 27 February 2007, 10:11

Originally posted by MarillionFan

Amazingly, this is the third time i have had to complain to the US IT dept about shoddy programming or documentation.

Each time they lazily fix it and don't inform me. When you do get an email or talk to the person they cannot even admit they f-cked it up.

Poor. Very poor. They same incapable of saying sorry or saying they didnt do it properly.

Is this an American thing or is it just my client?

There is actually a good reason for that.

It is common practice for "bugs" to be assigned to developers, like black marks in school.

A developer that has above average "bugs" will be sent to a "correction" centre to be "retrained". If the developer still persists in creating more bugs he gets sacked.

...so if a developer finds a bug, he doesn't just fix it, he has to report it to the QA manager. The QA manager is usually a burly six foot guy who you wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley.

Hence.....a developer doesn't have bugs in his codes.

**Spacecadet** · 27 February 2007, 11:03

some more insights into American working practices:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6346315.stm

**Jawz** · 27 February 2007, 13:30

I've worked with a few yanks before and enjoyed taking the p!ss about them losing the Vietnam war. Then when 9/11 happened I had a whole bunch of new material. Now I'm waiting for the tail between the legs retreat from I-raq.

**Spacecadet** · 27 February 2007, 13:31

Originally posted by Jawz

I-raq.

You make it sound like a Steve Jobs inventions (sorry I-vention)

**Jawz** · 27 February 2007, 13:39

Originally posted by Spacecadet

You make it sound like a Steve Jobs inventions (sorry I-vention)

I was trying to type it how old George W says it.

**AtW** · 27 February 2007, 14:01

I worked with one yank project manager - good chap, but he totally lacked sense of local humour, ie sarcasm - you'd see people saying it in his face but he would not get it, was fun to watch

American IT Workers don't say sorry do they!?