Reply to: Working slowly to justify your position

[Mose]

Sorry but you don't even know me.

We know all we need to know - you've a face like a bag of smashed crabs, you smell like bigfoot's dick and your work ethic sucks balls.

Seriously though, work to the best of your ability and ride a good reputation into a more engaging career. These small mindless games are a poor show and a minor profit inflation from a tulipty contract isn't worth it. A good attitude will pay dividends long term ime, an abundance of work from old clients and old managers moved on to new companies who want you back with no agent to play games, or a token agent with no power is much better than clock watching through crap boring work.

[Mich the Tester]

Do you know precisely WHY the tester is getting behind in his work? Is it your software that's causing problems? Is there some silly organisational bureaucracy getting in the way? Is he being asked to write test cases at such a low level that it takes 10 times as long as actually testing? Have you offered to help, as a team member should do?

[Robinho]

You are lazy.

Wherever you are there is always work to be done, if not then you need to be honest and stop decieving your client.

Do you seriously believe if you went to your client and said "I've finished my tasks early, do you want me to work slowly to justify my position?" they wouldn't ask you to go?

You are supposed to be reputable and indirectly your behaviour affects the industry. Tell the client and leave early and go and WORK somewhere.

It's harsh, but its both lazy and deceptive. Earning money by deception is theft in my view, but then I do have a low guilt threshold.

Right now I'm cleaning out people with your attitude from fleecing a charity run entirely from donations.

Sorry but you don't even know me.

I have already specified that i am going to do some more unit tests with my spare time so i don't see a problem.

[Mose]

No because:

1. I have morals
2. I have professional pride
3. I'm not a thief. Gaining money by deception is not my bag.

Cheers for adding to the ever growing feeling that British contractors are lazy and overpriced , but as long as you're gaining hey?

^ this.

Seeing the old contractor cliches come out on here is a poor reflection on the industry, although nice to see the good guys talking sense.

[Scoobos]

I'm not lazy, i've done all this work way before it's been asked of me. I'm not a thief either, i've done what is asked of me.

I'm just wondering if anyone has ever been booted because of their own efficiency.

You are lazy.

Wherever you are there is always work to be done, if not then you need to be honest and stop decieving your client.

Do you seriously believe if you went to your client and said "I've finished my tasks early, do you want me to work slowly to justify my position?" they wouldn't ask you to go?

You are supposed to be reputable and indirectly your behaviour affects the industry. Tell the client and leave early and go and WORK somewhere.

It's harsh, but its both lazy and deceptive. Earning money by deception is theft in my view, but then I do have a low guilt threshold.

Right now I'm cleaning out people with your attitude from fleecing a charity run entirely from donations.

[aussielong]

I've left at least 4 contracts I can think of early because I did the work too quickly. In every case though, I went early telling the client that I was bored & wasn't going to sit on my hands doing nothing and reasoning that they're going to save money. 3 of those clients have asked me to do work for them again.

That's the way to do it. Life's too short to waste your time.

[MarillionFan]

I'm not lazy, i've done all this work way before it's been asked of me. I'm not a thief either, i've done what is asked of me.

I'm just wondering if anyone has ever been booted because of their own efficiency.

I've left at least 4 contracts I can think of early because I did the work too quickly. In every case though, I went early telling the client that I was bored & wasn't going to sit on my hands doing nothing and reasoning that they're going to save money. 3 of those clients have asked me to do work for them again.

[aussielong]

I'm not lazy, i've done all this work way before it's been asked of me. I'm not a thief either, i've done what is asked of me.

I'm just wondering if anyone has ever been booted because of their own efficiency.

Hard work always pays off. If you are good, you will build a good rep.

There are arrogant bright younguns in my team who are lazy- I am hard on them - actually I tried to get one sacked but my boss talked me out of it.

[Robinho]

Where have i been arrogant?

Just defending myself with facts.

[Mich the Tester]

I'm not lazy, i've done all this work way before it's been asked of me. I'm not a thief either, i've done what is asked of me.

I'm just wondering if anyone has ever been booted because of their own efficiency.

No, but I've booted people for being arrogant.

[Robinho]

No because:

1. I have morals
2. I have professional pride
3. I'm not a thief. Gaining money by deception is not my bag.

Cheers for adding to the ever growing feeling that British contractors are lazy and overpriced , but as long as you're gaining hey?

I'm not lazy, i've done all this work way before it's been asked of me. I'm not a thief either, i've done what is asked of me.

I'm just wondering if anyone has ever been booted because of their own efficiency.

[Scoobos]

Ever done this?

No because:

1. I have morals
2. I have professional pride
3. I'm not a thief. Gaining money by deception is not my bag.

Cheers for adding to the ever growing feeling that British contractors are lazy and overpriced , but as long as you're gaining hey?

[Robinho]

Personally I think working slowly without telling your client is very unprofessional. I will get flamed for that but that is my take. You have to look at the situation and ask yourself if they really will get rid of you? What happens if the testers pick up? I would highlight the issue to the client so he can deal with the testers and get you two free to work at normal pace. Doing less than you can is more likely to get you walked than see a contract out IMO.

The other option is to do the work better than the other tester then put a business case to the client to bin him and not you. Attack is the best form of defense.

What i will probably do is spend the time doing productive things for the project. Such as increasing the code coverage of the unit tests which is currently pretty dismal and should prove useful in the future.

The tester i have found to be pretty tulipe, in fairness he's had to write a lot of baseline test-cases, but he asks the dumbest questions and is generally slow as tulip. The PM is detecting this but he's pretty laissez-faire so we'll see what happens.

[Mose]

Pathetic behavior. Do you not hope for something more from life and your career?

[northernladuk]

Ever done this?

At the minute i'm on a project with 2 devs and a tester. Us 2 devs are chowing through the work way ahead of schedule and the tester is proving the bottleneck.

I'm semi worried when they find out how easy we are finding the workload they'll get rid of me.

So should we just work slower?

Personally I think working slowly without telling your client is very unprofessional. I will get flamed for that but that is my take. You have to look at the situation and ask yourself if they really will get rid of you? What happens if the testers pick up? I would highlight the issue to the client so he can deal with the testers and get you two free to work at normal pace. Doing less than you can is more likely to get you walked than see a contract out IMO.

The other option is to do the work better than the other tester then put a business case to the client to bin him and not you. Attack is the best form of defense.