Programmer fired after 6 years after forgetting how to code due to automation

[christianled59]

This is amazing. 

[Sauron]

1 minute ago, Xsilent(X) said:

 

security checks, bug finders, update software and more

I didn't know finding bugs through scripts was possible

[christianled59]

7 minutes ago, Sauron said:

I didn't know finding bugs through scripts was possible

Sure it is. The programs tested were probably fairly simple. He probably used a complicated series of executing different bits of code for different things that checked for specific errors that he'd be checking for manually and then merely ran a "true" "false" node or something along those lines. Not sure what kind of program it was, but if its simple enough in nature, I can see it being done.

 

I've seen a lot of highschoolers make advanced calculators where you literally drop your math homework into it and it does nearly all the work. 

[CommandMan7]

 

[dtaflorida]

Sounds like this guy was doing what I was doing out of college but was successful at it for 6 years. 

 

Out of college I wanted nothing more than a data entry job that I could automate without my superiors knowing/exploiting. I failed at this, and everywhere I went my superiors would find out I could program and instead of a low level data entry job, they'd make me write programs for everyone else... to which I said, I could actually get paid as a programmer than do that so I quit and moved on, a few times. 

 

[ThinkWithPortals]

Fucking genius.

[Unhelpful]

41 minutes ago, CommandMan7 said:

 

Doesn't apply here. You have them find a way to do a job lazily, then move them on to have them find more things that can be done lazily. It's not one-off and paid for 6 years. 

[OptimisticRealist]

Talk about incompetent and unatentive bosses...the company and the administration got what they deserved really.

[Kaita]

2 hours ago, KE2012 said:

This reminds me of a quote by Bill Gates

 

 

I thought that was Steve Jobs

[theGreatNex]

2 hours ago, JoeyDM said:

So much ambition. 

 

There are so many better, more productive routes this could have taken. But this idiot played LoL and browsed reddit instead. Great job.

Let's see you successfully code a full suite of automated testing which rarely needs to be touched.

 

AFAIC, this guy has earned the right to do whatever the fuck he wants.  

[Unhelpful]

3 minutes ago, theGreatNex said:

 

No. He had the right to automate his job, and maybe even sell the automation to the company. Automating your job, by no means, gives you the right to do nothing. You may want to ditch that shitty mindset. It's the mindset of shortcuts and laziness that result in subpar work.

[theGreatNex]

46 minutes ago, OptimisticRealist said:

Talk about incompetent and unatentive bosses...the company and the administration got what they deserved really.

If they hadn't of employed this guy in the first place they would still be paying someone to sit there and code, my best guess being, sub par testing.  

[theGreatNex]

2 minutes ago, JoeyDM said:

No. He had the right to automate his job, and maybe even sell the automation to the company. Automating your job, by no means, gives you the right to do nothing. You may want to ditch that shitty mindset. It's the mindset of shortcuts and laziness that result in subpar work.

Except his work was in no way sub par, it was most likely top quality.

 

Do you work with software?

[Unhelpful]

11 minutes ago, theGreatNex said:

 

I do. And even if it was fan-fucking-tastic, that still by no means gives him the right to get paid for it as if it wasn't automated.  That means he presents it to the company, sells them that automation, and gets a fantastic contact + more work. Instead, he was a lazy bum who deserved to be fired, and whose company hopefully has it in his contract to redact pay retroactively, since he hasn't worked in 6 years. They won't, because that would be fucked up, but I wish they had the right to.

[theGreatNex]

1 minute ago, JoeyDM said:

I do. And even if it was fan-fucking-tastic, that still by no means gives him the right to get paid for it as if it wasn't automated.  That means he presents it to the company, sells them that automation, and gets a fantastic contact + more work. Instead, he was a lazy bum who deserved to be fired, and whose company hopefully has it in his contract to redact pay retroactively, since he hasn't worked in 6 years.

The role existed, it was there to be filled by a human.  The other option was to not fully automate the testing but to do it manually for 6 years.  Why the fuck not sit there and get paid if you can?  I agree he should be putting his time, on a personal level for him, into something more productive, but I don't think he owes the company a fucking second or a dime.

[as96]

 

[Misanthrope]

Sure a lazy fuck could do that. Somebody with an ounce of fucking ambition in his body would have made 600k in 3 months and then 3 or 4 times as much per year selling those automation scripts as an Independent consultant . Seriously TONS of businesses would pay him the full 6 years salary to go implement that. 

 

That is the difference between a neckbeard and a millionaire. 

[Misanthrope]

30 minutes ago, theGreatNex said:

The role existed, it was there to be filled by a human.  The other option was to not fully automate the testing but to do it manually for 6 years.  Why the fuck not sit there and get paid if you can?  I agree he should be putting his time, on a personal level for him, into something more productive, but I don't think he owes the company a fucking second or a dime.

You can suggest eliminating the position in favor of automation or low maintenance back office consultants instead. And make a  fucking killing out of it also for doing next to nothing. Read my post above. 

[mikat]

 

[mikat]

8 minutes ago, Misanthrope said:

Sure a lazy fuck could do that. Somebody with an ounce of fucking ambition in his body would have made 600k in 3 months and then 3 or 4 times as much per year selling those automation scripts as an Independent consultant . Seriously TONS of businesses would pay him the full 6 years salary to go implement that. 

 

That is the difference between a neckbeard and a millionaire. 

yup, was a pretty big mistake on his part to sit on ass for 6 years and forget how to code

[theGreatNex]

11 minutes ago, Misanthrope said:

Sure a lazy fuck could do that. Somebody with an ounce of fucking ambition in his body would have made 600k in 3 months and then 3 or 4 times as much per year selling those automation scripts as an Independent consultant . Seriously TONS of businesses would pay him the full 6 years salary to go implement that. 

 

That is the difference between a neckbeard and a millionaire. 

Haha, maybe he doesn't care about money that much?  People like that do exist.... somewhere.

[Misanthrope]

3 minutes ago, theGreatNex said:

Haha, maybe he doesn't care about money that much?  People like that do exist.... somewhere.

OK. A modest living as an occasional consultant. Standing in the bread line will make him wish he did SOMETHING to at least not forgetting a marketable skill or not basically black list yourself from the job market: "Last job? Borderline embezzlement of company money for 6 years.... I was good at coding... Before I forgot how to" 

 

 

[brune67]

Huh. That headline got my attention pretty fast.

[Energycore]

I mean sure, he was ingenuous enough to make a program to do his job for him. But then he dedicated his life to slack and now he's jobless and doesn't remember how to code. Smarts aren't everything in life.

[dalomo]

59 minutes ago, JoeyDM said:

I do. And even if it was fan-fucking-tastic, that still by no means gives him the right to get paid for it as if it wasn't automated.  That means he presents it to the company, sells them that automation, and gets a fantastic contact + more work. Instead, he was a lazy bum who deserved to be fired, and whose company hopefully has it in his contract to redact pay retroactively, since he hasn't worked in 6 years. They won't, because that would be fucked up, but I wish they had the right to.

He did what he was paid to do. it's in the same family as using copy+paste in a spreadsheet instead of manually typing it all out. Not saying he's a great person for doing it, yeah he probably should have tried to sell them the software, get a raise, and do other stuff higher up in the company. But he DEFINITELY doesn't deserve to have his pay redacted, that's absurd. The company got what they wanted out of his position, so he deserves the pay.