patrick.net

When I was in graduate school, I automated a bunch of data analysis procedures that took people 6 months to do correctly with someone smart enough looking over their shoulders. I was immediately tasked with automating other things while a bunch of idiots who wouldn't have survived in the lab then proceeded to use my scripts to analyze their data and graduate 2 years early. I don't blame this guy one bit for not telling his bosses. The reality is, he should offer to sell it to them for a big chunk of money.

What ethics? If the company could automate you, they'd do it in a heartbeat. It wouldn't even merit an article. "Guy made himself redundant, was sacked, investors happy, guy on street."

Turnabout is fair play.

You owe no loyalty to a collection of paperwork that establishes a fictional entity. It's like claiming loyalty to a collection of tree bark and twigs. Wait, bark and twigs are corporeal, abstract notions agreed upon by society's legal fantasies aren't it. It's not even a real human person.

The bigger question is how can management not realize these tasks could be automated? If they are that retarded, then this guy deserves the pay he was brought in for to do this job regardless of how many hours a week it takes him.

Sound like he's doing a great job.

Shit. I've done this to my job as well and I give zero shits. Many of my peer IT co-workers have as well.

The issue is, when things break, you're the only one who can fix it.

My old PM said when he hired IT guys, he always picked the laziest. Why? He said they were ALWAYS the most efficient at doing things and found quick, automated solutions to complex problems.

Corporate America is a joke!

If you can get away with it, do it, because Corporate America doesn't give a rat's about you.

If this person tells their boss, they are a moron.

CBOEtrader says

The bigger question is how can management not realize these tasks could be automated?

Big companies really have dumb management in terms of day to day stuff. Now playing politics, powerpoint presentations and the like-they are superb

anonymous says

Is it unethical for me to not tell my employer I’ve automated my job?

No. That's a trade secret. Just make sure you are the only one who has access to your scripts. Put them on an encrypted thumb drive. They are your tools not your employer. Own your own work.

anonymous says

He basically spends his day taking care of his son, and fears if he reveals the scripts, he'll be let go, not for unethical behavior, but because the company will use the scripts and won't need him.

Exactly. They will steal your work and use your wealth generation for themselves while you get nothing.

CBOEtrader says

The bigger question is how can management not realize these tasks could be automated?

Business people are incapable of creating automations. Only engineers can do this. This is why engineers should own the automations instead of business people.

Dan8267 says

Own your own work.

Almost every employment contract has that "work for hire" clause that states anything you work on while employed is company IP.

They have contractual rights to those scripts (if he tells them).

joshuatrio says

He said they were ALWAYS the most efficient at doing things and found quick, automated solutions to complex problems.

When a problem arose in my construction business,I would ask the employees if they saw a solution.
The lazy fucks would usually have a good answer.

It takes the other 38 hours to think about the best way to script codegen queries. He also didn't talk about the hours and hours it took getting the data model just right so that works. And midnight oil to retrofit custom business logic. It's deliverables not time on the clock that counts.

His Employer knows their company is the only one in their vertical that is doing XML automation 3 years on. Because Microsoft managed code design patterns cripples development.
It's a design pattern, and developers like that do their brain work at home not in the office. We're always working.

He probably doesn't feel challenged he needs to take his rare skills to small manufacturing shops where you talk to the owners instead of HR through Facebook. His style does not fit in a shop that trying to make managed code that can be put on Amazon servers and managed by Indians that never go live

Many Enterprise shops has an IT execs that is actively sabotaging the project because he want's to go all SalesForce, or out source it to India.
They have an IT department and a software project in the works for the optics because they are trying to either raise capital or secure a loan.

They don't care if you twiddle your thumbs all day but don't you dare propose a better idea that just might work.

BTW I was straight up with my employer that I script code gen and use a lot of my technology in the their stack that was my proprietary property when I came to work for them.
I came in this company with a three year plan in and out. I have been so successful in my delivery with their requirements for the original plan. That they are trying like hell to create 4 more years of work with big heavy International partners. I'm ready for big big big money pay day, my code monkey days are over. They need to start talking about partnership or Skynet goes live.

My code is so obscure to your typical coder from a Scrum shop they wouldn't have a fucking clue what in the hell I'm doing. But it all works. Fuck with that it all doesn't any more.
Welcome to hell buddy. Databases in the 6Nth order and code load spread across a 6 part stack. But there's no ERP or CRM I can't integrate to any database. And I do it all in just 2 hours a day fuckwads! Fuck managed code, my shit works!

I would write a book on the subject and most developers wouldn't get it. It takes hours and hours of dedication the asshole in the story of the OP if full of shit.
He works 2 hours a day during normal business hours. He's working 16 hours a day. I run home many days at 3:30 chomping a the bits to get back to my home office sit my ass down and code what I do. Then I work until 2am 3 or 4am during crunch time for a crucial deliverable.
Sure I can deliver a project that takes your typical stack developer team of 3 months in under 3 weeks. it may look like I bullshited on Patrick.net for every minute I was at work during working hours. I have no home life and that's the truth. Nothing is free.

Basically your company doesn't own the program pattern or language. If you're not developing your own pattern and stack process. Then you are not staying Relevant.
And will be replaced by the next graduating class.

http://holowczak.com/database-normalization/

https://www.codeproject.com/Tips/500811/Simple-Way-To-Use-Pivot-In-SQL-Query

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb126445.aspx

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5873170/generate-class-from-database-table

Free your mind!

Dan8267 says

Business people are incapable of creating automations. Only engineers can do this. This is why engineers should own the automations instead of business people.

Who is stopping them from owning the companies?

CBOEtrader says

Almost every employment contract has that "work for hire" clause that states anything you work on while employed is company IP.

Another way capitalism curtails innovation and entrepreneurship. See why it's a bad system yet? It takes away the incentive to invent.

Strategist says

Who is stopping them from owning the companies?

Big business. For example, if big telecom and cable manage to kill net neutrality, they will prevent new start ups from making it. Another example, big auto killed Tucker. Another example, De Beers killed all competition with a monopoly. Another example, Microsoft force vendors not to use other people's operating systems with the threat of higher prices for Windows. I could go on and on about how the average Joe is prevented from competing with big business.

Biometrically encrypt the scripts inside an app. Make sure you need your retinal scan to run them. That way you always add value. If they want to own the app, let them, as long as it's worthless without your retinal scan.

Dan8267 says

Strategist says

Who is stopping them from owning the companies?

Big business. For example, if big telecom and cable manage to kill net neutrality, they will prevent new start ups from making it. Another example, big auto killed Tucker. Another example, De Beers killed all competition with a monopoly. Another example, Microsoft force vendors not to use other people's operating systems with the threat of higher prices for Windows. I could go on and on about how the average Joe is prevented from competing with big business.

LOL. Here are more examples of big companies preventing the average Joe from competing:
Apple...Google....Amazon...Facebook....Microsoft....Tesla.
Apple started in a garage. How dare they.

Strategist says

LOL. Here are more examples of big companies preventing the average Joe from competing:

Apple...Google....Amazon...Facebook....Microsoft....Tesla.

Apple started in a garage. How dare they.

Good job. You just proved there were exactly six opportunities available for average Joes. Now if only there were 300 million more you'd have a point.

The fact is that the winner take all nature of our economy does greatly hinder innovation by allowing for only six winners in the past 40 years. Image if we didn't have a winner take all economy and 300 million people could innovate and prosper.

Tenpoundbass says

BTW I was straight up with my employer that I script code gen and use a lot of my technology in the their stack that was my proprietary property when I came to work for them.

That works when you are a consultant. We run into all kinds of situations-sometimes he bigger companies will offer us the automation platform for free-with the caveat being only their employees/consultants will have access to run it. Today's world is interesting.

lostand confused says

We run into all kinds of situations-sometimes he bigger companies will offer us the automation platform for free-with the caveat being only their employees/consultants will have access to run it. Today's world is interesting.

They are more than welcome to replace me with that non existent person or go back to doing it manually like their competition.
I drag in work after 10:30 and leave by 3:30 -4 ish.
Why do serfs and slaves expect everyone to do it the hard way?

If the guy had a magical elf in one pocket and a pocket porn star in the other, all he did all day was have his elf do all of his work load while his pocket elf gave him head, why would it matter to his employer?

ThreeBays says

First these companies are not 6 average Joe's, they are organizations of hundreds of thousands of highly educated workers.

That proves my point. The owners get billions of dollars whereas those highly skilled workers get hundreds of thousands of dollars despite being the entire reason for the revenue streams of the companies. Notice the difference.

And since any work those workers do related to IT, even on the side, would be owned by the companies, they have no reason to innovate.

If the employer is paying for his time, then it shouldn't matter if he's watching the clock at work. If the employer is paying for the work, then it shouldn't matter how quickly he does the job. If it makes everyone feel better, he could add a few "sleep()" calls to the scripts to make them take 8 hours.

Dan8267 says

And since any work those workers do related to IT, even on the side, would be owned by the companies, they have no reason to innovate.

The company will never own concepts such as these.
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5873170/generate-class-from-database-table

And scripts that Stubs out your classes, still leaves the task of going back to the classes and adding the inheritance for objects that need it, or add the List properties hierarchy to parent objects. Then any business rules or logic you they may require. Scripting the code cuts down writing redundant code that from project to project that part never changes. Companies should fire the idiots still wasting their time typing out 25,000 lines of code needlessly.

If it's a good company they would promote him. If it's a bad company they would take the scripts and fire him. I say tell them, because who wants to work for a bay company? Plus I think it would look pretty good on a resume. Take that to a more challenging job where he can spend 6-8 hours a day improving a companies process.

But how long has this been going on without them knowing? The longer he waits, the more sticky it could get revealing what he's accomplished.

NuttBoxer says

I say tell them, because who wants to work for a bay company?

It's not always a choice. Bad companies outnumber good companies a hundred to one. When you go by jobs, it's even worse because most gigantic companies are bad companies.

NuttBoxer says

But how long has this been going on without them knowing? The longer he waits, the more sticky it could get revealing what he's accomplished.

The reality is, unless you're under the gun to deliver code for the next day or fix a bug. Most developers work 10% of their time at work on actual coding.
IF you work for a company with more than 500 employees, you have at least two birthday cake in the kitchen announcements a day. 3 meetings, the office gossiper stopping by 5 times, a senior manager to ask about viability of the next project concept, then end users with their petty problems.
If he's working 2 hours a day that's 15 minutes more than most.

Imagine trying to write a Novel with those kind of interruptions while your creative juices are flowing, and you're not writing the ideas down. That's what interruptions are like for a coder. If you are being asked by another user about a process in code, it could take you from the code you were working on at the time before the interruption. Often forgotten and thought complete until you're ready to test the complete project then realize you were pulled away and forgot to finish plugging in the Database update method.

You're not there to be an office bitch, subject to the daily routines of the office they all get to leave in the office when they go home. Those folks are making $35K to $45K to toil over office operations. A software developer in a socially active office is wasting 90% of this time doing $35K pay grade Office stuff including participating in the New Printer naming contest.

That's the real reality of corporate software development in the Enterprise. It took me Years of working in unproductive offices to realize that if I don't go over the HR and CTO's head and go directly to the business owners and explain that I can deliver that huge project in three days only if I disappear from work for three days. Then I'll be part of the massive IT department shake up in a year to three.
My company wants (X) from me, they don't give a shit if I show up at work at 4:30 to tell them it's pushed and then back out the door by 4:45.
I'll be fucked and the first one so fired if I ever get to the point I'm not only delivering, but not delivering huge projects in ridiculously short amount of time.

The owners and pretty much every one in the know of their competition and partners know the other companies have 5 people to my counterpart.
Even their competition's management brags about to me to other companies.

Tenpoundbass says

If he's working 2 hours a day

He's working 2 hours a week.

NuttBoxer says

He's working 2 hours a week.

He's full of crap or his company is only asking him to write redundant crap.
As I've outlined in my posts on this topic.Then that is the case it may be due to appearances of having an IT staff, and his bringing attention to inefficiencies is a great way for him to part ways with that company. Never piss off the Gravy Train conductor.

Test

https://i.giphy.com/media/VrSZDlpRaHYje/giphy.mp4