[...]
1. Do you use your hobby source code in your job ?
Yes. If I need a specific control that I already have in my library,
I have no intention of re-writing it. That would be f!#$ken stupid
and a waste of my time. I could copy and past just the parts that I
need, but my library is too interwoven for that.
The biggest waste is that of company money. They are, after all, paying
for my time. If done work redone is what they want, they can have it
for all I care.
You might not care about re-writing stuff, but I do. In my case GUI
controls are often tedious to write. Tedious twice is boring.
This could create problems ?!?
It can only cause you problems if you start to rock the boat...
<and more along this line>
This is a pragmatist's viewpoint. An extreme pragmatist. Not everything
you will probably get away with is ethical.
Well, I guess thats where we differ
. I have worked for enough lousy
companies (and one decent one) where the sleazy world of "company ethics"
has been revealed. Companies are INHERENTLY unethical. They are scum
(p.s., I am 29 and have been programming professionally for 9yrs). Think
about it. The average salaried Sr. Software Engineer will get about $90k
to $120k per year in the US. How much will your manager make? probably
quite a bit more in base + bonuses + stock options -- for doing quite a
bit less (shooting the shit in meetings all day). At the average company,
the average manager could make 2 to 3 times the money after its all said
and done for doing almost nothing except project schedules. How about
more Sr. managers? well, by the time you get higher up in the company,
people are making 10 times or more what you make, again, for doing very
little.
Sorry, but why should I work my ass off to make them rich? you call it
unethical, I call it realistic. If a manager is making $500k a year and I
am making $90k to $120k, thats not fair. Yes thats how business works,
and thats why I really don't give a shit. I don't go out of my way to
help the company.
And in case you are wondering... my company loves me, but do they show it
with money or other compensation? hell no. If my manager is making $500k
a year base, "fair" is me making over $300k to $400k, if not more. After
all, the manager is making money off MY work. As is the company.
The amount of stock options is equally out of wack.
That was slightly off topic, but was to make my point. I could really not
give a shit about ethics or the company. If I am not making any money off
my work, I'm just a salaried employee, so I am not going to go out of my
way to do extra or put in long hours, etc.
And as I said before, I hide my opinion around most people, and my
company loves me, but I could really not give a shit about helping them
since I know I'm not being compensated fairly.
Yes I am bitter
A company hiring a programmer is inherently buying access to
_knowledge_. As a programmer myself, I see little enough difference
between what's in my head and what's on my (home) harddisk. They can
have the use, but not the ownership, of both.
I have been careful in my last four jobs to have in my contract that
anything done on my own time that is not directly related to however
the company makes its money, is none of their business. If I write a
game on my own time, it's mine. If I have a good idea how to solve a
work problem, of course it's theirs. If it makes them _really_ big
money, they would of course do well to acknowlege it and motivate me
to have more ideas like that.
Groetjes,
Maarten Wiltink
Well, here in the US, companies are pretty much in charge. Often, if you
rock the boat by asking for stuff in contracts they'll just get someone
else wh