Incoherent Babble

Found this little nugget of gold at the end of Junior programmers: Earn Respect in 5 Easy Payments (+$19.95 P&H):

It is perfectly acceptable to ask questions of people on your team, even if you are ’senior’ or leading the team. The one trait that is hated from a junior team-member is asking too many questions. This trait is not all that common but when it is encountered it is probably the most annoying problem to have in the office. Only ask a question when you have spent a reasonable amount of time (say at least 15 minutes) trying to find the answer yourself - go through the sourc-code, search the documentation, Google it. Only when you are completely stuck should you get some help.

So many times I have been asked something like “what does this message mean” and I have found the answer on the very first hit of Googling that particular error message. This is embarrassing for the question-asker and annoying for me because I was distracted for an easily found answer.

How true it is. This is a horrible problem at our office. Because we have “lax standards” (yes, I’m being very nice here), there are a number of people around on a daily basis that either don’t have the mental capacity to actually figure out a problem as it pertains to their job description, or who are simply too lazy to figure it out on their own.

As a result, those few who actually do posses that kind of common-sense reasoning ability get “dumped on”. Sure, maybe I could figure this out on my own, but why bother? Chris is right across the room! He’ll be able to tell me what I screwed up, even if it doesn’t actually have anything to do with his job!

He didn’t write that reports program and he’s used it twice in his entire career, but I can ask him anyway!

Now to be fair, I’m not sure if this reflects more poorly on their manager for not firing incompetent employees, or on mine for not telling people in no uncertain terms to take a hike… Either way, I’m the one that ends up suffering because “management” isn’t doing their jobs appropriately in one form or another.

Beware all ye who enter unto the Systems department today…