10 Ways to Work Yourself Into a SE Grave
Photo by Hassaan Here @hassaanhre on Unsplash
If working hard guaranteed success, every single developer would be at the local maximum of their corporation.
Equally, every single developer knows that isn’t how it works. Some people coast their way up the corporate ladder while others are stuck debugging inexplicable issues at 2 a.m.
In the prevailing tech culture we respect software developers who do the latter. If you’re seen to work hard management will reward you but if you actually work hard developers will respect you and your work and (if a certain type of developer is to be believed) you can’t have both. So, if you want the respect of your fellow coder, and get the benefits of wrecking your health and still get passed over for promotions read on.
Here is the definitive guide to grinding yourself into oblivion.
Work Late Every Night
You might think working long hours shows dedication, but here’s the secret. Companies don’t care. Managers don’t care. Only developers notice and will clock that you made a pull request at 5 a.m. You’ll get bonus points from your fellow developers if you do this when there is no real need to, for example when you are studying a new API or working on a new part of the codebase and simply “want to get ahead”.
In fact, if your management sees you consistently staying late, they’ll assume you’re inefficient. If they have policies to look after the wellbeing of staff you’ll actually be working against corporate policies. Meanwhile, the guy who dips out at 5 p.m. sharp? He’s at happy hour networking with the people who actually decide promotions.
Volunteer for Everything
Nothing screams “promotion material” like taking on everyone else’s work, right? Wrong.
All you’re doing is proving that you’re an easy target for dumping extra work on. And when it comes time for promotions, guess what? Your boss wants you right where you are, doing their job for them without the pay raise.
Your fellow developers, however, will love you. You’ll be working on their sections of the codebase, improving things and even doing their tickets for them! They’ll come to you when something is wrong, when the service is down and when the app isn’t performant. You’ll be the go-to, and it will go unnoticed by management.
Say “Yes” to Every Meeting
Meetings are where careers go to die.
If you spend half your day in “sync-ups,” “stand-ups,” and “alignment sessions,” congrats! You’ve just reduced your actual productivity to near zero. Promotions don’t go to people who talk about work all day, they go to people who get work done. And no, nobody cares that you “had great input” in that two-hour brainstorming session.
Your fellow developers will love you, because you’ll be going to meetings they can skip. Reviews of features nobody cares about? Why don’t you go to that one? Multiple stand-up meetings? We know who will attend for us. Ultimately, they will be able to use their free time and energy to pursue things that they enjoy. Wouldn’t you like to do that too?
Keep Studying Irrelevant Tech in Your Free Time
Sure, learning is important. But if you’re spending every weekend mastering an obscure JavaScript framework that your company doesn’t even use, you’re not “upskilling” — you’re just burning out. Meanwhile, the guy who spent his Saturday playing golf with the CTO is now your new manager.
Your fellow developers will be interested in the new things you have discovered but will strangely be unwilling to talk about it during Friday night drinking sessions. What is wrong with them?
Always Be Available
Answering Slack messages from the beach? Checking emails at 2 a.m.? Congratulations, you’ve officially signaled to management that you love working for free! Instead of viewing you as a dedicated employee, they now see you as someone with no boundaries — which means they’ll keep dumping more work on you without the pay increase.
Yet junior developers will simply love you. You’ll get Slack messages from them in the middle of your vacation, as you attempt to debug their code at the airport. Then they will expect you to give them a gift on your return. Go you!
Focus Only on Technical Skills
You’ve mastered five programming languages, can refactor code in your sleep, and optimize queries like a database wizard. That must be enough for a promotion, right? Hate to break it to you, but promotions go to people who can communicate, influence, and lead, not just the best coders. If you can’t make your work visible or advocate for yourself, you’ll be the best-kept secret in your company (and stuck at the same level forever).
Yet most of your developer colleagues only care about developer skills. That means you’ll be the talk of the town amongst developers.
Never Ask for a Raise
You assume that if you work hard enough, someone will notice and reward you. They won’t. The people who get raises are the ones who ask for them. Meanwhile, you’re quietly grinding away, waiting for someone to hand you a promotion like it’s a Disney movie.
Other developers will be in the same boat as you, so you’ll have something to bond over when you complain about your situation.
Ignore Office Politics
The idea that “hard work speaks for itself” is adorable. Unfortunately, office politics exist, and if you ignore them completely, you’re just making sure you stay in the trenches while others climb the ranks. The truth is, that promotions often have less to do with performance and more to do with visibility, relationships, and being in the right conversations. Those who have worked on their soft skills will benefit in ways that the most technical of us can only imagine.
You can join with your developer colleagues in thinking that politics is beneath you, and that’s exactly why you’ll stay at the same level as everyone else.
Make Yourself Indispensable
You handle critical systems, nobody else knows how they work, and if you left, the company would collapse. Surely, this guarantees a promotion, right? Wrong. All you’ve done is make it impossible for them to move you into a different role. Promotions happen when you create successors, not when you hoard knowledge like a dragon-guarding treasure.
At least all your fellow developers know who to call when an alert pings at 3 a.m., so there’s that
Burn Yourself Out Completely
If you really want to seal the deal, just run yourself into the ground. Skip sleep, neglect your health, and convince yourself that this next sprint is when your effort will finally be recognized. Spoiler: It won’t. And when you inevitably crash? Your company will replace you in two weeks.
Your fellow developers will see you at the hospital after the inevitable heart attack / stroke/
The Smarter (and Healthier) Way to Get Ahead
If you want a promotion, stop grinding mindlessly. Instead:
✅ Work smart, not just long.
✅ Focus on visible impact.
✅ Build relationships and influence.
✅ Set boundaries to avoid burnout.
✅ Advocate for yourself (because nobody else will).
The best developers aren’t the ones who grind themselves into dust. They’re the ones who know when to push — and when to step back.
Conclusion
What are you doing reading this still? Log off. You’ve done enough. Get some sleep and do something (more) fun. Go on.