My Colleague Said Their Work is Chill. Here is What I Think

Photo by Drew Coffman on Unsplash

We had a work event recently. It’s not the sort of place that you would like to see the grumpy face of The Secret Developer. Imagine having to socialize with someone who simply does not wish to be there and will happily tell you that they’d rather be anywhere else. It’s a recipe for disaster.

“It was worse than I ever expected. My misery this time? Caused by a perfectly happy colleague.”

The Issue

As is often the case, there isn’t a real issue here. The Secret Developer seems to believe that every colleague should be wrapped up in code throughout their lives. We can take a look at their erratic behavior in their own words.

“So, I’m standing in a bar with a colleague who works on an adjacent technology to me. They love our company, but I have an issue with their reasoning.

‘It’s so chill here. I would need to do 5 times the amount of work at my last employer, and they’d be on at me to get it done. Here nobody cares.’

Meaning exactly what you think it does. Also, they didn’t seem to mind management being around as they communicated these rather horrific thoughts.

To me, it’s a sackable offense. Imagine saying such a thing in an interview, it surely must be a no-hire signal. Saying this to me makes me feel I’m in the wrong culture. I hate having nothing to do.”

Learnings

“Don’t say things that annoy me. You’ll end up in a blog post. I didn’t even touch on their shoddy code either.”

The Secret Developer clearly needs to be in a work situation where colleagues share the same values as they do. It should be obvious by now to everyone reading this blog that The Secret Developer really needs to find a new employer. If you feel you don’t fit in your current organization, you should act on that feeling and make changes.

Conclusion

The Secret Developer should be more frozen. That is, they should let it go.

“I’m concerned that I understand that reference.”