software engineer culture

June 21, 2007

So yesterday at work, everybody was requested to come in early today at work (815 AM, can you believe it?!) because some important people were coming, and they didn't want the office to look empty.

Now, our dev team doesn't really get it kicking until 1030am usually; Max and I battle every day to see who can come the latest; one of us shows up at 1015, the other at 1030.

We got a little grief from Ken yesterday about the engineering team always coming in so late, and Brigette and Steve seemed to indicate that this was not unusual practice at Microsoft (starting late).

Is starting late a cultural thing among software engineers cause we can we get away with it, or is it one of those things where it really does lead to a more productive workday? I used to think I couldn't code when I'm tired (more mistakes), but my work is usually so shoddy anyways I can't tell the difference anymore.

What's the experience at other companies and other professions?

Posted by roy on June 21, 2007 at 09:29 AM in Web Development | 11 Comments

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SuperSunJ

Comment posted on June 22nd, 2007 at 12:11 AM

It seems to be mixed at the different software departments within my company. Some tend to have people meander in late (9-10am) while others, in particular support groups, come in at the crack of dawn (6am). I know for older developers, they tend to come in earlier so that they can leave early to pick up their kids.

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yuhoo7

Comment posted on June 21st, 2007 at 03:33 PM

What I believe, through my experience with work tardiness, is that the more tardy an employee is, the quality of the work done will actually be much higher per capita. The reason for this discrepancy is due to the fact that the worker knows he's in trouble for coming in late, and thus works extra hard to make up for the work they missed in an effort to impress the boss. Little do they know, they've already been fired.

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spaceinthewho

Comment posted on June 21st, 2007 at 01:56 PM

when i worked for non-tech companies, the culture was very 9-5.

at tech companies, it was more about core hours so that people could schedule meetings. (although, i talked to someone who works in ND and she says everyone at that office is gone by 6)

so it's probably more dependently on what kind of company you work for and how they developed their corporate culture.

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bert

Comment posted on June 21st, 2007 at 01:25 PM

this isn't a cultural thing relating to the field of software development, but rather associated to companies.

Boeing had 3 shifts for programmers (you pick).

MSFT doesn't care how many hours you work as long as you get your work done.

EA like you to work 60+ hour weeks.

Startups normally want you to work until you're incapacitated =)

i wish i could not be at a 8-5 right now though =P

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roy