Finish 3 roughly similar bulletin boards in 1.5 days by copying and pasting from a roughly similar project: WTF or not?



  • So I've been asking the team lead for which database tables I need to insert into, select or delete from, for at least 3 days.

    I haven't got an answer yet.

    My contract with this WTF Inc. ends tomorrow.

    I asked the manager to be sure that he knows when my contract ends; he didn't know.

    So I asked him what he expects me to do with the given task.
    He says he will email me the tables I need to work with after lunch and expects me to finish it before I leave.

    I have 3 roughly similar bulletin boards with the HTML all designed already.
    He says it's a very simple task because I can just copy and paste from another project which is very similar.

    Putting "why the hell they chose to do so" aside, finishing 3 bulletin boards in 1.5 days seems unreasonable.

    Am I too slow a programmer?

    Further information

    I used bulletin board, not bulletin board system because, so far I've worked in Korea, even if you have two menus, say "General Discussion" and "Post Your Daily WTF Incidents", and they are almost identical in how the data is stored, they have two separate tables, thus two separate DAO, Controller, and Model( and they name all model objects as AbcVO, yes VO - value object, even though they clearly have an id field)

    So I'm asked to finish three of these, very similar yet I have three separate packages(java packages) with near dummy controllers, DAOs and model objects(again names as VOs)

    Further thought

    Should I just quit and work at McDonalds and study & programme by myself at home?
    Will it be more constructive?



  • Apparently, the contracted position only requires knowledge of copying and pasting. Wait... Are you sure they wanted a programmer and not a data entry guy?



  • It would be reasonable if you were, for example, customizing PHPBB instances and already had the HTML/CSS finished.

    For bulletin boards made from scratch? Not even remotely close. That's not enough time to QA (yes, yes, I know you have no QA people) a single bulletin board site.


  • Garbage Person

    Sheeeit, we've been QAing this one for how long?



  • As I've added more information, they are not asking me to finish three bulletin board systems.

    I still think 3 is too much though.

    Should I quit and work at McDonalds?
    Should I study and programme at home by myself instead?
    Will it be more constructive?

    @Weng Could you tell me what software you are working on?

    @blakeyrat HTML/CSS are finished but these three bulletin boards are indeed made from scratch. It is not like they developed a BB-system and customise for each new client. They make a whole (kind of) new piece of software. But then they just copy and paste from the old project as much as they can and make new bits as they need. They don't have a product.

    @WPT I'm confused too. I cannot feel proud of what I create. This job is very unsatisfying.


  • :belt_onion:

    @Ascendant said:

    @Weng Could you tell me what software you are working on?

    Discourse joke



  • @Weng said:

    Sheeeit, we've been QAing this one for how long?

    We're pretty sure there's no quality, but we need to be absolutely sure.



  • I'm still unsure if this is a normal amount of work given the time or not.

    I'm still waiting for that table information. The manager has not sent me email and he is gone or talking to someone else all the time. Gah!



  • Do what you can until the contract runs out, then when it's out it's out.



  • @blakeyrat I just got the names of the tables and literally copying and pasting and fixing the inevitable broken code. I am concerned about the manager getting mad at me for not finishing all these in time which is why I think it's important to make sure that I'm not the only one who thinks this task is unreasonable.



  • The only one whose opinion matters is his.

    If you think you won't make his deadline, you have to say so as soon as possible. Don't over-promise and under-deliver. Under-promise and over-deliver.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    The only one whose opinion matters is his.

    If you think you won't make his deadline, you have to say so as soon as possible. Don't over-promise and under-deliver. Under-promise and over-deliver.

    Ascendant : I can't finish this in time.
    Manager : You are incompetent.
    Ascendant: No, because [ insert reason ].

    My reason is that simply the amount of work is too much to be reasonably achieved within the given time.
    My thread here is an attempt to validate (or invalidate) my hypothesis .



  • @Ascendant said:

    My reason is that simply the amount of work is too much to be reasonably achieved within the given time.

    Well, you're the one who's best qualified to judge this.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    Well, you're the one who's best qualified to judge this.

    You give me too much credit and I'm just looking for a second opinion, not a verdict.



  • I get that you want kind of a meterstick to measure by, but:

    1. I think it's safe to say that everybody on this forum will agree that deadline is unreasonable, and

    2. That doesn't matter for your purpose right now. What's important for you right now is that if you honestly believe you can not get the work done, that you communicate that to your manager as soon as possible.

    If that means he thinks you're incompetent, well, then he thinks you're incompetent. If he comes to that opinion, though, he's a terrible manager and you shouldn't really care what he thinks.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    I get that you want kind of a meterstick to measure by, but:

    I think it's safe to say that everybody on this forum will agree that deadline is unreasonable, and
    That doesn't matter for your purpose right now. What's important for you right now is that if you honestly believe you can not get the work done, that you communicate that to your manager as soon as possible.

    If that means he thinks you're incompetent, well, then he thinks you're incompetent.


    I agree.

    @blakeyrat said:

    If he comes to that opinion, though, he's a terrible manager and you shouldn't really care what he thinks.

    Not that I'm saying I'm right, but I prefer to have a good argument with good reasons.
    So if he thinks that I'm incompetent, I can put up my argument. The manager can also contact my real employer. Either the manager or the employer, I would like to be ready to give my reasoning and I want my reasoning to be reasonable.
    That's why I wanted to check if I'm crazy or not by asking here.
    Perhaps I'm posting wrong content on a wrong category or even wrong website?

    Perhaps I should just stop here then.

    In any case, I appreciate your opinion, especially the deadline part.



  • Everyone of us specializes in different fields even in IT. So to say that each one of us would complete the same specific task in the same time frame is ridiculous. Our thought and analysis processes are unique to one another. Well, if this results in you being called out to be incompetent, then all the more that you should admit perhaps that you are not that competent in that particular task. That goes to say that some of us might also not be as competent in that particular task. But that should not make everyone of us incompetent as a whole.

    I, for one, admit that I am not a good copy-and-paste data entering machine, as required by your job description/



  • @WPT said:

    that you should admit perhaps that you are not that competent in that particular task

    Ah indeed, copy and paste without the underlying data structure, the company specific coding convention, and the use of anti pattern, is not my strongest suit.


  • I survived the hour long Uno hand

    @Ascendant said:

    I prefer to have a good argument with good reasons.

    Do a small piece and time it. Then you can say "I accomplished foo in time period. I have X time periods remaining, so I can only do about bar work. How do you want me to prioritize this?"


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