Please give details of what you do for a living.
I fix bugs in the company's only product, which is a software package for reinsurance brokers.
What sort of company do you work for, how many employees does it have etc?
It is a software company with about 45 employees.
What part(s) of your job do you really enjoy?
Nothing.
What part(s) of your job do you really dislike?
Performance Reviews, which are every 6 months.
What software/special language do you use?
Adabas NATURAL (it has to be spelled in capital letters).
Who, within or outside the company, gives you tasks to do etc.?
My boss or her deputy (my boss works part-time). I have no external business contact eg with clients or with suppliers.
To whom do you report?
My boss. She is only a supervisor - like a foreman - she spends at least part of her time fixing bugs, just like me.
With whom do you interact most often?
The guy sitting opposite me - who does exactly the same job as me.
How many phone calls you do you receive/make a week?
I don't make phone calls on behalf of the company. Occasionally I answer the phone to an external call but it will not be for me.
How many emails do you receive/make a week?
For business - none.
How many meetings do you attend a week?
On average, about one.
What does excellence mean in your domain?
Many bug fixes turn out to have only partially fixed the bug. Some bug fixes cause new bugs. Excellence means keeping these two things to a very rare minimum.
What does incompetence mean in your domain?
The opposite of excellence, as described above, or being too slow. Or just not having the technical skills (ie not knowing NATURAL well enough, or at all).
Describe a tough day.
When business conditions are tough they try to squeeze more out of us than we can manage. The tough day is then the day when you have a row with your boss at your Performance Review.
Describe a good day.
Any day when nothing goes wrong and no-one criticises me. There are lots of days like that.
With whom do you have conflicts?
Those of my colleagues who have the worst social skills.
What makes you happy in your work?
Praise - but I don't really like my job - I am happier when I am not there
How are you evaluated?
At 6 monthly performance reviews. The only real metric is how many bugs you have fixed - but those who have to test bug fixes will have commented on what proportion of your fixes fail their tests.
How many years might a person do this job?
NATURAL is becoming obsolete so now you hope to do this particular job until you retire - or you retrain in your spare time.
How many years does one have to study to do this job?
If you have the right kind of mind it takes a year or two of on-the-job experience to learn the basics - extra experience helps, though. Training courses also help but they last a day or a week - not years.
What kind of training are you offered?
In my present job - none.
What does your boss do?
The same as me. She also does an initial investigation of each bug (she has many more years of experience of the company's product than me). She does minor personnel work, like approving (or not approving) holiday requests from those she supervises.
What do your subordinates do?
I have no subordinates.
What does it take to get fired from this job?
There was one programmer whose work was great but whose time-keeping got worse and worse. He also had major personality problems and refused to communicate with his colleagues at all. They fired him.
What do you have to do to get promoted from this job?
Promotion is not going to happen. If my boss and her deputy both left it is just possible I would get one of those jobs.
What did you do before doing this job?
I worked as a freelancer - doing the same work but for an insurance company which had its own internal software. Before working as a trainee NATURAL programmer I worked for shipping firms, doing work that had nothing to do with computers.
What could you do after this job?
Perhaps I could become a primary school teacher or a primary school classroom assistant.
Could you do this job in other country?
Yes. I did it in Chicago 15 years ago.
How do you dress for work?
As long as you are decent (ie not exposing body areas usually considered private), don't smell and don't wear t-shirts displaying offensive messages, they don't mind.
How many hours do you work a week?
The official hours are 37.5 per week - I usually do a bit more, say 40. This extra bit is unpaid.
How often do you do overtime?
I have never done paid overtime for this firm.
Do you go out to have lunch?
The firm has no restaurant/canteen etc. You can choose not to eat lunch, or to bring a packed lunch, or go out and buy sandwiches etc. I usually buy sandwiches. The firm has modest kitchen facilities - fridges, microwaves, sinks, surfaces suitable for food preparation. For me there are nver business lunches.
Do you have lots of friends at work?
I am friendly with lots of people at work but there are only two I am friends with outside work.
Are you happy with how much you earn?
No. But I blame myself, not the firm. I should have updated my skills years ago.
What other job do you think you would love?
Being a primary school teacher or a classroom assistant in a primary school.
What would you change to make your job more beautiful?
Get rid of the most irritating four people.
Would you recommend this job to your kids?
No.
Are you happy with this job?
No, but that is maybe just me. I don't think there is any job I could have started doing at, say, 20 or 25, and carried on doing until I was, say, 60 or 65, and described myself as happy with my job for all or nearly all of that time. Actually I think this is true of most people, even those who really like their job to begin with. In the end it just pays the bills. I don't hate my job, though, and I'm glad about that. I have experience of doing jobs I hated.
