Drink. Smoke. Talk. Ahaha :-) WTF ?
Okay, I want to warn you, the following events are as real as stupid. Keyword : “stupid” (maybe not in fact…).
So, after we lunched and worked all the afternoon (no, wait, not all the afternoon, I spent half an hour talking to a colleague I haven’t seen for weeks, as she was in holidays), we planned to go to my project manager’s. We were alone, drinking (he had three Hogaarden, I preferred Ballantine’s).
And we discussed the current projects and the conversation went to the point I wanted to : what the boss thinks about me.
Ready ?
You do not invest yourself in your tasks.
Fairly true, it’s far most interesting to spend all day long answering Ruby questions on the French mailing lists, reading Rails related blogs or even jokes on the Internet.
You keep on repeating WinDEV is pure shit.
Yep, true, sadly true. I would have keep on telling people to open their eyes if he didn’t tell me to stop. Okay, I’ll stop. I swear ! 
But, sorry man… WinDEV is the worst thing.
You keep on saying our software suck. I know it, everybody know it.
Really ? Ok, I won’t say anything about the lack of documentation and code comments and analysis and… and… and…
You’re too self-confident and a bit arrogant.
True, absolutely true. Having worked on Access/VBA bad designed code, I thought I was able to face anything. I was wrong ; oh dear, so wrong. Maybe having coded some stuff in Perl and Ruby (like an applicative micro-kernel) turned me into a too self-confident developer. But on this point I must admit I’m arrogant. Remember the three virtues of a programmer, according to Larry WALL (nobody knows him at work, of course) ? Laziness, Impatience and Hubries. Nothing to add, your honor.
To be honest, I imagined it would be easier than it is actually. I thought there were documentation, well-established todo lists and all that. Sorry to have learned to work the right way.
Your experience here will be valued here anyway. You’ll show your next employers you can adapt to various environments
Oh, sorry, you mean I’ll show I can work bad, write crappy code, unmaintainable software and stuff ?
And, by the way, the question is not “will this experience be valued” but “won’t another experience be better valued”. Sorry to care about my resume. And personal interest. I’m a bad guy, yeah, I admit.
So, I told him I wouldn’t have stayed at this position if I hadn’t known the team before, if I had been hired at this position at first, and, then, I told him about the Monday affair (see two posts below).
Yes, I did. Of course, I made him swear not to repeat it. So I know it will change his way to deal with me, to speak of me with the boss. He’s my friend but… you know… plans within plans
I feel better. Damn, I’m not in the right place. Let’s make my way through it for the time I find something much better. Let’s fake I’m happy to come everyday. There may be an opportunity to go back to my previous position for the time I look for another job, but nothing clear for the moment. On the pros, it would be overall better paid (lesser, but lesser charges too) ; on the cons, I would be on the roads to visit clients half the month. But, “nothing clear for the moment”.
Ok, for laughing sake only, some words my big boss (who was first a developer in the company) had :
Acutal developers need no comments.
Yes, it’s crappy, but you know, we never had time to make it usable.
Make it work first ; make it beautiful [maintainable] after, if you have time.
It *MUST* work on Friday. [when helping me on a project]
Good morning ! [10 am]
See ya tomorrow [15 pm, not the same day].
It’s worrying hu…
I leave, you call me if you need [early, too early to be reported here)
What ? You need the second company car to visit a client ? No, sorry, I need it now I have a baby.
Thank you [once].
And much more I can’t write it, especially one related to a fine the police sent us I had to pay, meanwhile some of the upper management dodged the same one.
Life’s cool, life’s sweet, don’t waste it working where you don’t feel comfortable ! Well, smoking was stupid, even if I enjoy a cigarette with a drink.