A wise man once told me that when someone becomes indispensable the very best thing you can do is get rid of them as soon as possible. I've always thought that was sage advice. I've tried to keep that in mind. So I'm always keeping an eye out for habits that "indispensable" coders have. These are the guys I want eliminated, even if one of those guys is me.
What it comes down to is whether or not one guy on the team can hold an entire project hostage. No company can reasonably afford to be in that position. I certainly wouldn't want to put a company in that position. It's about risk, and managing that risk, and doing so proactively.
So, without further adieu, the Top 10 Signs You've Become Indispensable (and Are Therefore About to Be Fired):
- You're the only one who can work on the particular tasks assigned to you, because you're the only one who understands them.
- You believe in or practice job security through code obscurity.
- You don't communicate, and hoard valuable information that other members of the team need to get their jobs done.
- You make technology decisions, implement them, and expect everyone to follow suit, whether they understand them or not.
- You frequently make vast, sweeping changes to the underlying architecture of the system, without first discussing those changes or their impact with others on the team.
- You don't really understand object oriented analysis and design, but you act like you do.
- You resist any suggestions for better, proven ways to implement solutions, simply because someone tried it that way before and it left a bad taste in your mouth.
- You use source code control like a backup device, rather than a version control system.
- When designing a system, your first thought is the code or data model and not the problem domain.
- You have no interest in being a member of the team, and would rather do it your way all the time.
(This is, of course, completely unscientific and totally subjective. Take it or leave it.)
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