You Get What You Pay For, But I Paid for It Myself
I always thought that working in a tech company, whilst potentially stressful and cognitively challenging, would have its upsides.
By which I mean I would like to have sufficient resources to complete my JIRA tickets. That means time, of course. That means some training (I’ve never received any). That means the basic equipment to do the job.
Yet when I say basic, I’ve only just realised what basic means in this context. At work I’ve got a 24” monitor, and this week they decided they’d give me a new mouse. It’s appalling, but at least (I guess) I can use my own mouse as it’s near impossible to bring in my own monitor.
Welcome to the World of Budget
When I joined my current company, I was given a MacBook. Many of my colleagues hunch over it, connecting themselves to the small monitor they give us at work and use the inbuilt keyboard to type. Nice.
When they want to use the trackpad they alter their position to something resembling golem on a bad day.
That’s not something The Secret Developer would simply accept. So I got a (used, oh so used) keyboard from the tech guys by saying that the a key was stuck. But I needed a mouse too, and they presented we with such a hunk of junk that I can’t really recover. When I say can’t really recover, I mean something really quite specific because it’s my musculoskeletal condition which will never truly recover.
When I see the Dell branding on the horrible (horrible) plastic I feel sick. I can only imagine the designer verbalized “this will do” as they slid their design to the boss.
The Compatibility Cliff
I know you think I’m a petty, bitter individual. Yet we aren’t wrong. However don’t think that you know me (you don’t know me).
I’m not the sort of person who usually makes a fuss about peripherals. Yet I get some pain using this low quality brick of a plastic mouse. That and the fact that MacBooks (as you know) have USB-C ports, so a USB-A port mouse is something of a slap in the face. Let’s not worry though, I have my own dongle that I need to bring to the office each and every day to simply be effective in my work. Don’t worry, I’ll bridge the gap and make sure that everything will work well enough so that I’ll be able to code and push those features out. You don’t need to do anything above the absolute contractual minimum but feel free to ask me to give up my personal time for free to push your features to customers.
Raising a Ticket, Killing a Soul
Each and every time you ask for something essential for your job someone (somewhere) manages to “raise a ticket”. This means at the same time as someone is putting pressure on you to complete your JIRA tickets (exactly why isn’t it finished?) you can be blocked by a mundane request to reset your password/get more equipment/are allowed to install software required for your job that is deprioritised because your VP has asked for something similar and you’re just you.
Conclusion
Now I carry around my mouse and my own USB-C dongle like a digital nomad, hoping I don’t leave them behind when I hot desk.
The company saved $10, I’ve got wrist pain.
You know what’s more expensive than a proper mouse? A developer’s morale slowly disintegrating as they click through Jira tickets with the digital equivalent of a potato on a leash. Oh, and their physical pain.
About The Author
Professional Software Developer “The Secret Developer” can be found on Twitter @TheSDeveloper and regularly publishes articles through Medium.com
The Secret Developer was once asked to bring their own laptop to work on. They wouldn’t do it.