[vstollen]

This made me think of my first job. I was the sole developer on a project because the old developer left. Nothing was documented and nobody knew why things were designed the way they were.

We had no code reviews, no design docs, no tests, nothing. We made the changes the way we thought they were right and would git pull them onto the production server.

After I struggled to get productive for the first four months, my manager went on a four-week Christmas vacation. In a moment of frustration, I seized the opportunity and rewrote the whole project from scratch. I don’t remember if my manager ever noticed, but that was the moment I finally got productive.

[sebastiennight]

> my manager went on a four-week Christmas vacation.

Is that kind of stuff common? People checking out on Black Friday and coming back for New Year's?

[folmar]

In Europe totally, and for example in Germany it's customary to get you six week vacation in the summer.

This also has the benefit that the workplace has to have real back-up person for all matters, as six weeks is too long to shove everything under the carpet waiting for your return.

[eddd-ddde]

As we all should. Life is too short to be surprised about not working for a month.

[Suppafly]

>Is that kind of stuff common? People checking out on Black Friday and coming back for New Year's?

Happens the further up you get in management, especially if you are in an industry that already takes a long break around christmas/newyears.

[louwrentius]

I bet that’s Europe, it’s not uncommon

[vstollen]

Yess, we were the software team for a university library. There wasn't a lot of pressure and people on my team generally had a chill and comfortable life.

However, there wasn't a lot of room for ambition.