[TRENCHES] Thursday, September 26, 2013 - Food Fight!

Geth

Food Fight!
http://trenchescomic.com/comic/post/food-fight

Keep your head down, lest you lose it.

Anonymous

Game testing was my first job upon leaving college. Naturally, I was fresh-faced, and like most college students, was not truly prepared for the realities of a professional environment. I made mistakes and
suffered for them, but I also learned from them.

However, not every mistake I learned from was one of my own making. While I was working as an associate (contract) tester for a large company in the Pacific Northwest, there was another tester in the office working on another project that was the sort of guy that thrived on attention. He was loud (though not generally disruptive), was friendly to everyone, was excited to let people know when it was his birthday, that sort of thing.

Now, one of the core rules of the department was that if you were caught sleeping when you should be working, you’d be sent home. If it happened a second time, you’d be shown the door on a permanent basis. While it wasn’t too common, between the long hours, long commutes, and everything else going on in one’s personal life, it was bound to happen. And it happened to Mr. Exuberant. He was caught sleeping, and
sent home.

And then it happened a second time, which would have been sad except for the circumstances in which it happened. He was found sleeping while sitting on a toilet in the men’s room.

By the department manager.

The office was a lot quieter after that.

Incenjucar

Oh ho ho is that an issue. One of the most important thing a tester can do is learn to force themselves to get some sleep at home using whatever tricks they can come up with. It can be really hard, because testing is often incredibly under-stimulating. I've often found myself falling asleep and work and then perking right up when I got home, despite chugging almost a soda per hour while testing. Also, not all groups will let you do something else when you can't actually do any work simply because it's easier to manage "No Facebook" instead of "Facebook only when necessary." Downtime on a team where you aren't allowed to do not-work and you have no side work is the WORST. My advice to anyone in this kind of situation is to ASK for work, such as documentation, which makes you look damned good, or do research. Ideally get your lead or manager's permission and advice, and they may even be able to help you. You can turn tiring boredom into a promotion.

wormspeaker

Incenjucar wrote: »

Oh ho ho is that an issue. One of the most important thing a tester can do is learn to force themselves to get some sleep at home using whatever tricks they can come up with. It can be really hard, because testing is often incredibly under-stimulating. I've often found myself falling asleep and work and then perking right up when I got home, despite chugging almost a soda per hour while testing. Also, not all groups will let you do something else when you can't actually do any work simply because it's easier to manage "No Facebook" instead of "Facebook only when necessary." Downtime on a team where you aren't allowed to do not-work and you have no side work is the WORST. My advice to anyone in this kind of situation is to ASK for work, such as documentation, which makes you look damned good, or do research. Ideally get your lead or manager's permission and advice, and they may even be able to help you. You can turn tiring boredom into a promotion.

Or, you know... maybe get a job where they respect you and don't work you 80 hours a week?

El Guaco

Many QA facilities are less than ideal for long, focused tasks. They are usually dim windowless rooms, and you're sitting all day staring at the same thing for hours. Chugging caffiene and sugar makes it worse, IMO. You might get going for awhile on that initial rush, but the crash is inevitable. Or worse, you keep the chemical train going so long that when you do get home it takes way too long to finally get to sleep, you sleep too little, and the cycle continues.

Gamer8585

Geth wrote: »

And then it happened a second time, which would have been sad except for the circumstances in which it happened. He was found sleeping while sitting on a toilet in the men’s room. By the department manager. The office was a lot quieter after that.

Wait...how did he know the guy was sleeping? Did the guy snore really loud? Was he away from his desk too long and the Department Manager just decided to bust in? or is this a situation like a prison where they don't have doors on the stalls?

Crafty

Gamer8585 wrote: »

Geth wrote: »

And then it happened a second time, which would have been sad except for the circumstances in which it happened. He was found sleeping while sitting on a toilet in the men’s room. By the department manager. The office was a lot quieter after that.

Wait...how did he know the guy was sleeping? Did the guy snore really loud? Was he away from his desk too long and the Department Manager just decided to bust in? or is this a situation like a prison where they don't have doors on the stalls?

The poster seems to think it's giggleworthy, but that raised my eyebrows as well. Sounds like management crossed a line there.

Tyrsis

I've definitely felt like passing out during crunch time. I always recommended to my testers, what I did when I felt sleepy: I tested while standing up.

skim172

Maybe I have an immature or deviant mind, but I thought the implication might be that he'd fallen asleep on the toilet after a session of furiously "working his joystick" if you know what I mean.

Nobody

Gamer8585 wrote: »

Geth wrote: »

And then it happened a second time, which would have been sad except for the circumstances in which it happened. He was found sleeping while sitting on a toilet in the men’s room. By the department manager. The office was a lot quieter after that.

Wait...how did he know the guy was sleeping? Did the guy snore really loud? Was he away from his desk too long and the Department Manager just decided to bust in? or is this a situation like a prison where they don't have doors on the stalls?

We had something similar here actually, the guy was a soft snorer, but you could easily hear it from the next stall over.

Of course, somebody also could have noticed that he was in there for an excessive period of time....

Incenjucar

wormspeaker wrote: »

Incenjucar wrote: »

Oh ho ho is that an issue. One of the most important thing a tester can do is learn to force themselves to get some sleep at home using whatever tricks they can come up with. It can be really hard, because testing is often incredibly under-stimulating. I've often found myself falling asleep and work and then perking right up when I got home, despite chugging almost a soda per hour while testing. Also, not all groups will let you do something else when you can't actually do any work simply because it's easier to manage "No Facebook" instead of "Facebook only when necessary." Downtime on a team where you aren't allowed to do not-work and you have no side work is the WORST. My advice to anyone in this kind of situation is to ASK for work, such as documentation, which makes you look damned good, or do research. Ideally get your lead or manager's permission and advice, and they may even be able to help you. You can turn tiring boredom into a promotion.

Or, you know... maybe get a job where they respect you and don't work you 80 hours a week?

Abusive work conditions are not universal, actually. There is the issue of treating people like kids, but that often stems from hiring too many kids and people who act like kids. There are of course plenty of examples on each side. QA is no more monolithic than any other profession.