John: Hey, John Sonmez from simpleprogrammer.com.
I got this question about working for free.
I think you can probably already guess what I’m going to say about this but anyway,
this question goes: “Hi John, I asked you a question via Twitter but needed more explanation.
What do you think of the following situation?
I’ve been working on a software project for a couple of months.
As the requirements grew the database model is not as normalized as I would like to see
it.
I realized only during my vacation that if I refactored the database schema adding more
features in the future would be more easy.
I feel it’s my responsibility to keep the application tidy.
It’s probably 2 days work but also has its risks of breaking some features along the
way.
My question is should I resist the urge to refactor code of a customer outside work hours
i.e. unpaid when I know something can be improved or simplified or just go ahead?
Would like to have your thoughts on it.
Kind regards, Michael.”
No, don’t do it.
There’s a couple of reasons why not to do this.
First of all if you break this what you said that there’s a chance that you could break
this you’re going to get in trouble and you’re not going to get paid for it.
It’s going to look like incompetence instead of being perceived as a good thing so don’t,
don’t, don’t touch that.
Don’t risk that.
It just doesn’t make sense to risk that and not get paid for it.
It’s bad enough when you break something when you get paid for it but if you do it
while you’re paid for it then that’s just doing your job.
If you do it while you’re not being paid for it you’re going to get—you could likely
get fired.
You could get in big trouble for doing that because they’ll say, “Well, why did you
mess with this thing?
You didn’t even need to mess with this.”
So yes, don’t do that.
Second of all, don’t do things that you’re not getting paid for for your job.
I mean you’re working for someone else.
They’re paying you to do a job.
Don’t take your vacation days.
I mean, I understand that probably you enjoy refactoring code and it’s probably exciting
to you.
You wouldn’t be emailing me this if you didn’t have some—if you didn’t feel
like you wanted to do this because you think it will actually be fun in some sick sadistic
way.
It’s okay.
I understand.
I felt the same way before, but you have to resist this urge because if you start doing
a lot of things that you’re not getting paid for you’re going to be effectively
lowering your earning potential.
You’re going to be effectively lowering your hourly rate and then you’re going to
be setting a precedent in the future.
Like I said, if things go well you’re probably not going to get like huge accolades, but
if things go bad and things don’t work out I think you’re in big trouble.
Also, what would happen in this situation, if you modify this code, you think it’s
going to take 2 days worth of work during your vacation and you screw it up to the point
where it’s got to be fixed and then now you end up spending the next 5 days of your
vacation fixing this work because you messed it up and now you’re definitely obligated.
Then you have to do it, right, if you touch this thing.
So don’t touch it and take your vacation.
You’re going to feel better taking a vacation anyway and not touching this kind of stuff.
I know this is the kettle calling the pot black.
I don’t know how to say these expressions, so it’s one—it’s something like that.
You know what I'm saying.
Anyway, I have a problem doing this.
I go on vacation or something and I mean even when I was travelling Europe I'm checking
my email, I'm responding to people and just like waiting to get back to my desk so I can
do some work but it’s better if you don’t.
Do as I say, not as I do, okay?
Don’t do it.
Consider your wife is going to be much happier because you’re not on your computer doing
this.
It’s just going to be better overall.
I should take my own advice.
I realize this but, anyway, if I can’t take my advice at least you can take it.
I hope you have a good vacation and that you don’t screw it up.
All right.
Take care.
If you like this video, if you’d like me to tell you not to work on your vacation,
email me at john@simpleprogrammer.com and then subscribe to the channel.
Take care.