Getting Credit for Programming Accomplishments? 148
An anonymous reader writes "I am a college student new to corporate culture. For the last few weeks, I have been working on a very large project: revamping our customer service website with tons of new tutorials and information. Recently, I got an e-mail forwarded from my supervisor of improvements that HIS supervisor requested. I am fine with compliments and complaints about my work. However, I realized in the e-mail that my supervisor took credit for the development of this content. I have been under his direct supervision in this whole process; much of the new content was his idea that I ended up implementing. Is it out of line to request that in the future I get mentioned for my work?"
Pretty normal (Score:5, Insightful)
There are some companies out there that have the generosity to credit their programmers (heck, this is why Activision was formed) in their software, but not nearly the majority of them and especially if its not an in house application.
Resource (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not out of line... but think it through. (Score:5, Insightful)
Although Pretty Normal He Can Change It (Score:4, Insightful)
You're in a position where your boss depends on you. And he's promoting it. Who cares what management thinks. Is your paycheck sufficient? If not, just wait until a few weeks before the next big delivery and tell your boss you've found another job offering you what you think you should get paid. Since he's on the hook, he'll probably try to keep you happy.
You could ask him to mention your name to the big wigs but what would that get you, really? Are you under some impression that your ability in software development will move you up the chain? Because I've noticed that's not really what does it at most companies.
No, my suggestion to you would be to keep chugging along and if nothing else, put it on your resume confident you can back what you put on there. Then expand your horizons and call in sick a few days for the sake of a few interviews. If you have no other options, you are probably forced to play this symbiosis of your manager needing you and you needing him despite your perception he adds nothing.
Whatever turns out, it sure is great experience. If you are certain you can do the hardcore development and provide the functionality your middle management provides, have you thought about starting your own company? That's an option I think more and more about everyday
Work for a smaller company, (Score:5, Insightful)
There are disadvantages to this mind you. If everyone recognises each others input then if you screw up you'll find it hard to pass the buck (technically this is also an advantage because noone else can either). Typically your job will pay a little less and not be as secure either, though in the current economic climate noone is all that well paid or safe. You'll also find it's always you working late at a small company simply because there's noone else to do it.
I work (well, 'play' would be closer..
The other advantage of working for a tiny company is that everyone can have a really impressive title. I'm "Head of Production". It impresses all the girls.
Girls? Girls? Hey.. come back.
Welcome to the Corporate World (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm going to give advice to you based on you being a fresh graduate: I'd have different advice for someone who's been in the corporate world for a few years.
My suggestion to you is three-fold:
1) Wait a year and get a feel for the corporate culture before you do anything to get visibility and recognition further up the food chain.
2) If there are other people on your team that *do* manage to get credit for their work with the higher-ups, watch them closely and see how they do it.
3) If you are truly excellent, your work will stand out eventually anyway. Again: wait a year and see what your reputation is at that point before you start promoting yourself. You may end up having very little promoting to do.
Yes your out of line. (Score:5, Insightful)
So your boss decided what needed to be done, how it should be done, and picked you to do it. He then took credit for it. Gee imagine that.
You work for him and you did what he said to do. Yes it is his credit to take. If you did a crummy job he would take the heat and then fire you but he might still loose his job if you did a bad enough job and he approved it.
Any credit you get will be from him. That is the way it really is supposed to work. If you do an extraordinary job then he may decide that are worth praising to his boss.
Re:Although Pretty Normal He Can Change It (Score:5, Insightful)
Should the submitter have been given some credit? Possibly, depending on the email and its tone. For most people two levels above the new guy, they just don't care who he is yet and don't want to hear about him unless he's done something noteworthy (which this certainly isn't -- it's his job). Most likely the supervisor didn't even think to mention the submitter's name because, well, there's nothing TOO mention. "My ideas were implemented, the project's done, anonymous coward (the new guy) built it and sally went ahead and photocopied this to send along to you. Also, we couldn't have done it without John at Starbuck's serving us coffee."
Expect credit when you've done something noteworthy, otherwise you'll need to stick around and get noticed for consistently doing a good job. It's not as fast as having the CEO be wowed by a memo, but if your supervisor starts to rely on you for a good job, then the guy above him will start to notice you and suggest you for promotion.
Yikes (Score:5, Insightful)
Nothing like playing poker with your career. I had a coworker who pulled this bluffing stunt only to have the boss reach out to shake his hand and wish him luck at the new job. The guy thought he was an invaluable software developer and had a rude awakening. He finally got a job 8 months later at a help desk.
Words of wisdom from Fight Club (Score:5, Insightful)
Put your name on it. (Score:2, Insightful)
Somewhere in the code, comment what you did and when, including your name. In a number of companies (including the one I work for), this is required for traceability for changes. If you're company is using any form of version control, it's a good bet that this will make sure your work can always be traced back to you. If you don't end up with some credit/raise/bonus/something by the end of the year, you can always point to this and ask why.
Re:Pretty normal (Score:5, Insightful)
No. Go to work for the money. This "greater good", "for the company" bullshit is why so many idiot software people complain about working 80 hours a week for a 40 hour a week salary.
Don't fool yourself. The company will cut you loose in the blink of an eye when it's in their financial interests.
Working in a corporation is not about "the greater good", it's about making money.
Re:You're part of a team now (Score:4, Insightful)
And that pretty much sums it up. You're a recent grad, so it's not entirely silly that you even had to ask. But really, this ought to be common sense.
As a general rule-of-thumb, when in Rome... etc. Watch your coworkers. If they do something and they receive a favorable response from management, it's probably safe to duplicate what they did. Assuming you're also well-liked. Otherwise, wait until you're well-established before doing anything even remotely risky. And if you have to ask, "Am I well-established yet?" Yeah. Not yet. You'll know it when you are.
Re:Yikes (Score:5, Insightful)
Not only that, but even if the supervisor does decide to keep you, the tenor of the working relationship has changed, and not for the better.
(and if you're working relationship with your boss is already so bad that you don't care if it gets a little worse, then I can guarantee that the "or else" form of salary negotiation won't work in the first place.)
You won't quite be trusted-- which makes you less likely to end up on high profile projects, and makes you less attractive for promotion.
Re:Pretty normal (Score:2, Insightful)
I dont see it (Score:2, Insightful)
The ideas and solutions are what get people noticed and praised, what you did is no different than sending the spec off to India and having them churn it out. What you did is no different than a McBurger flipper making tha cheesburgers for the manager, why exactly do you deserve praise? You kids these days, unbelievable. Your paid to do your job, if you want praise try coming up with the good ideas.
Re:Yes your out of line. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Pretty normal (Score:4, Insightful)
Working an 80 hour week at 40 hour pay is an example of a pathological case, though with the diminishing returns that come with an excessive workweek, I have to wonder whether this is really a good idea for the organization as well.
Re:Yikes (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Pretty normal (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, really! Don't work for the money, or the recognition - do it for the Company and the Greater Good!
Why is it the staunch capitalists of the world insist that businesses should be subject to little or no regulation, doing whatever they can to make a buck, yet an employee who adopts such an attitude is told they they have a poor "work ethic," and that all the good little sheep just shut up, keep their heads down, and work longer and longer hours without added compensation, while the guys at the top pay themselves more and more while cutting benefits and jobs, all in the name of cost savings? The worst of them even run their companies into the ground, losing tens or hundreds of millions of dollars, while still getting paid millions from their golden parachutes? Seriously - what the fuck? When did this become A-OK with the general public?
I wonder how many of them realize how much they sound exactly like communists when they start going on about doing working for the "greater good." How is pointless self-sacrifice in the name of the Almighty Dollar any better than pointless self-sacrifice in the name of The Party? I know, I know... "Government is evil." Well, America's government is entirely run by people from big business now. Everything is being privatized, and the distinction between government and big business is almost non-existent at this point. So someone's going to have to remind me again how government is evil while big business is perfection incarnate.
What the original poster needs to do is get the hell out of corporate America. Believe it or not, there are other ways of making a living.
Danger! (Score:4, Insightful)
More importantly, he doesn't want them to care who he is yet.
Trust me, new hires do not (or should not, if they have any sense) want to come to the attention of people two or more levels above them. Bad things will come of it.
It never plays out the same way, but it always turns out bad for the new hire.
Trust me, you do not want upper management to know who you are yet.
--MarkusQ
P.S. There's an old saying "Whether the pitcher hits the rock or the rock hits the pitcher, it bodes ill for the pitcher."
Re:yep (Score:3, Insightful)
And hiding in the closet is a good way to never get any in the first place.
Obviously the guy needs to find some middle way, but it's going to make more than one project for him to figure it out. Maybe he's got a good boss who will remember that he's a good worker and assign him increased responsibilities with a proportionally increased reward. Or maybe he's got a shitty boss that will remember him as a good slave and will assign him increased responsibilities. He'll have to sit tight to see which one applies in order to plan a course of action, there's no shortcuts in office politics.
Re:Although Pretty Normal He Can Change It (Score:4, Insightful)
Heh (Score:5, Insightful)
BOSS:
BIG BOSS: Ah, good, very nice.. hm, this looks excellent. Good work, Johnson. I'll show the executives at tomorrow's meeting.
BOSS: Thank you.
And at tomorrow's meeting, it'll go like this:
BIG BOSS: And then last week we completed this project here, so that should increase revenue synergy paradigms across end-to-end B2B logistical e-markets.
EXECUTIVE: Great work, we'll announce it in the press release next week. Nicely done, Smith.
BIG BOSS: Thank you.
You get the point? Credit always goes to the person who finally presents it to the next link in the chain, which makes sense, as that person is also usually the one who masterminded the project and managed it to completion. It's a given that he didn't do it all by himself and that there were people under him who did most of the actual grunt work; everyone's aware of it but it isn't necessary to declare each and every individual.
It'd be like a military commander getting accolades from his commanding officer about some victory or other. The commander accepts it on behalf of everyone -- he doesn't need to name each and every damn grunt under his command, even though they were all instrumental in helping to win.
Relax, man. It doesn't matter who got credit for it to the higher-ups, who probably have no idea who you are anyway. Your boss knows what you did, and when it comes time to ask for a raise or whatever, he's the one you're going to be asking, and he'll remember.
(If you'd actually be asking someone above him, same deal. You can still put the project into your "List of good things I've done" when asking whoever and nobody will question you -- or if they want to check, your boss will confirm that yes, you were on that project.)
Re:It's not out of line... but think it through. (Score:3, Insightful)
If you stay with this job, they'll eventually promote you to a $10/hour position, then give you a 2% raise.
Programmers should be making $17/hour minimum, even webmaster "programmers".
My Take (Score:5, Insightful)
There are lots of replies to this thread and I just noticed it now, so I guess I'm late the the party. Let me offer my take. I've been out of college doing a programming job for 2 years now.
Is it normal? It all depends on the person. I've done things I thought were relatively simple or not with a lot of praise that my boss has promoted to others/superiors as great work by me. This is both things I thought up and implemented, and things that I was requested to do. I have done other things that I thought were great (including big/obvious things system users noticed) that nothing was said about. The pattern is the same with other people who are above me but not my boss. That's just the way things are.
But there are some people who are like that. We have one in our company, and as the size of the company you work for grows over 1 person, the probability of running into one starts to approach a sure thing.
Good ideas mismanaged, bad ideas implemented when much simpler ideas would have worked better, boldly taking credit for other people's work while they are standing there, covering up their mistakes as someone else's fault (bonus points for lying and saying they caught the error and fixed it when it was their fault).
You'll see it all. It's mostly a personality thing. Depending on tons of things this happens. Your boss may have deserved credit over you in one circumstance for thinking of the idea or great management. You may have deserved the credit. It could be neither of you. You just have to learn to accept this kind of stuff. If you think it's being done on purpose and to take advantage of you... just learn to accept it. We (at my office) except that kind of behavior out of various people (both internal and external) so it doesn't bother us. If someone does it, it's par for the course. If they DONT'T do it, it's a bonus. Also remember that there are two possibilities for your boss when they take credit for your idea. Either they know it was your work and you become more indispensable, or they are blind how important you were to the project and lacking the ability to see that may come back to bight them later.
It's all in the attitude. In my time in the work world it's crushing/mismanaging of good ideas that seems to bother me more.
If things are REALLY bad enough, you can call the boss on it. You can try and use it as leverage. You can even just quit. The question is do you care enough to risk all that? Any of those could easily make it harder to get hired somewhere else. But like I (and many others) have said: this will happen everywhere.
Re:Pretty normal (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Yikes (Score:4, Insightful)
But, entry level and bad programmers often cost less per hour, but even that is not a given.
Re:yep (Score:2, Insightful)
Anyone who deletes names in order to steal credit is a thief. And the only person worse than a thief is the one who failed to fire him.
If he can't stand working with thiefs in corporate america, he could always experiment with crooks, pirates, lawyers, and politicians on a more global scale.
Re:Yikes (Score:3, Insightful)
An ethical manager would wish the employee luck in his new job, not try to trick him into staying under false pretenses. Just because it might help the shareholders in the short term doesn't make it right. Besides, good employees, seeing a fellow employee treated that way (even if he wasn't the greatest employee) would see that their manager is unethical, and that that could affect them in many other ways, so they'd bail out as soon as possible.
Idiotic, ethics-devoid thinking like yours is actually what's driving American companies into the ground these days.