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Mon, May 5, 2008 15:51 EDT

It's Your Bug. But It's Not Your Job Anymore.

Topic: Development

Blog: Developer Wisdom

Current Rating: 5 Comments: 11

If a previous employer called to ask you about a bug in the code you'd written for them, how much time and energy would you be comfortable investing in helping out?

Let's say you left your previous employer a few months ago, on reasonably good terms. You might hold a minor grudge against the company because you didn't get the raise you deserved or because they wouldn't give you the QA resources you'd asked for, but it was generally an amicable parting. Certainly, you still care about your old teammates; you'd be happy to share a beer with them. Especially if they're buying.

A few months later, one of those teammates calls you with a problem. They're trying to debug a problem in a code module you used to own, and which you knew really well. Can you help?

Well, can you? Will you? Should you? Just how far will you go out of your way for the old team... and the old boss?

I think most developers would give an old employer 15 minutes of phone time without a second thought. Maybe 30 minutes, if it's still in a casual format such as instant messaging and if the conversation is kept general ("Did you look at the gargleblaster?" rather than "Let me pull up that JavaScript code...").

And certainly—at the other boundry condition—few developers would spend a whole weekend fixing the old application for free.

But somewhere in there, you draw a line. Two hours? Four? I don't know where it is for most programmers, or where it ought to be... and I wonder what the "right answer" is.

I expect that company lawyers would freak out if they thought existing employees were asking for your help. After all, your previous code was written as a "work for hire" so the company owns the copyright. If you change a semicolon in their code now, though, that wouldn't be so. (The fact that lawyers would object, of course, makes this effort even more attractive.)

Professional pride is a factor. If the bug is visible in some way (such as on a public website you developed), I think a lot of programmers would itch to fix it. For portfolio reasons, if not a sense of perfectionism.

Also, there's such a thing as good karma. Refusing to help a previous teammate (never mind the company affliation) might be seen as burning bridges socially, if not professionally. Which makes it all the more important to figure out where the line ought to be crossed; at what point do you cease to be a kind person, and become a gullible chump who's covering up for your successor's inadequacies?

Plus, some segments of the development community are connected more by shared technology than they are by the name on their paychecks. Many years ago, I knew several developers who worked on the software to run hotel reservations systems. A developer at Quality Inns had no qualms about calling an ex-colleague at Ramada Inns or Best Western for help (which incidentally, is the same software that United is finally replacing). In modern terms, developers who work on open source applications (particularly when their employers paid their salary while they wrote the open source code) will be bound by the project's goals, even if their attention has moved on to, say, another part of the project.

So: just how much effort would you put into helping a previous employer? Where do you draw your line? For fun, post your reply before you

You do not have flash or javascript support.
Average (2 votes)
5
 
 
Tue, May 6, 2008 16:39 EDT
Anonymous user
Posted by: Dennis Martinez
Rating: 70

I actually wrote something similar that's happening to me. It's good to be able to help your previous employers, as long as you both ended the professional relationship on good terms. But most of the times, I've seen it evolve from "Can you tell me where the code for this is?" to "Can you fix this code?" in a few steps. You become a crutch for them, because if they see that they can come to you when they have problems, they will do it - constantly.

Bottom line, while it's good to help out your previous employers and co-workers, have a short limit on what you can actually do for them. The last think you want is to have the relationship, which we assume was on good terms, get spoiled rather quickly.

 
Wed, May 7, 2008 17:55 EDT
Anonymous user
Posted by: Marcos Silva Pereira
Rating: 50

My bug? My code? No, thanks. That thing is not mine. If the previous employer does not enable information flow between developers, is it my problem? The team must owns the bugs and code, not me.

Think about collective code ownership.

Kind Regards

 
Thu, May 8, 2008 0:23 EDT
Anonymous user
Posted by: David
Rating:

1 hour tops.

I have a new job now - let them fix the bug on their own and I'll still put the website in my portfolio. It worked when I was on it! ;-)

 
Fri, May 9, 2008 18:06 EDT
Posted by: mtruxaw
Rating: 70

It's been awhile since I had my hands in the code, but I've always been willing to give verbal advice over the phone. It depends somewhat on the relationship I had with whomever has the problem. Someone who was a good teammate or friend will get more time than someone else, but I never want to burn my bridges with anyone. If it's taking so long that it cuts into my work for my current employer, then I don't think that is fair either. That why I think your 15 minutes is probably a good estimate. Some folks might get a little more or a little less, but that seems about right.

Also I agree with the person who said it is not my bug. Ultimately that bug is owned by the company that I wrote it for. The code that works correctly is theirs too. It's not my responsibility to fix it, but I still want to help other folks to a reasonable degree.

 
Fri, Jun 20, 2008 1:54 EDT
Anonymous user
Posted by: Trollicus
Rating: 50

As a permatemp I write all my code at home on my own time. I have never had any loyalty to any employer(why should I?) as this is the 21st century and I'm and lowly engineer not fit to sit in the same office as management. When I leave for a position that pays $0.10 more an hour I take all my code documentation etc. with me. I give the same notice I got from my last layoff(none), I clean out my desk, delete my files and go home.

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