Eric Spiegel

“You want me to do what?” I was having a really good morning. I had two bowls of my favorite sugar coated cereal. My commute didn’t take forever. And best of all, I solved a bug that was driving me crazy the day before. Better yet, I was excited about finishing my assigned module ahead […]

“Where is the free soda?” I had just opened the fridge in the office kitchen when I blurted this out in a puzzled tone because, much to my chagrin, there was no soda. Ever since my first internship, every company has offered free soda. Carbonated beverages (sometimes called “pop” based on where you live) are […]

Dustin walked into my office on a Monday morning looking a little disheveled, with bags under his eyes. But he also had a big grin on his face. I couldn’t help but smile back and said “You look like the cat who swallowed the canary.” “Yes, but this cat also figured out what caused production […]

“I will always have your back.” Driving back from a very tense meeting, Mandy, my soon-to-be lead developer, was expressing her appreciation. The windshield wipers were working overtime against the rain, but all I was thinking about was the success of my meeting with my boss, Kevin, the VP of application development. Her proclamation deepened […]

“You want to do what?!?!” Did you ever ask your manager for something and then wish you hadn’t?  I have: I thought asking for a vacation wasn’t that big of a deal.  My manager Gerry had a different take on the request. Why? Well, it’s actually quite simple. When you ask for something, the request […]

Oh no, not again! Our division director was explaining yet another reorganization to the staff. All I could think was, here we go again. Same mistakes, different directors. The last director had promised nirvana with changes she put into place only a year before – after which she was replaced by the jolly fellow now […]

“He is a bleeping Scrooge!” I was complaining to my cube-mate Stan about our manager – only I didn’t use “bleeping.” There was never much of a doubt about our manager’s unfair disposition, but suddenly he had gone too far. Way too far. It was the week before Christmas and all vacation requests had been […]

“You can’t make me go.” Our software development team was sitting around the large conference room table for our weekly team meeting. Jared just matter-of-factly made the above statement when our manager announced an off-site team building activity. Tim, our boss, was a bit of a hot head. So we all held our breath as […]

Also see: Developers: Understanding Your Idiot Manager “This must be a joke!” Those were the words I was thinking as I was going through the usual junk mail in my inbox. I came across a promotion for a training class geared to newbie developers starting their first job after graduation. It’s not that there isn’t […]

My office mate Jerry was admiring the newest software developer hired into our merry band of techies. She was the second female in the group, but the first was married with kids. This young lady was our age and had no ring on the finger. And I had to admit, Jerry was right. She was […]