Re^5: what to do when you screw-up?

[Anonymous Monk]

Assuming your own minimum standard has some grounding in industry minimum standard, then it isn’t illegal or immoral.

Unless you work in an industry where there is a legislated "industry standard" (such as certain types of engineering), this doesn't apply.

The company doesn’t own you just because they pay your salary. If they hired you on as a computer programmer, then you aren’t being insubordinate when you insist on following standard practices of a computer programmer.

The typical contract reads: "you'll do what we ask of you", just in fancy language. There's almost always some innocuous looking little clause that reads: "and other duties as necessary". There's seldom, if ever, a clause that says: "You can spent our money doing work in the way that you like, but we've specifically told you that we don't".

So, unless there are a specific set of laws in your jurisdiction permitting you to disobey your employer's wishes regarding the assets they've paid for, you just... can't. It's simple contract and property law. --
Ytrew

[Anonymous Monk]

It doesn't matter if its legislated, and the weasel clauses in the contract are irrelevant.

They can fire you for incompetence if you don't perform well as a computer programmer, and you can't turn around and say "well, my contract says to do what you tell me, and you didn't tell me to hit the ON switch". There is the expectation from the employer that when they hire you as a computer programmer, that you've got the basic skills.

The opposite also holds true. When they hire you as a computer programmer, you expect to work as such. If they try to sub-contract you out to drive school buses, you can refuse and sue them for wrongful dismissal if they fire you over it. No court is going ever going to interpret "other duties" for a computer programmer to include driving busses.


For a more of a grounded example, I was in a situation where my supervisor had designed a program for a program that was SERIOUSLY out in left field. The design showed a serious lack of understanding how databases worked, and had table designs that were completely asinine. For example, one of the tables was designed where you would write your query in the format of SELECT "March 15, 2005" FROM Table WHERE data = 'Notes', rather than the more typical SELECT Notes FROM Table WHERE date = 'March 15, 2005'.

He handed the design to me, and when I pointed out that the design was flawed, he insisted that the program be written as designed. I refused, and he brought up disciplinary actions against me. After a review of the project, my supervisor was fired, and I kept my job. You can bet that if I had simply followed the design that was presented to me, that I would have been fired for incompetence along with him.