Thought leaders on the internet always rail against overtime. It's exploitative, it leads to burn out, it's evil.
They're right.
If your boss asks for overtime, push back. If it's a habit, quit. If every project is a death march, quit and warn others.
But not all overtime is bad. Do it when:
- You want to
- You're excited
- You're learning a transferable skill
- The result makes your job easier
- The result makes others' job easier
- Everyone will be excited and it feels like you're hand-delivering a Christmas present
I found an easy way to fix important problems with our test suite. Problems we've been crying about for over a year. Problems so bad we feel dread when it's time to write a test. Problems that make half our tests kinda useless. Problems that come up week after week in every meeting where tests are mentioned.
The proof of concept looks promising. I've been waiting all week to try the idea.
It's going to be a great article 😛
And so I code, for work, on Saturday at 7AM. Because I can't wait to say "Team, I have a Christmas present for you all"
Cheers,
~Swizec
Continue reading about When it’s okay to work overtime
Semantically similar articles hand-picked by GPT-4
- The Passion Paradox
- Why senior engineers get nothing done
- What's more productive, a team or a talented soloist?
- Meetings – a senior engineer's secret weapon
- Deep work December
Become a *true* Senior Engineer
Get promoted, earn a bigger salary, work for top companies
Getting that senior title is easy. Just stick around. Being a true senior takes a new way of thinking. Do you have it?
The Senior Minset email crash course
Get a free chapter from the Senior Engineer Mindset book and a sample audiobook chapter, followed by a Senior Mindset 101 email course.
You'll get insights to apply at your work right away.
Have a burning question that you think I can answer? Hit me up on twitter and I'll do my best.
Who am I and who do I help? I'm Swizec Teller and I turn coders into engineers with "Raw and honest from the heart!" writing. No bullshit. Real insights into the career and skills of a modern software engineer.
Want to become a true senior engineer? Take ownership, have autonomy, and be a force multiplier on your team. The Senior Engineer Mindset ebook can help 👉 swizec.com/senior-mindset. These are the shifts in mindset that unlocked my career.
Curious about Serverless and the modern backend? Check out Serverless Handbook, for frontend engineers 👉 ServerlessHandbook.dev
Want to Stop copy pasting D3 examples and create data visualizations of your own? Learn how to build scalable dataviz React components your whole team can understand with React for Data Visualization
Want to get my best emails on JavaScript, React, Serverless, Fullstack Web, or Indie Hacking? Check out swizec.com/collections
Did someone amazing share this letter with you? Wonderful! You can sign up for my weekly letters for software engineers on their path to greatness, here: swizec.com/blog
Want to brush up on your modern JavaScript syntax? Check out my interactive cheatsheet: es6cheatsheet.com
By the way, just in case no one has told you it yet today: I love and appreciate you for who you are ❤️