<story><title>Brown M&amp;Ms, or Why No One Reads the Manual</title><url>https://blog.nuclino.com/brown-m-ms-or-why-no-one-s-reading-the-manual</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jedberg</author><text>I would help.  The people who are suffering the most are your former coworkers.  Presumably friends.  Definitely people you may work with in the future.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;d rather be known as the guy who helps than the guy who is rude about consulting rates.</text></item><item><author>wheelerwj</author><text>&amp;gt; after a bit of an ear bashing&lt;p&gt;you actually helped them?  Hang up, charge your emergency hour consultant rates, and tell them you&amp;#x27;re available once they sign the agreement.</text></item><item><author>DoubleGlazing</author><text>A few years ago I left the company I was was working for. We had an internal doc wiki that hardly anyone used. I was one of the ones who did and I would document code changes and things like how to setup a dev environment and to list known gotchas.&lt;p&gt;During my final week when I was doing code handover I sent an email around the company pointing out that the wiki would answer most of the questions they might have about the apps I worked on.&lt;p&gt;Three months later my phone starts ringing. I was in a new job so I didn&amp;#x27;t answer, but they kept ringing. Then they started calling my wife as she was listed as my next of kin. My wife also didn&amp;#x27;t answer as she was with a client. After a few hours, my wife picks up the call and texts me that my previous employer was desperate to speak to me. So I called them during break and after a bit of an ear bashing I was informed their whole warehouse system was down and all business had stopped.&lt;p&gt;After a bit of diagnosis I realised that they had fallen for the first gotcha I listed in my docs, they deployed the wrong DB driver. I asked why they didn&amp;#x27;t read the docs. They responded &amp;quot;what docs?&amp;quot;. I explained that I sent an email round before I left with guidance on the app. Rather than apologise they berated me for not doing more to alert people to the existence of the information. It was that attitude that contributed to me wanting to leave the company in the first place.&lt;p&gt;I think the moral is that no matter how good your docs, some people will always ignore them even when the world is collapsing around them.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>frobozz</author><text>You missed this bit:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; after a bit of an ear bashing&lt;p&gt;If someone from my old employer calls and asks me politely for a bit of help with something I know well, I&amp;#x27;d help.&lt;p&gt;If they call to yell at me about how I left behind a fragile system or how I left them in the lurch by quitting, the correct response is to tell them to get fucked, if they then ask for help after that, the correct response is to tell them to go fuck themselves.&lt;p&gt;Normalising that kind of abusive behaviour is not going to improve the lives of the co-workers you left behind.</text></comment>
<story><title>Brown M&amp;Ms, or Why No One Reads the Manual</title><url>https://blog.nuclino.com/brown-m-ms-or-why-no-one-s-reading-the-manual</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jedberg</author><text>I would help.  The people who are suffering the most are your former coworkers.  Presumably friends.  Definitely people you may work with in the future.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;d rather be known as the guy who helps than the guy who is rude about consulting rates.</text></item><item><author>wheelerwj</author><text>&amp;gt; after a bit of an ear bashing&lt;p&gt;you actually helped them?  Hang up, charge your emergency hour consultant rates, and tell them you&amp;#x27;re available once they sign the agreement.</text></item><item><author>DoubleGlazing</author><text>A few years ago I left the company I was was working for. We had an internal doc wiki that hardly anyone used. I was one of the ones who did and I would document code changes and things like how to setup a dev environment and to list known gotchas.&lt;p&gt;During my final week when I was doing code handover I sent an email around the company pointing out that the wiki would answer most of the questions they might have about the apps I worked on.&lt;p&gt;Three months later my phone starts ringing. I was in a new job so I didn&amp;#x27;t answer, but they kept ringing. Then they started calling my wife as she was listed as my next of kin. My wife also didn&amp;#x27;t answer as she was with a client. After a few hours, my wife picks up the call and texts me that my previous employer was desperate to speak to me. So I called them during break and after a bit of an ear bashing I was informed their whole warehouse system was down and all business had stopped.&lt;p&gt;After a bit of diagnosis I realised that they had fallen for the first gotcha I listed in my docs, they deployed the wrong DB driver. I asked why they didn&amp;#x27;t read the docs. They responded &amp;quot;what docs?&amp;quot;. I explained that I sent an email round before I left with guidance on the app. Rather than apologise they berated me for not doing more to alert people to the existence of the information. It was that attitude that contributed to me wanting to leave the company in the first place.&lt;p&gt;I think the moral is that no matter how good your docs, some people will always ignore them even when the world is collapsing around them.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>learnstats2</author><text>Alternatively: Help your co-workers and friends by normalising getting paid for real work outside of what is contracted.</text></comment>