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Photo by Torsten Dettlaff
In many countries, December is a festive season, mainly due to Christmas and New Year. Many people go on leave so as to spend time with their family. Nonetheless, some professions require people to work all year round. Programmers are no different.
At the start of my career, I saw this as being unfair and was reluctant to sign my employment contract.
When the festive season was approaching, during my first year of employment, I started seeing most of my friends go on leave. Some were delegating their tasks to me.
However, working during this period of the year is not as bad as it looks. Taking this situation with a growth mindset, below are some of my learnings.
Rapid skillup
Picture this: you are a relatively new joiner, and you are one of the few left to work.
Delivery must continue despite a slightly slower pace in a field where things move quickly.
You must ensure that you learn things you are unsure of and deliver your tasks.
You will have to learn on your own with less assistance. You cannot say, "I will go ask my friend or senior to pair with me again to complete this task."
To continue delivering, you will to read the documentation, codes, or even test scripts.
Tackle production support
I have always been an advocate for the idea that production support is the equivalent of Severus Snape. It is tough, it appears to be tough, but it is a different kind of teacher.
If you work for a large company that runs critical systems or environments, such as banks, users will continue use your products regardless of the time of the year.
Production support tickets are inevitable. When you work on these tickets, you are the face of your team. You are responsible for their reputation, and as such, despite being among the rare ones to be present at work, you cannot rely on anyone except yourself to find the root cause, look for a fix, seek approval for a fix, and proceed with the release.
Prod support transforms you into a one-man/woman team, and this will be beneficial for your career.
Team building
Being short-staffed is a great opportunity to socialize with other colleagues.
Do not limit yourself to talking only to members of your team. Network as much as possible with people you do not know.
During the year, people tend to stay in their 'pack' and talk only among themselves. But during this period, most of their friends go on leave. This situation can make it less intimidating to start a conversation.
Getting to know people from other teams helps you understand other parts of the business and/or company and their competencies. It might also be the case that you learn skills that you would never expect and apply them to your day-to-day activities.
Moreover, getting to know other people is a great human experience. You get to know the person, not the 'developer' or 'engineer'.
This will help you grow into a better person.
Setting the tone
Due to the reduced workforce, the pace of delivery has slowed down.
It is a good idea to use this opportunity if you have time, to try to complete some coming tasks. If you have a well-maintained board, it will be easy to identify some things that can be done in advance. This will help reduce the pressure for next year.
This slower cadence can also be used to reflect on your team's morals and culture and make necessary improvements. You can derive some initiatives, which in turn will bring a more positive vibe for the year.
Conclusion
The right attitude and a growth mindset are key to working during this time of the year. It is no secret that it is hard at first, but remember that all of us went through this.
This experience will be beneficial to you, and very soon, you will share your learnings as well.
While working during this period has some benefits, remember that it is also very important to have quality family time.
As such, work-life balance should be a priority and should never be neglected.