Top reasons why programmers are fired [closed]

Question

Have you ever been fired before, or one of your colleagues?

What were the main reasons for him being fired?

The objective of this question is to get a list/description of other peoples experiences too see if we can come up with a theme of why people are let go.

For those that work for consulting companies, I would guess one of the main reasons would be a developer is just too slow pumping out code.

So my guesses would be:

 1) attitude 
 2) too slow

Please specify if you are saying something from experience or just guessing.

Answer 1

Most people I know who have been fired have been fired for having some sort of conflict with the boss. Like making a demand and the boss calls their bluff, etc.

Bad programmers just seem to get given bitch work / no raises until they quit.

Answer 2

I've sat in meetings where my CEO and CTO have both denied responsibility for hiring "Chris".

Chris had many many complaints about his extreme anti-social tendencies, and the quality of his work from clients. His colleagues had complained about his technical ability and his attitude to others. He shouted, screamed, didn't turn up sometimes, hung-up on support calls. He (badly) rewrote production code in other peoples projects at whim. Goals were set and not met.

He received three written warnings I know about and any number of verbals. Evidence was documented, a folder was built up.

Duly, Chris was not given a pay-rise - even inflationary - for three years, and was slowly given less and less new work by the PMs.

Eventually the company was sold off, and some were made redundant by the merge. Not Chris.

The new parent failed to understand the business and drove the good people away until the production division became unprofitable and they closed it in favour of offshoring to a third party. Only three of the staff were kept on, working from the sales office a couple of hundred miles away.

Chris was one of them.

He's still there now.

I can't even begin to imagine what it takes to get fired.

Answer 3

MMORPG addiction and all that comes with it such as playing on the job, showing up late, sleeping on the job etc...

Answer 4

Wasting too much time on StackOverflow... :oP

Answer 5

I have not been personally released from a position, but I have seen my coworkers go. Now that I am in a position to be the one with the ability to fire, as well, I understand some of the reasoning behind what I have seen before a little more clearly.

In no particular order, here are some reasons that a person should be subject to termination (depending on your company, possibly after being placed on probation - not saying that all of these are immediate grounds, but more of a partial litmus test):

• Inability to adapt to new technology.
• Inability to work with other team members (personality issues, etc.).
• Inability to delivery quality work.
• Inability to show up to work on time, or work a minimum number of hours
• Inability to follow direction.
• Inability to work within their role (i.e. Sr. Developers who don't mentor, etc.)

Like I said, these are all parts of the puzzle, and are not likely to be means for an immediate dismissal. Normally, these things need to accrue and eventually become a larger part of the whole.

Answer 6

Consistently missing deadlines has to be a biggie.

I'd say being a bad fit (i.e. bad attitude) must also feature high.

Answer 7

Based on what I've seen in the past:

• They crashed the production system (again)
• They lied on their CV
• To be made an example of to others

Answer 8

I have had to recommend people be fired/let go for the following reasons ...

• Poor attitude
• Distributing propoganda at work (NRA material) ... I agree with the NRA ... just not at work
• Contractor was working on work for ANOTHER company while on my payroll instead of on my work
• Poor coding/lack of knowledge (had someone who used alot of 1-2 letter variable names, made the code extremely confusing, warned him repeatedly but the style never changed)
• Taking too much time on a project. I.E. Spent a dollar and saved a dime ... not good business sense.

Those were the biggest reasons. Never had anyone start an altercation or threats of voilence etc.

Answer 9

I've seen people sacked for inappropriate behaviour -- saying inappropriate things in front of the customer (badmouthing the company that provides your paycheque in front of the customers is not a good idea).

Answer 10

Based on what I've seen at work:

• Too many high visibility mistakes (usually the first doesn't do it, but the second one does especially if it happens less than a year later)
• Inability to follow directions, especially if they are told specifically to do a task one way and they take a completely different approach that does not mesh with the rest of the application (and especially if they were specifically forbidden to do it that way).
• Attitude especially inappropriate anger
• Not following basic company policy - like showing up consistently late, not using source control, taking leave without getting prior approval, spending too much time not working at work especially when the work is behind schedule (I worked with one guy who literally spent six hours or more a day on personal phone calls)
• Complete inability to produce working code<
• Lying and getting caught at it
• Failure to pass a drug test or get a required security clearance
• CEO's girlfriend wanted the job

Edited later: I can't believe I forgot drunk at work. I have seen several people fired for this over the years.

Answer 11

The one time I witnessed someone get fired it was a contractor who lied about the hours he billed.

It doesn't get any more clear-cut.

Answer 12

I'd say 2 is just asking for trouble - It's very difficult to prove that a programmer isn't performing because he's lazy or isn't good enough, and not because of changing spec, vague assignments, external factors, unreasonable expectations etc. Unless you have a number of programmers doing provably similar tasks, I doubt this is often the official reason.

Answer 13

Just a guess: Posting too much subjective questions on StackOverflow?

Answer 14

It also depends on the country you're in - I'm assuming you're talking about the US here. In some countries, it's very difficult to fire an employee solely on the base that he's not working fast enough for the manager. So if a programmer gets fired in those countries, it's probably because (s)he did something really serious, like an NDA breach or a made a really costly mistake (in terms of money, client trust, reputation, etc).

Answer 15

I've been "let go" once, which was ostensibly for economical reasons - a research money stream had dried up. However, from the inside it looked more like they were getting rid of some people to be replaced with cheaper, younger people, that weren't as likely to question some of the decisions that were being made.

Regarding other developers being fired: I haven't actually seen that happen yet in my 10 years experience, though I've seen two people being "strongly encouraged to look for other opportunities". Both times this was because of an attitude problem where the developer was overtly critical of the way things were done to the point of destroying morale, yet would be repeatedly caught breaking their own "rules".

Answer 16

The main reason I have seen people fired was because they were unable to adapt to new ideas, unable to meet deadlines because of their inability to adapt.

That and the fact they most of their "production code" was rewritten by someone else to pass QA

Answer 17

There is a distinct difference between being fired and being made redundant; there are common factors though. The reasons that might get you fired will overlap with the reasons that might mean that you're the one being let go rather than being kept around.

So a huge possible reason is breaking the law, or at the very least, ignoring or being ignorant of the regulations.

Not doing your job is quite important, but the law in most developed countries sides generally with the employee here - if you're not doing your job there are hoops that your employer needs to jump through. Several times, though, paying someone off is the easiest way out of this.

Having a bad attitude isn't really grounds for dismissal, your employers weren't forced to hire you in the first place and weren't force to retain you at the end of your probation period. If they then decide that your face doesn't fit, see the previous point.

Employing people is actually quite expensive, the general rule of thumb in the UK at least is to double the salary (once you've considered tax, NI, pension contributions and the marginal cost of office space, etc.) but you've also then go to consider the cost of not having someone in that position.

Ultimately getting fired (as opposed to laid off) is actually quite hard.

Answer 18

In my case, Visa issues were the reason, mainly being that the H1-B I had been on for the past 5 years couldn't be extended and there wasn't enough time to get the paper work done for a green card, a.k.a. lawful permanent residency.

In other cases where I've worked, there have been layoffs where the company just couldn't keep paying the bills or they weren't carried over when the company or its assets were acquired.

Answer 19

The colleagues I've seen fired were each for gross incompetence. Essentially, it was clear that they were not up to snuff for the job so their managers gave them very carefully spelled out tasks with very reasonable deadlines. The work or lack thereof was reviewed and when found to be wanting, they were given the boot.

I also saw the same thing done to someone who was not grossly incompetent. His manager didn't understand his job and his constraints. He completely every task in a timely manner and done well. He kept trying to explain that his job description was more than full time. Finally he left out of frustration and they had to hire three people to do what he did alone.

Answer 20

I've seen very few people fired in > 25 years of working. Two that come to mind where

1. Someone who refused to do support in our very small company
2. Someone who ignored a direct order not to check code into a specific branch and actively worked around security restrictions.

I've known plenty of people who should have been fired tho.

Answer 21

I contracted in a place where this one guy was let go for "demotivating the team". He was constantly moaning about the product, the tools, the other developers. And he would sit and browse job sites all day at work. I'm surprised he lasted as long as he did.

However, far and away the main reason I've seen people let go is of course layoffs.

Answer 22

Really depends on the Eye of the Beholder (=your clients/yourbosses), dont always blame yourself, often the client or boss are the ones judging stupidly, or wisely.

The slow programmer (in the original post portrayed as a negative thing), sometimes is a result of enhanced, richer qualities later on in the project (not always but with the best programmers i've worked with through my clients, as an art director, I saw this being appreciated by one type of client loving durability, accessibility, flexibility. While other clients in need of quick flashy results didn't give much for futureproofness and would regard any slow (good or bad) programmer as "replacable with a faster one".

Really depends on the Eye of the Beholder. I guesse in the end that Chris (from second post) meets the flashy guys that are lookalike himself, and the slow, wise programmer (from the first post) ends up finding a boss lookalike him, appreciating the power of durable code! Time will tell.