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True Story. Good rant bad pitched.

Just a small information before: In Germany, if you want to be a softdev and want to learn it, you can either go study IT or you can have a apprenticeship, which is 3 years with 75% of work in a company which will pay you (around 1K / month) and 25% in a school.

I work for this city-govermant company nearly 1 year now. Around 6 month into I told them I which to have a intern for 3 years (apprenticeship) at my site. Most likely because I really enjoy to teach.

My boss agreed to this very fast, told me it's a good idea, it would be a new way for our company to evolve. In Feb 2019, when we had interviews with candidates, we decided for one and I made a resource plan for most of 2019 in which I blocked 3 weeks for the start of his apprenticeship in July (2 weeks ago) because I knew he is a kid, 18 years, etc, never coded etc.

7 days into his apprenticeship my boss called me and my boss to her and told me there is a project which should be done by end of june and why it isnt finished.
It was the same project which I had ressources for 4 weeks in June but the department didn't come up with proper feature requests etc. so another department got the time from me. I told my boss exactly this: not my fault that it isn't done, showed her emails, reminders etc.
I also offered her to spend a weekend soon if everything is there now, but she told me: no. It has to be done ASAP. ASAP means, start now, don't stop until its done.

I told here, I have a intern on my site, I blocked the time.

She told me one sentence I will never forget:
"If your intern is blocking this project, he has to go. You decide. Now."

I was so surprised that I didn't even got any word out then "yes, I will start." I was shocked by this words and her decision to quit this young guy.

Just to give a a bit more background: we hired him in Feb 19 for Jul 19. If we would quit him right now, he would most likely not have any chance on the market for another apprenticeship and has to wait for Jul/Aug 20 and 1 year without job, money etc. He even moved to our city for this job...

So I moved back to my desk and today, 2pm, I finished all of the project, nearly 50h+ work done in 5 days, so he can stay.

What the actual fuck...

Comments
  • 22
    Thank God there are still people like you in this *&#-* field and thank God the intern has you.
  • 5
  • 7
    "Around 1k a month" - our Azubis get paid less than 500€ a month, which leads to - who'd have thought - many leaving the company after the apprenticeship and low motivation.
    Those low payments are bad, especially since during and after the second year they will get "normal" business relevant work to do.

    ---

    While you got a better payment, its still great you handled this the way you did. Be careful to not let your bosses exploit you in the future.
  • 0
    @sbiewald second year as an apprentice?
    Isn't apprenticeship like for months only? After a year of experience I would expect way better pay
  • 2
    @sbiewald wHaT tHe fUcK tHaT'S oNlY 100 aBoVe a lOw pAiD rAnDoM cAsHiEr "HeLpEr" jOb! tHaT'S uNaCcEpTaBlE!
  • 1
    @mundo03 Takes two to three years. The payment increases minimal but usually not much.
  • 0
    @sbiewald yisus christ,
  • 0
    You shall never tell the boy what you did... and be like Nicolas Cage in one of his "I'm secretly helping people" movies!
  • 1
    Just Respect!
    I can't say anything more to an awesome mentor like you :)
  • 1
    @Wasseratem it was a really respectful move. Thanks for sharing your story!
  • 1
    @wasseratem, what do you mean with city-government? Haven't heard that word in Germany before.
  • 2
    @AndiLeni I guess "Stadtverwaltung"?
  • 0
    @sbiewald thanks.

    But if I remember correctly, the guy actually can't be fired during his apprenticeship, only if there are special circumstances.
  • 3
    Nah we have 3 month trial period. In this we dont even need a reason to fire him. We just can. Sadly.
  • 0
    Oh well, that is pretty sad.

    On the other hand, he can't get fired after the three months, so keep it going until this time :)
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