I have been working for three months as a programmer for a state bank. At first thought it would be like the other jobs in my field, that there would be a manager or coordinator who would pass on tasks to me, but it was nothing like that.
First I was put in a small team to provide maintenance for a very old system. I did everything asked without complaint, dealt with insults and jokes at my expense, but I was never rude to anyone.
Then my work dried up and I spent entire weeks without doing anything. I repeatedly asked my supervisor for something to do to but he said I should wait.
One day it was brought up that I was always on the internet, and I said that there was nothing to do.
Only then I was told that developers own have to find work to do and solicit other teams for more work.
I have since been discharged and am a bit confused, as it has always been my experience that management assigns work, and not this structure where programmers have to seek it out on their own..
Is this common that programmers are told to seek work from teams outside their own for people they have never met? I could understand if this was a start-up, but this is a bank, a financial institution.
I have read many questions here, but to be honest, I'm a programmer, I do not need to be political, my job is to code and not stand around shaking hands and making friends !
I'm senior java programmer, certified and with a lot of projects already published, why do such work environments still exists?