Social Tips for Programmers at work

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First of all, I know programmers are not known for their social skills or conversation ability. My husband is now working as a programmer. Unfortunately, he still seems to have to deal with social issues. He has this one co-worker who's kid was diagnosed as autistic, so my husband claims that his co-worker is taking it out on him and purposely making things unclear.

He also complained that that the bug reports were vague. I told him that thats how the bug reports are, because users are too lazy to care very much about bugs, you are lucky that they tell you what the symptoms of the bug are at all. We had a long conversation about that, because it took him a while to understand why bug reports are so vague, because he lacks theory of mind due to his supposed condition.


Also, as I said before, he has real trouble with the theory of mind thing. No matter how many times I try to explain to him why people act the way that they do, he doesn't get it. He has a hard time seeing things from another persons perspective. He also has a hard time with things like vagueness, lies and deception, as he puts it. He feels that what is expected of him isn't clear enough at work and it bothers him.

HI! I have AS and I used to work in the software field; mainly doing QA! So I was the person who was doing the bug reports for the programmers.

Here's what I think: Most of the people doing the testing are probably NOT that qualified. To be a really good tester, you have to be very analytical, and be able to explain the problems well.

I agree with your husband--the reports probably ARE vague, because the people doing the bug reports are probably not that bright, or not very analytical. Unfortunately, if he has to deal with them, he can simply ask them to clarify. But don't ask open-ended questions, such as "What did you mean by that?" Ask things like, "Did you scroll before you clicked, or after?" for example.

I can really understand your husband's point of view. Also, it may not be "theory of mind" issues; he may just be wondering why those idiots can't do their job!! !! I know, because I used to supervise people like that!

I was a COBOL programmer for over 20 years, so I can REALLY sympathize. The general buzz in society is that computers are hard to understand and hell to work with. Most people who have a computer problem react with emotions instead of logic. They think, "Oh God, get me out of this before I get in trouble with the boss". They want the problem solved FAST so they give it to him as quickly as possible. In the process they leave out information he may need because they don't want to get that involved with it.

Your husband needs to realize that most people walk into work every day with the same prayer to get them through to retirement with as little injury as possible. The nice thing is how much we treasure the people who are willing to dig in with us as partners to solve the problems. The bad thing is how few of them there are.

Here's a good stress-reliever site: Computer Stupidities

Depending on how much authority/believability your husband has he could take the reports to his boss and ask that they be filled out better, citing real examples. The company could then deal with the problem.

Otherwise; a. look for another job or b. put up with it.