Tech Team Weekly

Ever had one of those days, weeks or years? Have you thought, even briefly, about giving up the tech life and pursuing another career dream? Spurred on by a recent Reddit discussion, Sanj, Gwen and Neil look into the reasons why people might occasionally be tempted, and share their own half-baked alternate career plans. Learn which of your hosts was once a trainee electrician, who'd love to be a mile-high dentist, who took a crash-course in pub ownership, and who just wants to be paid to be on the beach.

In the stand-up, everyone's still hiring, everyone's waiting for shiny new toys to arrive, and two of our crew go cold turkey on caffeine (one more deliberately than the other). 

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Start
01:06 The Stand-Up
08:58 This Week's Epic
24:45 The Wash-Up

LINKS DISCUSSED THIS WEEK:

With inflation skyrocketing and energy bills about to go through the roof, the governer of the Bank of England has this week warned against workers asking for substantial pay rises, asking everybody to deal with the "pain" of the rising cost-of-living, whilst simultaneously taking home over £500,000 a year. We get deep into when and how we should ask for a pay rise, whether cost-of-living increases should be a given, how companies can better support employees during tough financial times, and Sanj declares some strong feelings which may lead to our Patreon earnings being diverted into legal fees.

In the wonderful world of our stand-up section, we've got busy hiring times, scary talks, Xbox dev kits and EV research. Plus, the world's shortest news quiz! 

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Start
01:16 The Stand-Up
08:20 This Week's Epic
23:26 The Wash-Up

LINKS DISCUSSED THIS WEEK:

What do we tell people when things go wrong in our organisations? This week, there have been a couple of write-ups of recent high-profile outages at Roblox and Mozilla, which - when paired with the well-documented outage at Facebook that we discussed last season - gives us a fascinating glimpse into other companies' incident processes, on-call rotas and war rooms. Sanj, Gwen and Neil share their surprising love of being knee-deep in an incident, bringing some of their own recent experiences to the podcast.

In our workplace updates, there's lots of hiring, lots of shipping new features, everybody tries to coax Sanj into management, and Neil totally isn't doing any money laundering.

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Start
01:28 The Stand-Up
06:48 Social Engineering
08:25 This Week's Epic
25:44 The Wash-Up

LINKS DISCUSSED THIS WEEK: 

It's that time of year where everybody's talking about goal-setting, but are goals the correct form of measurement? This week, the TTW crew are talking about goals and habits, and their experiences with how effective they are at modifying behaviours. Naturally, this leads to a number of conversational rabbit-holes (even in our new shortened format), so expect to hear tales of driving lessons, toothbrush etiquette and Ted Lasso.

Plus we give our weekly workplace updates, which includes conference chat, one of the biggest first-world problems ever, and praise for one of Neil's favourite TV shows.

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Start
01:23 The Stand-Up
06:57 This Week's Epic
23:33 The Wash-Up

LINKS DISCUSSED THIS WEEK: 

We're back for our second season! We're starting off with a dicussion about how we use open source software in our workplaces, after a couple of  major recent scares and outages. How do you keep track of what you're incorporating into your software, and how can we make sure that authors are rewarded for their efforts?

Plus, we update you on everything that's happened over our Christmas break: find out who caught COVID, who completed Red Dead Redemption 2, who's been won over by Microsoft Teams, and who's been donating to Wikipedia.

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Start
01:11 The Stand-Up
11:00 This Week's Epic
25:20 The Wash-Up

LINKS DISCUSSED THIS WEEK: 

As promised, this week we're showcasing all of the parts of our working lives that we normally have to rush through. It's the first (and probably not the last) Stand-Up Special! Gwen shares some exciting professional developments and hopes for 2022, while recovering from a sourdough-inflicted ailment. Sanj (or Super-Sanj as he is now known after his boosters) finally spends some time in the testing and documentation camp. And Neil finally shares his big news, though gets significantly distracted by ranting about his Pixel 6 annoyances. Plus, all three hosts reach quick agreement on their least favourite household appliance.

Next week is our final episode of the year, where we'll be running a Season 1 retrospective: what's gone well, and what we might change for Season 2. We'd love to include your thoughts, so please get in touch via any of the usual channels!

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Start
01:40 Social Engineering
02:59 The Stand-Up
36:24 The Wash-Up

LINKS MENTIONED THIS WEEK:

We've spoken in recent episodes about the volatility of the current job market, and how "The Great Resignation" is offering great opportunities for those who choose to change companies. But what about those who choose to stay? This week, we talk about the challenges of remaining motivated and thriving when those around you are moving on. 

Solving complex problems with software is, unsurprisingly, complex in itself. But what can we do about it? We weigh up the pros and cons of microservices, containers and external libraries as we analyse whether we're guilty of exchanging short-term convenience for long-term headaches. Plus, there's a bonus mini-discussion during The Stand-Up about knowing when to change roles and how to negotiate salary changes.

In a busy work week, there are plenty of extra-curricular distractions too, as Neil has Star Trek frustrations, Sanj finds an excuse to not shave, and Gwen makes the quickest ever U-turn on buying a piece of tech.

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Start
01:09 The Stand-Up
07:18 Social Engineering
13:14 This Week's Epic
23:27 News Bytes
31:31 The Wash Up

LINKS MENTIONED THIS WEEK:

It's been a week dominated by COP26, so we're turning our attention to some of the latest developments in climate tech, looking at whether green tech startups could be the key to saving the planet, and discussing how an individual's contributions stack up against companies who aren't doing their bit. 

We've also got our usual stand-up updates (although they're heavy on things that we can't talk about yet) and our News Bytes section, where we discuss the chip shortage and we ask an AI bot to solve some of the podcast's longest-running philosophical problems. 

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Start
01:57 The Stand-Up
11:16 Social Engineering
17:16 This Week's Epic
30:39 News Bytes
37:23 The Wash Up 

LINKS MENTIONED THIS WEEK: 

First, there was the stand-up. Then, we remotely discovered the asynchronous catch-up. But is there something better? This week, we discuss the blog post from Honeycomb about their "meandering team sync", designed to decrease frustrations, improve team bonding, and set themselves up for a productive day.

In this week's distractions, Neil gets embroiled in a small-scale GDPR breach, Sanj adapts to working life, and Gwen wants tips for surviving an eight-hour meeting.

Sometimes we're not sure whether or not to flag an episode as explicit, but this week Gwen has purchased a rad new office chair, so I think you can guess whether or not there'll be any fruity material this time around.

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Start
01:05 The Stand-Up
07:34 Social Engineering
11:40 This Week's Epic
30:28 News Bytes
38:20 The Wash Up

LINKS MENTIONED THIS WEEK:

Is the idea of a four-day working week too good to be true? Is it all just spin and wishful thinking? Atlassian have crunched the numbers by having a team run a nine-week experiment over the summer, and their results make for interesting reading. We'll be recapping what they uncovered, and compare it with our own experiences (past and hopeful future) to see whether it may lead to happier workers and a surprising uptick in productivity.

It's another surprisingly tightly paced episode, especially considering the number of random diversions this week, involving deep dives on topics as far-reaching as bidets, spiders, wasps, and 2024 US Presidential Election predictions. (Although nobody notices Neil's Paw Patrol mug.) 

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Start
01:36 The Stand-Up
07:26 Social Engineering
11:49 This Week's Epic
28:05 News Bytes
35:06 The Wash Up

LINKS MENTIONED THIS WEEK:

In an episode which we promise is considerably more entertaining than the subject matter might suggest, the TWW crew take a look at the rise of digital monitoring software within schools and the workplace. We discuss the trade-offs between safety and snooping, the challenges of verifying the success of such tooling, and propose some possibly less alarming ways to help protect children online.

Plus: Sanj finally manages to refuel, Neil shares how he almost lost his job because of Google Analytics, and we get to the bottom of what Gwen would be willing to sacrifice for quicker software updates.

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Start
01:15 The Stand-Up
06:23 Social Engineering
09:38 This Week's Epic
28:13 News Bytes
34:46 The Wash Up

LINKS MENTIONED THIS WEEK:

This week, we've got basically no choice other than to cover everything that's been happening during a chaotic week at Facebook. There's been downtime, whistleblower revelations, and rumours of a reversal of the company's "WFH Forever" policy (which has been denied since we recorded). Meanwhile, Neil battles through a horrible bout of flu in order to have a dig at the Tories.

CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains some discussion of eating disorders.

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Start
01:26 The Stand-Up
08:25 Social Engineering
13:15 This Week's Epic
34:25 News Bytes
38:04 The Wash Up

LINKS MENTIONED THIS WEEK:

Faced with a tight deadline, the team finally manage to deliver an episode of about the desired length! This week, Gwen, Neil and Sanj are looking at the explosion of new digital players in the 'Buy Now Pay Later' market, looking at the ethics of building features which can generate profit from the vulnerable, and asking whether employers are doing enough to encourage discussions about prudent financial behaviour. There's also discussion about loot boxes and other forms of gambling, during which Gwen gets mad at a fake casino.

There's still enough time for all three hosts to pick scarily similar stories in News Bytes - if you're interested in overpaying for novelty tech, this week is the episode for you (apart from Sanj's story, which could get you arrested if you're a careless Australian).

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Start  
00:56 The Stand-Up  
06:10 Social Engineering  
09:54 This Week's Epic  
25:13 News Bytes  
34:12 The Wash Up

LINKS MENTIONED THIS WEEK:

This week, our main story is the debate over whether companies (and employees) should be happy to disclose salaries, in an attempt to drive pay equality, a chat made somewhat harder by Neil's repeated inability to pronounce the word "equality". We get deep into discussion about our experiences with knowing (or not knowing) how our colleagues are paid, companies and countries who we've seen get the balance right, and the challenges of introducing salary negotiations in the job-hunting process.

But there's more! We'll also be talking about a secret new privacy-shattering setting in Chrome which is enabled by default, and bemoaning the lack of accessibility options in some modern games (and championing others which lead the way). You'll also hear what we've all been up to this week, including a top quality J-Lo story from Sanj, unexpectedly relevant election news from Neil, and Gwen basically doing everything under the sun. Plus there's an awful lot of Diablo II discussion for a podcast which isn't from the year 2000.

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Start  
02:02 The Stand-Up  
14:43 Social Engineering  
21:46 This Week's Epic  
44:00 News Bytes  
52:22 Competition Time  
53:09 The Wash-Up

LINKS DISCUSSED THIS WEEK:

On this week's episode, we focus on some of the bad habits that we've seen when using communication platforms such as Slack and Microsoft Teams, and how we can help to adapt and prevent lost productivity. Plus one of us has job news, one of us is preparing for a return to the office, and another of us has automated their way to some prime cinema tickets!  

Additionally we've got another Amazon voucher to give away, courtesy of the meal delivery service CookMyGrub.com!

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Start
01:28 The Stand-Up
07:22 Social Engineering
13:22 This Week's Epic
24:48 News Bytes
43:24 Competition Time
47:34 The Wash-Up    

STORIES DISCUSSED THIS WEEK:  

On this week's episode, we look at the controversy behind an issue whereby planning applications were mistakenly modified in production by a junior engineer who thought that they were working in a test environment. We'll discuss whether we should lock-down our production environments more, whether we should protect our staff against being able to make critical mistakes on real data, and our general thoughts on testing in production.  

Plus there's plenty of our usual life updates in The Stand-Up, where you can find out the result of Gwen's driving test, Neil's week one experiences with his Peloton, and Sanj rolling up his sleeves to work on some (awesome) new graphics for the show, and adding automation to our website! 

Plus, courtesy of the kind folks at CookMyGrub.com we've got another opportunity to win a £20 Amazon voucher - tune in to find out how!

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Start
01:44 The Stand-Up
14:39 Social Engineering
22:56 This Week's Epic
35:14 News Bytes
45:48 Competition Time
50:12 The Wash-Up    

STORIES FEATURED THIS WEEK:  

We're finding our stride in Episode 2, even though one of us is slightly under the weather. This week's discussion focuses on a recent trending article about modern challenges with hiring and technical interviews: we talk about technical tests, coding interviews, and how many rounds is too many. Plus there's loads of comments from our glorious listeners, we couldn't do this without all of you.

If you're here for the off-the-cuff asides, we've got plenty of those: we mull over the idea of recording an episode from within a videogame, and Neil makes plans to hack his new Peloton bike for the benefit of the podcast. Also, by complete accident, we're completely swear-free this week!

We're sponsored this week by CookMyGrub.com who have kindly offered to give away a £20 Amazon voucher to one lucky winner - tune in to the episode to find out how to enter!

High-fives to our new Patreon supporters this week: Dan Billing and Gilles!

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Start

01:45 The Stand-Up

07:15 Social Engineering

16:24 This Week's Epic

42:08 News Bytes

50:47 Competition Time

52:59 The Wash-Up

STORIES FEATURED THIS WEEK:

Welcome to the debut episode of Tech Team Weekly! As is always the case with software development, our first attempt at a 30-minute podcast turns out to be just over an hour long. We look at the ongoing saga of working during the pandemic and "The Great Resignation"; plus recent innovations at GitHub, including Copilot and Codespaces.

We introduce a few of our regular segments, including our workplace updates in The Standup, views from listeners in the Social Engineering section, and our "building in public" section entitled Podcast Driven Development.

Plus, learn more about Gwen's ongoing bathroom quest, the mystery of our missing debut tweet, and everyone takes the time to gush about Neil's current employer.

Welcome to Tech Team Weekly, a new podcast launching next Monday! Join your hosts Sanjay Purswani (The Engineer), Gwen Diagram (The Manager) and Neil Studd (The Tester) as they guide you through the latest technology breaking news from the UK.