When you have to sit in your car for 15 minutes every morning just to summon the resolve to get out and go into the office, something's wrong with your work environment.
I'm somewhat rare in the sense that I just quit vs lining up a new job first as we had a decent financial buffer, although if I'm being honest I suspect it was a case of jumping before being pushed as the stress was starting to impact my workplace relationships as well (especially with the CEO who was a chronic time-waster that loved pointless meetings).
I've said this elsewhere, but I think it's healthy to mix things up every few years - leaving this company ultimately worked out well for me as I quickly found a new opportunity that opened up doors I had never considered before. I don't know your exact circumstances, but if you have a significant other I think it's worth having a candid conversation with them and work out what the two of you need to live a balanced and fulfilled life. If the workplace stress is leaking into the rest of your life and you find work consuming an unreasonbale amount of your time, it's probably a good sign that it might be worth exploring other opportunities (in my experience, it's much harder to change an organization than it is to just move on). I realize this is different to the "roll-up-your-sleeves" advice elsewhere in this thread, but I view my career as a 40+ year marathon so I embrace the odd twist in the road every now and again.
And, don't forget to talk with HR at work if you don't think you'll get fired to see whether there is a way to reduce distractions. Many are more-than-willing to help- whether it's with buying some noise-cancelling earbuds, relocating you, letting you work from home, or another option. If it's a team member or more that is noisy or distracts you, mention that to your manager or HR.
You can go a long way helping yourself.
Like you, when I face my monitor, the barrier is low enough that I can actually see eye to eye with my co-workers who are sitting opposite me. Oh, and apparently the space behind me is somehow a 'walkway' because it's narrow enough to cut through the other side of the office. Someone can just walk behind me while I'm working and nudge my chair while they're coming through and thus interrupting my focus.
I've talked to my manager multiple times about this and I understand that there's nothing he could have done for me due to the limited office space that we have.
My only option is to switch jobs at this point as I have enough connections that getting a new job probably won't be that hard. But it sucks because my current manager is actually good to work with and I'm kind of on the fence since I might get a shit manager. Is it worth the risk?
(Sorry if this sounds like a rant)
It's down to the level of reading out loud everything that happens on their computer screen. "Oh, I thought if you clicked there, something else would happen". "Oh, what's that?". blah blah blah. Total verbal diarrhea.
To top it off, they have a very, very loud voice.
If I make any comments to try and stop the incessant nattering, it's met with a snarky comment and only very minimal and temporary change.
My productivity has gone way down, it's almost impossible to get useful work done lots of the time, so I hardly try.
Constant interruption and complaining, perfectly fine. Antisocial headphones, verboten!
Having a stable of people who are contractually obligated to put up with their outgoing personalities.
The reality is, it will make the team produce fewer bugs. It will also help in knowledge sharing, and in some cases result in tidier designs.
But you'll basically have half the manpower. So unless you actually have serious problems with bugs, knowledge sharing, or code design, it's not going to be worth it. There are other ways to achieve quality, and most senior people can do that very well without someone pairing with them.
I would like more segregation! Enjoy your riotous atmosphere over there (far away) please!
Once upon a time, I thought programming was an introvert-friendly career. That seems to be changing fast.
I wouldn't worry too much about this. Most companies see pair programming as paying 2X for the same amount of programming output.
Edit: 99%? So you spend less than five minutes collaborating per 8-hour workday?
It sounds reasonable: 0 minute on a day, 10 mn on the next one. You can double it because the "99%" figure was dropped randomly, but that seems fair.
One size doesn't fit all.
For that kind of team, and that kind of play. But if you're like me, you can deal with workmates, it is just that a small amount of interaction with a small number of people is enough to be productive and yet not waste people's time.
My bad experience was with a large international consulting company. The consultant members colluded to extend their contract and push their own design, architecture, and tools. The time spent pair programming with them was simply a method of advancing their agenda. It was a horrible experience and I felt burnout just like you described. It was a waste of time and money for the client.
My last consulting project was the exact opposite, it was absolutely wonderful. I spent the day pair programming and it involved creative problem solving and an intellectual exchange. It was a great experience, I grew professionally, wrote better code, and can see legitimate a case that it was worth the client's money.
And I actually like pair-programming, some of my best code was written with somebody sitting besides me and we have solved some really tricky bugs like this.
But we tend to do this only rarely. Most of my day is spent organizing stuff and reading emails anyway :-)
Some of my best code has been written with pair programming but I can see the flip-side. There's no day-dreaming, there's no zoning out, complete engagement all day long.
It's the same mental overhead as with taking care of toddlers; you have to be constantly aware otherwise suffer the consequences.. :)
Our normal thing is to form joint teams of Pivotal and client developers, and in that situation, pairing is also a really good way to teach the clients our way of doing things.
Of course, a team like that needs to only hire people who are up for that lifestyle.
You probably still wouldn't like it much, sadly!
One of the parts of my job that I dislike is watching people mouse around on the screen and try to type.
There's something so frustrating about tracking someone else's mouse movements and typing and the impotent watching when you know where they're meant to click or what they're trying to type, but seeing them flail around, that I find very unpleasant.
Also deflecting people's ideas I would find very tiring, having to explain why you don't want to do something you know is a bad idea, or explain why something you want to do is a good idea. Much more efficient to just do it in the best way you can think of, then have a code review later.
Seems like a waste of resources to limit two people to doing the one job.
That's especially true on those occasions that you do something nobody believes is possible.
I haven't had to work in an environment that requires it, and just looking at the wiki page makes it seem miserable.
Do you really just sit at one workstation, with another person watching over your shoulder haggling over each line of code?
I think I'm just not a quick enough thinker for this approach to work.
A related technique that's quite interesting is mob programming, where an entire team is huddled around a workstation. There's less pressure on each team member as individuals, and the person typing the code is mostly following directions from the others.
Really, the approach to development needs to be appropriate for the dynamics of the team. It might be a good idea to at least try out pair or mob programming to see how effective it is. But you can't just be doing it just because it's the 'hip' thing these days. Also, pair and mob programming can be quite draining, so you may not want to be doing it all day. You could do it for part(s) of the day, and work on your own at your own pace at other times.
Also, one guy came in during the lunch break, and got more done than the mob did in the other eight hours...
This looks more functional. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVqUcNKVbYg
I am not against the idea... but yeh I can see it has issues!
Smoke a bit with your partner, go for a walk, maybe apologize or retract some things if necessary. Maybe stop being such a perfectionist and just merge what does work now.
It occurs to me that many people, perhaps even a majority, perceive a need for coffee in order to have the energy and focus they need.
My assertion is that cannabis sometimes has a similarly useful effect, and that one distinct example is in how it affects teamwork.
It is just that a good part of them don't even notice what they do and why they do it.