this post was submitted on 29 Sep 2026
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have you ever seen it play out like that? :p
Actually yes! I’m in an odd spot where I left for a couple years for another job and came back to the same company. Not only was the tech that was in my place while I was gone grateful, he actually continued to add to it so that when I came back, there wasn’t a whole lot I had to update!
I've been the recipient of such a document, and I was absolutely grateful. I've also been the recipient of absolutely no documentation. And I've written one and had it be appreciated when I laterally moved positions, which the 3 people who replaced me appreciated.
Depending on the enterprise environment and role, it can take up to 2 years to fully learn the system without such a document. Especially if it's an esoteric field.
i think i'm lucky in that my competencies are as generic as you can get -- python, bash, ansible, postgres on linux -- and is so accessible that there are plenty of resources to be found online to minimize that 2 years.
but apparently, not as lucky as you since i never received such a document and the surprise layoffs never allowed me to create such a document for anyone else -- i doubt that i even know how to make one since i've never seen one.
i envy you!
i've never gotten documentation that was helpful and -- in retrospect and just now -- i suspect that the line of predecessors rage quiting before my joining was the reason i got the job.
Yeah, I took over for a guy who rage quit a year earlier, then his (hire the cheapest guy we can find) replacement basically didn't make any progress so they hired me. First question: where is this undocumented build server that took six years to build, physically? Answer: in this tower case here... Second question: when was it last backed up. Answer: ...turns pale and jogs over to IT.
i learned (2 decades+ later) that i was the cheapest guy they could find several times and my experiences taught me the hard way that the only way you can make progress is if you live/breath/eat/shit it as hardcore as you can working 60+ hours weeks during the honeymoon period or you too will be walking out the door.
we recently hired new grads and they don't exhibit this kind of asshattery like the new hires at the companies i worked for in the past did and i'm wondering if it representative of a labor aristocracy that's starting to struggle since my old companies were both faang and old-silicon while this new company is a non-profit that serves my local community.