Has anyone else here been in a similar predicament, where they have something in there hands that will make life easier for and entire department of well over 100 persons, but fear to let it go and watch it be devoured without so much as a thank you. I don't want to be left feeling like a fool for being the poor sap to come along once in a great while, make things nicer for all, then be forgotten in the shadows.

Hmm. The more I think about it, the more my work situation resembles yours -- only I've already released the software to the users, and I'm expected to be a programmer. Most of the users treat my code (and all of the internal tools in general) as some sort of bounty or weregild that we (the programmers) are obliged to provide, and complain bitterly when things break. Never mind the fact that most -- maybe all -- of these tools came into being when a couple of coders got together and said, "So-and-so's wasting a whole week doing repetitive, dull work. I bet we can automate that."

And I can pretty much guarantee you that, in a couple of years, my work will only be remembered in the irritation of maintenance programmers fixing bugs. "Oh, Matt wrote this. No wonder."

Every once in a while, though, someone will thank me for a script, or a feature, or a document, that made their lives just a bit easier. That's what gets me out of bed in the morning.

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:wq