the fate of a small developer in a large company, or is it necessary to fight windmills

First optional preface. For this topic I received an invite to habr (thanks to ecl ). I was not going to publish it, but yesterday the story got an unexpected continuation, so I could not resist.
The tale is simple.

I started working in a small office (15-20 people), which was the only development point of a small Canadian company. There I learned what XP is, Scrum, independent decision making and, in general, freedom. Well, then I did not understand this, I thought that Scrum was bullshit, but for the rest I thought so everywhere.
After working a year and a half for student zp, I decided that I was worth more.

Easily settled into a large office, which was one of the many points of development of the huge western
the company.
The system of payment in this office deserves a separate mention: you sit, doing nothing (without a project) - get sn. In the project - get another bonus (once a quarter - another sn).
If you don’t participate in the project - if you want - pick your nose, if you want to participate in the development of the internal intranet.
')
From the first days I found myself in this gov intranet. In my inexperienced view, the system was designed crookedly, implemented accordingly, only worse. I went to the man who was responsible for "this".

-Why like that? So conceived? - I asked.
-No - they say, just like that, imperfection.
- Why so? - the same answer
etc.
Why a project under CVS, and not under SVN, say? After all, CVS is the day before yesterday!
-Admins can not configure the SVN repository. (the project was already 1.5 years old)

The next shock was waiting for me in the project.
Bureaucracy…
I could stupidly sit without work for a week, because on the side of the head company I didn’t have any accounts for a week. And nobody cared. Neither customers, nor my manager.
The project, designed for 3 months, changed its tasks in a coordinated way one month before the end - and everyone ran like sweaty mice.
- well, pi in general! - I thought.
As a result, at the end of the project a donut turned out without a hole, and we received an award !!!
Well, well - I thought - maybe an exception.

And I spent 4 months without a project.

Since I really didn’t want to participate in the development of an intranet, I went to the top managers.
Let's - I say - let's make such an internal project, we have 10 people without a project. New interesting technologies - not EJB2, but RESTful, JavaFX, Groovy. I am told:
- Dude, you're cool, come on!
But then another blow was waiting for me - none of the 10 people wanted to do something. Here is an exemplary conversation with each of them:

- What for? Will I get an award?
- Not.
-And sense?
-Prof growth.
- No, thanks, I'll be waiting for the project.

The heads, having learned about it, only shrugged their shoulders:
- Dude, you're cool.
and continued to do their archival affairs.

And I started my project alone.
A month later, I had one person in the project. in another week - two ...
... and then they took me to the project. and the internal project was bent at once, both assistants returned to doing nothing.

Why am I all this?
Take the abstract-average programmer.
Here everyone says - first of all, he should enjoy his work, money - they are second in motivation.
And what happens? - he is pleased. The project is interesting - good. not interesting - nothing. no project - ok. Money is paid.
Those. dear habra users when they talk about motivation, they talk about their motivation, and not the average programmer, say.
And he wants money.
And stability.
And stability in the first place, even if it is stability with little money. The average programmer will not go to another office if he is offered 20% more sn. and certainly not going to the same or lower wages, but for an interesting job.
And it will remain the average programmer.
But with a great desire, you can bring it up. own example. Is it worth it - another question.

I want to note that I am not trying to convey the idea: “all people are like people, and I am Jimi Hendrix”. I still work in this office. and you know why?
Because it is a swamp - delays.
Because it’s better that it’s completely without work, the realities are now completely different than a year ago, and it’s not so easy for a young programmer to find a job.

I am trying to understand the average programmer, because understanding him will, I feel, will be very useful to me in the future, as you hope ...
But they are different.

PS How it all ended - I will write in a week, I will not say “gop” until I jump.