>>>http://blogs.zdnet.com/projectfailures/?p=412
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>>In any software company where I worked, and which had a payroll app, being assigned to work on payroll meant you're pretty much retired from serious development. You'd have to rock that baby until further notice (which would never come unless you quit), because literally every month there was some new requirement, be it from above (law changes) or within (customer requests). It never ended.
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>>I wrote payroll only once, on a bet with the big boss (about 1.50 of my salaries extra if I do that on time). I was lucky that he refused to pay, so I walked out :).
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>Was that bet done here in the US? Would have loved to have heard that final conversation when he wouldn't pay out.

Nope, Hungary, and the guys there were learning to think capitalistic. There was another stipulation in the bet, that the rest of the apps should run fine while I'm doing this - to which I agreed with another stipulation, that there's no new development on them for those two months. Which of course happened, and which was fixed more or less on time. He thought it was less :).

Went home for a vacation then, after promising I'll be back for two more weeks after that. My wife asked me just one question: are you sure it will ever get better there? Since I couldn't honestly say it would, I simply didn't go there anymore.