Morning comes, and the alarm screams before the sun even finishes yawning. Developer drags himself out of bed, still half-dreaming in code snippets. Coffee first—because without caffeine, he might just forget what a “semicolon” is. With a cup in hand, he check emails, Teams notifications, reviews Backlog and a swarm of tickets waiting to be tackled. The day begins not with calm, but with bugs already demanding attention. The idea that Developers rise with the rooster? Total myth. Most are still in deep hibernation by 8:00 a.m., mastering the art of pretending they’ll wake up “in five minutes.”
Of course, exceptions exist. Sometimes Developer is yanked out of bed early— not by a crowing rooster, not by ambition, but by a newborn crying for attention. Fatherhood has entered the chat, and balancing diapers with debugging is a boss fight nobody prepares you for. Every task completed feels like a mini love letter to the baby. Touching, yes. Exhausting, also yes.
Other mornings, Developer logs in fresh out of bed at 8:55 a.m.—not because passion for Drupal suddenly bloomed overnight, but because bills have arrived like final bosses at the doorstep. Being single isn’t a badge of freedom here; it’s a survival mode compromise powered by endless overtime. No grieving, no dating, no Netflix binges—just “Thank you, overtime, for keeping me distracted. Lol.”
At 9:00 sharp, the first daily Google Meet begins. It’s not a cozy coffee chat, but a tactical briefing. Developer reports what needs to be done, one task at a time, in a meeting that lasts around seven minutes. Sometimes shorter, sometimes longer, depending on how intimidating the tasks sound. But behind the serious faces, chaos brews. When a teammate’s voice cracks like a pubescent boy in karaoke, professionalism takes a nosedive. Developer holds in laughter like a champ—until it bursts. That’s when the camera conveniently “malfunctions” to hide a boisterous laugh attack. Professionalism has its limits, after all.
Morning duty officially starts afterward. Unofficially? Developer is still in loading screen mode. The engine hasn’t combusted yet. Work is happening, yes—but it’s more like buffering. Private group chats are buzzing with nonsense about everything under the sun: bug fixes, gossip, grievances, even heated debates about flood control scams. The chat life is alive, while the work life… slowly wakes up.
At 11:00 a.m., the second meeting—“Breakroom”—arrives. This is where Developer cries for help (screen-share edition). It’s technically only five minutes long, but when someone’s bug is uglier than expected, volunteers stick around like heroes in capes, offering patches, advice, or just emotional support.
Lunch usually lands at 12:00, unless something explodes. When that happens, lunch waits, and Developer codes through hunger against the ferocity of a starving bug. At times like this, lunch meal becomes prayers.
By the afternoon, though, things get serious. Or at least, awake. The third breakroom meeting comes right after lunch, but it’s the quietest of them all. Why? Because everyone is still metabolizing rice and Adobo, while his brain is silently refactoring code.
The afternoon grind is where Developer transforms into a research wizard. Google, ChatGPT, and AI tools are summoned like family members. Stack Overflow? Pfft, that’s ancient history—like floppy disks and Internet Explorer. In between, real life sneaks in. Developer might step away to run a sari-sari store errand, caching in money via GCash to some, or play fetch with the dog named Kopi and Zoe. All while the IDE stays open, of course—because multitasking is life.
At 3:00 p.m., another meeting comes in hot. This one is heavier on discussion and clarifications. Questions fly, tickets are dissected, and Developer feels like a philosopher debating the meaning of bugs. By 5:00 p.m., the last breakroom call is on. Here, if stress levels are high, Developer sneaks in a Mobile Legends match or two. Because nothing screams “team bonding” like shouting at your friends while your project deadlines laugh in the background. True the fire!
At 5:30 p.m., Developer prepares the daily report. A neat little summary of what’s been accomplished today (which sounds more heroic than it felt in real life). By 6:00 p.m., work is officially over. But we all know the truth—bugs have no respect for time. Emergencies call for overtime, and Developer often answers, staying late to squash last-minute issues while the rest of the world eats dinner. Midnight snacks replace proper dinner, and his screen glows with unfinished tasks. He tells himself, “Just one more commit,” though he knows that’s the oldest lie in developer history.
And that, dear diary, is a day in the life of a Developer at Acret: parent, breadwinner, coder, gamer, multitasker, bug slayer, and occasional philosopher. A creature of caffeine, deadlines, and memes, holding everything together with teamwork, sarcasm, and the occasional GCash receipt.
Tomorrow? The rooster will crow again. But he probably won’t. And for him the world outside feels like a myth—Developer lives on keyboards and Wi-Fi, not sunlight.