My approach, if someone's been hired as a programmer, has been to assume they know what they're doing unless they ask for help. Bondy says-- and this matches my own experience, looking back on the last time I was tasked with mentoring a junior dev-- that you should assume they need help or oversight until they demonstrate independent competence.
If put in this situation again, I would be explicit about it: "You have my permission to interrupt me, even if I look like I'm engrossed in something and wearing my giant aviation grade go-away headphones. My priority-- and my job-- is to make sure you know what you're supposed to be doing and have the information and tools to do it."
Also, I would check in at least once a day with them, until it's clear that they do know what they're doing and will ask for help whenever they don't. Come to think of it, taking this approach with all new teammates seems like it would make sense, even for folks with 20+ years of dev experience; one would just expect that more experienced folks get to the point of semi-independence quicker (even after that point, checking in every few days can't hurt).
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There re was a great talk by Netta Bondy on the subject.
My approach, if someone's been hired as a programmer, has been to assume they know what they're doing unless they ask for help. Bondy says-- and this matches my own experience, looking back on the last time I was tasked with mentoring a junior dev-- that you should assume they need help or oversight until they demonstrate independent competence.
If put in this situation again, I would be explicit about it: "You have my permission to interrupt me, even if I look like I'm engrossed in something and wearing my giant aviation grade go-away headphones. My priority-- and my job-- is to make sure you know what you're supposed to be doing and have the information and tools to do it."
Also, I would check in at least once a day with them, until it's clear that they do know what they're doing and will ask for help whenever they don't. Come to think of it, taking this approach with all new teammates seems like it would make sense, even for folks with 20+ years of dev experience; one would just expect that more experienced folks get to the point of semi-independence quicker (even after that point, checking in every few days can't hurt).