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Ask HN: Is it possible to have a structured work day in software dev?

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Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to have a structured work day in software dev?

#21

Post by cinntaile »

Rygian wrote: post #16

I work a strict 9am–6pm schedule from western Europe, and interact with both Asian and American colleagues. I simply decline all meetings that are outside of my work window, and it would probably be against the law for my management to expect me to do otherwise ("right to disconnect"). I do know, however, that some of my colleagues in Asian countries feel an non-official pressure to accept late-evening meetings so th…

In a sense you outsourced your pressure to a country where it is less socially accepted to refuse I guess?

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to have a structured work day in software dev?

#22

Post by discordance »

It’s more likely in large orgs. I work at a large one and my group consists of 800 people spread across the world. A lot of us got stressed out and burned out due to time zone spread in the pandemic.

Our LT took the feedback and we have since regionalized the teams so people don’t work too far out of their time zone.

If that’s not possible, perhaps find somewhere else that works in one time zone.

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to have a structured work day in software dev?

#23

Post by gherkinnn »

Quit as soon as you can. Overworking yourself for an employer who clearly doesn’t respect your time is not worth it.

At worst you’ll carry around the scars of burning out for the rest if your life.

And yes, it is possible to work reasonable hours. Not only that, but it should be the default.

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to have a structured work day in software dev?

#25

Post by bbarn »

Uptime rates should have no connection to your work hours.

99.99% uptime does not mean you need to be on a meeting every night.

Your manager is bad. Really bad. Becoming a manager doesn't mean you put on some ring and now you're in the "inevitably bad club".

Like others have said, find a new job that respects you.

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to have a structured work day in software dev?

#26

Post by orzig »

An assumption I bring it to most questions like this:

The world, including the tech world, is much bigger than you think.

Though I have only seen a tiny fraction of it myself, here’s where I’ve had reliably contained workdays: 1) Machine learning systems for internal Ops processes, we technically had on call rotation but I never heard of anyone being paged at a terrible hour 2) Data engineering for strategic dashboards, where “I will fix it when I get in tomorrow“ is totally fine 3) A cross geography team who is clients are in my time zone, which set the norm that the other people had to shift their working hours instead (I’m not saying that this is globally optimal, but they knew what they were signing up for, and I can be confident this pattern will persist)

Each has their own trade-offs, but my point is that you can find options anywhere along some dimension if you keep looking

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to have a structured work day in software dev?

#28

Post by dmkirwan »

I was going to respond saying that you should be strict about declining meeting outside of working hours and protect your time, but then I remembered that my company is not every company and this may not be supported or possible. It does sound like you are overworked and the company may be poorly managed in this regard.

I think your best options are to speak with your manager about it or start looking for other jobs with better work-life-balance. The companies you are looking for certainly do exist!

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to have a structured work day in software dev?

#29

Post by dmos62 »

cinntaile wrote: post #21
Rygian wrote: post #16

I work a strict 9am–6pm schedule from western Europe, and interact with both Asian and American colleagues. I simply decline all meetings that are outside of my work window, and it would probably be against the law for my management to expect me to do otherwise ("right to disconnect"). I do know, however, that some of my colleagues in Asian countries feel an non-official pressure to accept late-evening meetings so th…

In a sense you outsourced your pressure to a country where it is less socially accepted to refuse I guess?

Another aspect to this is that the far-away collegues might be fewer, so they adapt to the majority.

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to have a structured work day in software dev?

#30

Post by dev_0 »

Rygian wrote: post #16

I work a strict 9am–6pm schedule from western Europe, and interact with both Asian and American colleagues. I simply decline all meetings that are outside of my work window, and it would probably be against the law for my management to expect me to do otherwise ("right to disconnect"). I do know, however, that some of my colleagues in Asian countries feel an non-official pressure to accept late-evening meetings so th…

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