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Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?

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Re: Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?

#241

Post by elliekelly »

roland35 wrote: post #201
Kneecaps07 wrote: post #146

This is unethical, but outsource yourself. Get contractor jobs and then hire cheap overseas workers to do the work and pocket the difference. If you can get a few of these gigs going and can manage your calendar you can probably cut yourself down to 20 hours a week. Just be better at hiding it than the guy we hired who got busted doing this literally within the first hour of his first day. Don't let your boss take ov…

We had to fire someone doing this as well, he was caught because his "subcontractor" was calling into meetings and had a totally different accent! Please don't do this... Not only is it unethical, there are security, intellectual property, and liability concerns as well. A company should be aware of who has access to it's internal resources.

> We had to fire someone doing this as well, he was caught because his "subcontractor" was calling into meetings and had a totally different accent!

This is hysterical. Can you say more about how it happened and the aftermath? How long did it take for suspicions to arise? Did the company confirm the suspicions with data (access logs or anything) or did they just ask him? Did the company treat it as a data breach or just fire the guy and move on?

I doubt it happened but it seems like an opportunity for the company to cut out the middle man and hire the subcontractor directly...

Re: Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?

#242

Post by giantg2 »

Someone wrote: post #196
busymom0 wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's your right by law to reduce your hours for the same pay/hour. Is this actually a thing? There are laws regarding this? How do these laws work if there's a job requirement itself which needs certain number of hours?

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=LEGISSUM... : “Part-time workers cannot be treated less favourably than comparable full-time workers solely because they work part-time, unless it can be objectively justified.” So, employers can deny requests for shorter working hours, but only if that can be objectively justified. In general, that’s fairly hard to do, given the amount of part-time workers and the…

And that if the person still gets full benefits, then the hourly rate can be objectively reduced to offset the difference in total compensation rate.

Re: Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?

#243

Post by coglionirotti »

Go work as Developer on some consulting company that literally do Body Rental inside banks or insurance companies. IT departments in those fields suck a lot. Often, you have to wait months for new tasks, and the salary is often above 2k € thanks to "reimbursement". Here in Italy I've worked for BancoBPM and Allianz as "Consultant". The effort was 3 months of "work" and years of free time.

Re: Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?

#245

Post by ghaff »

fsloth wrote: post #10
imagine99 wrote: post #6

I do kinda understand where you're coming from but I want to warn you against this approach. These jobs you mention, they DO exist. But they break people and make them intensely miserable. Look into "boreout" (as opposed to burnout) to learn more about this. You will be very happy for the first few months, being able to browse HN, news sites and Reddit all day while nobody cares about what you do, nobody wants your i…

"practically all passions and hobbies can be monetized somehow (even a little)" I disagree strongly. This is a dangerous advice. I've been watching this from the sidelines and yes, someone can get a trickle down that does not even buy you a cup of coffee. But revenue streams beyond that? Highly non-trivial, especially in the niche-hobbies (of which there seem to be an infinite amount of them). Not all things worth do…

Absolutely. For example, it's very easy to work hard writing and make very little. (Writing in the technical space can be valuable but it's mostly by boosting reputation and therefore the ability to make money through other routes.)

Ditto for music and many other things that often fall into the category of things that lots of talented people are happy to do for free.

Re: Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?

#246

Post by elliekelly »

knuthsat wrote: post #210

Get a job at a consultant company that hands you out to others as an expert. It will take a while for the big corp that received you to figure out that team members are doing all the work and that you're applying low effort on everything. If you do not ask for a raise, the consultant company is fine with it and will hand you out to new clients easily.

This is a terrible answer. Have you ever worked in consulting? It couldn’t be further from what OP states they’re looking for.

Re: Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?

#247

Post by tartoran »

giantg2 wrote: post #228
elyobo wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Partner choice and choice whether to have children are other critical considerations in cost control.

This can be the biggest factor. It can't be understated. For example, my wife won't let me consider relocating and spends basically all her money on hobbies. This limits my job options to locally available ones (not a great area) and that I can't get a less stressful job because it pays less and I need my current salary to pay all the bills.

Aren't you and your wife sharing responsibility equally or proportionally at least? It is unfair for one partner to bear the brunt of stress and the other to thrive. Sounds like some compromises need to be made here.

Re: Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?

#248

Post by roland35 »

nathantotten wrote: post #165
Kneecaps07 wrote: post #146

This is unethical, but outsource yourself. Get contractor jobs and then hire cheap overseas workers to do the work and pocket the difference. If you can get a few of these gigs going and can manage your calendar you can probably cut yourself down to 20 hours a week. Just be better at hiding it than the guy we hired who got busted doing this literally within the first hour of his first day. Don't let your boss take ov…

This isn’t unethical. There are entire companies that do exactly this. If done well, this is actually an extremely valuable service. It would be unethical if you are hired as an employee and outsourced your work, but as a contractor this is fair game.

This is still an issue even if you're a contractor! The company should know who has access to their internal resources and codebase. If you are upfront about it, then of course it is fine. Make sure it's in the contract.

Re: Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?

#249

Post by robin_reala »

giantg2 wrote: post #232
tonyedgecombe wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Partner especially, you can always raise children on a budget.

Generally true. It gets more complicated if they have medical issues or a disability.

…in the US.

Re: Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?

#250

Post by dontreact »

Am I the only one who read this thread and got a little sad? Technology really does have the potential to change the world for the better, and I still believe that. It's just sad to see so many people who just want to use their talents to make money and that's it.

Anyways I can understand why people get to where they are in terms of believing that there is no meaningful work out there in software which also makes enough money to live on. We live in a pretty discouraging world. The marketplace misprices a lot of things and there are many things with high social value which are public goods that can not be sold at a high price (or at all).

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/public-good.asp

There are things that have many negative externalities that can make a profit even though they are just a cost to society overall.

https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/051515/how-do-exter...

I am hopeful that over time we as a society can identify and correct these imperfections in the market. It will take a long time though.

Just wanted to send this message out there to people who still believe that the future is going to be better than the present and that software will play a role in making that happen.

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