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Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

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Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#261

Post by DamnInteresting »

AmericanChopper wrote: post #247
DamnInteresting wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In professional settings, when it comes to these kinds of awkward topics, I have found a method that has served me very well: A. Meet with the person who is applying the unwanted pressure (it works best one-on-one, so if more than one person is pressuring, you may need to figure out who is best to speak to). B. Frame your concern as asking for advice. For example, "I'm struggling with how to handle this on-call thing…

This approach really depends on the manager. A manager who has a habit of bullying people will have no issues laying on more pressure/guilt/whatever... in this situation. Personally, if I feel as though a manager has expected me to do something outside my contract, I just don’t even give it any thought. That’s their problem. If they bring it up I just tell them no in a rather blunt way. I’ve worked with plenty of bul…

As an introvert, what I like about this approach is that it does not close any doors, it just opens a discussion. Ofttimes that discussion is rapidly helpful. When it is not—when the manager is a bully, or oblivious—I still have the option to be more blunt. It's a diplomatic first foray into tricky topics.

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#262

Post by hn_temp_10_1_19 »

I just walked from a job after a week and a half. Applied and interviewed for a junior full stack java/angular developer position. Really excited for it.

Got and accepted an offer just to show up day one to a weird point & click/drag & drop visual programming thing called BluePrism. Tried to make myself like it, but couldn't stick it out.

Moved 800 miles for that job too, just to get bait & switched.

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#263

Post by JBlue42 »

eropple wrote: post #148
uhhhhhhhh wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Will echo other comments and say that I enjoyed this post. IANAL, however, in all seriousness... I think you should talk to a personal lawyer about your situation ASAP, especially now that you posted this publicly. HIPAA is not to be trifled with and now you've shared that you have knowledge of a breach. You've also provided enough detail in this post that (if found and traced back to you) could be used as proof that…

Seconded, hard. You can't spend that $165K a year when you're staring down the barrel of willful HIPAA violations. Leave the company as soon as humanly possible. Leave and hope that the blowback from the inevitable disclosure--which won't be from your company--is happy enough eating the executive team that remains. And get a personal lawyer who understands HIPAA and explore avenues for whistleblowing; turning over on…

Thirded.

Work at a hospital and in the orientation the first speech is given by the head of compliance who goes over what executives have gone to jail, why, and all the underlings that have been fired for seemingly innocuous HIPAA or PHI violations (looking at a friend's chart, posting on social media, etc).

The money sounds nice but OP could probably make the same at somewhere more reputable with less a chance of feds walking in and taking everything.

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#264

Post by foobarbecue »

throwaway58129 wrote: post #64

I didn't know this format was a thing and am so very excited to discover it. I hope you folks enjoy reading horror stories. I got a job as a Software Engineer in my current company 4.5 years ago; friend-of-a-friend sort of thing. The company had an apparently disastrous piece of software that was their main LOB. They had gone through pretty much every local consulting agency - at least once, on a few occasions they h…

Just FYI, segway != segue . Unless it was a joke, in which case joke's on me.

Crazy story, thanks for taking the time to share -- makes me feel better about my job!

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#266

Post by RomanPushkin »

ctoinhiding wrote: post #105

I am an acquired founder working in the bay area. The acquisition made me rich, I'm liquid, and I love my product and my team. Everyone did really well in the acquisition. The acquirer means well, but as a public company there is little intellectual honesty and projects are going off the cliff while my fellow executives not sharing the truth of how bad things are going and asking for help from one another for the goo…

I'm looking for a person like you. I've started non-profit - LibreTaxi, which is Uber alternative. PoC works and there is some traction. However, there is a need for some funds to make this app native. Ping me if you're interested (email is in profile)

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#267

Post by seizethecheese »

I sure hope this format doesn't take off.

Having worked as a dishwasher, line cook, pool manager, business analyst, software engineer, and startup founder, I have to say software engineer was, by far, the most coddled job.

How about this:

I'm a line cook, and I can't afford to be fired. I make minimum wage, and burn or cut myself badly at least once per week. I'm not allowed to take the day off and have to work through it. I work 8 hours nonstop above a very hot grill. I can't see any windows during my entire shift. Nobody respects me. My coworkers are alcoholics.

Edit: of course this doesn't mean software engineers shouldn't work to improve their well-being at work! Yeesh. Just adding some perspective. Earlier in life, I would have killed to have 95% of the work situations described below.

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#268

Post by JBlue42 »

arkades wrote: post #239
paulcole wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HIPAA is absolutely to be trifled with. Look up who is actually fined and face actual consequences from HIPAA violations. It is 99.99% big universities, hospitals, and insurance companies. Everyone else gets (at most) a slap on the wrist and has to promise not to do it again. Once in a while they’ll fine a small family practitioner $25k for not shredding papers properly but it’s a total joke. HIPAA Compliance Service…

Seconded. I’m a physician that got so pissed off at how a practice was repeatedly and willfully violating HIPAA that I risked my standing in the local physician community and reported them. I was basically told by the case manager, or whatever they call themselves, to fuck off.

When I worked at an MSP, we supported a small dermatologist's office. Everyone had personal computer accounts but everyone had a password of '1234' so...yeah.

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#269

Post by lacampbell »

zdragnar wrote: post #200
lacampbell wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm bewildered as to why a CEO would have any opinion on version control at all. Or why you'd ask a CEO whether you could use one. It's like a builder asking a construction company CEO if he can hold a hammer lower in his hand and that CEO forbidding it. Can someone explain?

A good friend of mine worked for a small company whose CEO also tried hard to convince him that introducing version control was wrong. Of course, this same CEO also didn't see any problem with the fact that the password field in the login form was never checked against the database, because who would know someone else's login name?

Why is a CEO even getting involved in an issue on that low a level?

Unless these are 'CEOs' of 3 people tech companies, I guess.

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#270

Post by brucedawson »

whateveracct wrote: post #227
rjplatte wrote: post #100

I'm the sole developer working on my current project, which is overhauling a massive DOS era application, as well as overhauling an early 2000s era CRM/business management tool, that almost all of our work happens through. Did I mention that the DOS application is a HIPAA billing application that must meet all HIPAA guidelines as well as write EDI X12 billing files? I'm very junior, been coding for ~5 years, 3 profes…

If you're that young (18??), you can almost definitely afford to quit tomorrow and look for something better. Never sacrifice your own career for your employer's success (within some time horizon.) Being willing to quit when your boss is a clear bad actor is a core part of this.

Quit. Period. Maybe find a new job first. But don't stick around.
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