Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

411–420 of 862 posts

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#411

Post by Intermernet »

brongondwana wrote: post #301
house9-2 wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> working on non-version-controlled code, having been expressly forbidden from using ANY VC by the CEO Version Control is a basic requirement of professional software development in this day and age. You could try explaining to your CEO it would be like telling a carpenter they can't use a hammer to build your new house. Or just take the initiative and use Version Control without telling them. In my mind it isn't som…

Apparently (according to a carpenter friend) - if the carpenter uses a hammer on a modern build it means something has gone wrong - they're normally using nailguns or similar to put things together - hammers are to bash them back apart again or knock them into alignment if they weren't done right the first time.

Hammers can also be used in awkward to reach places that a nail gun can't get to. Also, structural timber is very rarely straight or true. Knocking things into alignment is a very common part of framing, and hammers can achieve sub-millimetre accuracy with gentle tapping.

Yes, nail guns are awesome, but hammers are very useful tools.

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#412

Post by zeba22 »

jl2718 wrote: post #320

So many ideas in my head that I really want to be working on, and I can’t seem to separate myself from the mental model of having a set position in a heirarchy, taking confused and/or hostile direction from seemingly arbitrary sources of authority. Some kind of fear, not even financial, more like the idea of getting lost, losing touch, never finding my way back, being abandoned and undesirable, dying alone. And beyon…

You are not alone. I feel similarly

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#413

Post by loxs »

dav1app wrote: post #403

On my last job, a new manager called me for a meeting on Friday 4PM. I spent the whole month on an extremely stressful project. The meeting was about an app that integrates credit card payments, billets and bank account on a terminal that is going to be available to the general public. The deadline? 11PM of the same day. Final version. From 0 to 100% in 6 hours. I said that it was impossible. He said that I was incap…

One of my goals in life is to never be susceptible to this kind of situation (been there some years ago). So far I manage to have as big a financial buffer as needed to be able to quit instantly in that situation without batting an eye.

Indeed I never hide my ability to do so and I try to make very clear the things "I won't do" at any gig I take. Either before I start or very early in the process. At my current job it is "I won't program in a language without both types and IDE". Because of this I only work on the parts that are in TypeScript and the the JS, Ruby and Python parts are other people's problems.

I may seem like an asshole, but so far it works. Almost a year later I haven't been fired. And they seem happy about my work. And I am definitely not near burnout. Stark contrast with the older days.

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#414

Post by carapace »

I've quit a couple of places. If the management is incompetent or just out of their depth; if they company can't make good use of my skills and talents.

I'm an outlier, but I've been homeless and I have no wife nor children to support, so I don't fear just quitting if any BS comes up.

My advice, FWIW, is to always have your "FU" money.

(Money is a technology, here's a good simple manual: "The Richest Man in Babylon" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Richest_Man_in_Babylon_%28... )

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#415

Post by reificator »

Chirael wrote: post #203
reificator wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What's are the arguments against version control here (if any)? * I don't understand it * You're overcomplicating things * We're not using any of that free shit here * It doesn't say Microsoft or IBM * The last guy we hired that tried to use it was smarter than I was so anyone else who tries is a threat to my leadership. (because everyone knows you can only manage people who have a strict subset of your own knowled…

“We’ve never needed it before, so why do we need it now?” (actual argument against it at my current workplace)

My response:

You've never looked at a piece of code that you wanted to see the history of?

You've never needed to revert a single change a few hours/days/weeks later?

You've never needed to track down the person who wrote a piece of code in order to ask them for clarification?

You've never needed to see the original change reason for a line of code that is doing some weird, specific thing that seems out of place?

You've never needed to have two people edit the same file at the same time?

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#416

Post by pcl »

yepthatsreality wrote: post #389

I was just recently fired, but honestly I was about to leave. I work in a two person branch of my current gig. The other person is my supervisor and is learning how to be someone. He's constantly looking over my shoulder and decided to fire me because I missed the goals, that he forced me to quote. The project wasn't ready for a deadline. I honestly got tired of all the little supervisor experiments as well. When he…

> The project wasn't ready for a deadline.

I really like that way of looking at deadlines and project lifecycles. I haven’t ever heard the relationship expressed that way.

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#417

Post by mdaniel »

dotancohen wrote: post #384
spookyuser wrote: post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow thank you so much for this. There's some stuff I've been working on which I want to sync to Dropbox as I type but without the .git being synced too. Up until now I've just had to deal with the .git files being synced with Dropbox. But now it looks like I finally have a way of moving the repo!

If your bosses are concerned about Git, then they will likely have a fit over Dropbox. Get permission first, it is not worth your job.

it is not worth your job in a thread entitled "who wants to be fired"?

This entire thread discussion is filled with it's not worth it, but towards the "no one should be forced to work like that" kind of way

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#418

Post by paul7986 »

I'm out the door pretty soon if I'm alone in dealing with a bully or an insecure pr$&k who builds himself up by putting putting you and others down.

Two years ago I reported a female colleague whom I witnessed being harassed. After reporting it I was harassed by different employee ..nothing came from reporting my harassment and so I left. That place was terrible and no longer exists.

Overall There's too many jobs out there in our field to have deal with b.s. and stress.

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#420

Post by Leherenn »

dav1app wrote: post #403

On my last job, a new manager called me for a meeting on Friday 4PM. I spent the whole month on an extremely stressful project. The meeting was about an app that integrates credit card payments, billets and bank account on a terminal that is going to be available to the general public. The deadline? 11PM of the same day. Final version. From 0 to 100% in 6 hours. I said that it was impossible. He said that I was incap…

Happy for you it turned out well, but the whole story is quite weird.

It's obviously impossible and the timing is awful, so it has to be voluntary and there's something behind it. Did he need a reason to fire you? But that seems like a really bad reason that could backfire in a court.

Post reply on HN