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Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

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Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#501

Post by shrikant »

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…

> expressly forbidden from using ANY VC by the CEO [...]

I read this and thought this could be because the CEO only thinks of version control as "GitHub", and is worried about putting sensitive information in the "cloud".

Have you considered discussing this with your immediate superior? Not using any VC is a disaster waiting to happen...

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#502

Post by mihaaly »

halfer53 wrote: post #430
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…

This is one of the reason I hate about PIP( performance improvement program). They set ridiculous goals for you in very short amount of time that nobody can possibly complete, then fire you on grounds of incompetence. A friend of mine who works in Facebook told me that an employee committed suicide due to the pressure of PIP. I suspect that guy was put into PIP due to poor rating (meet most), then was given a ridicul…

It took me more than a decade learning how to estimate a task realistically not based on expectations. Due to pressure I always underestimated before which led to mounting troubles on the end despite of working hard.

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#503

Post by bryanrasmussen »

perl4ever wrote: post #175
MFLoon wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I lost it at "What the fuck is HIPPA". Who the fuck buys a healthcare company and doesn't know what the fuck HIPPA is? Great read.

That's (purportedly) a quote from the person posting this on HN, not the purchaser of the company.

but he sat down with everyone involved right, and nobody knew what it was. That does sound a little fishy, under the circumstances it's a little like sitting down with a pair of nice old ladies who've been poisoning people and hearing "Arsenic? What's that?!?"

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#504

Post by sAbakumoff »

rovr138 wrote: post #478
sAbakumoff wrote: post #442

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what kind of company takes 1 morning to fire an employee? that does not sound realistic.

Maybe they needed or wanted a reason to fire them. If that’s the case, it was all ready to go on HR.

I mean it only happens in movies when an employee gets fired and immediately put his stuff in the box and leaves the building. In real life there are labor regulations that don't allow this, there is the notification period et cetera

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#505

Post by CubicsRube »

halfer53 wrote: post #430
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…

This is one of the reason I hate about PIP( performance improvement program). They set ridiculous goals for you in very short amount of time that nobody can possibly complete, then fire you on grounds of incompetence. A friend of mine who works in Facebook told me that an employee committed suicide due to the pressure of PIP. I suspect that guy was put into PIP due to poor rating (meet most), then was given a ridicul…

TechLead, a youtuber that worked at Facebook, has covered this story [0].

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbEQriZEfoI

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#506

Post by hef19898 »

Happened to me a couple of times. The common denominator in all cases is managers and an organization preferring opinions over facts. The last case took three months to reach that point. During that I had to manage a serious raw material shortage situation everybody tried as hard as possible to ignore. After three months that wasn't possible anymore and all of a sudden the business decided it was up to me find a solution, prioritize customers and markets and it was also me who was responsible for sales to miss their targets due to that raw material shortage. That the root cause was a force majeure incident at a single source supplier, we were most likely in a dominant market position and the global market for the raw material was empty didn't matter. The last straw was my new manager who insisted to provide numbers impossible to extract from the ERP system and present numbers I knew were wrong simply because they showed that there was no problem. Also he directly said that apparently I was incapable of doing my job. The day after that I quit.

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#507

Post by gigatexal »

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…

Good God, what a terrible situation but an even better outcome. So glad you didn't take your life.

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#508

Post by mihaaly »

shrikant wrote: post #501
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…

> expressly forbidden from using ANY VC by the CEO [...] I read this and thought this could be because the CEO only thinks of version control as "GitHub", and is worried about putting sensitive information in the "cloud". Have you considered discussing this with your immediate superior? Not using any VC is a disaster waiting to happen...

Probably they should stop using internet too, just in case, bad people lurk around there, they say.

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#509

Post by noway421 »

hn_temp_10_1_19 wrote: post #262

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.

Heard that a friend of mine had to use something similar at one of his jobs, and he was miserable. Even though the colleagues were nice and the place was more or less okay.

I think it felt like an extremely arcane thing to learn and just not something exciting to work with.

Sometimes we forget how blessed we are with the DX in mainstream programming languages.

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#510

Post by hef19898 »

virgilp wrote: post #437
loxs wrote: post #413

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 i…

> I may seem like an asshole, but so far it works I do the same, it's amazing how well it works. As long as you genuinely try putting (what you think is) the company interest first, people actually appreciate you more if you don't do what you're told, but what you think is best. At least that's my experience so far. And it makes sense - because not everybody can afford to challenge the status quo & conventional wisdo…

Depends on the people so. I usually fail at the point when personal interests and politics come into play. Which is my most common "fuck this" event.
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