Ask HN: How to handle a workaholic colleague? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: How to handle a workaholic colleague?

#61

Post by webmaven » Mon, Oct 17, 2016, 3:08 AM UTC

jakobegger wrote: post #52

TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What motivates you to send emails 24/7? Unless you're actively involved in incident response, I find it hard to imagine a scenario that necessitates sending regular email at 3 in the morning.

I guess it's convenient when you've eg. fixed an issue at 3AM in the morning to send an email to affected people right away (so you can focus on the next thing) instead of remembering to send the email in the morning.

There are solutions to write and 'send' an email now for scheduled delivery. Gmail users for example can use Boomerang: http://www.boomeranggmail.com/

Re: Ask HN: How to handle a workaholic colleague?

#62

Post by webmaven » Mon, Oct 17, 2016, 3:53 AM UTC

znpy wrote: post #57

I am reading so many different opinions here. I wonder what would you all reply to an "Ask HN" thread like "I am working day and night and sending emails even outside business hours, but my colleagues do not reply unless it's business hours and that is really bugging me". Btw, did you all consider that maybe that guy just needs or wants really hard that promotion or that salary level-up and is "just" working as hard…

Ask HN and you shall receive: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12722587

Re: Ask HN: How to handle a workaholic colleague?

#63

Post by webmaven » Mon, Oct 17, 2016, 4:02 AM UTC

joesmo wrote: post #18

isidoreSeville wrote: post #3

Well your relative performance is worse, so either tolerate that or work harder. Nobody's work-life balance is someone else's decision to make.

"Nobody's work-life balance is someone else's decision to make." Unless one is self employed with at least emergency funds in the bank (or better yet, "fuck you" money), I can say with almost certainty that one's work-life balance is someone else's decision to make in America. It has been at every single job I've ever worked at, even remote ones, and it certainly is the case in this post.

True, but in most cases moving to a different company where that pre-determined balance happens to be more in line with your professional and personal needs is a viable option, especially if you happen to live and work in a state where non-competes aren't enforceable.

Re: Ask HN: How to handle a workaholic colleague?

#64

Post by webmaven » Mon, Oct 17, 2016, 4:05 AM UTC

bbcbasic wrote: post #54

rokhayakebe wrote: post #30

Send Later plugin. Write emails and set them to go at 1:15AM, 2AM and 4AM.

And a SaaS was born

And that SaaS is called Boomerang.

Re: Ask HN: How to handle a workaholic colleague?

#65

Post by webmaven » Mon, Oct 17, 2016, 4:10 AM UTC

kelvin0 wrote: post #8

Gigablah wrote: post #2

The whole team bands together and gives your teammate their full support, so that he/she is promoted into management as soon as possible.

So once he's promoted, he can now email/text you all night and 'improve' your productivity.(Being Sarcastic, of course)

No, at that point you get HR involved because they are creating a hostile work environment and demoralizing the team (bonus points if any of you have significant familial obligations such as caring for an elderly parent or other relative).

Mandatory sensitivity training FTW!

Re: Ask HN: How to handle a workaholic colleague?

#66

Post by SoulMan » Mon, Oct 17, 2016, 7:25 AM UTC

webmaven wrote: post #62

znpy wrote: post #57

I am reading so many different opinions here. I wonder what would you all reply to an "Ask HN" thread like "I am working day and night and sending emails even outside business hours, but my colleagues do not reply unless it's business hours and that is really bugging me". Btw, did you all consider that maybe that guy just needs or wants really hard that promotion or that salary level-up and is "just" working as hard…

Ask HN and you shall receive: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12722587

Likewise ! interesting comments over there.

Re: Ask HN: How to handle a workaholic colleague?

#67

Post by rurban » Mon, Oct 17, 2016, 7:32 AM UTC

Set your Don't Disturb settings properly, so you won't see it at night, only during work hours.

Accept that he wants to be better.

Overall the end product and performance will be measured, not how many hours were needed to make it.

Re: Ask HN: How to handle a workaholic colleague?

#68

Post by jeremycabral » Mon, Oct 17, 2016, 9:51 AM UTC

I recently wrote a blog post which might change his perspective on things: https://medium.com/@jeremycabral/how-a-5-minute-ignite-talk-...

I think sometimes people need something shocking to happen in their lives to force them to change for the better

Re: Ask HN: How to handle a workaholic colleague?

#69

Post by Chyzwar » Mon, Oct 17, 2016, 10:52 AM UTC

You and him have different aspirations. You want to put minimal effort and still somehow progress in your career. He want to put maximum effort and advance faster. Clearly he is going to become your manager even if he do not have seniority. You will stuck in the same position or hop to new job. He will get exploited by organisation and discarded when not needed.

1. Losers - the biggest group of employees. they are easy to manipulate and will easily follow the lead. These people trade their life for paycheck and are worse off in economic sense. Over productive losers get promoted to Clueless.

2. Clueless is group of employees usually middle management that personally believe in organisation. These people will put insane amount of work because they what company to succeed. Even if they are only getting slightly more, they carry way more responsibility.

3. Sociopaths/Founders/Stakeholders is top layer in any organisation. They want organisation to be predictable, It don't matter if organisation fails they will succeed anyway. They need Clueless as insulation layer to Loser.

http://www.makingitanywhere.com/escape-your-job/

Re: Ask HN: How to handle a workaholic colleague?

#70

Post by elechi » Mon, Oct 17, 2016, 12:23 PM UTC

Well, I'm a bit of a workaholic, and I do tend to do things at all hours of the day. But it's more related to the fact that I have terrible sleep patterns, and I've worked 6am to 3pm, to about 1pm to 10pm, and so on and so forth. I've just explained to my team that I have horrid patterns, and to not look into it more than basically tracking how I'm sleeping.