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Ask HN: Anyone else is tired of all the corporate bs?

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Re: Ask HN: Anyone else is tired of all the corporate bs?

#61

Post by sshine »

makk wrote: post #56
brtkdotse wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The worst part is the high degree of censorship. Everyone is so sensitive now that it's impossible to speak openly What would you say if you weren't censored?

Example: Pronouns. I’ve been subjected to Slack bots that chastise us for using gendered pronouns. Like, someone says “could you guys take a look at this?” And the bot calls the person out publicly, saying we don’t use that pronoun around here.

I experienced the “hey guys” Slack chat bot in one organisation, had the org leader confirm that it’s a policy, and subsequently quit.

I’m transhumanist, pro changing your identity, can easily handle gender fluidity, am thrilled that both Haskell and Rust ecosystems are so welcoming of transgender. I used ‘they’ as gender-neutral singular pronoun by default for decades just to not reveal people’s gender arbitrarily. But no language policing, please.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone else is tired of all the corporate bs?

#62

Post by Beltalowda »

xstefen wrote: post #37

Left IT, make couch change wage selling car parts now. Forced to get out of the house but also zero traffic, its a 2 minute walk. First job in 10+ years I didn't hate after 2 weeks.

I'd leave IT if I could find a place to rent that's not sky-high. Even much of the country-side is quite expensive and hard to afford with a regular paying job, assuming you could find a job in those kind of places in the first place. IT is the only thing I can do and still make rent, but I'm so tired of it.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone else is tired of all the corporate bs?

#63

Post by npacenop »

gsinclair wrote: post #58
npacenop wrote: post #50

I don't want to sound like the bad guy here who defends corporate, but I kind of feel like OP and a lot of comments are missing the point. Which is: large business organizations are complex social structures. You can't have a complex social structure without a lot of communication going on. Of course there are zounds of different ways to communicate with each other and if you (and your colleagues) feel like certain m…

*hole (Good comment, though ;)

thanks for noticing, fixed!

Re: Ask HN: Anyone else is tired of all the corporate bs?

#65

Post by taffronaut »

Why not find the person who makes those "arbitrary and weird decisions to make the boss and customers happy"? (i) tell them that the decisions look arbitrary and weird from where you are standing, (ii) ask them why they make them.

At worst, you will discover that they are an *hole (which you probably thought already), and at best they'll listen, and talk with you and you'll make a small step on fixing your corner of the world.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone else is tired of all the corporate bs?

#66

Post by y4mi »

npacenop wrote: post #50

I don't want to sound like the bad guy here who defends corporate, but I kind of feel like OP and a lot of comments are missing the point. Which is: large business organizations are complex social structures. You can't have a complex social structure without a lot of communication going on. Of course there are zounds of different ways to communicate with each other and if you (and your colleagues) feel like certain m…

What you say is my experience as well, with one caveat: the large corporation is usually much less productive then the smallish team that actually able to "just do [thing]".

It's just that it's impossible to scale that approach, so the larger the enterprise gets, the less you'll actually be shipping... As pretty much all of them seem to think it's easy to scale development teams, increasing their headcount and running productivity against a wall.

A small team has barely any space for Juniors however, so I think it's very good that both approaches exist in the wild

Re: Ask HN: Anyone else is tired of all the corporate bs?

#67

Post by krageon »

brtkdotse wrote: post #35
bspear wrote: post #12

Yes, the BS drained the life out of me. Switched to a startup and it got much better, but once we grew to 100+ people, the endless meetings started piling up again The worst part is the high degree of censorship. Everyone is so sensitive now that it's impossible to speak openly

> The worst part is the high degree of censorship. Everyone is so sensitive now that it's impossible to speak openly What would you say if you weren't censored?

> What would you say if you weren't censored?

"I think the demands you are making with regards to how fragile you are emotionally are not reasonable, and if this is how you must be treated in corporate life it is you that needs therapy". In general I think this response is correct and humane (provided you word it properly), because such fragility is not indicative of mental health. It is extremely not compatible with corporate culture to express this, as the prevailing notion is that everyone around such a person needs to conform 100% of the time to what they want.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone else is tired of all the corporate bs?

#68

Post by danieljacksonno »

bjourne wrote: post #60
makk wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Example: Pronouns. I’ve been subjected to Slack bots that chastise us for using gendered pronouns. Like, someone says “could you guys take a look at this?” And the bot calls the person out publicly, saying we don’t use that pronoun around here.

GP specified that it was "the worst part". Was a Slack bot that shunned people from writing "guys" the worst part of the "censorship" you were subjected to?

To be honest, a slack bot like that would make me quit on the spot.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone else is tired of all the corporate bs?

#69

Post by Graffur »

npacenop wrote: post #50

I don't want to sound like the bad guy here who defends corporate, but I kind of feel like OP and a lot of comments are missing the point. Which is: large business organizations are complex social structures. You can't have a complex social structure without a lot of communication going on. Of course there are zounds of different ways to communicate with each other and if you (and your colleagues) feel like certain m…

Your argument is that some meetings are necessary to make decisions. That is not what the OP is tired of. He is tired of 'corporate bs'. Productive meetings are not 'corporate bs' so your comment is not relevant.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone else is tired of all the corporate bs?

#70

Post by sjducb »

Graffur wrote: post #69
npacenop wrote: post #50

I don't want to sound like the bad guy here who defends corporate, but I kind of feel like OP and a lot of comments are missing the point. Which is: large business organizations are complex social structures. You can't have a complex social structure without a lot of communication going on. Of course there are zounds of different ways to communicate with each other and if you (and your colleagues) feel like certain m…

Your argument is that some meetings are necessary to make decisions. That is not what the OP is tired of. He is tired of 'corporate bs'. Productive meetings are not 'corporate bs' so your comment is not relevant.

How do you define corporate bs Vs productive meetings?
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