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Ask HN: Do you feel psychological safety at your job?

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Re: Ask HN: Do you feel psychological safety at your job?

#81
post #72
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is probably the most charitable interpretation of the phenomenon possible. I do not think it is about holding people accountable at all, I think it is a new way to enforce shifting social norms that allows people to judge others without being ‘judgy.’

Please name a single instance of an individual being “cancelled” for anything but bigotry, hatred, violence, or dangerous rhetoric. I’ll wait. People aren’t being cancelled for speaking their minds. They’re being cancelled when speaking their minds is literally offensive to small and large groups of people. Almost every time someone is complaining about cancel culture, what they’re really complaining about is being h…

If you can't offend, you can't dissent. Anything is offensive to somebody.

Frankly, I'm not interested in examples that weave their way through your maze of exceptions for what you deem to be acceptable dissent. I care about the people spouting "dangerous rhetoric", whatever that is, getting cancelled.

Re: Ask HN: Do you feel psychological safety at your job?

#82
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please name a single instance of an individual being “cancelled” for anything but bigotry, hatred, violence, or dangerous rhetoric. I’ll wait. People aren’t being cancelled for speaking their minds. They’re being cancelled when speaking their minds is literally offensive to small and large groups of people. Almost every time someone is complaining about cancel culture, what they’re really complaining about is being h…

If you can't offend, you can't dissent. Anything is offensive to somebody. Frankly, I'm not interested in examples that weave their way through your maze of exceptions for what you deem to be acceptable dissent. I care about the people spouting "dangerous rhetoric", whatever that is, getting cancelled.

“Maze of exceptions” so you want to hear racism and violence? Gtfo if Andrew Tate is what you want.

Re: Ask HN: Do you feel psychological safety at your job?

#83
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please name a single instance of an individual being “cancelled” for anything but bigotry, hatred, violence, or dangerous rhetoric. I’ll wait. People aren’t being cancelled for speaking their minds. They’re being cancelled when speaking their minds is literally offensive to small and large groups of people. Almost every time someone is complaining about cancel culture, what they’re really complaining about is being h…

Donglegate would like a word with you.

Bros being unprofessional?

Re: Ask HN: Do you feel psychological safety at your job?

#84
It’s a job dude. You sign the offer letter for 300k plus TC and you’re just a resource.

Do it well and you can leave any time you want for something else. You’re not forced to work for 300k lol. Just hop ship and make 400k.

You’re working for a capitalist machination. You want something deeper start your own company or do something else. These companies don’t care about you. The “cool tech” you build is just an icing on the cake to do what? Sell more ads? Exploit labor laws in poor countries? Exploit your own communities? Have teens harm themselves with awful programming and doom scrolling?

Wow really changing the world there.

Just my $0.02 as someone who lives in the real world.

Also pro tip you can make a lot of money not working in big tech. My job involves making sure people are safe and productive, not doing anything fucked up morally questionable that will make me lose my sleep at night. I make a bit less than what I’d make if I sold my soul to work at Meta or something.

Btw I’m sure people thought it was “cool” to work on the Death Star too.

Re: Ask HN: Do you feel psychological safety at your job?

#85
post #47

I can guess which FAANG you're at. "psychological safety" has been floating around the office recently. I mostly feel secure because (a) my ratings have been good, and more importantly (b) I don't think my team is going to get axed because we maintain a pretty core feature. I think if you're in the bottom 6-8% or whatever they set the low ratings at, you're in danger. And if you're on a team that doesn't generate mon…

What you describe is more job security. Physilogocal safety is about feeling safe to speak up without being punished or humiliated for speaking up on ideas, concerns, or mistakes (etc.). If nobody is communicating properly it may be an indication your company has many people that don't feel safe.

Oh...well, then absolutely not. They promise "no retaliation" but I swear even their training video alludes to their being consequences to calling someone out on harassment. Plus a very recent article where the victim was fired.

Speaking up about technical problems is mostly fine though. Might not accomplish anything but it's fine.

Re: Ask HN: Do you feel psychological safety at your job?

#86
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where is that paren supposed to close?

The rest of HN is part of the parenthetical until there is a stray close paren.

Hm... I spent 20 seconds looking for an edit button, couldn't find one, so that paren is one with the people now.

Re: Ask HN: Do you feel psychological safety at your job?

#87
post #70

I can guess which FAANG you're at. "psychological safety" has been floating around the office recently. I mostly feel secure because (a) my ratings have been good, and more importantly (b) I don't think my team is going to get axed because we maintain a pretty core feature. I think if you're in the bottom 6-8% or whatever they set the low ratings at, you're in danger. And if you're on a team that doesn't generate mon…

Neither of those things applied to me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

And you let go? Damn :-( Sorry to hear that. Do you have any idea why that might have been?

Re: Ask HN: Do you feel psychological safety at your job?

#88
post #53
post #44

Two rules: Rule #1: Have enough savings in your bank account to pay all your living expenses for at least one year. (Obviously easier said than done.) Rule #2: Follow Rule #1. (If you do, you'll have time to figure everything else out. That might mean finding a new job.)

Most Americans don’t have $1000 in savings.

The OP isn’t the “typical American”. He is making FAANG salaries.

But I had six months worth of living expenses in the bank by the time I had been working for a year and a half in the 90s. I made $11/hour as a computer operator. But they needed someone to build a data entry system and do some other development for their second site they were trying to build. I saved every penny of my after tax overtime.

I’ve made sure I’ve had six months worth of expenses saved from the time I was 22. I am now 49. Anytime I took on a new fixed expense, I made sure I had six times that amount in the bank shortly thereafter.

That mindset kept me off the hedonic treadmill. I work for $BigTech remotely. Until last year I was driving a 2011 Ford Fusion that I got from CarMax in 2012 for $14K.

I won’t get started about how we gave up everything to live out of three suitcases and fly around the US half the year and stay in our own vacation home/rental property the other half.

Re: Ask HN: Do you feel psychological safety at your job?

#89
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And? Thats fking pathetic and nearly every single healthy, unburdened FAANG engineer should be deahtly embarrassed to find themselves in such a situation. But for those reading this who are "crying in bathrooms", what does it say about your lifestyle thst you likely made 2-3x my salary, and yet i walked away from tech for years while youre somehow fearful of making ends meet? I eat what i want, i have money for more…

You’re mad at the wrong demographic. Direct your anger higher up, not at people working and not at regular ass people who are willing and able to save, but also have life obligations that make that difficult. The upper middle class isn’t the actual enemy, despite their accessibility & visibility to you which, I know, can be grating.

If you’re making FAANG money you are in no way “upper middle class” by any statistical definition.

Maybe you can’t our little Johny in the private school, max out your 401K, save enough so he doesn’t have to demean himself and go to a cheaper state school, etc. if you work for BigTech and you haven’t been saving, it’s because of your own life choices that people who make less than half of what you do don’t make and they aren’t homeless or hungry.

No this isn’t jealous. I work for $BigTech.

Re: Ask HN: Do you feel psychological safety at your job?

#90
post #8

Anyone that's been in tech at the FAANG tier for two decades and doesn't have at least one to two years of runway not including retirement accounts is observably terrible at managing money.

People live paycheck-to-paycheck for all sorts of reasons, including long-term medical costs or family support. FAANG salaries certainly make that less common, but I think we can probably be a little more empathetic about life's vagaries.

And what type of “long term medical costs” aren’t covered by the insurance you get from your job?
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