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

Ask HN: I automated part of someone else's job in my free time – how to proceed?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 131 posts

Ask HN: I automated part of someone else's job in my free time – how to proceed?

#1

Post by JGugtw »

Hello HN

I've been working at this company for some time in an administrative role. As part of my job, we – and many others – work with data which gets aggregated and refined by a centralized team of specialists. This process is only partially automated and therefore still quite heavy-handed. As I understand it, significant time is spent on the manual part of it all.

Out of curiosity I started building this small project in my free time just to see if I could automate it myself, since most of the data required is available open source. There are still many rough edges but what I have now is already superior to what we have at work.

Now I'm wondering about where to go from here - so far I haven't told anyone. Strictly speaking, this is not part of my job and I am "poaching" in someone else's area of expertise. I like my job and don't want to make enemies. On the other hand, I would love to see my solution put to use and maybe even enhance and/or expand it jointly with IT. However, this is code I wrote in my free time and I am rather unwilling to give it away without any benefit.

Any ideas?

Re: Ask HN: I automated part of someone else's job in my free time – how to proceed?

#2

Post by UmYeahNo »

You've discovered the strategy of: Come up with a way to get people laid off so you can monetize a portion of their salaries for yourself.

The cynical me says they weren't smart enough to automate away their own work (so they could be assigned more, different work), so eff 'em, right? That is, until someone else automates away your job.

The business me says, you found and fixed an inefficiency, so capitalize on it. While you're at it why not add in extra shadow surveillance "features", and you've got yourself a unicorn. Get that VC money!

The "boss" me says, uhh... you did this work on "your own time" (as if there is such a thing) but with proprietary knowledge of my systems, "open source data" notwithstanding. So, yeahhh that work belongs to me, and I'll monetize it for myself thank you very much. That work product is not yours. Get the eff back to work already.

The "Overemployed" me says, hey, with this automation, maybe I can "work" two jobs simultaneously and pull double salary for no net increase in work. Get that easy money! At least until my employers discover the ruse and they both fire me!

Re: Ask HN: I automated part of someone else's job in my free time – how to proceed?

#5

Post by CodeWriter23 »

As for the property, check your contract, your employer may own anything you do in your free time already. And also check with an attorney in your state, such contractual obligations may be invalid by local laws.

As for yourself, you have an important decision to make. Are you a wolf or a sheep?

Re: Ask HN: I automated part of someone else's job in my free time – how to proceed?

#6

Post by saimiam »

CodeWriter23 wrote: post #5

As for the property, check your contract, your employer may own anything you do in your free time already. And also check with an attorney in your state, such contractual obligations may be invalid by local laws. As for yourself, you have an important decision to make. Are you a wolf or a sheep?

what do “wolf” and “sheep” mean in this context? Genuine question.

Re: Ask HN: I automated part of someone else's job in my free time – how to proceed?

#8

Post by lgas »

saimiam wrote: post #6
CodeWriter23 wrote: post #5

As for the property, check your contract, your employer may own anything you do in your free time already. And also check with an attorney in your state, such contractual obligations may be invalid by local laws. As for yourself, you have an important decision to make. Are you a wolf or a sheep?

what do “wolf” and “sheep” mean in this context? Genuine question.

Predator or prey.

Re: Ask HN: I automated part of someone else's job in my free time – how to proceed?

#9

Post by thatguy0900 »

saimiam wrote: post #6
CodeWriter23 wrote: post #5

As for the property, check your contract, your employer may own anything you do in your free time already. And also check with an attorney in your state, such contractual obligations may be invalid by local laws. As for yourself, you have an important decision to make. Are you a wolf or a sheep?

what do “wolf” and “sheep” mean in this context? Genuine question.

He's implying that a wolf would sacrifice his fellow workers job to advance for themselves, while a sheep would stay with his flock of fellow coworkers and not release the project.

Re: Ask HN: I automated part of someone else's job in my free time – how to proceed?

#10

Post by albert_e »

I might test waters saying ...do you think it is worth exploring if automation is possible in this area? Maybe that will allow them to focus on more human intelligence and analytics tasks?

If they are receptive ... I am happy to look around for any possible solutions that might help you. Will let you know if I find anything that might interest you.

If my boss / other team sound comfortable I might share snippets or demo a possible solution a week later.

Otherwise if the response is not encouraging I will keep it to myself.

Post reply on HN