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We're hearing about troubles at Nest

businessinsider.com

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Re: We're hearing about troubles at Nest

#131

Post by newman314 »

outside1234 wrote: post #11

I worked there. It was literally the worst experience of my career - and I have worked at all of the hardest charging blue chips and two successful startups - so it is not about high expectations - but abuse. I still wake up with something like PTSD occasionally from getting yelled at and bullied by Tony Fadell almost literally every day while I was there. I have a distance from it now -- and a way better job. It mad…

Do you think this contributed to the lackluster software upgrade/update cycle. To be clear，I'm not blaming you but it sure seems that Nest has had significant challenges rolling out software updates (I'm a Nest user)

Re: We're hearing about troubles at Nest

#132

Post by keehun »

adevine wrote: post #95
murbard2 wrote: post #3

I bought a Nest thermostat and I've been extremely unimpressed with it. It's not just the bugs that will have you wake up in the middle of the night in a freezing home. Even when it works as intended, the product is poorly thought out. - Instead of trying to learn when to apply heat and when not to, which depends on many contextual factors, it seems to be targeting learning a calendar. A calendar does not fully captu…

> It would be trivial for the thermostat to figure out if your phone is connected to your home network Which is exactly what the Honeywell Lyric thermostat does (albeit with geofencing) and it works great. My dad has a Nest, and I knew it would never work for me - my schedule is too erratic. I got the Lyric and I love it. The model of how it sets up triggers is also very simple to understand: (some event occurs) -> (…

I've always wondered if sometimes it's worth it to keep the furnace/AC on. And if so, at what point is it worth keeping it on?

I figure it's a bit like the car ignition where if you're stopped for more than x seconds, it's worth it to turn the car off. Is it like that with heating/cooling? I wonder if so, if we'll have a Thermostat that'll tell us "no it's better for you to keep it on rather than stop for the amount of time you're wanting to turn it off for"...

Anyone got helpful numbers/anecdotes?

Re: We're hearing about troubles at Nest

#133

Post by pkaye »

brandon272 wrote: post #20
outside1234 wrote: post #11

I worked there. It was literally the worst experience of my career - and I have worked at all of the hardest charging blue chips and two successful startups - so it is not about high expectations - but abuse. I still wake up with something like PTSD occasionally from getting yelled at and bullied by Tony Fadell almost literally every day while I was there. I have a distance from it now -- and a way better job. It mad…

> I still wake up with something like PTSD from getting yelled at and bullied by Tony Fadell. This is so depressing. My gut tells me that absolutely no one should have to put up with this in an employment situation, but what are your options, other than to either "deal with it" or face the income and career insecurity that comes with quitting?

I had to deal with similar kind of shit in the past. Just not worth it unless you can cash out in a short time. Too much of a toll on your health. Better to be paid 5-10% less if necessary and do something I enjoy in comfort. However I think most who work at Nest could easily switch to new jobs given their credentials.

Re: We're hearing about troubles at Nest

#134

Post by vram22 »

asdfologist wrote: post #34
outside1234 wrote: post #11

I worked there. It was literally the worst experience of my career - and I have worked at all of the hardest charging blue chips and two successful startups - so it is not about high expectations - but abuse. I still wake up with something like PTSD occasionally from getting yelled at and bullied by Tony Fadell almost literally every day while I was there. I have a distance from it now -- and a way better job. It mad…

Honest question: how did someone with such an abusive management style lead his company to success? I'd think that his employees would just leave and go work elsewhere.

It happens because people allow it to happen.

Re: We're hearing about troubles at Nest

#135

Post by jimrandomh »

outside1234 wrote: post #11

I worked there. It was literally the worst experience of my career - and I have worked at all of the hardest charging blue chips and two successful startups - so it is not about high expectations - but abuse. I still wake up with something like PTSD occasionally from getting yelled at and bullied by Tony Fadell almost literally every day while I was there. I have a distance from it now -- and a way better job. It mad…

Well, that bodes ill for Google Glass coming back from its "hibernation". It changes the interpretation of why they moved it to be under him: it looks like a punishment for their failure.

Re: We're hearing about troubles at Nest

#136

Post by maxxxxx »

njs12345 wrote: post #35
outside1234 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The really great thing about being in software in Silicon Valley is that you can more or less write your own meal ticket somewhere else. My advice to anyone else in this situation is to do just that. The first time abuse happens, just walk out, have a laugh about it (it reflects on them not you), and find another gig. There are a lot of great jobs out there. I have a lot of empathy now for all the crummy jobs where p…

I would second that. Not in SV, in London, but I had a similar experience with an abusive work environment. Stayed way too long and some of my shares vested. Now they're worth some money on paper, but it wasn't worth it - my advice for anyone in a similar situation would be to get out as early as possible.

Although leaving early creates an incentive for the company to abuse their workers before their shares vest.

Re: We're hearing about troubles at Nest

#137

Post by ilvnvtoomuch »

outside1234 wrote: post #11

I worked there. It was literally the worst experience of my career - and I have worked at all of the hardest charging blue chips and two successful startups - so it is not about high expectations - but abuse. I still wake up with something like PTSD occasionally from getting yelled at and bullied by Tony Fadell almost literally every day while I was there. I have a distance from it now -- and a way better job. It mad…

I hate to say this, but I felt the same way at "Accenture".

Re: We're hearing about troubles at Nest

#138

Post by jmspring »

sjs382 wrote: post #6

> Three former Nest employees independently brought up this same anecdote when describing how Nest had an internal culture where it was "always crunch time" because of unrealistic deadlines and a hierarchical management structure. Oh man, that sounds familiar...

Reminds me of a former shop I've mentioned before. Did better than expected at Demo conf, launched with bugs and no admin/ops team, required devs to be on call after longs weeks. My favorite was getting yelled at for disappearing somewhere with no cell coverage (I wasn't on call) over a weekend for the wife's birthday. I left not too many weeks after that. Didn't make it a year for vesting.

Sometimes, you just have to walk.

And if it is "always crunch time", management is doing something wrong.

Re: We're hearing about troubles at Nest

#139

Post by joering2 »

outside1234 wrote: post #11

I worked there. It was literally the worst experience of my career - and I have worked at all of the hardest charging blue chips and two successful startups - so it is not about high expectations - but abuse. I still wake up with something like PTSD occasionally from getting yelled at and bullied by Tony Fadell almost literally every day while I was there. I have a distance from it now -- and a way better job. It mad…

I second your opinion about Tony Fadell. Worked indirectly on few projects he managed. Disgusting human being always looking at profits and cutting corners.

I recall one phone-meeting with engineer where he praised her for 10 minutes how great her programming skills were and how he "looks forward for many more years of working together". When the conversation was over, on the same breath, he told us (team of 5 in the meeting): "we need to replace her immediately - she's too expensive!". We looked at each other and felt really stupid. I don't think anyone of us ever been in such situation...

Re: We're hearing about troubles at Nest

#140

Post by carterehsmith »

IgorPartola wrote: post #21
sjs382 wrote: post #6

> Three former Nest employees independently brought up this same anecdote when describing how Nest had an internal culture where it was "always crunch time" because of unrealistic deadlines and a hierarchical management structure. Oh man, that sounds familiar...

A great way to fix that is to add more managers to gain better control of your runaway teams. Microsoft Project might be a good solution to get them back on track too. Planning out every hour of the project at the beginning really helps developers focus and get things done. Oh, and you want to introduce daily status meetings, preferably in the morning. As a final step, it helps to let a few people go and put a hiring…

Cattle prods, man, they do wonders.

Dev: Waaah, waaa, waa, cannot do that by Friday, blah blah refactoring blah technical debt, waah

Me: ZAP

Dev: Can do.

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