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Congratulations You’ve Been Fired

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Re: Congratulations You’ve Been Fired

#111

Post by blisterpeanuts »

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #68
skennedy wrote: post #6

> Imagine a frat house mixed with a kindergarten mixed with Scientology, and you have an idea of what it’s like [working at a startup]. Is this an accurate description? I feel this might be more of the well funded ones but would not know.

It varies. Some years back, I interviewed at a San Diego startup that was flying in a dozen people a week, with a $300 reward just for showing up, to go through a five-day interview process, at the end of which perhaps one or two would be offered the chance to work for them...for $50k a year. In San Diego. Most of their employees lived together, 2-4 to an apartment, because they couldn't afford solo housing. The CEO…

"some startups are totally run like ridiculous cults..."

I'm open to the possibility that this is true, but you've only presented one example, though certainly an egregious one. Got any more?

Re: Congratulations You’ve Been Fired

#113

Post by cleandreams »

I dunno. I've worked at startups a lot and none are dismal in quite the way described here. They are dismal because the founders are irritating and have bad judgment. Or they are dismal because the idea flops. Or you run out of runway, etc. But I have never gotten deluged by this kind of b.s. Who has time? This sounds to me less like a tech startup than something dreamed up by marketers with fancy degrees and no sense.

Re: Congratulations You’ve Been Fired

#114

Post by justin_vanw »

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #74
justin_vanw wrote: post #66

So does the author think that everyone is great at their job? What do you do when you have an employee that can't do the work and you are confident that they won't improve? Pointing out the age difference in the manager and the employee, and their sexes, is just baiting. Unless he wants to make the case that there was sexism or agism from the manager, or that the company engaged in sexism or agism, it is just a red h…

> If she was good at her job, then the manager is just an idiot who is cutting his and the companies own throat, and we can't make a moral argument against stupidity. We can't? Why not? Being stupid does not exempt you from responsibility for your actions.

When an investor puts money into a crappy company, and they lose their money, they have been held responsible. You can be responsible and face consequences without any moral failure.

Re: Congratulations You’ve Been Fired

#115

Post by hcayless »

xzi wrote: post #46
ThomPete wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can but it's extremely, extremely rare for the very simple fact that your primary skills as a manager is people skills and the ability to relate to other peoples situation. Something you normally won't be as developed at that point. At 28 you have more experience than a 18 year old, but not much and def not enough to be able to relate to a 35 year old person in most cases. So not sure I find it ironic. Rather I c…

I agree with everything you say. However, in my personal experience, the best manager I've had was 25 when I was 30. This manager realized he didn't really know much. So he stayed out of my way and let me make the technical decisions while he ran interference with the directors and VPs. Never had a more smooth working environment before or since.

Just about the worst handicap a manager can have is insecurity. And unfortunately this is something I've seen in most of the people I've seen promoted to management when young. The best managers don't assume they need to be "better" than the people they manage.

Re: Congratulations You’ve Been Fired

#116

Post by Dylan16807 »

aianus wrote: post #58
halestock wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Age implies wisdom and experience, which I think was the point he was trying to get across. Comparing it to race is just silly.

> Age implies wisdom and experience Age implies obsoleteness and poor health. (I can stereotype too!)

Not in your 30s. If you're trying to prove halestock wrong you're doing a poor job.

Re: Congratulations You’ve Been Fired

#117

Post by facepalm »

I don't understand where employees get their sense of entitlement from.

I don't like the working conditions in many companies either. But the correct answer is to try to establish a company with better working conditions. Nobody owes you anything. OK maybe society owes you a proper foundation, but individual companies don't owe you anything. Don't like them, quit, and don't buy their products.

Re: Congratulations You’ve Been Fired

#118

Post by wstrange »

ThomPete wrote: post #34
hartator wrote: post #4

> She was 35, had been with the company for four years, and was told without explanation by her 28-year-old manager that she had two weeks to get out. I think that's a bit funny that the author implies you can't be good as a manager at 28. Specially when you are writing an article about bias.

You can but it's extremely, extremely rare for the very simple fact that your primary skills as a manager is people skills and the ability to relate to other peoples situation. Something you normally won't be as developed at that point. At 28 you have more experience than a 18 year old, but not much and def not enough to be able to relate to a 35 year old person in most cases. So not sure I find it ironic. Rather I c…

Not sure why you are being downvoted.

Having some life experience (kids, marriage, taking care of older parents, etc.) helps to empathize with people - which makes you a better manager.

Re: Congratulations You’ve Been Fired

#119

Post by z6 »

justin_vanw wrote: post #66

So does the author think that everyone is great at their job? What do you do when you have an employee that can't do the work and you are confident that they won't improve? Pointing out the age difference in the manager and the employee, and their sexes, is just baiting. Unless he wants to make the case that there was sexism or agism from the manager, or that the company engaged in sexism or agism, it is just a red h…

Yeah, I personally didn't really get the point of this article.

You could view it as a very good thing that the company isn't keeping around potentially low performers purely because of tenure. Also, I highly doubt the person that got fired didn't know why, even if it wasn't explicitly stated.

Re: Congratulations You’ve Been Fired

#120

Post by luckydata »

superswordfish wrote: post #109

Doing cold calls in a boiler-room is a shitty job. News at 11. > Tech workers have no job security. The bad ones have none. The decent ones might, it depends on circumstance. The good ones almost always have plenty. But don't call yourself a "tech worker" when you're making sales calls.

Classism much? They definitely are tech workers, what they are not is developers or engineers.
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