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“Rest and vest”: engineers who get paid and barely work

businessinsider.com

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Re: “Rest and vest”: engineers who get paid and barely work

#131

Post by frenchy »

pdimitar wrote: post #118
joejerryronnie wrote: post #117

Or, as a recently bought out/retired colleague remarked, "My job now consists of being home all day and trying not to piss off my wife" - a much harder endeavor than any engineering project I can think of.

Sounds like love and respect are long gone from that "relationship".

Hard to say. It could be a million things. Some people are just hard to get along with. Some people are great fun for 1 hour a day, but miserable if you're around them all day. If you've devoted your life to your career, it's no surprise that you won't have anything in common with your wife & children, which makes things harder.

They may love & respect each other, but not find each other's company enjoyable.

Re: “Rest and vest”: engineers who get paid and barely work

#132

Post by pdimitar »

frenchy wrote: post #131
pdimitar wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like love and respect are long gone from that "relationship".

Hard to say. It could be a million things. Some people are just hard to get along with. Some people are great fun for 1 hour a day, but miserable if you're around them all day. If you've devoted your life to your career, it's no surprise that you won't have anything in common with your wife & children, which makes things harder. They may love & respect each other, but not find each other's company enjoyable.

I've known and talked with enough people to know that you are very likely right -- that still doesn't stop me from thinking "how the hell can love and respect exist in such conditions?"

People are extremely diverse indeed. I've known such couples and couldn't for the life of me ever imagine me being in such a relationship. But they are out there.

Re: “Rest and vest”: engineers who get paid and barely work

#133

Post by jaequery »

I think this happens to EVERY companies out there. The higher up you go, there are just less to do since all you are doing is delegating your jobs.

It becomes a problem though when problems do arise and you coasted for so long that you have no idea what is going on and where.

Re: “Rest and vest”: engineers who get paid and barely work

#134

Post by seattle_spring »

I would argue that the vast majority of software engineers in the US are actually overworked and make close to middle-class wages. It's really unfortunate seeing articles like this, because it reinforces everyone outside of tech's stereotypes that us engineers are lazy, overpaid slobs.

Re: “Rest and vest”: engineers who get paid and barely work

#135

Post by pdimitar »

duncan_bayne wrote: post #130
pdimitar wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I ain't buying it. I don't know the concrete person, that's a fact. I spent my younger years in much more social jobs compared to programming in cubicles (thank the gods I work remotely for 5+ years now) and out of probably 200+ men I've heard joking about horrible wife and kids, I can assure you no more than 5 were really joking. And I don't mean offhand conversations -- I am talking about people who I've chatted wi…

My experience - also anecdotal - supports this. Only a small minority of people who 'joke' about their home life are actually joking. See also: http://catb.org/jargon/html/H/ha-ha-only-serious.html

Yep. People use the joking form of expression to tell truths they wouldn't dare saying with a straight face while the other side knows they're fully serious.

Social stigma and dogma are to blame for this.

(Off-topic: one of the reasons that the love between me and my wife hasn't at all eroded -- it even got stronger -- after 3 years and a few months is that we're very honest with each other, even for the unpleasant truths. It's not about blinding your eyes; it's about being real plus being loving.)

Re: “Rest and vest”: engineers who get paid and barely work

#136

Post by cakedoggie »

Zyst wrote: post #21
thisone wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe that was sarcasm

I also got the same idea. I do dislike forums like ArsTechnica where "/s" is prominent, I believe that if you need to write a sarcasm tag to get that across, you likely should not be writing sarcasm at all. Then again there's people like parent which will miss what I believe to be obvious sarcasm, and I wonder all over again if there's a point to it all. Sometimes I think we should just not write sarcasm at all on wr…

Sure, but look what we have here? A number of people who clearly can't pick up on quite obvious sarcasm.

Re: “Rest and vest”: engineers who get paid and barely work

#137

Post by [deleted] »

thisone wrote: post #14
techsupporter wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Edit: Never mind all that, I didn't get the joke. My apologies. In my defense, text doesn't convey emotion very well. Leaving up the post for my own shame. What, because they work 40 hours per week? I have a 4x10 schedule (including a weekend day) and I work exactly my assigned hours. The company is paying me for those hours and nothing more--exceptional circumstances excluded, of course--so I feel no qualms about st…

I believe that was sarcasm

[deleted]

Re: “Rest and vest”: engineers who get paid and barely work

#138

Post by matwood »

IBM wrote: post #59

This is probably why Apple, a hardware company, has operating margins that are higher than Google and Microsoft (even though their gross margins are almost half of Google's and Microsoft's). The only person I can think of that might have this arrangement at Apple is Scott Forstall. I think that's why he's been radio silent until very recently (or he could just be very loyal to Apple). Maybe Katie Cotton when they cha…

I thought the people who were resting and vesting at Google were all making new messaging programs? They are up to 3 or 4 now?

Re: “Rest and vest”: engineers who get paid and barely work

#139

Post by StavrosK »

pdimitar wrote: post #135
duncan_bayne wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My experience - also anecdotal - supports this. Only a small minority of people who 'joke' about their home life are actually joking. See also: http://catb.org/jargon/html/H/ha-ha-only-serious.html

Yep. People use the joking form of expression to tell truths they wouldn't dare saying with a straight face while the other side knows they're fully serious. Social stigma and dogma are to blame for this. ( Off-topic: one of the reasons that the love between me and my wife hasn't at all eroded -- it even got stronger -- after 3 years and a few months is that we're very honest with each other, even for the unpleasant…

Also, it's only been three years. Give it a few decades.

Re: “Rest and vest”: engineers who get paid and barely work

#140

Post by matwood »

jonas21 wrote: post #115
tensor wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That quote is super cringe worthy. The article is very unclear, they also quote: >"Most of my friends at Google work four hours a day. They are senior engineers and don't work hard. They know the Google system, know when to kick into gear. They are engineers, so they optimized the performance cycles of their own jobs," one engineer described. Probably a lot of cherry picking going on.

They're not really contradictory. A 9 to 5 day can easily turn into 4 hours of real work. Show up, eat breakfast, spend some time reading HN, an hour of work, lunch, an hour or two working, grab coffee, play some foosball, another hour of work, go to the gym, time to go home!

Also depends what you call work. Actively coding is not the only work engineers do, particularly if they are senior.

As a senior engineer, communicating to those less senior is typically much more important than coding. That's how a good senior engineer force multiplies their knowledge and levels up the entire organization.

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