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Dead End Jobs: Are You Suffering from Stockholm Syndrome?

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Re: Dead End Jobs: Are You Suffering from Stockholm Syndrome?

#41

Post by edw519 »

parfe wrote: post #37

I'm in the process of cleaning up my resume to send out today. * My responsibilities as a programmer have constantly been increasing. Every year I become the maintainer of more projects as others quit. * We fired a sys admin and now I'm outright doing his job in addition to my own. Management was slow to get a job posting up and has not brought people in to interview. I feel like my breadth of abilities are being abu…

"Justify why it would be good for the department." Which is literally impossible. There is a key set of words I need to discover that would actually activate the policy, like it's a game or something. Now I'm questing for a new employer.

You just answered your own question:

key set of words = "Now I'm questing for a new employer."

better key set of words = "I quit."

Re: Dead End Jobs: Are You Suffering from Stockholm Syndrome?

#43

Post by parfe »

edw519 wrote: post #41
parfe wrote: post #37

I'm in the process of cleaning up my resume to send out today. * My responsibilities as a programmer have constantly been increasing. Every year I become the maintainer of more projects as others quit. * We fired a sys admin and now I'm outright doing his job in addition to my own. Management was slow to get a job posting up and has not brought people in to interview. I feel like my breadth of abilities are being abu…

"Justify why it would be good for the department." Which is literally impossible. There is a key set of words I need to discover that would actually activate the policy, like it's a game or something. Now I'm questing for a new employer. You just answered your own question: key set of words = "Now I'm questing for a new employer." better key set of words = "I quit."

Oh I was well aware what I should say once my "not having to drive is akin to a small raise" was shot down as "being good for you, not for the department"

I don't want to bluff though, so at this point I'm just moving on. If I'm required to throw a tantrum and threaten to quit to get what I want I'm happy to find work elsewhere.

Oh, and I just remembered. The only training we were ever offered came in an excel spreadsheet with over 1000 courses offered by some training firm.

We were told to email back "Three of four choices" and if there was enough interest in one of the courses it would be paid for. There was no possible way for any single course to be chosen definitively by the staff with so many choices.

But at least management got to feel good about "offering training, but there wasn't enough interest."

Re: Dead End Jobs: Are You Suffering from Stockholm Syndrome?

#44

Post by sophacles »

jakevoytko wrote: post #16

I just left a job that afflicts Stockholm Syndrome on employees. Thankfully as a systems programmer in a research firm, I avoided the worst of it, but most people weren't so lucky. Here are some management behaviors that were effective: Never thank people for finishing something on time, on budget, and to the project specifications. Instead, heap attention on those who finish in an all-nighter that ends in the final…

A couple others I've witnessed:

Ideas only go down When employees tell you of actually useful innovations to a product do NOT agree it is a good idea. Mention that it is cute they are trying, and pretend to forget about it. In 3-6 months have a VP flash brilliance and push that innovation down from the top. All employee protests of "I have been pushing for this for months" are to be stonewalled, possibly with discipline.

Permanent emergency mode VP or CEO comes down to the dev team in a panic at least once a week handwringing about how "OMG we're fucked if we don't fix this" Complaints of "its been crunch time for a year" are met with replies about other duties as assigned, how if they just did their job this wouldn't be necessary, and company solvency.

Praise only the shitty employees Never ever ever praise the employees who solve a problem. Actively deride the employees who consistently solve problems, deliver results and so on. This triggers a "what am I doing wrong" response in them, and gets them working even harder.

Keep the situation confusing Give employees a set of tasks today and have them undo that same set of tasks tomorrow. In a week, do it over. Half way through a day, come down and demand something at top priority, then raise hell at the end of the day that they didn't finish the work you preempted w/ a top priority request.

rules! (this one works quite well in the food service industry) - impose rules that almost make sense at slow times, but which add unnecessary process and overhead. Insist on these rules being followed strictly during the busiest times. If the plebes find ways to speed up the process that is still with in the rules and has the same effect, begin the firings. Double down if the process reduces tips or rate of sales for the business. (It turns out most employees want to make you money, even waitstaff).

Find ways to keep your employees cash-poor Make them pay out of pocket and have very slow reimbursement procedures. Delay paychecks or even sneakier, have "problems" with direct deposit. The net effect is employees with less liquid money than they might otherwise have... helping get them into that nice trapped state.

Re: Dead End Jobs: Are You Suffering from Stockholm Syndrome?

#45

Post by pyre »

varjag wrote: post #26

So, to summarise, S.S. type of jobs can be ones that provide: - occasional bonuses - competitive salary - great tech to play with - high status within the company that you might lose if not keep up Now, the question is, does that really sound like a terrible job environment to you? Where one is supposed to go from there? Entrepreneurship? Consulting? Cause actual salaried jobs don't get any much better than that.

I don't think that those things all necessarily combine. For example, you could hate everything about the job, but be afraid to leave because the benefits package is good. There is also the chance that you haven't 'shopped around enough' and think that the benefits package is better than it actually is.

E.g. my employer was touting that our healthcare costs are ~$300/month less than the 'industry average' (though they didn't state which industry they think that we are in -- it's not cut-and-dry like 'financial services' or something). Someone that I know left the company for a ~$30K/year increase in salary. The difference in benefits payments does not out-weigh the salary difference, but if you're focusing too much on something like 'competitive salary package' you may not have the whole picture. [Obviously it's more nuanced that this, because different healthcare packages have different levels of coverage too, but this is just a simple example off the top of my head where focussing too much on the micro can cause you to miss the macro.]

Re: Dead End Jobs: Are You Suffering from Stockholm Syndrome?

#46

Post by MrFoof »

artmageddon wrote: post #17
MrFoof wrote: post #9

I've been mindful of this since my teenage years, which is why I swore to myself a few things before I had even turned 16: * If I don't like a situation, I will leave it. After all, the easiest way to change your environment is to escape it. * Fear of failure is a great motivator. When you quit without having another opportunity already lined up, you have a lot of obvious motivation to find a new job since your incom…

Reading your post, I feel like you're me, except I haven't worked at startups. Addressing your first two points: * If I don't like a situation, I will leave it. After all, the easiest way to change your environment is to escape it. I feel conflicted with this one. While what you say is true I can't help but feel, when I try to apply to certain situations in life, like I'm quitting... or that I'd beat myself up for "b…

Oh, I try to change things. However the reality is you're working against a much larger force. It's difficult to create enough inertia to force real change.

Regarding the second point, I quit my job in early October. I had my first offer in hand in 23 days, and three in hand after the first month. Income was $0, which was a good motivator.

Though the amusing thing this time around is my former employer is now looking to become one of my clients (the place loved me, I just didn't like them).

Re: Dead End Jobs: Are You Suffering from Stockholm Syndrome?

#47

Post by kongqiu »

kenjackson wrote: post #31
va_coder wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the post. Anybody know if there is a good place on the Web where people can be honest about what it's like to work at specific companies?

glassdoor.com is probably the most popular I know of. There's also vault.com.

I second glassdoor.com -- although I'm sure it skews toward the negative... good info you won't find anywhere else.

Re: Dead End Jobs: Are You Suffering from Stockholm Syndrome?

#48

Post by MrFoof »

dedward wrote: post #27
MrFoof wrote: post #9

I've been mindful of this since my teenage years, which is why I swore to myself a few things before I had even turned 16: * If I don't like a situation, I will leave it. After all, the easiest way to change your environment is to escape it. * Fear of failure is a great motivator. When you quit without having another opportunity already lined up, you have a lot of obvious motivation to find a new job since your incom…

"* Fear of failure is a great motivator. When you quit without having another opportunity already lined up, you have a lot of obvious motivation to find a new job since your income is $0. I've found it easier than lulling myself into complacency by continuing to get my income from the source I hate." This is true - but this has to mean that you also manage your finances properly on the side. People who are one late p…

No, I've done it when it wasn't prudent either. People who look at my salary history tend to have their jaw hit the floor when they look at the first 8-to-9 years. I used to have my own bosses tell me every day that I was "getting screwed". We're talking 25-33% of market rate, which traps you into slightly less crappy paychecks going forward and initially being typecast as an idiot. That was my fault for being a doormat in my teenage years -- I didn't think it would follow me until I was 26.

Fortunately I was smart enough to fix it at one point, and got a 70% pay increase upon starting another job. That takes a few tricks, though, including being hard-nosed enough to call the CxO of a company out on the politics of his negotiating practices.

It has forced me to live simpler overall, and not waste money. That's stuck with me. But when you don't have much to fall back on, you'd be surprised at how fast you're able to find a decent step up.

Re: Dead End Jobs: Are You Suffering from Stockholm Syndrome?

#49

Post by GrooveStomp »

artmageddon wrote: post #17
MrFoof wrote: post #9

I've been mindful of this since my teenage years, which is why I swore to myself a few things before I had even turned 16: * If I don't like a situation, I will leave it. After all, the easiest way to change your environment is to escape it. * Fear of failure is a great motivator. When you quit without having another opportunity already lined up, you have a lot of obvious motivation to find a new job since your incom…

Reading your post, I feel like you're me, except I haven't worked at startups. Addressing your first two points: * If I don't like a situation, I will leave it. After all, the easiest way to change your environment is to escape it. I feel conflicted with this one. While what you say is true I can't help but feel, when I try to apply to certain situations in life, like I'm quitting... or that I'd beat myself up for "b…

I understand your point, but I think it might not always be possible to improve the work situation enough to justify staying there. I think it's always worthwhile to give it a try and see how much change you can effect, but there is a practical limit.

As far as unemployment - I only know of one friend who is currently unemployed, and that's by choice! Not that this is indicative of North America as a whole; but it does reflect what I've heard others say in regards to there always being good jobs available for good people who are skilled.

Re: Dead End Jobs: Are You Suffering from Stockholm Syndrome?

#50

Post by kongqiu »

tgflynn wrote: post #35

Doesn't this situation describe about 3/4 of the working age US population ? I find it ironic that a nation where freedom is supposedly so highly valued accepts relegating most of its people to corporate slavery.

Exactly. At my last corporate job, there were a few extreme libertarians who would rail against "big government taking away our freedoms" at the drop of a hat -- but these same guys would meekly submit to all of the 1984-esque corporate BS (swiping a badge 9 times to get to your desk, weekly 'IT Security' reminders that your every action is being logged, surveillance cameras everywhere...
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