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My Time at Snap

medium.com

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Re: My Time at Snap

#111

Post by 300bps »

thiscatis wrote: post #100

On the one hand I recognise a lot of the teams and work issues this developer had. But reading between the lines it seems like this dev wanted it all, equity without commitment, weeks of remote work without formal agreement, a quick cash out over adding value to the company...Seems very entitled to me. It looks very one-sided as well. Everything had to come from the company and its management, nothing from his side.

I agree. And his “Low Performer” review and denying the remote work request are obvious attempts to manage him out the door which worked.

Re: My Time at Snap

#112

Post by CathedralBorrow »

curiousgal wrote: post #51
paxys wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't see a problem with part of the workforce not given equal tools and opportunity to be able to do their job as well as others?

Well now no one has those tools, so from a business perspective (even without going into how many people with disabilities are in the workforce) having part of the workforce with more access to a tool is better.

Well then it's clearly in the best interest of the business to comply with the law as soon as possible.

Re: My Time at Snap

#113

Post by andy_boot »

oarsinsync wrote: post #102
purple_ducks wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Ayn Rand and her writings were a pox on modern life and it is unfortunate she is held in regard by anyone, let alone intelligent people... However, living off social security wasn't really ironic given that she viewed the social security payouts as reimbursement for the (what she considered unjust) payroll taxes she had been forced to pay. Also, being selfish was central to her philosophy so this was in keepi…

I see this perspective a lot - having only read The Fountainhead, I don't understand it at all, and suspect this is largely based off her other works (including Atlas Shrugged)? My interpretation of The Fountainhead was as I described previously - the importance of staying true to who you are, even if this results in missing out on riches (or goes against popular opinion).

Personally, I agree with your summary of the Fountainhead.

If you choose to read Atlas Shrugged, however, her opinions start to get more extreme and unsettling.

Re: My Time at Snap

#116

Post by aedron »

thiscatis wrote: post #100

On the one hand I recognise a lot of the teams and work issues this developer had. But reading between the lines it seems like this dev wanted it all, equity without commitment, weeks of remote work without formal agreement, a quick cash out over adding value to the company...Seems very entitled to me. It looks very one-sided as well. Everything had to come from the company and its management, nothing from his side.

This does come across as an inexperienced developer with a high opinion of his own worth, and rather clueless about how organizations work. I actually came away with a good impression of Snap from the description. Even the supposedly nightmarish engineering director could, from another angle, possibly be seen in a good light: Insisting on proper analysis and design before a project commences, taking a deep interest in the technical part of the project. The author disagreed with a bunch of points and that might have been enough for him to lose all respect for him.

In the end he gets bored with his actual work and lets himself be hijacked by some line function to develop internal tools for them, outside of the purview of any manager. Unsurprisingly he ends up an organizational orphan. Which means no one goes to bat for him to squeeze in several weeks of remote work, which sounds like a pretty outlandish demand to my ears. To think that the fact that some random person once 'approved' it makes any difference just goes to show the naïvety. Obviously he didn't get it in writing from someone able to make that decision, and that's the only thing that matters.

Re: My Time at Snap

#117

Post by zrobotics »

DanBC wrote: post #97
bko wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why was it inevitable? What's the point of removing content because its not accessible to some small fraction of the population? Is this meant to punish the professors who signed something they likely didn't fully read? It seems that it's punishing individuals who would find this information useful.

It forces organisations to comply with the law. What's the point of a law that can just be ignored with no consequences? > who signed something they likely didn't fully read? I'm always surprised when I hear this. Signing a document to say you've complied with the law when you haven't complied with the law is a pretty big deal. Maybe I'm missing some context, but you should read the things you're signing.

So did you fully read the lengthy Medium TOS when reading the article?

Because it sounds like this accessibility document is also a fairly similar piece of boilerplate.

Re: My Time at Snap

#118

Post by astura »

sanderdlm wrote: post #72
huhtenberg wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This actually sounds like a near-perfect setup to me. Get it, program, get out. If I want to socialize, I'll do it outside of work.

It may sound like it but I can assure you that it's not. Humans are social animals and when you have to spend 8 hours a day, 5 days a week in a setting with little to no peer interaction, it'll start to wear on you. The first month is awesome. Complete freedom & autonomy, then the depression starts kicking in.

You're wrong.

I did this for over five years (I was working as the only dev on a project, PM gave me 100% autonomy), it's just fine. Work is for work, not hanging out.

I would have liked to work on a team for that project, but not because I needed to socialize.

Humans are social, but I socialize outside of work.

Very early in my career I was working with other young engineers and I wanted work to be a social place too. I learned from that quickly, there's much too many downsides: you don't get to pick your coworkers so sometimes they end up being not great as "friends," you realize that work relationships are incredibly shallow because no matter how much time you spent socializing once one of you leaves the company you never see each other again, trying to turn the office into social hour interferes with work, it's probably best my coworkers don't see the same side of me as my friends.

Re: My Time at Snap

#119

Post by itronitron »

fouc wrote: post #6
albatruss wrote: post #2

>He did tell us to use the word “epoch,” but not before explaining what the word meant and that it was not, in fact, the same word as “epic,” to a room full of native English speakers. He then proceeded to opine on what he thought the Latin roots of the word might be, which I’m convinced to this day he was making up on the spot. "epoch" actually comes from Greek :)

It would've been lovely if someone had directly interrupted this "John" anytime he attempted to expound extensively after being asked a minor clarifying question. This sort of person shouldn't be tolerated, not even by employees.

Every dev team I've been on has always had one person that readily answers any minor or rhetorical question without missing a beat. I thought they were universal but maybe I have just been lucky.

Re: My Time at Snap

#120

Post by seanmcdirmid »

ordinaryperson wrote: post #107
paxys wrote: post #47

We have all worked for a "John" in the industry. The big systematic problem is that after being fired from Snap (probably after already collecting massive paychecks and a hefty chunk of equity), he will go to another big tech company and impress them with his resume and bullshitting skills. They will hire him and deal with his antics for a few years, while he ruins more people's careers, then he will move on. Rinse a…

> We have all worked for a "John" in the industry. Agreed. But since so many middle managers are twits isn't it incumbent on the employee to learn a set of skills to deal with Johns? Managing people is hard. Being a good manager is really hard, which is why there are so few of them. Rather than rail against how terrible Person X is as a manager I feel like it's more productive to say, "Unless I start my own company t…

These are multiplier soft skills. For example, we already know that a people manager that can manage brilliant people with otherwise toxic personality defects is worth a lot, but we have yet to explore the worker that can manage up a people manager with toxic personality defects. I personally only encountered this kind of a manger once, and was fortunate that I could transfer somewhere else in the same company quickly (the guy only lasted a year, but it would have been a hard year....).
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