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Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

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Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#181

Post by perl4ever »

reificator wrote: post #115
thijsvandien wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are the arguments against version control here (if any)? Honestly the project sounds quite interesting, but I can imagine the circumstances make it painful.

> What's are the arguments against version control here (if any)? * I don't understand it * You're overcomplicating things * We're not using any of that free shit here * It doesn't say Microsoft or IBM * The last guy we hired that tried to use it was smarter than I was so anyone else who tries is a threat to my leadership. (because everyone knows you can only manage people who have a strict subset of your own knowled…

I'm not sure what the answer is for version control, but I refuse to accept it's Git. I don't understand how it became so popular - did nobody say "wait, there might be a reason why Linus is known for cloning an OS and not coming up with a brilliant design for one from scratch?"

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#182

Post by acdha »

perl4ever wrote: post #174
eropple wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seconded, hard. You can't spend that $165K a year when you're staring down the barrel of willful HIPAA violations. Leave the company as soon as humanly possible. Leave and hope that the blowback from the inevitable disclosure--which won't be from your company--is happy enough eating the executive team that remains. And get a personal lawyer who understands HIPAA and explore avenues for whistleblowing; turning over on…

The story exceeds my suspension of disbelief. What particular jumps out at me is the backwards details - nobody off the street knows what "TPA" means, sure, but everybody who's ever gone to see a doctor knows what HIPAA is, even if they think it's called "HIPPA".

I think you are rather over-estimating the degree to which people read those standard forms: it’s akin to expecting everyone to read the full text on the “Are you sure?” dialog before clicking OK.

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#183

Post by kamyarg »

DamnInteresting wrote: post #137
Waterluvian wrote: post #72

I don't want to be fired. I absolutely love my job and the people I work with. But I can just smell that we are about to hit a sticking point with how I don't do on call (it was never mentioned in the interviews or part of my contract) and I don't respond to work after 5pm. If it does come to that sticking point I'm trying to figure out how to be the most assertive and diplomatic. I.e. How do I convey that I badly wa…

In professional settings, when it comes to these kinds of awkward topics, I have found a method that has served me very well: A. Meet with the person who is applying the unwanted pressure (it works best one-on-one, so if more than one person is pressuring, you may need to figure out who is best to speak to). B. Frame your concern as asking for advice. For example, "I'm struggling with how to handle this on-call thing…

Thanks for sharing it, this is a very interesting approach.

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#184

Post by brokenmachine »

JetezLeLogin wrote: post #118

It's not hell on earth but I think about "oh my god dude get another job!" at least once a week. My job is this "hybrid" of 50% software developer, which I want to do, and 50% of, let's just say, flippin' burgers. It's not flipping burgers literally but the metaphor applies pretty well because being a short-order burger chef does take some skill, but it's repetitive, and subject to requests/orders that come in interm…

>These are people who either can't, or never wanted to, be anything other than burger-flippers, and everything they talk about is in terms of burger flipping, and life is just a big burger to be flipped.

Lol, hilarious! I love your writing style.

I'm in a similar situation. Thankfully rare but random unpredictable urgent but formulaic jobs to do, fixing things for well-educated burger flippers.

My job is ostensibly to improve things but that's impossible because everything is managed by inept naysayers, with the added entertainment of crippling bureaucracy mixed in.

So I'm on hn instead.

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#185

Post by mkoryak »

toop43 wrote: post #69
throwaway29488 wrote: post #2

Not with the job in particular, just want to take a break from tech especially from being a programmer. Tired of staring at a screen for 80% of my awake time and constant puzzle solving. Sick of people in this industry making you feel you're not smart enough, that you're not enough no matter how many times you prove yourself in past work.

> Sick of people in this industry making you feel you're not smart enough, that you're not enough no matter how many times you prove yourself in past work. Dealing with this in the heavy right now. I've built a lot in my 10 years as a programmer. Infinitely, and automatically scaled application server based on load. Hasn't crashed or had a single downtime ever since release. I've built mobile applications 100% myself…

I have news for you:

You can study for technical interviews and get good at doing them. "Cracking the coding interview" is a good start, then there is interviewing.io and other resources.

You can learn to be good at that shit with a bit of practice. You're probably not dumb.

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#186

Post by jenkinstrigger »

throwaway58129 wrote: post #64

I didn't know this format was a thing and am so very excited to discover it. I hope you folks enjoy reading horror stories. I got a job as a Software Engineer in my current company 4.5 years ago; friend-of-a-friend sort of thing. The company had an apparently disastrous piece of software that was their main LOB. They had gone through pretty much every local consulting agency - at least once, on a few occasions they h…

whats great about this is that you don't realize that you've written a new classic.

also, get out while you can!

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#187

Post by jmuguy »

systematical wrote: post #170

I do! I work at a failing startup. I find the direction and strategy of the company lacking. My advice is often ignored or they wait years and then claim it as their own. Sluggish sales. Sluggish revenue. Haven't been profitable in the 5 years I've been there. I'm looking for a job but I rather just be laid off and collect unemployment for a while. I've been working for 17 years with no employment gaps. I'm tired.

I can relate, I haven’t gone more than a week without a job in that same amount of time. I fantasize about just straight up taking a week or a month or a year off and doing absolutely nothing.

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#188

Post by wil421 »

drinchev wrote: post #61
ScottFree wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't worry too much about becoming obsolete. Frontend web development is my field and it moves faster than any other single area of programming. I took 5 years off due to burnout and it only took me a month or two to get back up to speed from a technical perspective. Putting up with the bullshit interviews is another story. I freelance now.

+1 for freelancing. I never had to deal with any of the bullshit 2 days on-site interview with whiteboard challenge. I don't get the full interview routine because I'm considered "external" and "temporary workforce" ( 6-12 months ). Funny story that I've seen lots of "internals" moving to other gigs in about the same amount of time. Freelancing gives you the opportunity to do your job, get your money and don't get in…

How do you start finding clients for freelancing? How do you figure out a competitive rate without going too high or low?

I have about 10-15 hours of real work to do each week at MegaCorp. The rest is idle time at my desk/couch. Thought about moonlighting and doing 2 jobs but freelance sounds better.

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#189

Post by blotter_paper »

rjplatte wrote: post #100

I'm the sole developer working on my current project, which is overhauling a massive DOS era application, as well as overhauling an early 2000s era CRM/business management tool, that almost all of our work happens through. Did I mention that the DOS application is a HIPAA billing application that must meet all HIPAA guidelines as well as write EDI X12 billing files? I'm very junior, been coding for ~5 years, 3 profes…

>having been expressly forbidden from using ANY VC by the CEO

Well that's really fucking stupid of them. Maybe they're worried about evidence of old HIPAA breaches existing after the system gets updated, and doesn't want to explain that logic? On your local development station:

  mkdir repo
  cd repo
  git init --bare
  cd ..
  git clone repo project_folder
  cd project_folder
  cp -r ..//project project
Congratulations, you now have version control for local development that your CEO never has to know about! The only reason I'd suggest an extra folder (horribly named project_folder in the example above) is so that you never accidentally copy the hidden .git files when moving it from your dev station.

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#190

Post by systematical »

jmuguy wrote: post #187
systematical wrote: post #170

I do! I work at a failing startup. I find the direction and strategy of the company lacking. My advice is often ignored or they wait years and then claim it as their own. Sluggish sales. Sluggish revenue. Haven't been profitable in the 5 years I've been there. I'm looking for a job but I rather just be laid off and collect unemployment for a while. I've been working for 17 years with no employment gaps. I'm tired.

I can relate, I haven’t gone more than a week without a job in that same amount of time. I fantasize about just straight up taking a week or a month or a year off and doing absolutely nothing.

I'm not good at getting fired. I am personable and don't slack off. Those positive qualities are having a negative impact on my dream. I've wanted to collect unemployment for years.
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