Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#491

Post by qmmmur » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 8:21 AM UTC

kbenson wrote: post #313

seizethecheese wrote: post #267

I sure hope this format doesn't take off. Having worked as a dishwasher, line cook, pool manager, business analyst, software engineer, and startup founder, I have to say software engineer was, by far, the most coddled job. How about this: I'm a line cook, and I can't afford to be fired. I make minimum wage, and burn or cut myself badly at least once per week. I'm not allowed to take the day off and have to work throu…

You realize one of the most popular to level comments is about someone who is 18 amd working on modernizing an old DOS HIPAA app alone and not allowed to use version control and is being advised by people to quit ASAP because HIPAA laws mean they might be personally liable for some violations and face prison time? Suddenly, your line cook job doesn't sound so bad. Maybe we should just accept that every job might have…

I would much rather be cut and burned than personally liable in a suit that could ruin the rest of my life.

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#492

Post by vast » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 8:21 AM UTC

jl2718 wrote: post #320

So many ideas in my head that I really want to be working on, and I can’t seem to separate myself from the mental model of having a set position in a heirarchy, taking confused and/or hostile direction from seemingly arbitrary sources of authority. Some kind of fear, not even financial, more like the idea of getting lost, losing touch, never finding my way back, being abandoned and undesirable, dying alone. And beyon…

I think corp life is something that is extremely romanticized by public success stories and anecdotes from (occasional/incidental) winners. Everything suggests that you should be in check and control of the situation, but you are not. You are in the rat race and just reacting with your best effort. The suggestive stories contain a lot of lies or leave out the negativity. There is always the 1% that is crazy good, but we should compare to the 99% to stay sane. But they are unheard of.

Kill your idols and realize that we are the plebs that actually get shit done.

Personally I take too little risk myself. I am 40 now but I cannot imagine anymore how I can myself in a joyful working position. I have no fun in hunting new jobs, but getting out of the rat race and getting back into social life would bring way more opporturnities. Also I believe that I am not holding down my 1% potential, but the environment you are acting in.

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#493

Post by rovr138 » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 8:21 AM UTC

marrone12 wrote: post #245

reificator wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't work with HIPAA but with other compliance/regulations NOT using version control is the problem. Unless you have patient information hardcoded into the source code for god knows what reason...

Things that might be hardcoded are access keys and passwords to PII databases.

Which is bad practice for lots of reasons and, is that a HIPAA violation? Your code also has it then.

Hosting git externally might be an issue though.

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#494

Post by bartread » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 8:23 AM UTC

loxs wrote: post #413

dav1app wrote: post #403

On my last job, a new manager called me for a meeting on Friday 4PM. I spent the whole month on an extremely stressful project. The meeting was about an app that integrates credit card payments, billets and bank account on a terminal that is going to be available to the general public. The deadline? 11PM of the same day. Final version. From 0 to 100% in 6 hours. I said that it was impossible. He said that I was incap…

One of my goals in life is to never be susceptible to this kind of situation (been there some years ago). So far I manage to have as big a financial buffer as needed to be able to quit instantly in that situation without batting an eye. Indeed I never hide my ability to do so and I try to make very clear the things "I won't do" at any gig I take. Either before I start or very early in the process. At my current job i…

I actually think this is a fair enough approach: better to be doing something you're happy doing than to be miserable and complaining, that's for sure.

There is, of course a trade-off, which I'll illustrate with our situation. I'll only hire full stack developers, by which I mean people who are willing to turn their hand to anything in our systems, because it gives us more flexibility in terms of building teams, working across sytems, providing support, and so on. But we're a relatively small tech organisation with a lot of demands on us and so need that flexibility. People obviously have areas of specialty, but broadly they'll poke around in any system they need to.

I'm not saying you're wrong: not at all. Just that the trade-off is perhaps more limited options. That may not be a bad thing if they're not options you want though.

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#495

Post by vast » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 8:27 AM UTC

pyridines wrote: post #149

My boss (effectively) prohibits us from displaying negative emotions towards each other, as he pulls us aside to chide us when we do. I think the intention is to encourage more constructive conversations, but his bar for what he considers inappropriate is so low that it ends up stifling disagreements. We have a tough time making decisions because of it. It's also difficult to tell him about other problems I have, bec…

Wow. It is already a struggle to live through conflicts in an average company. Turning any conflict down early on is insane. Sounds like he is trying to built a brainwashed cult.

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#496

Post by ckastner » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 8:30 AM UTC

cwkoss wrote: post #471

dav1app wrote: post #403

On my last job, a new manager called me for a meeting on Friday 4PM. I spent the whole month on an extremely stressful project. The meeting was about an app that integrates credit card payments, billets and bank account on a terminal that is going to be available to the general public. The deadline? 11PM of the same day. Final version. From 0 to 100% in 6 hours. I said that it was impossible. He said that I was incap…

Yikes. You should send his boss/ceo/investors a spite email telling the story about how he lost a worker who was working for 1/2 market rate by setting impossible deadlines.

> You should send his boss/ceo/investors a spite email

That is a horrendously bad suggestion.

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#497

Post by splittingTimes » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 8:34 AM UTC

jl2718 wrote: post #320

So many ideas in my head that I really want to be working on, and I can’t seem to separate myself from the mental model of having a set position in a heirarchy, taking confused and/or hostile direction from seemingly arbitrary sources of authority. Some kind of fear, not even financial, more like the idea of getting lost, losing touch, never finding my way back, being abandoned and undesirable, dying alone. And beyon…

When I started to listen to the "manager tools" podcast, I started to get a much better understanding of corporate politics and it became easier to navigate that space. Jocko Willings podcast also has some insights how to deal with complex political situations.

For your mental health I can recommend some of the modern Stoic approaches to life. Most prominent candidate here is "A guide to the good life". Good luck.

https://sivers.org/book/StoicJoy

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#498

Post by james_s_tayler » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 8:39 AM UTC

snapetom wrote: post #391

My last day at work is Friday. I was hired three years ago to write web apps for a major children's hospital, but given no web servers to run the apps. That hasn't changed much. Let me repeat that. My job is to write web apps. I have no servers. The first "servers" I was given were three old RedHat boxes that were used in a share environment by researchers. Ports to the box weren't open and basically everyone was roo…

This is both funny and sad, but it just leaves me curious what did you spend your time doing for three full years working like that?

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#499

Post by mihaaly » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 8:43 AM UTC

dav1app wrote: post #403

On my last job, a new manager called me for a meeting on Friday 4PM. I spent the whole month on an extremely stressful project. The meeting was about an app that integrates credit card payments, billets and bank account on a terminal that is going to be available to the general public. The deadline? 11PM of the same day. Final version. From 0 to 100% in 6 hours. I said that it was impossible. He said that I was incap…

The world is filled with incompetent managers who have no clue about the requirements or conditions and are afraid to ask, they play authority card or even intimidate instead. Very dumb.

I feel unlucky never being fired and leaving 4 out of 5 cases because of bad management (poor task allocation, inadequate yet wasted resources, focus on appearances instead of essence both in steering and execution, poor communication or attitude, misuse of authority - including not using authority where necessary). I almost wish of having a (real, not induced!) feeling of incompetency, the feeling of the need to improve, instead of the feeling of wasting my time at work.

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#500

Post by shrikant » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 8:44 AM UTC

virgilp wrote: post #440

halfer53 wrote: post #430

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is one of the reason I hate about PIP( performance improvement program). They set ridiculous goals for you in very short amount of time that nobody can possibly complete, then fire you on grounds of incompetence. A friend of mine who works in Facebook told me that an employee committed suicide due to the pressure of PIP. I suspect that guy was put into PIP due to poor rating (meet most), then was given a ridicul…

It's a sad story; but PIP is really the pink slip; you take it as an advance notice that you're going to be fired, and start looking for jobs. I've heard stories of people completing PIP programs successfully, but quite honestly, I don't get it. Once you got to that point, you're not a good fit to the team and/or they don't appreciate you. Makes no sense to stay. I could understand staying with the company & switchin…

I'd disagree that a PIP is a blanket pink slip.

At my current employer, I've personally seen (and mentored!) people on a PIP who've been given reasonably concrete feedback on how to improve their performance in terms of the parameters set by the organisation. (The last part is key!).

People who've responded positively to this have seen reasonably good upward trajectory, and those who've responded negatively have been managed out.

> Once you got to that point, you're not a good fit to the team and/or they don't appreciate you.

Or you haven't yet figured out the parameters by which you're being evaluated. Once you figure this out, the next step is deciding whether you want to subscribe to those parameters or not, and acting accordingly.