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Want to be a leader? Wash the Dishes When Nobody Else Will.

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Re: Want to be a leader? Wash the Dishes When Nobody Else Will.

#121

Post by c1utch »

nandemo wrote: post #115
alnayyir wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Relevance is besides the point, you're paid to work. Your job title isn't some kind of license to refuse work you don't want to do. You keep trying to frame this as being an issue of relevancy when really it's that you're simply not eager enough to get dirty like edw's father wanted out of his people. You tell me to clean the bathroom on my first day, I'll ask where the scrub and bottle of 409 are. Now if we're talki…

> Your job title isn't some kind of license to refuse work you don't want to do. Why, yes it is. If you're a janitor you're not expected to code. In some places a job title and job description are even mandatory and they are used in case of a labour dispute. Whether this is a good for companies and employees is a separate question, but it's a big stretch to say that job titles aren't relevant.

At a startup you should expect to do anything.

Re: Want to be a leader? Wash the Dishes When Nobody Else Will.

#122

Post by skrish »

In my first job at a startup, the bathroom was dirty on a rainy day & realised the janitor had not come into office. I knew customers were visiting office in the next hour, so I just cleaned it up and went back to work. Nobody ever knew about it. Similar such events like cleaning up our kitchen sink with lots of coffee cups has happened, but I never realised as if its not my 'job'. It was there to be done & when I realised the person responsible for that was not around I just did it.

But later on when I worked for a bigger organization it hit me, how I felt about the company, as if I was running it and was wondering if I would ever do the same in this 'BIG' organization.

Re: Want to be a leader? Wash the Dishes When Nobody Else Will.

#123

Post by nandemo »

c1utch wrote: post #121
nandemo wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Your job title isn't some kind of license to refuse work you don't want to do. Why, yes it is. If you're a janitor you're not expected to code. In some places a job title and job description are even mandatory and they are used in case of a labour dispute. Whether this is a good for companies and employees is a separate question, but it's a big stretch to say that job titles aren't relevant.

At a startup you should expect to do anything.

Sure. The claim I was referring to didn't specify startups, though.

Re: Want to be a leader? Wash the Dishes When Nobody Else Will.

#124

Post by rimantas »

blueben wrote: post #108
Retric wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is I would both clean the bathroom and continue looking for a job. Smile, pitch in, and quietly get the fuck out of there. Net cost me not much. Net cost to the company 10-30+k depending on how long I stay. PS: Turnover at the 3-6 month period is the most expensive for a SW company. You just lost all that hiring momentum, wasted all that time getting someone up to speed, damage moral, and they leave befor…

You would screw over a company just because they made you do an undesirable job for exactly one day? Obviously the test works.

The company with such "tests" deserves it. I'd say it must be more of some creepy pleasure for the boss to ask that more than any test.

Re: Want to be a leader? Wash the Dishes When Nobody Else Will.

#125

Post by rimantas »

jasonlotito wrote: post #80
jarek wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe it's just my millenial entitlement, but that strikes me as a bad strategy. Unless the business was a cleaning or maintenance company, cleaning the bathroom seems far removed from anything relevant to my work and is in essence busywork. Questions that immediately spring into mind: is this some weird attempt at saving money by having employees do both their job and cleaning? Is this supposed to be some hazing rit…

> Maybe it's just my millenial entitlement, but that strikes me as a bad strategy. I don't know if has anything to do with your "millenial" (seriously, you use this word to describe yourself?) entitlement, but it's not a bad strategy for both you or the company. You don't want to work for a company like that, and they don't want employees like you. Extrapolate that into numerous other "First Day/First Week/First Mont…

Strategy is sound in what? In hiring people willing to clean bathrooms?

Re: Want to be a leader? Wash the Dishes When Nobody Else Will.

#126

Post by sushumna »

sloak wrote: post #45

Reminds me about the story of Netflix CEO. From http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2011/0... [... Huffington coaxed Hastings to talk about leadership -- and one early experience that informed his leadership style. Hastings recalled how, as a 25-year-old software programmer, he would stay up all night, propelled by coffee. He'd leave an array of mugs on his desk. Once a week, he would discover the c…

Thanks for the nice post. as an aspiring startup guy, will definitely inculcate this attitude.

Re: Want to be a leader? Wash the Dishes When Nobody Else Will.

#127

Post by jongraehl »

grellas wrote: post #48

Want to be a great leader? Work hard to develop extraordinary skills. Become an independent thinker and have the courage to follow your ideas. Show respect to others and never think more highly of yourself than you ought. Avoid bad habits of sloth, dissipation, dishonesty, and other qualities that would cause others to lose respect for you. Set goals that challenge you to do your best and follow diligently after them…

I agree with your main point - that being a great leader is more caused by other things and not at all by washing dishes.

It's funny that you thought of a story about dishwashing in response to the dishwashing story :)

The headline intentionally gets causality wrong in order to attract attention. Misleading sensationalism is pollution.

Re: Want to be a leader? Wash the Dishes When Nobody Else Will.

#128

Post by cliq »

jrockway wrote: post #6

Nope, now you're the dishwasher. At least in my experience; if you do something that other people don't want to do, you're now the "that thing" guy for life.

What's funny is I actually find this attitude to be why people specifically avoid doing those little things to begin with, and why all those "dishes" pile up.

Re: Want to be a leader? Wash the Dishes When Nobody Else Will.

#129

Post by jrockway »

whatusername wrote: post #96
jrockway wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or, "this is why I don't know anyone smart that works at Avis". No offense, but the day I have to work as a bank teller is the day I stop working for a bank.

And that is why Bank Teller software sucks.

No, it sucks because banks will not pay for software for their tellers. You've never been a teller, but you know it sucks. So do the banks. But they don't care, because there is no money to be made in improving it.

(Wait until they realize that there is no money in etrading either. Then there will be a lot of people on the market that know how to micro-optimize memory allocators. But I digress...)

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