What is your excuse for not doing all you can? • Hacker News Board

Re: What is your excuse for not doing all you can?

#21

Post by thwarted » Thu, Mar 10, 2011, 3:49 PM UTC

BorisBomega wrote: post #11

kingofspain wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I can't come in at 9.15am, then I'm not staying a second past 5pm. In my experience, the places that are strictest on this kind of thing are the same ones that browbeat you on not being a team player when your hours are up. This kind of management practice is probably the biggest reason I went it alone.

I think this manager didn't care about you being late or not. All he cared about was results. If you would have come in at 9:15 AND showed poor results and then came up with an excuse he would have punished you for it. But if you came in, with a confident smile on your face because life was good and you loved your work, he would have just smiled back at you.

Any place that enforces posted work hours for salaried employees is not a place where the enforcers are looking at the quality of the output.

Re: What is your excuse for not doing all you can?

#22

Post by gadders » Thu, Mar 10, 2011, 4:26 PM UTC

If the work would have mattered to you, you would have found a solution.

Clearly the manager in the article is infallible, and has never had an issue that has caused late/non-delivery.

Excuse 201: My manager p-ed me off so much with his stupid Book of Excuses mind games that I spent all my spare time look for a job elsewhere.

Re: What is your excuse for not doing all you can?

#23

Post by thaumaturgy » Thu, Mar 10, 2011, 4:29 PM UTC

My excuse is that you either whittled down the amount of time available to get the job done, or didn't pay enough to make the job the sole focus of my life for the time required to get it done, so something else came along and took priority instead. You are not the most important thing in my life.

There, now you've been a dick, and I've been a dick. Is this better?

Re: What is your excuse for not doing all you can?

#24

Post by jordan0day » Thu, Mar 10, 2011, 4:45 PM UTC

I was really hoping for something inspiring, something that would make me realize I wasn't being the best human being I could possibly be and would give me insight towards how I could achieve that. Instead I got a crummy made-up story that only contained platitudes and unrealistic expectations: If the work would have mattered to you, you would have found a solution.

Your work and other elements of your life can both matter to you. It's not an either-or situation. "Don't worry about my dog being hit by a car and bleeding out on the street, I got those BI reports done on time, boss! We can fromogulate an additional 3 widgets per year! Can I leave early and go bury my dog?"

I wonder what the author's excuse for this drivel is?

Re: What is your excuse for not doing all you can?

#25

Post by eunice_chen » Thu, Mar 10, 2011, 6:37 PM UTC

thwarted wrote: post #21

BorisBomega wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this manager didn't care about you being late or not. All he cared about was results. If you would have come in at 9:15 AND showed poor results and then came up with an excuse he would have punished you for it. But if you came in, with a confident smile on your face because life was good and you loved your work, he would have just smiled back at you.

Any place that enforces posted work hours for salaried employees is not a place where the enforcers are looking at the quality of the output.

If work hours or company policies are not posted, couldn't you also say that expectations aren't made clear and communication is lacking? Aren't some sort of standards still needed? Otherwise everyone would cram everything into a 4 day workweek and be MIA on the 5th day.