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Most “mandatory requirements” in corporations are imaginary

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Re: Most “mandatory requirements” in corporations are imaginary

#91

Post by J-dawg »

It's interesting that in tech there is this expectation that every available thing should be done to make the employee as happy and relaxed as possible. If an employer refuses to do these things it's met with "does not compute", as in this example.

Granted, it does seem to make sense that your employees are as happy and relaxed as possible, but this attitude doesn't seem to exist in other industries to the same degree.

For example, I have a friend who works in finance. He was allowed to work from home for the bare minimum amount of time during the pandemic, his company requested him to return to the office almost as soon as the government permitted it (despite his job being possible to do 100% remotely). He also wears formal clothes every day (another thing that is frequently viewed as ridiculous in tech). But, he makes probably 3-4 times what I do per year!

It seems that in tech people expect to be "looked after" by their employer more than in other industries, yet simultaneously undervalue themselves.

Caveat: this is a perspective from the UK where finance salaries are high, and tech salaries are (as far as I can tell) much lower than the USA.

Re: Most “mandatory requirements” in corporations are imaginary

#92

Post by roland35 »

I agree with the author about how the risks are more obvious to higher ups than benefits and that is why rules generally stay the same. However, one thing that I learned as a new parent is how important it is to have consistency! I think a lot of computer engineers (ie hacker news) would enjoy an organization which tinkers with policies to find the best way to do things... But I think with a large org things need to be pretty consistent.

Now that said, I personally have bristled being in a company which wasn't flexible at all! So the key is to find a balance between consistency and flexibility, and give all levels of management and employees empowerment to find the best way to do things.

Re: Most “mandatory requirements” in corporations are imaginary

#93

Post by mamon »

anticensor wrote: post #57
zeepzeep wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That said.. why would a person use the corporate computer for their (allow me the use of the word) 'hobby'? Because my work computer is around 100 times faster than my personal one.

I have the opposite situation: My personal computer is faster .

I really wish I could use my personal laptop at work, but now it is hard, because GDPR laws mandate that I would need to take additional security measures and could be held responsible for any data leak. Using company issued laptop avoids the problem - all responsibility rests on my employer's shoulders.

Re: Most “mandatory requirements” in corporations are imaginary

#94

Post by agumonkey »

altacc wrote: post #75

In 1605 there was an attempt to blow up the British Parliament during the state opening by placing explosives in the cellars. 415 years later they still search the cellars for barrels of explosives, using oil lanterns and armed with swords. I feel that so many organisations are doing the same thing, maintaining an old solution for a problem that no longer exists. So I think it's just as, or more, important to apply t…

> maintaining an old solution for a problem that no longer exists.

- new people

- systemic change

all this means to me that experience is not passed along and that regularly the new team will just face a somehow new problem with whatever reflex solution they can come up with with whoever is in the lobby at the time. It has to be between 5 minute smalltalk to 1 meeting at the end of the day.

Re: Most “mandatory requirements” in corporations are imaginary

#95

Post by bregma »

CYA has been the driving force that has allowed the species to survive this long. It's a fundamental human instinct that was selected for and reinforced through our long rough evolution on the savanna, just like pattern recognition and dominance games.

Do you really want to be the one responsible for wiping us all out?

Re: Most “mandatory requirements” in corporations are imaginary

#96

Post by swiley »

sfifs wrote: post #25

In BigCorps, if there's a stupid requirement, there's usually a reason for the stupid requirement to be there in the first place but getting to the reason might require un-peeling a few org layers to since the people enforcing the policy will not be the people who wrote the policy. A more productive use of time would be to understand the reason for the policy, document out why it doesn't apply to your case and then a…

This shouldn’t need to be enforced by software. You really don’t have any business accessing a personal git repo from a coorperate machine; you’re spending time twice (stealing) and it’s a good way to lose ownership of IP.

Furthermore this probably makes officially allowed open source contributions much more difficult.

Re: Most “mandatory requirements” in corporations are imaginary

#97

Post by blackflame7000 »

Perseids wrote: post #79
HenryBemis wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe it's all about Security (C-I-A). To mitigate this issue, on paper, an (usually) HR policy writes "do not do non-work related stuff with your work computer". And since many people ignore this rule, because "why have a second laptop?", the next best thing is to route all traffic from your laptop through the company, and weed out the GigHubs and GitLabs of this world (in the same manner that they block all sex…

> You can't blame a company for wanted to protect itself against a disgruntled employee that wants to push the (example - not applicable to your company) ebanking software code out in the open. The thing is, they can't, not if my PC is still usable for day to day work. For a legitimate user, the ways to extricate data are endless (e.g. tunnel out via DNS, embed into video streams (for customer training or something),…

The problem is that not all warning signs rise to a fireable offense and in todays sue happy climate even at will employment has restrictions that protect workers rights

Re: Most “mandatory requirements” in corporations are imaginary

#98

Post by SergeAx »

No rules are appeared by itself from thin air, there was always a cause. Most of the times rules are created to reduce a cognitive load. Thus changing the rules should be based on a cause greater or equal to the one prodiced the rule.

No one will change remote working rule just because of one or two outsiders' caprice (calling rule "stupid" shows just lack of understanding). World pandemy is obviously enough cause to change some rules.

Re: Most “mandatory requirements” in corporations are imaginary

#99

Post by JoeAltmaier »

J-dawg wrote: post #91

It's interesting that in tech there is this expectation that every available thing should be done to make the employee as happy and relaxed as possible. If an employer refuses to do these things it's met with "does not compute", as in this example. Granted, it does seem to make sense that your employees are as happy and relaxed as possible, but this attitude doesn't seem to exist in other industries to the same degre…

Yes there's a current trend of thinking that work should be as near play as possible.

There are entire classes of work, like digging ditches and driving equipment, that can be sweaty and rote. Not designed to be fun, but to get something done. For pay. This is becoming regarded as mentally or physically abusive.

It helps to consider the pay as recompense for whatever hardship you endure to deliver value to the employer. Which seems obvious but apparently is not.

Re: Most “mandatory requirements” in corporations are imaginary

#100

Post by ramblerman »

simonbarker87 wrote: post #3

This is why managers need a high level of emotional intelligence, the ability to empathize and quickly place themselves in the position of others. Without those three qualities management is ill equipped to handle these kinds of things sensibly. Sadly the above traits are more deemed leadership qualities rather than management qualities and so often missing in management. Leadership skills are far harder to teach tha…

Sorry, but this just feels like you are projecting some vague management 101 platitudes that could be applicable to any organizational problem.

I mean you're not wrong, but it's akin to saying if we all loved each other there would be no war.

I've seen plenty of great emphatic leaders get bogged down in large corps.

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