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Most “mandatory requirements” in corporations are imaginary

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Re: Most “mandatory requirements” in corporations are imaginary

#361

Post by Aeolun »

trabant00 wrote: post #192
Aeolun wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering I have worked with extremely talented and extremely stupid people I believe I know what I’m talking about (within the limits of my experience). There seems to be absolutely zero correlation between organisational role/level and ability, instead using years of service as a proxy. I don’t really know how to fix this.

Have you managed those people you are talking about?

To some extend. Since I hired most (all?) of the people I manage I tend to believe they are less idiotic.

Or at least I’m generally in a position to do something about it.

Re: Most “mandatory requirements” in corporations are imaginary

#362

Post by mylinkedlist »

zucker42 wrote: post #230
mylinkedlist wrote: post #215

Exact same story happened to me. I am an Indian contractor working for a US client in US. I asked for work from home in India. Customer manager said security council didn't approve it. He said something like their policy is 'don't take anything to China that you are not ok with loosing, India is one level below it, safeguard everything'. Now Corona happened and the entire team in India has been working from home for…

> He said something like their policy is 'don't take anything to China that you are not ok with loosing, India is one level below it, safeguard everything'. I can't imagine someone hiring a person they have such disdain for. That's a pretty sad attitude on the manager's part.

I believe he doesn't have any disdain for me (except may be for my skills). He had a meeting with the company's security council, and told me the decision afterwards. I think he just heard this line regarding trust from the council meeting. Not sure why he chose to tell me that. I would like to think he was just saying that to convey the mindset of the council people.

Re: Most “mandatory requirements” in corporations are imaginary

#363

Post by mylinkedlist »

lioeters wrote: post #335
mylinkedlist wrote: post #215

Exact same story happened to me. I am an Indian contractor working for a US client in US. I asked for work from home in India. Customer manager said security council didn't approve it. He said something like their policy is 'don't take anything to China that you are not ok with loosing, India is one level below it, safeguard everything'. Now Corona happened and the entire team in India has been working from home for…

> ..you can see the window maximize/minimize in slow motion Oof, that's painful to imagine the daily frustration. There must be a better technical solution - but, as long as the current setup is working (and generating value), probably no one with decision-making power has an incentive to improve anything. They can ignore the cost, the wasted time, effort, stress and loss of morale.

Its incredibly stressful on some days, especially when I am dealing with a production issue or a deadline. This is one of the main reasons I will be soon looking for a new job. One of the questions I would ask the interviewer would be to find out if I will I be working on a AWS workspace/Citrix VDI/something similar or will I get a dedicated hardware.

I tried to bring this issue up a couple of times, but got turned down saying no budget for laptop (though they must be paying more to AWS within a year or two, we all have been on Citrix VDI or AWS for 6 years), or that it is easy for IT this way, and recently manager just told me to reboot everyday when I leave (which seemed to have solved the low memory issues, but others still occur).

2 weeks ago, the workspace wasn't registering the key presses (it does this sometimes and I have to reconnect). I got so angry, next thing I know I punched the laptop keyboard. The laptop screen froze with lot of lines on it, and there was a loud sound (probably from something getting in between the fan). Fortunately, everything was fine after a reboot. I never knew I would respond like this. I probably need to see a psychologist soon before this becomes a major issue. My dad also had such angry outbursts and I used to hate him for that.

Re: Most “mandatory requirements” in corporations are imaginary

#364

Post by grogenaut »

pyrale wrote: post #344
grogenaut wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is literally my job. Amazon calls it Dive Deep/Earn Trust. I get called in constantly to "Remove Blockers". Part of it is just understanding why the policy exists and then getting a policy modification. While it's definitely an art, it's not as hard as a lot of people think, but you can't be afraid to escalate.

It is also _much_ easier when you're called in for that purpose. Someone who didn't get that mandate on hire will be considered troublesome and overstepping, while someone roped in for that reason will be innovative and an enabler.

I actually grew into this position. And like 60% of the time people don't ask me to show up, I just do. Or someone points me at an issue.

Re: Most “mandatory requirements” in corporations are imaginary

#365

Post by grogenaut »

beastcoast wrote: post #336
grogenaut wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is literally my job. Amazon calls it Dive Deep/Earn Trust. I get called in constantly to "Remove Blockers". Part of it is just understanding why the policy exists and then getting a policy modification. While it's definitely an art, it's not as hard as a lot of people think, but you can't be afraid to escalate.

It also helps that Amazon isn’t afraid to entertain ideas from lower in the ranks. You just need a strong idea and be willing to write a memo that explains it, then work your way up the chain until you get to a decision maker.

I've seen new hire SDE1's call out jassy in an aws allhands. And jassy seriously answers those questions. Very impressive.

Re: Most “mandatory requirements” in corporations are imaginary

#366

Post by grogenaut »

Kinrany wrote: post #294
grogenaut wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is literally my job. Amazon calls it Dive Deep/Earn Trust. I get called in constantly to "Remove Blockers". Part of it is just understanding why the policy exists and then getting a policy modification. While it's definitely an art, it's not as hard as a lot of people think, but you can't be afraid to escalate.

This sounds like an awesome job. Literally paid to fix frustrating bureacratic processes. Like a professional user advocate paid to convince developers that the users do have a point and the request is not impossible.

Do you like firefighting and having uncomfortable conversations with people all the time.

Re: Most “mandatory requirements” in corporations are imaginary

#367

Post by zucker42 »

mylinkedlist wrote: post #362
zucker42 wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He said something like their policy is 'don't take anything to China that you are not ok with loosing, India is one level below it, safeguard everything'. I can't imagine someone hiring a person they have such disdain for. That's a pretty sad attitude on the manager's part.

I believe he doesn't have any disdain for me (except may be for my skills). He had a meeting with the company's security council, and told me the decision afterwards. I think he just heard this line regarding trust from the council meeting. Not sure why he chose to tell me that. I would like to think he was just saying that to convey the mindset of the council people.

Ah that makes sense. I didn't necessarily think he held personal disdain, just I've noticed beyond this situation the way some people seem to treat outsourced workers worse or in a disrespectful way.

Re: Most “mandatory requirements” in corporations are imaginary

#368

Post by heelix »

the8472 wrote: post #108
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…

> 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. The issue is that all the policy documents often only contain the One True Way to achieve their goals, while the goals remain unstated. The documents should always come with a rationale. And appending "exceptions may be granted for equivalent or better processes"…

For every dumb rule, you always find out someone did something even more stupid.

Re: Most “mandatory requirements” in corporations are imaginary

#369

Post by sfifs »

HenryBemis wrote: post #40
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…

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…

> why would a person use the corporate computer for their (allow me the use of the word) 'hobby'?

Doesn't have to be hobby. A lot of corporate code these days is based on open source libs. What if you fix a bug and want to push upstream?

Re: Most “mandatory requirements” in corporations are imaginary

#370

Post by m463 »

pak9rabid wrote: post #309
jimmaswell wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That many people willingly moved to OSX? Why? Was it a graphics company?

OSX is great at getting the fuck out of the way and letting you get more work done in my experience (development work).

It has been getting in the way more and more.

The only good news would be... if apple decides to "reverse course" questing for non-discerning-consumers, all the "crazy ones" will breathe a sigh of relief and buy a pile of new hardware.

I remember when apple gave up on its "apple-inward-looking" powerpc hardware and shipped intel machines. All of a sudden apple machines could run windows too, people could see more possibilities buying apple and the market for apple hardware became much larger very quickly.

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