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The absolute worst scenario happened

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Re: The absolute worst scenario happened

#531

Post by randomswede »

notahacker wrote: post #428
fishtacos wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was my point. The simplest solutions are sometimes the most effective, as well. Incentivizing brain power to remain the country via pay increases seems like the most basic approach one can take, considering the GP was talking about Romanian studios complaining they can't find/hold talent and they are competing with the rest of the EU.

The simplest solutions are the most effective, until you realise it isn't at all simple to match the 200-500% pay increase they're emigrating for.

Step in as a multi-national company, open a software engineering office, pay well over "local market value" and you get good software engineers, at a lower price than moving them elsewhere. They, in turn, get a better quality of life, don't have to emigrate (which for some is a bonus, and for some the opposite (a malus?)) and relatively speaking have more spending power than they would have had, if they moved.

It is really not as easy as go "this is the exchange rate" and simply use that to compare pay in different countries.

Re: The absolute worst scenario happened

#532

Post by Mauricebranagh »

Nextgrid wrote: post #478
Mauricebranagh wrote: post #401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did something similar for a customer of ours who was a major UK cinema chain - they had had a falling out with some small company that had built an online booking system. Highlights: 1 Bookings where made at individual cinemas 2 The network was a packet radio system that blocked :-) only Transaction could be in flight (Leicester square had two channels) 3 Core of system was Perl running on three windows NT machines…

I'd love to read a detailed write-up about this. Why packet radio - what was the real-time requirement and why couldn't it be fulfilled by an internet connection (I understand internet was primitive back then, but ISDN should've been able to give you enough bandwidth?).

We never understood why the where using packet radio as you say in 1999 ip via ISDN would have been fine.

Its complicated by at the time the total lock on ticket booking systems cinema and theatre by a particular company - who wanted 1/4 mill plus to update the system.

It was an interesting project I had to get cover from a v senior manger to investigate how to break into NT.

Re: The absolute worst scenario happened

#533

Post by mijoharas »

dctoedt wrote: post #449
gota wrote: post #441

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment made me curious and I checked - it is not the physical channel that matters, it is whether the media is _transient_ or not. It seems that paying to skywrite (you know, small plane making artificial clouds) could be slander but not libel

> whether the media is _transient_ or not Citation? By that light, a DVD containing defamatory speech would be libelous, but that's generally not how courts see it. From the (highly-influential) U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, summarizing New York law (which is quite typical): "Defamation, consisting of the twin torts of libel and slander, is the invasion of the interest in a reputation and good name. G…

There is also "calumny", which is the action of slandering someone (and I assume also making writing libellous statements. After writing that parenthetical, I just googled, and libel is also a verb. So I guess I can say libelling someone)

Re: The absolute worst scenario happened

#534

Post by Udo »

throwthescene wrote: post #305
tw04 wrote: post #88

I actually don't see any issue that isn't simply a matter of money. Everything they list that's an issue seems to revolve around the fact that the employees with domain knowledge for the system have left the company. Reach out to them and hire them on as contractors. If they left under bad terms because the business was a bunch of dicks, expect to pay 10x market rate. If this is truly "fix this or the business is out…

Throwaway purely so that I can comment. I've had this happen before. Years ago I left a rather awful company - I left on great terms with my boss, though I hated the company. I was the last person who knew how to release X product. While I documented everything, after I left, the wiki lost its mind, backups apparently weren't a thing, and the director of IT moved to Bermuda. Fast forward 6 months.. a contractual obli…

I know this sounds like an empowering story, and it may even be true, but don't actually follow this example. If you're at the point where they'd rather send you legal threats than pay you, even escrow is not going to help you much. The escrow process may force them to pay, but there is no guarantee you'll be able to keep that money if they really decide to go after you.

People like that would much rather spend $2.5M on courts and lawyers than let a worker walk home with 250k, or even 25k. Agreeing to a deal like this is an incredible minefield that may blow up on you even years later.

Re: The absolute worst scenario happened

#535

Post by Symbiote »

Eremotherium wrote: post #160
acjacobson wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are certain things that you can outright be fired for - such as stealing, I believe. I think that showing up drunk for work might also be one of them?

AFAIK showing up drunk isn't enough but if you fuck up (I think that's the legal term) and say you drop the production DB while drunk that you can be fired immediately.

To give an example of a sysadmin from a job long ago:

Turning up drunk to a meeting is enough to start disciplinary procedures -- HR handle this, and work out how to proceed. (On [1], I think they would have been proceeding through the "Misconduct" section, second chance etc.)

Rotating the backup tapes, then carrying said tapes about 1km to the other building to put in the safe, was part of the job, but he was watched while he did it.

Stopping at a bar along the way was not fine.

Being oblivious to the point that a manager was able to take the bag containing the tapes from the bar back to the office was not fine.

Coming back to the office (drunk) and not realizing what had happened was not fine.

This was gross misconduct, and led to immediate dismissal.

https://www.gov.uk/dismiss-staff/dismissals-on-capability-or...

Re: The absolute worst scenario happened

#536

Post by mijoharas »

oehpr wrote: post #396
hinkley wrote: post #356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The first manager I ever respected was this goofball who worked at a fast food restaurant. I don't think the other managers took him seriously. He didn't really take himself seriously either (told the worst jokes), but when there was a rush he was the one you wanted running the kitchen. The other 2-3 people were kind of assholes under stress (they were assholes all the time if I'm honest). He was a machine, and it di…

I've heard this is a kind of symptom of people who have ADHD, some of them have grace under pressure. I've been diagnosed with ADHD and I'm not sure I'd qualify as having that trait. So I don't believe this a general sweeping statement you can make for everyone with that, or if your boss even had ADHD. But maybe check this out and ask if it rings any bells: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/attention-deficit-hyperactivit…

Wow... I really should have connected the dots.

I have ADHD and recently started an SRE squad in our company since I tend to be the go-to person to fix any production issues.

I had never really thought of a connection between those two things until now.

Re: The absolute worst scenario happened

#537

Post by lbschenkel »

alistairSH wrote: post #89

Tangent Alert! I have a 3 months resignation period, so I can't even leave... Maybe it's my (US) American experience, but being unable to quit a job strikes me as a terrible policy. This guy(gal?) is really required to submit 3 months notice or face some sort of repercussions (financial, I assume)? Does this 3 month period apply in reverse (employer can't fire employees without a full 3 month warning)? Not that the A…

In a former job, because I was an employee for many years, the notice period the company had to give me was 6 months. My notice period in case I wanted to quit was still 1 month (the legal minimum).

Re: The absolute worst scenario happened

#538

Post by arcade79 »

sangnoir wrote: post #489
artursapek wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The clause is there to avoid this type of scenario where a key employee just says fuck it and leave. If they are at the "fuck it" point, what's going to force them to be useful and productive during the forced 3 month notice period?

> If they are at the "fuck it" point, what's going to force them to be useful and productive during the forced 3 month notice period? Nothing - beyond professionalism. It is common for knowledge transfer to happen in this time, and any outstanding vacation days are usually taken at this time. There's a huge cultural difference between US and Europe (rest of world?) when it comes to going to work after serving notice.…

It's not unheard of, but it happens quite rarely. Violence, or threats of violence, typically leads to being escorted out immediately here in Europe too.

Re: The absolute worst scenario happened

#539

Post by johnchristopher »

DubiousPusher wrote: post #499
johnchristopher wrote: post #494

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bullshit. The way the story is told the price doubled after and because of the CEO screaming. The market has nothing to do with that except the good old "The fair price is the one that god paid, uh.” I suppose.

"Everything is worth what its purchaser will pay for it." That includes labor. The business was free to try and renegotiate their contract with their customer. They were free to delay the release and offer a discount. They were free to turn down the 125k and the 250k payment on principle and deal with the consequences. They found the most economical solution that met their needs was to pay $250,000 to have the work d…

> They found the most economical solution that met their needs was to pay $250,000 to have the work done on time.

I'd be inclined to believe that if there were some other providers but as it is told working with OP was the only solution. And OP's first offer was 125 000. Two screams later it's 250 000 ? It has nothing to do with economical theory or free market interpretation.

Re: The absolute worst scenario happened

#540

Post by mercer »

derefr wrote: post #434
gambiting wrote: post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course, but that wouldn't stop them from saying otherwise, suing and binding him in prelonged and expensive legal battle, would it?

We're talking about who's morally in the wrong here, not whether it's a good idea to do this.

The person you're responding to doesn't seem to place moral considerations high on his list, in general.
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