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Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?

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Re: Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?

#591

Post by louwrentius »

aeyes wrote: post #290
apexalpha wrote: post #75

I don't know about putting in the least amount of effort for 5 days a week. But what I do know is that in my country, the Netherlands, part-time work is more and more becoming the standard. Already, 75% of women and 30% of men work 32 hours a week or less. In many sectors the fulltime standard has been lowered to 36 hours, which means every other Friday off. I myself started on 40 and will move to 32 hours somewhere…

NL is a strange place to work in IT, I worked there for a little while doing consulting work. Projects were not meeting deadlines yet everybody dropped the pen at 5pm sharp, I was baffled and amazed at the same time.

It all depends on context. Most project deadlines are artificial bullshit anyway.

And the reasons why a project is not on schedule may not be due to the behavior of people dropping their work at 5pm.

Even so, tough luck: in NL most work to live, we don’t live to work like in some other countries.

I really resonated with the original question of ASK HN.

Re: Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?

#592

Post by joelbluminator »

XorNot wrote: post #282
ProjectArcturis wrote: post #266

I had a data science position with a large non-tech company. It did B2B sales, and had a giant office for us, done up in brushed nickel and Edison light bulbs. The rest of the company was designed in standard cheap-cubicle format, but they took visitors (i.e. sales targets) through to see the data science team, so we got the fancy layout. After working there a few months, I realized that I was also there as part of t…

> having to surreptitiously waste 35 hours a week turns out to be quite draining. This is the real nightmare for me. If I go in and code for 7 or 8 hours a day, time flies and my mind is active and focused. Really doesn't matter what it is, just needs to be clear and well defined.

> just needs to be clear and well defined

Jeez I wish I had work like that. Maybe 1 in 10 tickets is clear and well defined where I work.

Re: Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?

#593

Post by kelp »

CamelCaseName wrote: post #516
glitchc wrote: post #483

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Excellent points except (5) Usually immoral and often illegal

> and often illegal Source? As long as it's not explicitly stated, and in my experience, it never is, then there should be no issue with this.

I've only worked at tech companies, and mostly the kind that you want to work at. But basically every company I've worked at has some clause in the employment contract about outside activities. And typically having another full time job would violate the spirit, if not the letter of the employment contract.

That said, some contracting on the side is probably fine, as long as it's not at a competitor.

Re: Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?

#594

Post by TimTheTinker »

nautilus12 wrote: post #503
User23 wrote: post #479

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The backhaul VOIP telco space has TONS of companies that meet these criteria.

I'm curious, could you be more specific?

Try setting up E911 service for a GVoice voip phone in your house sometime -- you'll run across a lot of web UIs that look >10 years old.

Re: Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?

#595

Post by an_opabinia »

hnarn wrote: post #415

If you want my advice, it is simply this: look for dysfunctional companies. They're easy to recognize, because they look like pretty much the opposite of those companies everybody really want to work at. Take everything you see from a website like Elastic[1] for example and invert it: - It should NOT be clear what the value proposition is. - The website should NOT adhere to modern design standards, or at least do so…

> look for dysfunctional companies

This theme is common in the thread and is wildly wrong.

First I recommend reading Bullshit Jobs to get some perspective on how others have fulfilled your goals.

Big, rich, process-driven companies and institutions are the easiest to do the least work in for the longest time.

Process is the toxin low-effort thrives on.

An admin role at Google pays more and works much less than an engineering role at a dysfunctional company.

If you look at (rich) university departments the admins are impossible to fire and work very little despite being paid only about 30-40% less than a professor with multiple postdocs working five to ten times as hard.

Anything in government: remember, process is where you thrive, and big rich city and state governments have incredible amounts of process.

Re: Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?

#596

Post by gryn »

hnarn wrote: post #545
CamelCaseName wrote: post #516

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and often illegal Source? As long as it's not explicitly stated, and in my experience, it never is, then there should be no issue with this.

It's very common for employment contracts to explicitly forbid you from working on things during your employment that is not directly related to your employment. An expectation of "loyalty" is also often even included in labor law, even in very left leaning countries in Europe.

yes, which is bullshit because this said loyalty is not reciprocated in any meaningful way, I still fail to see how such conditions came to be.

Re: Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?

#597

Post by snarkypixel »

Potentially applying for a job that you're way over-qualified could fit your criteria. It's not that uncommon for people who retired to still want to work but with less responsibility and more free time. I.e. I've seen former CEOs driving Uber for fun or mentoring younger founders.

Re: Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?

#599

Post by amw »

seniorivn wrote: post #549
cercatrova wrote: post #507

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never understand this point personally. If you're delivering value to the multiple companies you work for such that they like you, or at least don't fire you, then I don't see anything immoral in that. It's merely corporations who insist on people working for one and only one company at a time when in reality it shouldn't matter.

there is a chance you are going to have access to valuable information of competing companies, that would put you in position of power over them, and is a clear conflict of interests. So it's like a lawyer serving opposing parties in court, nobody's asking why it's impossible

That's only true in that particular hypothetical. There are a lot of possible circumstances without such a clear conflict of interest.

Also, in the lawyer example, someone's freedom or livelihood is on the line. In the company example, it's a company's profits, which has a much less clear relationship to either of those two things, especially in today's world of 250:1 salary ratios.

Re: Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?

#600

Post by kiliantics »

fsloth wrote: post #16

This is an awesome question. I hope someone has good strategies for you. Life should be spent doing the things you find worthwhile, and the fact is, not all of those things are monetizable. Given how esteem- and success driven HN as a platform is... you might not get too many ideas since I suppose people want to maintain their "hireable" status. Success and "loving your job" are more or less empty phrases unless you…

I think it says a lot about our society, that this comment is the most highly upvoted in a forum such as this.

It's clear that if we decided to let everyone's basic needs of food, shelter, healthcare, and transport be met unconditionally, the world would look very different. It would not cost us much, maybe even less than we pay in taxes now, but I feel certain it would make everyone's lives significantly better. The lack of unnecessary stress and "soul-destroying toil" that anyone would be forced to endure is surely worth it.

The only downside I see is that no one could get as extraordinarily rich as a very few people can today. I don't see how most of us can't be fine with that.

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