Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Big company tale: six months for a list and a button

rachelbythebay.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 91 posts

Re: Big company tale: six months for a list and a button

#31

Post by austhrow743 »

moralestapia wrote: post #25
siscia wrote: post #17

I keep reading from this author and it always struck me as a very capable technical person, but as an awful person to work with. There was a piece few days ago about picking co-founder using the army way. Beside being a well written piece, it made clear one thing. The role of leaders in an organisation is to get stuff done, despite rules, regulations, hierarchy and all the whistle and bells that an organisation need…

>but as an awful person to work with I see what you mean but keep in mind this is where she(?) vents out, so that should make some things show more than others.

These things are written with the intent that people she works with read them. Some of the recent ones are about drama where some walking bridges on her works campus were closed and she wasn't happy about that, and a building was named after her and then not named after her but one that was named after one of the company founders in a different country stayed named after them, and she wasn't happy about that either to the effect of multiple posts on it.

Both specifically communicated to people still working there mentioning to look up and leak videos.

Certainly doesn't seem like someone I would want to work with either.

Re: Big company tale: six months for a list and a button

#32

Post by question000 »

I work in an organization where the developers pretty much run the show, it sounds like heaven but we bump into churn situations like this all the time.

The thing the author doesn't really realize in this article is that building consensus and making sure everyone agrees with the priority of the project is part of the job.

It kinda sounds like he had pet project that others disliked so they tried to kill it by claiming the "dashboard team" was handling it. Then he attempted to vicariously micromanage the project from another team.

Re: Big company tale: six months for a list and a button

#34

Post by oaiey »

siscia wrote: post #17

I keep reading from this author and it always struck me as a very capable technical person, but as an awful person to work with. There was a piece few days ago about picking co-founder using the army way. Beside being a well written piece, it made clear one thing. The role of leaders in an organisation is to get stuff done, despite rules, regulations, hierarchy and all the whistle and bells that an organisation need…

I take her articles as wakeup calls. She points out ridiculous behavior patterns in companies by telling stories from her hands on ops perspective.

As a industry we talk a lot about agility but stories like that are more the norm than the exception. It is good to see an outside perspective on what is expected. Typical customers swallow our behaviors due to the lack of understanding but an IT ops like her just knows what is possible.

Re: Big company tale: six months for a list and a button

#35

Post by tomxor »

siscia wrote: post #17

I keep reading from this author and it always struck me as a very capable technical person, but as an awful person to work with. There was a piece few days ago about picking co-founder using the army way. Beside being a well written piece, it made clear one thing. The role of leaders in an organisation is to get stuff done, despite rules, regulations, hierarchy and all the whistle and bells that an organisation need…

> [...] "please do this" and when naturally things takes too long to look reasonable complaining on the internet.

This is a story about broken parts of a large company and how something got done in spite of it, there are lots of these on HN.. They are cathartic for the author and readers who experience similar scenarios. Perhaps you were expecting some sort of moral to the story but some things are just broken and you have to do it yourself, still I'm not sure why you are picking on this author in particular.

> stuff that the author could have done differently [...] pass by its office, offer its a coffee and communicate clearly why the things is important and how important it is and what is the goal of the project [...] These kind of human work and relationships building is fundamental.

This cuts both ways - and I believe the recipient of a task (as the recipient of many) has a greater responsibility in understanding the requirements and keeping dialogue open when they do not understand something. But this is not the problem here, in this story the person tasked and the person originating the task are too far removed from each other due to corporate layers.

Re: Big company tale: six months for a list and a button

#36

Post by moralestapia »

austhrow743 wrote: post #31
moralestapia wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>but as an awful person to work with I see what you mean but keep in mind this is where she(?) vents out, so that should make some things show more than others.

These things are written with the intent that people she works with read them. Some of the recent ones are about drama where some walking bridges on her works campus were closed and she wasn't happy about that, and a building was named after her and then not named after her but one that was named after one of the company founders in a different country stayed named after them, and she wasn't happy about that either t…

>about drama where some walking bridges on her works campus were closed and she wasn't happy about that

Oh noes! Should we cancel her for that?

I feel like you're making a storm in a glass of water.

>Certainly doesn't seem like someone I would want to work with either.

But you don't work with her ... so what's the real issue here?

Re: Big company tale: six months for a list and a button

#37

Post by tmitchel2 »

nicbou wrote: post #28
leroman wrote: post #23

Had very similar experiences at not even a "big company" it's more of a mentality of a "Big Co.". People hired to just not care, sit at meetings to make managers feel important and provide some pseudo progress to higer-ups to make things look like they are moving somewhere. In reality, I have not doubt a half decent motivated engineer can replace a group of these unmotivated developers, which I have seen done and did…

The last line is accurate. You either give up and leave, or stay and become part of them. It's really hard to stay and effect change.

Yup nailed it

Re: Big company tale: six months for a list and a button

#38

Post by agd »

siscia wrote: post #17

I keep reading from this author and it always struck me as a very capable technical person, but as an awful person to work with. There was a piece few days ago about picking co-founder using the army way. Beside being a well written piece, it made clear one thing. The role of leaders in an organisation is to get stuff done, despite rules, regulations, hierarchy and all the whistle and bells that an organisation need…

I have to agree that the author is somewhat responsible here. Reading it I don't get a strong sense of urgency or ownership.

If this work was important, then why wait on another team who give you a "no telling when" reponse? Get the team together, and assign someone to do it same week. Don't do half-assed follow ups then complain when the dashboard team (which has already shown you it's not their priority) doesn't do anything about it.

If it isn't important, then go focus on the important stuff.

Re: Big company tale: six months for a list and a button

#39

Post by okr »

null_object wrote: post #21
siscia wrote: post #17

I keep reading from this author and it always struck me as a very capable technical person, but as an awful person to work with. There was a piece few days ago about picking co-founder using the army way. Beside being a well written piece, it made clear one thing. The role of leaders in an organisation is to get stuff done, despite rules, regulations, hierarchy and all the whistle and bells that an organisation need…

>I keep reading from this author and it always struck me as a very capable technical person, but as an awful person to work with I have to agree. I’ve always assumed that everyone else knows who this person is, and that she’s some sort of FAANG superstar, but each time I read these pieces, I see someone exhibiting entitlement and always looking for external blame. I read this particular post thinking about the very f…

I guess the hard part here was to split the work into these small independent chunks, that a single person can work on, and that in the end all chunks can then be joined or replaced. That is where companies rise or fall.
Post reply on HN