My Wife Was Dying of Brain Cancer. My Boss at Amazon Told Me to Perform or Quit • Hacker News Board

Re: My Wife Was Dying of Brain Cancer. My Boss at Amazon Told Me to Perform or Quit

#341

Post by jen20 » Thu, Sep 30, 2021, 9:21 PM UTC

slothtrop wrote: post #331

jen20 wrote: post #317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What? The “competitive landscape” is for companies trying to hire people who can deliver anything, thus creating workers who absolutely cannot be replaced without severe ramp-up times on many projects.

The competitive landscape is across the board, not just for superstar devs. The vast majority are not "people who can deliver anything". The vast majority can be replaced.

Perhaps I was misunderstood: the competitive market is for devs who can deliver _something worth having at all_, not _any thing_ you want to deliver.

Re: My Wife Was Dying of Brain Cancer. My Boss at Amazon Told Me to Perform or Quit

#342

Post by runamok » Sat, Oct 02, 2021, 10:48 PM UTC

crispyambulance wrote: post #206

munchbunny wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That’s the cynical approach, but most companies don’t actually want to lose valuable employees. While an abstract rational actor like a company might come to this conclusion, day to day line managers often do not come to the same conclusions. A low performing employee affected by personal issues is dead weight on said line manager's budget and headcount, and therefore their metrics and their own performance and pro…

Given that the employee was making ~300K, we can figure that his manager is probably making 50% to 100+% more. I find it mind-boggling that the manager could not find it within himself to give some slack to the employee. I guess maybe he didn't want to slow down the rate at which he was pulling in F-U money.

Depends on the org but often new hires make close to the same salary as a manager that's been around for a few years. The difference may be in the bonus though.

Re: My Wife Was Dying of Brain Cancer. My Boss at Amazon Told Me to Perform or Quit

#343

Post by the_only_law » Sat, Oct 02, 2021, 10:53 PM UTC

ucm_edge wrote: post #50

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #4

A tip: If anyone finds themselves in a tragic situation like this where they can’t work but also can’t afford to take leave, investigate your short and long-term disability benefits ASAP. Also read up on the documentation necessary to begin disability claims. Engage with a doctor early on who can document the severe depressive symptoms that are preventing work (which the author specifically cites in his anecdote). Do…

Very much this. You always want to be asking HR for an accommodation that is protected by law. Then HR enters into the mode of protecting the company by ensuring they don't get in trouble for violating the law. You go in and say "Hey my wife is dying and my performance is probably going to be impacted, can something be done?", HR may opt to 'protect' the company by starting to build a case for terminating a low perfo…

> Then HR enters into the mode of protecting the company by ensuring they don't get in trouble for violating the law.

A common complaint is that these sort of massive companies violate all sorts of laws and get by because the fines they receive are relatively tiny to the companies revenue and the infraction.

So why would they worry much about this? Is employment law treated differently or punished more harshly when companies violate it?

Re: My Wife Was Dying of Brain Cancer. My Boss at Amazon Told Me to Perform or Quit

#344

Post by hawaiianbrah » Tue, Oct 05, 2021, 12:14 AM UTC

my123 wrote: post #310

NullPrefix wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

40% more?

Much less. Teams where the manager is paid less than the engineers that they manage aren't rare either.

Yeah, I'm making about $10k less in salary than someone that reports to me of the same level.