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I automated my job over a year ago and haven't told anyone

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Re: I automated my job over a year ago and haven't told anyone

#51

Post by vsareto »

howmayiannoyyou wrote: post #15

Love the poster's ingenuity and hate his attitude, and the antiwork subreeddit. Attitude: $90,000 per year isn't likely to generate enough money for this person's retirement, particularly if they encounter major expenses. He should be spending his new free time either developing a side-hustle, a business, or delivering additional value for his employer for which he must insist on additional compensation. I used to be…

>and the antiwork subreddit

I thought r/antiwork was really about calling out abusive employers and guiding us to better work/life relationship, but it is actually against all work in any form. Meaning, if your house catches fire, it's up to you to put it out - they don't want anyone employed as professional firefighters who might actually know WTF they're doing. Medical problems? Fix it yourself. There's no paramedics to respond, no surgeons to fix you, no pharmacists for drugs, no nurses/techs for recovery.

If it was a movement about fixing worker conditions (a submarine advertisement for unions, if you will), it'd actually be a good movement. But right now, it's positioning itself as just an angry outcry forum that apparently wants the planet to be ruled by anarchy and extreme independence.

What a waste of potential. If you don't believe me, try asking them what the good industries are that have good work/life balance. The answers you'll get boil down to "there are no good jobs at all".

Re: I automated my job over a year ago and haven't told anyone

#52

Post by laurent123456 »

nlh wrote: post #26
binarytox1n wrote: post #7

Many subreddits are simply themed containers of creative writing. With all the media attention the AntiWork subreddit has gotten lately that brings more karma farmers and therefore more fiction. It's an entertaining read, but not likely true.

Funny, I had this exact same thought. The red flags for me were their use of “clock in” and “shift”. Those are not concepts generally in play for IT staff at law firms.

$90K just to move some files from one folder to another seems high too. Either the job involves more than what's he saying, or it's simply fake.

Re: I automated my job over a year ago and haven't told anyone

#53

Post by mbg721 »

Miner49er wrote: post #21
howmayiannoyyou wrote: post #15

Love the poster's ingenuity and hate his attitude, and the antiwork subreeddit. Attitude: $90,000 per year isn't likely to generate enough money for this person's retirement, particularly if they encounter major expenses. He should be spending his new free time either developing a side-hustle, a business, or delivering additional value for his employer for which he must insist on additional compensation. I used to be…

HN really lives in a some sort of wealthy bubble. $90k is plenty of money to save for retirement in most of the country. If it's not, then the majority of people in the US will never be able to retire.

It's not enough to save for retirement in the US, and that "majority will never be able to retire" is a reality in any of the 50 states. We just haven't had it hit the fan yet.

Edit: I read that as $90k total, to be dispensed over the remaining years. I agree that $90k per year indeed ought to be plenty.

Re: I automated my job over a year ago and haven't told anyone

#54

Post by giantg2 »

brodouevencode wrote: post #35

Great engineers try to automate their way out of a job. It would seem like their employer would reward them for using a little ingenuity. Why wouldn't he just come clean about it?

Why would he be rewarded? They would likely try to save that $90k by replacing him, or give him a lot more work with very little increase in comp.

If there's anything I've learned in 10 years, you keep your mouth shut when things are easy because if you speak up they screw you with more work and the same (or nearly so) pay.

Re: I automated my job over a year ago and haven't told anyone

#55

Post by delecti »

brodouevencode wrote: post #35

Great engineers try to automate their way out of a job. It would seem like their employer would reward them for using a little ingenuity. Why wouldn't he just come clean about it?

Because he doesn't care about the job being done, but only about getting paid for the results. It's like admitting someone already owns a goose that lays golden eggs when you can instead sell them the eggs.

Re: I automated my job over a year ago and haven't told anyone

#56

Post by adrianN »

nlh wrote: post #26
binarytox1n wrote: post #7

Many subreddits are simply themed containers of creative writing. With all the media attention the AntiWork subreddit has gotten lately that brings more karma farmers and therefore more fiction. It's an entertaining read, but not likely true.

Funny, I had this exact same thought. The red flags for me were their use of “clock in” and “shift”. Those are not concepts generally in play for IT staff at law firms.

I had a software engineering job where I clocked in and time was tracked. Pretty good deal for people who tend to overwork themselves.

Re: I automated my job over a year ago and haven't told anyone

#57

Post by bena »

To those saying this can't be true, while it may be exaggerated, I can believe the core of it.

My first job was for a doctor who fancied himself a programmer. He was a reseller of customizable medical software. The customizations were essentially really simple config files. The most complex thing was a half-baked pseudo HTML document language.

My job was "programmer". I was supposed to help customize and maintain the system.

This took absolutely no time at all. I filled my time with skunkworks, busy work, education, and job searching. I think when I left they eventually had to decommission the patient web portal that I wrote and some other bits. Because they had no one to update and maintain them. So when the parent company would change the structure of the database, they couldn't reflect those changes in what I made.

One week, I probably spent way more time making a SVG/CSS eyeball follow a mouse cursor than doing anything remotely related to my job.

Re: I automated my job over a year ago and haven't told anyone

#58

Post by CountDrewku »

Ugh that subreddit is just a cesspool. Most of the stories are fake and it attracts the bottom feeders of society.

People need work to feel fulfilled. I get that a corporate job may not meet that demand but this idea that you can just eschew any work and be mentally ok isn't true.

Re: I automated my job over a year ago and haven't told anyone

#59

Post by Kon-Peki »

leetcrew wrote: post #34
lolc wrote: post #14

It looks like this is a case where everybody is happy. A process that was plagued by manual errors now runs smoothly. And there is an admin around to jump in should it break. While the firm might be indignant if they found out, they may actually already know and just accept it. They're unlikely to change it if it runs well. On the other hand, I don't think I could work like that. I always look for ways to improve lif…

> While the firm might be indignant if they found out, they may actually already know and just accept it. They're unlikely to change it if it runs well. if they knew, they might be tempted to fire the person and keep the script. OP talks a big game about how it's running on their own hardware, but the company has a legal claim if it was developed during the workday. not smart to play legal games with a law firm.

Maybe, but unlikely.

They want someone to be available to fix/update and perhaps do other things too. Part of your salary as support staff is being there when they need you.

Re: I automated my job over a year ago and haven't told anyone

#60

Post by mikewarot »

I didn't automate my job, I just did a good enough job that things stopped breaking, and I had less and less to every day. Eventually I'd just show up, make rounds, wait for things to break, make rounds again after lunch, wait until quitting time.

I did try to improve the office productivity as a whole a few times by patching up the wonky database they used for accounting, but got shut down each time because of fear of change.

So, in the end I was being paid to show up, mostly. I lived in constant fear of getting fired, and in the end the job was outsourced out of existence. Good on them, bad for me.

That job slowly crushed my soul. I haven't recovered, a decade later.

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