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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

#81

Post by pietrovismara »

mech987 wrote: post #73
pietrovismara wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OP doesn't realize that 87% of the US population (being one of the richest in the world) makes less than $90k. That means that by his view 9 persons out of 10 won't be able to retire. Which I actually believe is true. The irony of admitting this while at the same time praising this system with statements like >Part (by no means all) of the growth one sees abroad is due to acceptance and often positive attitudes about…

Why is work just a means of transferring wealth upwards?

That's what it has become in an economic system that failed at its only task, ensuring proper distribution of resources. Most jobs serve only the purpose of making a restricted group of people richer, while stealing the workers' time on earth and often worsening society.

Edit: if you think that's not true, you live in a bubble. Try some of the jobs the majority of the population has to put up with, then we can talk again.

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

#82

Post by antihero »

padobson wrote: post #71
wombat-man wrote: post #12

This is like the dream. I feel like I would spend the time learning an instrument, or maybe do online learnings to maybe get another job I actually enjoyed doing. Can't even hate and hope things work out for that guy.

This is like the dream. If eight hours a day of free time is the only thing separating you from your dream, then there must be SOME way to adjust the math of your life to get that for at least a period long enough to learn the instrument or train for a new job or both. Reducing your monthly expenses by 1/12 means you could take a full month off and get a jump start on the training you want. You could also add overtim…

Eight hours of free-time AND eight hours extra mental energy.

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

#83

Post by robinduckett »

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.

The key hint for me was "the type of script people put on GitHub with a $5 price tag" :)

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

#84

Post by antihero »

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?

What exactly do they have to gain from that?

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

#85

Post by zero102 »

Shamii wrote: post #31

Sounds very very boring to me. I have no clue who would pay someone 90$ for copy and pasting files from left to right. But if this is true I still don't envy him. When his gig is up he has nothing to show and is stuck were he was when taking that job. Also can't imagine doing nothing and feeling not being needed or not making a real difference.

I was for a few years in college a data entry clerk making $12.50/hr. It was effectively copy/pasting with some extra clicks and being a computer science student at the time I wrote an excel connector that did ~80% of my job. It only required me to intervene on especially hard data entry stuff (lots of math or formulas). There really was no benefit to tell anyone I did this. Not because I wanted to be lazy but it would just mean more data entry and not what I wanted to do (automating other people's stuff).

There's loads of these BS jobs out there especially when numpty salesmen are involved. It was relatively soul crushing because it didn't really afford me any extra time to do school work (cube farm yay) but I was able to basically zone out and make money, or stash some homework problems and work them while appearing to stare intently at the screen. I don't harbor any ill will towards them though unlike most of these /r/antiwork losers. They were friendly to me and it was just the culture there that "if it isn't done manually then we dont need a person to do it".

I ended up getting a couple raises and only left when I got my first real SWE job. I got in touch with them recently and there are still some scripts running some important IT processes I wrote many, many years ago running today.

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

#86

Post by [deleted] »

Shamii wrote: post #31

Sounds very very boring to me. I have no clue who would pay someone 90$ for copy and pasting files from left to right. But if this is true I still don't envy him. When his gig is up he has nothing to show and is stuck were he was when taking that job. Also can't imagine doing nothing and feeling not being needed or not making a real difference.

[deleted]

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

#87

Post by DennisP »

fesoliveira wrote: post #33
nlh wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

FWIW he mentions that there is no IT department in the firm, and that he works under administration.

And he's working from home, so "clock in" basically means logging in.

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

#88

Post by gruez »

hn_go_brrrrr wrote: post #76
adrianN wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I did as well. My company ran a 36 hour hackathon. By law, hours 8-12 were 1.5x time and hours 13+ were 2x time. It was basically an extra paycheck.

Your company ran a paid hackathon? Were you able to do whatever you want? Or was it a crunch to get a project launched?

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

#89

Post by antihero »

CountDrewku wrote: post #58

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.

How is working a job that you know is completely mind-numbing and pointless to enrich some other person meaningful in any way?

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

#90

Post by sam_lowry_ »

eterevsky wrote: post #79
keiferski wrote: post #47

This story is a pretty accurate fable for the pointlessness of the modern economy and its inability to provide real value to anyone. Man spends all day playing video games, because he automated his largely superfluous job at a law firm which itself likely only exists to deal with bureaucratic or unnecessary cases (assuming this is true, as they have a single absent IT person who handles their entire infrastructure.)…

He is not paid just to transfer files. He is paid to be responsible for the files being transferred. It's not quite the same thing.

I hope he read David Graeber's Bullshit Jobs.
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