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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

#91

Post by jxidjhdhdhdhfhf »

neom wrote: post #17
jxidjhdhdhdhfhf wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shouldn't whoever is tasked with finding such inefficiencies realize that a simple script could be written to replace the process of manually transferring files to and from cloud storage?

That is not how teams work. I recommend this book to learn more on how teams work: https://www.amazon.com/Wisdom-Teams-Creating-High-Performanc...

People are unable to realize a script can be written because that's "not how teams work"? I'm very confused at what you're trying to say.

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

#92

Post by [deleted] »

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.)…

[deleted]

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

#93

Post by oneoff786 »

mensetmanusman wrote: post #50

I helped someone do this for their accounting job once since I saw them working with obscure data re-entry moving from old DOS systems to SAP. They had a ton of material to manually move over and it seemed painful ergonomically. I used Sikuli from MIT to deal with the randomly changing window locations. Management got mad at them for completing the task so quickly (it took a week instead of a few months) since it fel…

+1 for sikuli. Very nice little tool that makes it very easy to do something that would otherwise require a lot of specific knowledge

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

#94

Post by loceng »

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.

Years ago I was hosting guests from Airbnb. Due to my location I got a lot of English language students coming to Canada for 2-3 long immersion courses. One guest shared with me that one of their assignments was to engage with hosts, even if they weren't planning to ever book; obviously these people eventually did, but it's a bit problematic as it's time not compensated for - sure, it's built into the cost of business but without an agreement to accept such practice conversations it's verging on dishonest.

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

#95

Post by antihero »

neom wrote: post #3

"For a while I felt guilty, like I was ripping the law-firm off, but eventually I convinced myself that as long as everyone is happy there's no harm done. I'm doing exactly what they hired me to do, all of the work is done in a timely manner, and I get to enjoy my life. Win win for everyone involved. " Not a win for the COO/GM/CFO/FP&A/whatever who is tasked with finding efficiencies in the business and doing optimiz…

And what exactly does he owe them? The company exists to enrich the owners by extracting wealth from his work.

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

#96

Post by lordnacho »

People are focusing too much on whether the story is actually true. It sounds plausible to me, but the real story here is that a heck of a lot of processes would benefit from having a programmer look at them.

Programming is the new literacy. People who can do it are on a different plane to people who can't.

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

#97

Post by bigyellow »

mbg721 wrote: post #53
Miner49er wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Real inflation is like 20% in the US; none of us are retiring any time soon.

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

#98

Post by dansiemens »

mikewarot wrote: post #60

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…

> 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

I too have found that accounting is where new ideas go to die. They don’t really understand the technology that their jobs are bound to, so any increase in perceived complexity is just a no-go.

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

#99

Post by antihero »

neom wrote: post #67
wonderwonder wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

how is he taking it on himself to decide what work needs to be done? He was hired to perform a set of tasks, and has written a script to accomplish them. You could argue he has taken it upon himself to decide how the required work is done and then one could say "so what?". If the business is happy with his output then everyone is a winner. To think its an employees job to suicide their employment is not the actions a…

Employees are resources to the business, as the work changes, the resources change, it's not his job to decide how he should be resourced in the business. It's literally why HR is called HR.

If an employee is a resource, what exactly do they owe them? Why should a "resource" have any sort of respect at all. It's fundamentally adversarial - the resource must maximise their gain from their position and the company most maximise their gain from their "resource". You're just sour that the resource is winning for once.

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

#100

Post by readams »

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.

Anti work seems to be very much like incels but for jobs. Extremely unhealthy and counterproductive approaches upvoted highly.
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