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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

#181
post #26

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've never seen an IT company in North America use that.

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

#182
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

It was literally developed for them. He even explains that he has no intention of selling it because it is pretty much custom to the one place.

There are some interesting corner cases. For instance say he purchased the script from a third party? Is that different than if he wrote it on his off hours?

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

#183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This description falls under the "duct tapers" category of Bullshit Jobs[1], according to David Graeber: > duct tapers, who temporarily fix problems that could be fixed permanently, e.g., programmers repairing bloated code, airline desk staff who calm passengers whose bags do not arrive; In this case, perhaps its easier and cheaper to simply pay this guy 90k per year to run this script rather than get an entire law f…

Isn't this more of a box-ticker? OP created a permanent solution; at this point, however, he himself is not doing anything useful: > box tickers, who create the appearance that something useful is being done when it is not, e.g., survey administrators, in-house magazine journalists, corporate compliance officers, quality service managers;

Hired as a duct-taper, he turned himself into a box-ticker by doing this automation.

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

#184
post #51

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 paramedi…

I think it's a movement about fixing work conditions and somewhat aggressive towards corporations and their practices. Taking it to an extreme may be a push to kill off the movement.

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

#185
I think stories like this are read more widely than a lot of folks in forums such as HN suppose (often forwarded via email), and provide additional motivation for workplace surveillance solutions.

After all, if a manager can identify when tasks are being automated away by an idle employee, they've also identified a task that can be done manually by a cheaper employee. The alternative is getting rid of the position entirely and keeping the automation, but then the manager has to take responsibility for pushing the button.

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

#186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

yeah it's not just the time. I am kinda tired at the end of the day. Certainly too tired to whole heartedly take on a non-trival side project. I need 'non productive' activities like meeting up with friends or some kind of recreation.

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

#188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This description falls under the "duct tapers" category of Bullshit Jobs[1], according to David Graeber: > duct tapers, who temporarily fix problems that could be fixed permanently, e.g., programmers repairing bloated code, airline desk staff who calm passengers whose bags do not arrive; In this case, perhaps its easier and cheaper to simply pay this guy 90k per year to run this script rather than get an entire law f…

Is that really bullshit work? I seriously doubt you’d be able to completely solve the problem of lost luggage. You could cut it down, yet you can’t scale down the number of jobs dealing with it very easily (one per airport at least, and you can’t hire half a person if there’s only half a workload). A similar thing could be said of bloated code.

[deleted]

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

#189

I think most of us are feeling some schadenfreude because the poster is ripping-off a law-firm - but the disappointment for me is that (for the most part) (s)he seems to be treating it as an 8-hour day where (s)he simply skips work - which I would definitely find totally soul-destroying. I saw in the follow-up comments that there are is some "passion project" that's being worked on, but apparently it wasn't 'relevant…

Why does there need to be passion project? He could study philosophy or do whatever that one can do in an office by oneself.

Why woudn't studying philosophy not a passion project?

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

#190

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…

I'm in a good place now. But if I were getting paid essentially for free, I might just take on another job. But given his current job is $90k, I'd maybe start thinking about shooting for a higher paying remote gig.

Instrument mastery is a much longer process as far as I can tell. Takes years.

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