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Ask HN: Anyone else is tired of all the corporate bs?

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Re: Ask HN: Anyone else is tired of all the corporate bs?

#31

Post by higeorge13 »

I wish i was always in front of customers. I wouldn’t have had the product or any managers acting as proxies and agreeing on things that don’t make any sense and don’t bring any value to them.

Most people think that customers have no idea, while in most cases if you put the right knowledgable people in front of them they would build amazing features together. I have seen it in an AI startup! Whenever us devs worked with the customers we built amazing data science products. Whenever it was managers, it was all these random non sensical requests and demands.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone else is tired of all the corporate bs?

#32

Post by jstrebel »

I understand that you feel frustrated; your role does not match your expectations. So maybe you should find out the meaning and the purpose of your role. In the end, you are paid for adding value in the corporate environment; your contribution can happen in many ways, e.g. by hosting more effective meetings or by improving decision frequency and speed etc. Adding value in a corporation is not always about technical achievements, but also about improving the team and the game (as a social process). If this is not your cup of tea, you might be better served by a technical role in some specialized consulting company.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone else is tired of all the corporate bs?

#33

Post by boomlinde »

You are experiencing alienation. Your work is driven by motivations that you can't relate to. You are being pulled around by decisions you don't agree with and you have meetings for reasons you can't even conceive of.

Naturally, it is easier to perform some work if you understand and agree with its intent and the way it's executed, or if it's indeed your own choice what to do and how to go about it. You will never fully experience this as a wage worker taking commands from a manager taking commands from a boss taking commands from another boss taking commands from a board of owners motivated by their own profit, but perhaps work will seem more meaningful in a smaller company where you have more influence on decision making.

Depending on culture you may also be able to take a bit more charge. Demand to know a clear agenda in advance of meetings, decline meetings that don't have an agenda that's relevant to your work and insist that the agenda is followed during meetings. Impart on your manager that your time is being wasted when it is.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone else is tired of all the corporate bs?

#34

Post by jzellis »

Yes. My answer was to walk away from the tech industry and culture and do part time IT work for my buddy's law firm whilst writing code in my spare time for fun and recovering from my stress-induced triple heart bypass.

I make about as much as a Starbucks assistant manager, though, so your mileage may vary. :-D

Re: Ask HN: Anyone else is tired of all the corporate bs?

#35

Post by brtkdotse »

bspear wrote: post #12

Yes, the BS drained the life out of me. Switched to a startup and it got much better, but once we grew to 100+ people, the endless meetings started piling up again The worst part is the high degree of censorship. Everyone is so sensitive now that it's impossible to speak openly

> The worst part is the high degree of censorship. Everyone is so sensitive now that it's impossible to speak openly

What would you say if you weren't censored?

Re: Ask HN: Anyone else is tired of all the corporate bs?

#36

Post by g105b »

Yes. I have no solution for you, but all I can say is that I feel you. My coping mechanism was to work freelance; less hours and more "fun" projects, but freelance work also comes with its own flavor of bs, so I think it's just a flaw with the human condition at this point.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone else is tired of all the corporate bs?

#38

Post by theshrike79 »

higeorge13 wrote: post #31

I wish i was always in front of customers. I wouldn’t have had the product or any managers acting as proxies and agreeing on things that don’t make any sense and don’t bring any value to them. Most people think that customers have no idea, while in most cases if you put the right knowledgable people in front of them they would build amazing features together. I have seen it in an AI startup! Whenever us devs worked w…

Techy folks with people skills are in high demand nowadays.

Someone who can sell a project directly to the customer while also knowing exactly what is possible and in what timeframe without having to consult someone else is worth their weight in gold.

We still have a few too many "hype-men" type salespeople who are in the Always Be Closing mindset without any sense of what's actually deliverable or even sensible.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone else is tired of all the corporate bs?

#39

Post by felurx »

dehrmann wrote: post #22

> We end working 40+ hours/week but the job could be easily done in 30 or less, that is another thing that kills me inside. 75% efficiency kills you inside? Most companies would kill for 75% efficiency. The hyperbolic horror stories are usually 40-hour weeks for 5 hours of work.

I think there is a big difference between the perspective of a business and that of a company.

I'm willing to believe that 75% isn't bad business-wise, but 10 h/week are a bit less than a tenth of your waking hours, over one and a half hours per day, several hundreds per year, a few ten thousands over the course of your life.

Imagine what you could do with that time. Imagine you could spend 1½h per day more with your kids, with the people you love, with friends. Or maybe learning new skills, working on personal projects, going hiking, whatever you enjoy.

I believe that it's perfectly understandable to feel (at the very least) a bit bitter about that when you feel like that time is taken away from you for no clear purpose.

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