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Ask HN: Do you assume good will at work?

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21–28 of 28 posts

Re: Ask HN: Do you assume good will at work?

#21
I'd categorize it to roughly 4 types:

1. People you trust with your life. They'll risk a bullet for you, possibly jump on the grenade.

2. People you trust with your wife. Deep personal trust, like telling them that you're gay (or homophobic) or letting your kids stay with them.

3. You trust them because it's in their best interest. They won't screw you because it screws them.

4. Competence. They trust themselves.

1 and 2 usually don't overlap with 3. They're not necessarily different levels. You can trust someone with your life, but they may be incompetent and think your trust is misplaced.

We have great hiring, so all full time colleagues are at category 1 but rarely 2. Contractors are usually at category 3. Some contractors are good bros but you

My most costly mistakes was neglecting category 4. Competence isn't a boolean; it's levels. Someone highly competent in a past task can be incompetent for a different task, esp. Peter Principle.

I used to freelance. The majority partner would lose say $50k and I'd lose $10k on a failed deal. The deal was easy - it was signed, practically done, just not paid. And too often they failed to get payment. They pulled through category 3, sometimes 1, but not 4.

There's the saying of "never attribute to malice what can be attributed to incompetence". But very often competence is the more serious breach of trust. You can trust a crook with the right incentives, and in very big organizations, most of them will be crooks.

Re: Ask HN: Do you assume good will at work?

#22
Don't attribute to malice what can be explained by incompetence.

This is a bit on the harsh side in our field, nobody knows everything, and the knowledge available in a team is unevenly distributed, so, be kind and remember that while they might not know what you know.. You probably also don't know what they know..

For a new hire, however, they might be green, or have a different perspective that may need adjustment. They may have come from some consulting gig where they were taught to "just hack it, and fast!" rather than making quality software for the future, if so.. Don't be mean to them, but make sure to point out everything possible in their review so they have a chance to see the standards to which they must rise.

When I'm faced with a review where I feel like everything is wrong, I will still comment on everything, but I will not be angry or agressive, but simply state what needs chage and why. This takes a long time, but I will log that time on their ticket.

Re: Ask HN: Do you assume good will at work?

#23
post #21

I'd categorize it to roughly 4 types: 1. People you trust with your life. They'll risk a bullet for you, possibly jump on the grenade. 2. People you trust with your wife. Deep personal trust, like telling them that you're gay (or homophobic) or letting your kids stay with them. 3. You trust them because it's in their best interest. They won't screw you because it screws them. 4. Competence. They trust themselves. 1 a…

> We have great hiring, so all full time colleagues are at category 1 but rarely 2. Contractors are usually at category 3. Some contractors are good bros but you

I'm confused. Are you saying most of your colleagues are people you would trust with your life, who would jump on a grenade for you? Can that really be true? Is it a family business of some sort?

Re: Ask HN: Do you assume good will at work?

#25
post #21

I'd categorize it to roughly 4 types: 1. People you trust with your life. They'll risk a bullet for you, possibly jump on the grenade. 2. People you trust with your wife. Deep personal trust, like telling them that you're gay (or homophobic) or letting your kids stay with them. 3. You trust them because it's in their best interest. They won't screw you because it screws them. 4. Competence. They trust themselves. 1 a…

> We have great hiring, so all full time colleagues are at category 1 but rarely 2.

Seems really unlikely, or you are super small company/team, or that you just don't know them that well

Re: Ask HN: Do you assume good will at work?

#26
post #21

I'd categorize it to roughly 4 types: 1. People you trust with your life. They'll risk a bullet for you, possibly jump on the grenade. 2. People you trust with your wife. Deep personal trust, like telling them that you're gay (or homophobic) or letting your kids stay with them. 3. You trust them because it's in their best interest. They won't screw you because it screws them. 4. Competence. They trust themselves. 1 a…

> 2. People you trust with your wife. Deep personal trust, like telling them that you're gay (or homophobic) or letting your kids stay with them.

While this may have been true a few decades ago, most modern workplaces don't require their employees to live in the closet.

Re: Ask HN: Do you assume good will at work?

#27

When I review code I prefer to do it blind, not knowing who the author is. This keeps me honest, and allows me to keep standards high without the author thinking I'm giving them an unfair hard time.

That's an interesting approach and I think it makes sense. Do you use any special tool for that?

Re: Ask HN: Do you assume good will at work?

#28

When I review code I prefer to do it blind, not knowing who the author is. This keeps me honest, and allows me to keep standards high without the author thinking I'm giving them an unfair hard time.

That's an interesting approach and I think it makes sense. Do you use any special tool for that?

I'm not aware of any public tooling, but I see Google has a version discussed in https://research.google/pubs/pub50130/ .
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