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Don't be an ass. He's referring to the way in which all kids see their parents as having a particular occupation. He's not saying that he built his career at Twilio at his daughter's expense.
Thoughts on getting laid off after nine years at Twilio
21–30 of 147 posts
Re: Thoughts on getting laid off after nine years at Twilio
#22I think it's awesome that some people enjoy their work and love their jobs. That said, if you aren't an owner of the company then I think it's unhealthy to be emotionally invested. In my last job, I had received a competing offer and informed my boss that I would rather not leave but that this other offer was too financially good for me to ignore. My boss responded by beating the other offer and I stayed there for ab…
I've always been impressed with upper management at my current company, and I don't believe any of them have that mindset. My wife broke her leg a couple weeks ago, and we have a 3 month old baby and a 4 year old. I had just started working again after taking paternity leave. I've been a rather poor employee the last several weeks, and will continue to be for a while. Middle management is stressed out about schedules and stressing me out, while the word from upper management has been consistently clear: you've always gone the extra mile for the company, so let the company do the same for you. Focus on taking care of your family and don't worry about work.
Re: Thoughts on getting laid off after nine years at Twilio
#23I wonder if large companies recognise they are shitting in the pond they are floating in. As somebody with over quarter of century of experience managing and hiring people I notice how candidates change over time (trying to adjust for how I change myself). I notice people care less about the company they work for and, honestly, it is more and more difficult to find arguments against. This whole trend of optimising ev…
I very much take a mercenary approach to my jobs. At my very first software job I remember seeing a let go employee walking sadly through the office with a box of his possessions under one arm and a potted plant in the other. Since then I have brought nothing personal into work. If I'm let go I just have to grab my keys and I'm out.
Work is something I do to earn money. If companies can replace people for less or cut them they do. Why be loyal in that kind of environment? I will work hard for the money they pay me though.
At one point I got a job offer for 25% more than I currently made. I told my current director at the time that I got a job offer for 40% more. The director matched the imaginary 40% and I stayed for another year. This company habitually fired people for the most minor of productivity drop offs. They had just recently promoted me without providing a raise. You reap what you sow.
I would love to work in an environment where I felt valued as a person but I have yet to find that. Remote work makes that even harder to find now.
Re: Thoughts on getting laid off after nine years at Twilio
#24I think it's awesome that some people enjoy their work and love their jobs. That said, if you aren't an owner of the company then I think it's unhealthy to be emotionally invested. In my last job, I had received a competing offer and informed my boss that I would rather not leave but that this other offer was too financially good for me to ignore. My boss responded by beating the other offer and I stayed there for ab…
I see it like this: it is my work. It is my name that goes on the CR, on the commit, on the documentation, etc. Why shouldn’t I take as much pride and genuinely care about it as much as I can? At the end of it all, it is my effort, and I will give he best effort I can.
I know I’m speaking about effort, and you’re speaking about becoming emotionally invested, but the latter is a natural manifestation of of the former; the emotional investment arises because of the effort I put forth.
Re: Thoughts on getting laid off after nine years at Twilio
#252 hours notice - How do you handover the work? Or is there nothing to handover?
Here's the thing I've learned lately from friends who have survived layoffs: handover often doesn't happen.
The company terminates access effective immediately (maybe with gardening leave) for security reasons.
The immediate loss of institutional knowledge causes fucking havoc across the board.
So some people will be taken back on as contractors for a while at extremely expensive rates.
This also means there's a weird incentive to start hoarding knowledge if you suspect layoffs are coming down the pipe...
Re: Thoughts on getting laid off after nine years at Twilio
#26I think it's awesome that some people enjoy their work and love their jobs. That said, if you aren't an owner of the company then I think it's unhealthy to be emotionally invested. In my last job, I had received a competing offer and informed my boss that I would rather not leave but that this other offer was too financially good for me to ignore. My boss responded by beating the other offer and I stayed there for ab…
This is one of those things that makes sense in the airless vacuum of a message board that has no connection to ordinary life; the mythical "touchless grass" as the tweeters say. In reality, people in all walks of life form deep emotional attachments to their jobs. Plant closures disrupt the identities of entire cities. People are emotionally attached to jobs as checkout clerks. Hit songs have been written about the phenomenon. You can't just tell people not to have human connections to their work. It's like telling Glen Campbell that the Wichita Lineman doesn't own enough of Southwestern Bell to be identifying himself as such.
Re: Thoughts on getting laid off after nine years at Twilio
#27I think it's awesome that some people enjoy their work and love their jobs. That said, if you aren't an owner of the company then I think it's unhealthy to be emotionally invested. In my last job, I had received a competing offer and informed my boss that I would rather not leave but that this other offer was too financially good for me to ignore. My boss responded by beating the other offer and I stayed there for ab…
You gotta look out for #1, because nobody else will.
Re: Thoughts on getting laid off after nine years at Twilio
#28I think it's awesome that some people enjoy their work and love their jobs. That said, if you aren't an owner of the company then I think it's unhealthy to be emotionally invested. In my last job, I had received a competing offer and informed my boss that I would rather not leave but that this other offer was too financially good for me to ignore. My boss responded by beating the other offer and I stayed there for ab…
Story time: many moons ago i was in the sane situation, and decided to stay because i loved the team and had a very good work relationship with my boss/team leader… despite the company being kind of a circus on fire.
What I didn’t know was that the company that was trying to hire me was also in contact with my boss/team leader, which actually accepted the offer and left.
We still have a good relationship and I still consider him a friend (hope it’s the same for him) and we meet from time to time for a beer with other former colleagues.
Needless to say, that was a very formative experience.
Re: Thoughts on getting laid off after nine years at Twilio
#29I wonder if large companies recognise they are shitting in the pond they are floating in. As somebody with over quarter of century of experience managing and hiring people I notice how candidates change over time (trying to adjust for how I change myself). I notice people care less about the company they work for and, honestly, it is more and more difficult to find arguments against. This whole trend of optimising ev…
> When you run a query on LinkedIn...
> It is no way to have a productive employee base.
Does it follow that LinkedIn's misleading statistics, to filter candidates, is also no way to build a productive employee base?
Re: Thoughts on getting laid off after nine years at Twilio
#30I think it's awesome that some people enjoy their work and love their jobs. That said, if you aren't an owner of the company then I think it's unhealthy to be emotionally invested. In my last job, I had received a competing offer and informed my boss that I would rather not leave but that this other offer was too financially good for me to ignore. My boss responded by beating the other offer and I stayed there for ab…
This is one of those things that makes sense in the airless vacuum of a message board that has no connection to ordinary life; the mythical "touchless grass" as the tweeters say. In reality, people in all walks of life form deep emotional attachments to their jobs. Plant closures disrupt the identities of entire cities. People are emotionally attached to jobs as checkout clerks. Hit songs have been written about the…
> You can't just tell people not to have human connections to their work.
In my case, it has been required.
I'm very fortunate, to have worked for 27 years, for a company that had many, many faults, but always treated their workers as if their career at the company was a critical factor.
That's because it was a "classic" Japanese company.
The best managers that I had, were Japanese (including one that eventually because the Chairman of the Board). The worst ones -by a large margin- were the Americans.
The Americans had very little Integrity. They also tended to be casually dishonest, in a jaw-dropping way.
Eventually, my team was dissolved, and I was laid off. I got a year's severance (It was capped -by the Americans, otherwise, it would have been more). My manager flew in from Japan, to tell me. He was next on the chopping block, himself.
Integrity is important, and very, very rare.
I like to feel as if I demonstrated it, in my own management. My employees seemed to agree.
If I talk about it here, I tend to be met with some fairly sneering, insulting responses.