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75% of Software Engineers Faced Retaliation Last Time They Reported Wrongdoing

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Re: 75% of Software Engineers Faced Retaliation Last Time They Reported Wrongdoing

#131

Post by pjmlp »

DoesntMatter22 wrote: post #128
1letterunixname wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is the lawsuit payday only works once. Regardless about how horrible an employer is, it marks someone as perpetually radioactive from being hired anywhere else.

Not really. How would future employers know? Part of their deal entailed the company would not say anything negative to any company looking to hire here in the future. Even if you file a lawsuit against a company they aren't going to generally say "Well, they filed a lawsuit against us". They generally don't say anything disparaging unless you are dealing with a mom and pop type of company.

Off the record conversations when doing background checks, this is one reason why companies never let anyone know why they weren't chosen.

Re: 75% of Software Engineers Faced Retaliation Last Time They Reported Wrongdoing

#133

Post by incomingpain »

In my last job, I was 1 of 2 network admins. The other network admin, while never consulted, made it public that he didn't believe I should be allowed to touch networking gear.

I did get warned early that I needed to copy his configs or else, they were good configs and so I did use them as templates for sure. But then came a time when I was scheduled for 4 weeks in advanced and I had constant emergency jobs. He ended up picking up a couple jobs, but he was under the impression he had all the networking jobs. So he flips out because I had been stealing his work... whatever. I had been helping him with his workload, now it was time I needed help. But no, he didn't actually do the work, he then looked up every single one of my tickets and anything network related he noted and then investigated if I did it correctly. Mind you, he's not above me in the heirarchy. This is a peer who now is putting together a list of all the problems he found.

The only real problem which he found was that I hadn't put the devices into RANCID. You know the rancid server nobody told me about and never gave me credentials to.

But after he was told to stop that and do work. He went to my client and started badmouthing me. My client who likes me got rather upset, recorded it and sent it to me. They are sales people, they record calls all the time. Well his biggest complaint about me was that I hadn't renewed my cisco certifications, and if I'm not certified, I shouldn't touch cisco equipment. but he also blamed me for an outage that only he could have caused. I was driving to another job at that time and nobody else had any audit logs on being on my client...

So I went to HR, I made a formal harassment complaint. HR listened to me explain my side, then said it's he said she said. That I'm not the first to complain, but they needed something more concrete.

Well the next morning, I got fired by my boss.

Re: 75% of Software Engineers Faced Retaliation Last Time They Reported Wrongdoing

#134

Post by tonyedgecombe »

de-moray wrote: post #115

Early in my career, I dealt with this garage. Once, I reported the VP of engineering for instructing me to commit fraud. I got back "Just do what he says, he's got experience in these things.". Then they hired someone to take over my team. Another time, I reported someone for sexual assault to HR. I shared the incident without names at first and HR told me "oh, that's awful. Who is it? They need to go.". When I share…

>Another time, I reported someone for sexual assault to HR.

I'd probably go directly to the police about something like that.

Re: 75% of Software Engineers Faced Retaliation Last Time They Reported Wrongdoing

#135

Post by CapstanRoller »

dr_kiszonka wrote: post #110
PradeetPatel wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It still baffles me to think that some still believe that HR is on their side. Human resource is there to safeguard the company from regulatory, compliance, and legal challenges.

Is it in tech or in other industries too? (I am not that experienced, and have had relatively positive experiences with HR, besides occasional incompetence.)

As a worker, ask yourself some questions: was HR hired to represent you, or to represent the corporation? Is HR part of your personal legal counsel team? Who signs HR's paychecks?

Re: 75% of Software Engineers Faced Retaliation Last Time They Reported Wrongdoing

#136

Post by Arech »

> Despite software delivery metrics prioritising speed, the British public and software engineers agree it’s the least important factor. Instead, the public cares most about data security, data accuracy and preventing serious bugs.

Does anybody know the source of the claim? I'd like to present it to our management team if it's sound enough :-D

Re: 75% of Software Engineers Faced Retaliation Last Time They Reported Wrongdoing

#137

Post by ajb »

isilofi wrote: post #130
ajb wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure what scenario you have in mind, in which the thing they have been annoyed by would be useful as a defence.

If you have something to report, usually you are somehow involved. The company might then try to pin responsibility on you for doing the bad thing and trying to verbally blackmail them.

Well, that's why I said you need things in writing in the case where you could be personally liable for the act.

Normally this discussion arises before the bad thing has been done, or if you weren't involved and found out about it. If you in fact committed it on their behalf without telling them first, then you are actually the bad guy.

Re: 75% of Software Engineers Faced Retaliation Last Time They Reported Wrongdoing

#138

Post by zmgsabst »

danbolt wrote: post #129
zmgsabst wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Engineers are not part of the proletariat, at all. There are no working class engineers. However, many members of the bourgeoisie and petite bourgeoisie LARP as proletariat — particularly academics. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/02/middle-class-income-in-major... .

I was under the impression that what defines the proletariat is someone whose income primarily comes from their labour, rather than capital. In this case, plenty of academics and engineers certainly qualify if they need to work to live. I think the parent commenter is using the term in that context, rather than if they work a blue-collar job or if they’re middle class.

The distinction has never been “work to live”, but working class versus professional class.

Also, academics and engineers don’t derive their income from labor, but from connections, bureaucratic status, and knowledge asymmetry. That’s why they’re part of the bourgeoisie and not proletariat.

Eg, lawyers were never part of the proletariat — yet they also need to work to survive.

Re: 75% of Software Engineers Faced Retaliation Last Time They Reported Wrongdoing

#139

Post by DinoDad13 »

Manuel_D wrote: post #78
DinoDad13 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And what wrongdoing do you think is happening in this scenario?

In-group preferences. Granted, there are non-discriminatory explanations: say your manager just happens to know a lot of potential referrals that are of the same identity group. This is totally plausible, most people do indeed tend to have more social connections with people sharing identity characteristics. It's hard to know for sure if favoritism is happening. The way to tell would be to send effectively identical…

Do you have evidence that in-group preferences are happening? Your workplace becoming more diverse is not proof of in-group preferences.

Re: 75% of Software Engineers Faced Retaliation Last Time They Reported Wrongdoing

#140

Post by JohnFen »

zmgsabst wrote: post #102
hsavit1 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some engineers and part of the professional managerial class. Many (if not most) engineers are proletarians

Engineers are not part of the proletariat, at all. There are no working class engineers. However, many members of the bourgeoisie and petite bourgeoisie LARP as proletariat — particularly academics. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/02/middle-class-income-in-major... .

> There are no working class engineers.

I'm not sure how you can say this. I suppose it may depend on how you define "working class", though. If you mean it in the sense of "middle class", then there are lots of them.

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