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At one company I worked at only one thing mattered: the yearly bonus

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Re: At one company I worked at only one thing mattered: the yearly bonus

#101

Post by civilized »

wreath wrote: post #69
mabbo wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good God yes. Once my team owned a service that did X. Among it's functionality, it had an API that, as a side effect, stored some data that could be retrieved. Sadly, this service had no validation that the data being input made any sense in the context of what this service did. A developer on a neighboring team had a big promo project on the go. As a simple hack, and as a way to save time, his project used our serv…

How is this his fault? Your service had poor validation or design and was used in ways it was intended to. You knew this but still didn't patch it?

No, this person was selfish and inconsiderate of their fellow employee. Employees are supposed to cooperate, not exploit one another for their own personal gain.

It's weird to have to say this, and some people probably think it's naive, but I stand by it.

Re: At one company I worked at only one thing mattered: the yearly bonus

#103

Post by civilized »

ido wrote: post #59
Jasper_ wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of companies boot you out if you don't get a promo. The idea is that you take the "worst" 10% of your workforce (where "worst" means not getting promos), and fire them, every year. Even if you have no desire in chasing the promo train for more money, you sort of need to play along, just to have a job in a year or two.

I believe what you are describing is called stack ranking and has fallen out of favor with tech companies. Microsoft at least used to do that (I think they don’t anymore).

Now they have stack ranking and lie about it, which is even worse.

Re: At one company I worked at only one thing mattered: the yearly bonus

#104

Post by lol_what »

razh wrote: post #31
m12k wrote: post #8

A tech company in Bellevue Washington with a "shadowy and illusory "peer review" system" - this is Valve we're talking about, right? (fits his Twitter bio)

Yep, he posted a similar set of tweets back in 2018: https://www.pcgamer.com/ex-valve-employee-describes-ruthless...

keep in mind that he is literally the only one who talks about the company that way from everyone whose ever worked there (many, many have left for various reasons since).

I also can't help but not overlook that he's an UFO nut. can't trust info from someone who can warp reality in a way to see only what fits his own preconceived notions even if they fly in the face of basic facts.

Re: At one company I worked at only one thing mattered: the yearly bonus

#105

Post by spiffytech »

bombcar wrote: post #70
ido wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe what you are describing is called stack ranking and has fallen out of favor with tech companies. Microsoft at least used to do that (I think they don’t anymore).

It’s pretty useful if you’re an up and coming growth company paying higher than average comp as it ensures you’re continually snatching new employees from other companies.

The consensus I've seen is that it's useful for a year or two while you clear out the people who really need to go, but after that it creates perverse incentives and constant fear among employees, doing more harm than good.

Re: At one company I worked at only one thing mattered: the yearly bonus

#106

Post by 21723 »

devwastaken wrote: post #47
nindalf wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is Valve really going to file a lawsuit against him and argue in court whether this actually happened or not? They're not. Do they even have grounds to file a lawsuit? Likely not, American courts aren't that sympathetic to libel claims. But let's assume for a minute that what you're saying has some merit. Maybe Valve does have grounds to sue. And maybe they're interested in suing. In that case, is this lousy attempt…

American civil system is not based on merit or reason. Anyone can file for any reason, any decent lawyer can make some claims that will require you to argue against, else they be automatically defaulted to true and you lose. It doesn't matter if the big corp wins or not, the toll it takes on you is threat enough. This isn't about civil disputes anyways. No employer wants to see a prospective new hire trash talking th…

Frivolous litigation happens but is fairly rare but, as you said, nothing in this country prevents potential employers from anally raping candidates for "bad-mouthing" prior companies. In the US, that's a legally defensible reason to fuck someone over, even if what was said about the ex-employer was truthful.

Re: At one company I worked at only one thing mattered: the yearly bonus

#107

Post by Rebelgecko »

daenz wrote: post #98
sundvor wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heard that's not necessarily enough, "not specifically naming".

IANAL but would love a lawyer to chime in. My understanding was that you could indeed get in trouble if you don't cast enough ambiguity around the identity of the person/company you are trashing, but casting some ambiguity is better than none.

I am also not a lawyer, but I've always heard that telling the truth is a bulletproof defense in libel/slander/defamation situations. Some employment contracts have non-disparagement clauses but I think they're fairly rare (kind of a red flag) and at least where I live they can't prevent you from truthful griping about working conditions

Re: At one company I worked at only one thing mattered: the yearly bonus

#108

Post by 21723 »

daniel-cussen wrote: post #80
devwastaken wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

American civil system is not based on merit or reason. Anyone can file for any reason, any decent lawyer can make some claims that will require you to argue against, else they be automatically defaulted to true and you lose. It doesn't matter if the big corp wins or not, the toll it takes on you is threat enough. This isn't about civil disputes anyways. No employer wants to see a prospective new hire trash talking th…

Hahaha yeah you know what start with this exact preamble next time you're a plaintiff telling the judge why you deserve money. "The American civil system is not based on merit or reason." I would say it is in fact based on both of those, but more than anything on judgment .

Whether the US civil system itself is based on merit or reason, the problem is that employers have all the resources and can play parliamentary procedure ad nauseam--even in the rare cases where the good guys win, they'll file appeals and motions while refusing to pay the judgment. Not to mention, they know which judges can be corrupted, and they also have PR resources and will rape the shit out of anyone who even mildly embarrasses them.

Re: At one company I worked at only one thing mattered: the yearly bonus

#109

Post by andrekandre »

t_mann wrote: post #91
andrekandre wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> we have to measure what your individual contribution to the company's profits was we do?

Well, we gotta find some way to split it, we could use any metric though, true. We could pay everyone equally, or make it a lottery, or donate it to charity in the employees' names, or whatever you can think of. But we have to make a decision.

  > But we have to make a decision.
true, i guess my question was presupposed more on top-down decision making, but as you said, there are many ways to go about that decision
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