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Tell HN: Beware 'Ungrowth' in Your Job

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Re: Tell HN: Beware 'Ungrowth' in Your Job

#111

Post by dougmwne »

Yes, you are learning to discard the HR corp bullshit and face reality. Humans are flawed, humans can’t do everything equally well, humans get sick and hurt. And more than anything, humans are a product of their environment. Great outcomes come from great environments, poor outcomes come from poor environments.

We have a tendency to take all the blame onto ourselves. We have a society that tells you to take personal responsibility for everything from your career success to saving the planet. But fact is that if the ship is sinking you will go down too.

Find a better boat. It is the most powerful thing you can do in life.

Re: Tell HN: Beware 'Ungrowth' in Your Job

#112

Post by jtwebman »

buscoquadnary wrote: post #24
mattw2121 wrote: post #9

I had a situation once where we had a minor re-org and I ended up with a new manager. Literally day one, he made an attempt to change everyone's role. We were a team of developers and business analysts. He decided that everyone would become both and spend 50% of their time on each activity. Not sure why he thought this was a good idea, but he did. After he announced it, I had a 1x1 with him and clearly let him know t…

This right here. I realized long ago I should do whatever I can to the best of my ability. If my superiors want to do something stupid or use my skillet in a suboptimal way my responsibility is to do my best to council with them, share what I see and then do the best job I can at whatever I am assigned to, assuming over course it doesn't cross legal or moral boundaries. My job is not my Identity we have an economic a…

This statement is what the older generation and companies want you to think. It doesn't have to be that way and companies and management need to change or people will leave for companies and management that think differently and want you to feel successful.

Re: Tell HN: Beware 'Ungrowth' in Your Job

#113

Post by A4ET8a8uTh0 »

buscoquadnary wrote: post #24
mattw2121 wrote: post #9

I had a situation once where we had a minor re-org and I ended up with a new manager. Literally day one, he made an attempt to change everyone's role. We were a team of developers and business analysts. He decided that everyone would become both and spend 50% of their time on each activity. Not sure why he thought this was a good idea, but he did. After he announced it, I had a 1x1 with him and clearly let him know t…

This right here. I realized long ago I should do whatever I can to the best of my ability. If my superiors want to do something stupid or use my skillet in a suboptimal way my responsibility is to do my best to council with them, share what I see and then do the best job I can at whatever I am assigned to, assuming over course it doesn't cross legal or moral boundaries. My job is not my Identity we have an economic a…

Some of my experiences align with that. You want me to spend time doing relatively useless things. I can. I am paid regardless. I am just not sure it is a good management or resources.

I do my best to communicate openly with my immediate superior about the reality on the ground, but if my advice is summarily dismissed, at certain point I just check out.

Re: Tell HN: Beware 'Ungrowth' in Your Job

#115

Post by danaris »

fileeditview wrote: post #76
buscoquadnary wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This right here. I realized long ago I should do whatever I can to the best of my ability. If my superiors want to do something stupid or use my skillet in a suboptimal way my responsibility is to do my best to council with them, share what I see and then do the best job I can at whatever I am assigned to, assuming over course it doesn't cross legal or moral boundaries. My job is not my Identity we have an economic a…

I don't know how this works in the US but here in Germany your work contract roughly specifies what you do for work.. so for a software engineer it would be developing software and similar tasks. Cleaning break room fridges would not be an acceptable task. You sure could say yes and comply if you like cleaning fridges but usually people would probably just say no thanks. If you just exaggerated to make a point I agre…

Unfortunately, all too often in the US, there is no contract. You apply based on a job description that can be changed at any time by the employer, and has no legal force in any case.

Re: Tell HN: Beware 'Ungrowth' in Your Job

#116

Post by ktrnka »

ajmurmann wrote: post #51

This is extra dangerous because it can result in you losing confidence which can lead to you developing patterns that make it seem like you are falling which in turn feeds a downward spiral. This older HBR article on "Set up to fail syndrome" should be read by everyone who is a manager or feels like they are struggling: https://hbr.org/1998/03/the-set-up-to-fail-syndrome

Thank you for this. It puts words to a situation I made worse with a report a few years ago and helped me see it another way

Re: Tell HN: Beware 'Ungrowth' in Your Job

#117

Post by jmartrican »

eckza wrote: post #105
jmartrican wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great suggestion. Maybe my programming language is the problem and I need to tackle this issue by learning a different language.

Another upside is that if you use a less-common language, there is _not_ a library or package for everything just yet... so sometimes, that creates the opportunity to work on open source at your day job! Some people will say that this is a downside, because you can't build new things or ship new features as quickly… But I suppose that it comes down to what you want to get out of your career, and what your goals are.…

Solid advice. Thank you!!!

Re: Tell HN: Beware 'Ungrowth' in Your Job

#118

Post by ghaff »

fileeditview wrote: post #76
buscoquadnary wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This right here. I realized long ago I should do whatever I can to the best of my ability. If my superiors want to do something stupid or use my skillet in a suboptimal way my responsibility is to do my best to council with them, share what I see and then do the best job I can at whatever I am assigned to, assuming over course it doesn't cross legal or moral boundaries. My job is not my Identity we have an economic a…

I don't know how this works in the US but here in Germany your work contract roughly specifies what you do for work.. so for a software engineer it would be developing software and similar tasks. Cleaning break room fridges would not be an acceptable task. You sure could say yes and comply if you like cleaning fridges but usually people would probably just say no thanks. If you just exaggerated to make a point I agre…

I took it as an exaggeration to make a point. They're unlikely to ask you to do that--or to pay you for doing so. But within the broad confines of developer, or product manager, or technical marketer, the is a wide range of roles and responsibilities. If you've been working on a mainframe and your employer decides to retire it but is happy to put you on some front-end web stuff which you've never touched, that's probably going to be a tough adjustment that may not end well.

Re: Tell HN: Beware 'Ungrowth' in Your Job

#120

Post by watwut »

duxup wrote: post #68
blululu wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So many manager stories where it doesn't sound like they even did a basic check in with their subordinates...

Communication is a two way street for sure. But I haven known plenty of devs who keep their heads down and bemoan their boss and wouldn't say anything to them anyway. Hard to know how a person feels in that case.

Some. But there is also that thing where manager is supposedly paid for superior social skills. And lately I am realizing, that good 80% of communication work in the manager-developer relationship or within team is on developers. I mean, yeah, partly it goes with power differential where person lower on hierarchy has to do that work and management simply dont have to.

But seriously, it would be nice if managers would put a bit more thoughts and effort into ... communicating and people.

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