You fired your top talent. I hope you’re happy • Hacker News Board

Re: You fired your top talent. I hope you’re happy

#171

Post by Sevrene » Wed, Oct 18, 2017, 1:44 AM UTC

internetman55 wrote: post #165

Sevrene wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Working overtime without some sort of commiseration should be illegal, yet it is typically expected in a lot of salaried work. Even my local groceries makes their workers spend 10 minutes cleaning up before close, 'off the clock'. Game studios are notorious for the crunch at the end of a projects life cycle because of the random off the cuff date a publisher needs to fill up a void in their yearly lineup or quarter.…

I'm new in this industry, but based on my life, the experience of some close friends, and anecdotes like this, my impression is that you need enough career security and cash savings that you can just ignore stupid requests from your boss and not care about the fallout. Of course that is probably unsustainable outside of entry level jobs, so I am sort of convinced that I should have a 6-10 year plan to exit it

That's an interesting way of thinking about it. I'm not very assertive, so perhaps If I stood up to management a bit more everyone would be better for it anyway. Although it's easier to stand up to your boss when it falls under your domain (technology), but when it's their domain (managing people) it's harder to be assertive.

Also what happens when it just becomes a self fulfilling prophecy? Regardless, if you experience terrible management you should probably be finding another job anyway.

Re: You fired your top talent. I hope you’re happy

#172

Post by mlloyd » Wed, Oct 18, 2017, 6:17 PM UTC

thisisit wrote: post #102

scarface74 wrote: post #37

I see so many sides to this -I’ve been a Rick, stayed at a company for nine years, knew where the bodies were buried because I buried most of them myself and became more disenchanted year after year which caused my attitude to get worse and worse. They wouldn’t fire me but they also wouldn’t promote me and give me raises - causing a horrible cycle. I woke up one day 8 years later in 2008 and making only 10,000 more t…

Well, then I guess I am in a unique position, a reverse Rick of sorts ;) I have tried and tried hard to stop people being dependent on me, writing detailed specs and documentations, generously sharing them with the team - not once but multiple times. The end result being people ask me either to do the stuff because "I am the expert" or resend the document link for them to study.

"The end result being people ask me either to do the stuff because "I am the expert" or resend the document link for them to study."

This is the most frustrating thing. If you can't even save the link or search your mailbox then I no longer WANT to help you. Figure it out.

Re: You fired your top talent. I hope you’re happy

#173

Post by mlloyd » Wed, Oct 18, 2017, 6:18 PM UTC

internetman55 wrote: post #165

Sevrene wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Working overtime without some sort of commiseration should be illegal, yet it is typically expected in a lot of salaried work. Even my local groceries makes their workers spend 10 minutes cleaning up before close, 'off the clock'. Game studios are notorious for the crunch at the end of a projects life cycle because of the random off the cuff date a publisher needs to fill up a void in their yearly lineup or quarter.…

I'm new in this industry, but based on my life, the experience of some close friends, and anecdotes like this, my impression is that you need enough career security and cash savings that you can just ignore stupid requests from your boss and not care about the fallout. Of course that is probably unsustainable outside of entry level jobs, so I am sort of convinced that I should have a 6-10 year plan to exit it

You're absolutely right. But sometimes it's just the confidence and competence. If you're actually good at your job and you know that, you can push back on insanity and not panic if you come up craps.

Re: You fired your top talent. I hope you’re happy

#174

Post by mlloyd » Wed, Oct 18, 2017, 6:19 PM UTC

scaryclam wrote: post #128

noxToken wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of us are contractors for the company with 40 hour work weeks. People at my company are salaried. I don't know about the other companies. I don't stray much from my 40 hours. If others want to put in that time, so be it. I always tell them to knock it off, but some people just can't be helped. I don't put it all on management. It's a little of column A and a little of column B. It's tough standing up to managem…

I wonder what would happen if a company had overtime pay for developers. I'd be willing to put money on working hours getting reduced to something sane and deadlines pushed back to accommodate it. Maybe one day I'll suggest a trial for it at my company ;)

Just become a consultant. Much more lucrative and much more freedom.

Re: You fired your top talent. I hope you’re happy

#175

Post by equalunique » Fri, Oct 20, 2017, 4:47 AM UTC

Seeing that the author of this is a security engineer, I now understand why I relate so much to this. I know this to be true - the infosec field does have it's overworked so-called rockstars.