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My Time Working at Stripe

jondlm.github.io

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Re: My Time Working at Stripe

#171

Post by stitched2gethr »

Aeolun wrote: post #77
lmm wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The flip side of that is that if companies make "passion" a hiring criterion, they'll end up hiring people who care about making a difference, which may serve them poorly if the position doesn't actually fit that.

Of course not. They got 4 years of fantastic work out of the guy before he burned out. That serves them just fine. The only requirement is that you have no morals.

I don't see it that way. He wanted to work there. They paid him for his time and from his account all of the passion was his own. I'm not speaking against those who just want to do what's required, but is it really wrong to hire someone who is passionate about the work?

Re: My Time Working at Stripe

#172

Post by leoqa »

edlebert wrote: post #154

I quit Stripe after only six months because the pace, stress, and anxiety were not worth the paycheck.

Stripe is a tough place at all levels, I saw more staff engineers get fired there than anywhere else.

Had some bad managers and then some good ones. Did my time and got out.

Re: My Time Working at Stripe

#173

Post by eddd-ddde »

mndgs wrote: post #118

Sorry for a probably unpopular opinion here, and let me generalize a bit: Gen Z all the way... (Saying this makes me feel a bit old, I guess I'm certainly am than the author). On a serious note, in my book there are hints of perfectionism right from the start of the story (fonts dimming, wait 30 sec to join the meeting..). And too much fragility in personal attidudes. S/he is probably a relatively young idealistic pe…

Everything in life needs a healthy amount of "fuck it" attitude.

The second I learnt this and started living by it my happiness shot up and my anxiety went down.

Who cares if you mess up, you have to stop living by your ideas of other people's ideas of you.

Re: My Time Working at Stripe

#174

Post by dionian »

I identified with this story quite a bit. I had a similar experience at a cut-throat big name tech company. It's extremely political and the business has to run extremely sharp to succeed. Hence the hightened politics and management involvement at that level. You did a great job with the writing! It was fun to read, and interesting to hear the story. Best of luck in the future

Re: My Time Working at Stripe

#175

Post by dionian »

fnordpiglet wrote: post #30

These symptoms are a classic sign of burn out. One thing I notice in your writing is you’re very tied up in things having meaning and mattering in some specific way. This itself can lead to burnout because if everything must matter you must be emotionally invested in everything. But you can care without it mattering to you. You can do a good job without being totally invested in everything about it. You can love what…

I second this. Well put

Re: My Time Working at Stripe

#176

Post by whstl »

Aeolun wrote: post #78
varispeed wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a brilliant idea that might help the company a lot don't just do it. Never do it. It will never end up benefitting you, even if you find "allies" - who might even stab you in the back and take credit for the idea and then let you go once they get a promotion. If you have a brilliant idea, keep it to yourself, try to think of a way it could be used outside of the company and if it is strong enough start your own bus…

I mean, brilliant ideas can still be fun to work on. Who cares if you don’t get appropriately rewarded for saving the company $50k/month, it was time well spent. As opposed to working on that pointless crud thing your boss likes.

I'd say work on brilliant ideas if they're good for your resume.

Yeah, I know this annoys the senior devs, but after 20 years on this grind I totally get why people do it.

Re: My Time Working at Stripe

#177

Post by [deleted] »

Tainnor wrote: post #159
cpursley wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s pretty nuts, putting out your dirty laundry in public is a surefire way to self sabotage - especially in a work setting. In American culture, there’s a lot of “positive self help” talk about being open about these things. But the reality is - it actually just provides drama and ammunition to people who might not have your best interests at heart. Some things are best kept between your close trusted friends and f…

> no matter how trendy the culture is about being “open” I've noticed this trend in recent years to be "open about mental health", etc. And I think by itself this is great, mental health is important. But invariably, especially in management/HR settings (or in the entertainment industry), it is done in an incredibly shallow way. Mental health is hard. Just talking openly isn't magically going to fix things and may ev…

[deleted]

Re: My Time Working at Stripe

#178

Post by morning-coffee »

scott_w wrote: post #55
anal_reactor wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Work satisfaction is a meme. Yes, there are people satisfied with their work, but realistically, this is not going to happen to you. Stop giving a fuck about your work, slack off as much as possible, and look for coworkers with whom you can build real human connection, instead of corporate NPCs.

If I could pick a comment to explain a “self-fulfilling prophecy,” it would be this one right here.

Exactly... if you want to be miserable at work, by all means, "slack off as much as possible".

I think we forget the big picture that "no one gets out alive" and that it's up to each of us to spend the time we have in a way that makes us happy. If you can afford to not spend 1/3 of your time at a job in order to fund the remaining 2/3 of your existence, lucky you! But if not, choosing to slack off at a job you hate is essentially choosing to throw 1/3 of your life away being miserable. (Not judging if that's your choice, but its baffling to me.)

Re: My Time Working at Stripe

#179

Post by Nimitz14 »

baumy wrote: post #167
wkjagt wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why they said "if you're comfortable". It was totally optional. I don't understand your strong reaction to this.

I promise you I mean this sincerely, and not in a memey internet insult kind of way - are you perhaps autistic? I ask because this is exactly the type of comment one of my siblings would make, and she is on the spectrum. She wouldn't be able to understand the social dynamics at play here, whereas for other folks it's just common sense. "Optional" is not really optional in some social settings, and that's something au…

Kind of hilarious to make this suggestion while simultaneously revealing yourself to not understand nuance or commonsense.

Re: My Time Working at Stripe

#180

Post by whstl »

sharkweek wrote: post #24
foota wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I couldn't find it after searching, but I remember reading about a company where they just relaxed and got done what they got done. To me, this would be the ideal workplace.

With any form of investor expecting a return I dunno how possible this is, but I’ve worked for one family owned business (non-tech industry but had a small tech team) and it was super relaxed like you mention. No investors, no board of directors, just a woman and her son who owned the business. They wanted to grow it but were very reasonable about it. That being said the salary was probably 20-30% below market. At th…

I often find that even investors can be reasonable.

Most of the problems in tech are of the employees own creation. Unreasonable requirements and unreasonable timelines, often coming out of thin air for no reason other than some middle manager's political interests.

It is super hard to fight against it, and it's even harder to demonstrate how forcing tech to work more than necessary is bad for business.

Small businesses deal with it by being small. Big companies are just chaotic complex systems where you don't have much of a choice.

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