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The biggest source of waste is untapped skilled pragmatists

cutlefish.substack.com

181–190 of 259 posts

Re: The biggest source of waste is untapped skilled pragmatists

#181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You're not picking Bob, Bill gets your vote. In the layoffs I've been through, it's just as often that it is Bob who gets the vote. Not for any reason, it's just random. Bill rolled a 1 somewhere, in that layoff. Better luck next time … if there is a next time. Nobody is picking. Nobody is choosing, or making rational decisions. Just one day, hey, this entire subtree of the org is just simply laid off — individual…

It seems you missed a beat here. The comment you're replying to isn't talking about the layoff round. It's talking about what happens next, when someone from the team gets hired elsewhere and the boss says "we need more people". Who gets brought in? This is a very common scenario in our line of work.

Oh, a bit, the parent comment is a bit malformed at that point (why is the new boss talking about my old coworkers? how?), and yeah, I think your interpretation is probably correct.

… that's not really a situation that occurs, for one reason or another. Good people tend to be able to line up "next job" somewhat quickly and even if not, "my job" being a match isn't going to happen on a timescale after a layoff. I.e., we're laid off, time passes, I recover with a job, more time must pass before I'm going to be in the "we need more [good] people" and by that point there's basically no way they've not found work. Even then, getting a recruiting team to articulate a pitch in this industry is rending blood from a stone.

Re: The biggest source of waste is untapped skilled pragmatists

#182
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Just give me some JIRA ticket and let me read books while I get my job done in 1-2 hours a day. Aren't we all (normal and decent people) doing this already?

> Aren't we all (normal and decent people) doing this already? I've known many such in my career. They weren't fooling anybody. Everybody knew who they were. When they'd get laid off or were passed over for a raise they were always baffled and outraged.

Until your manager and skip director are equally phoning it in and you're the only idiot being productive.

Re: The biggest source of waste is untapped skilled pragmatists

#183
post #163
post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is "HSP"?

"Highly sensitive person". Basically hypervigilant

Were they also a Virgo? What Harry Potter house did they get on an online quiz? What about INFJ or ENTJ on the Briggs-Meyer scale?

Re: The biggest source of waste is untapped skilled pragmatists

#184
I have found that Fortune 500 companies are usually the worst when it comes to this.

If you want to get shit done, don’t work at a soulless corporation. These are glorified retirement homes for people.

Have had the unfortunate experience with having to hand hold what’s been described as “20+ YoE industry veterans” through the fucking basics of oauth.

Re: The biggest source of waste is untapped skilled pragmatists

#185
post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about not fucking up your life and find a good comany to work for?

How is this “fucking up [their] life”? Some people don’t care about the grindset or putting in 50hr weeks. As long as work gets done and you’re reasonably keeping your skills up to date, what does it matter? If anything it’s more of a win by gaining hours of your life back that would’ve been spent people-pleasing.

You can write whatever you want on a resume and nobody can tell if you burned out on both ends or phoned it in for 1-2 hours. So, no, holding a position for X years, when presented in a reasonable manner at the next interview, cannot possibly fuck your life up.

Re: The biggest source of waste is untapped skilled pragmatists

#186
post #7

I began as a junior dev and climbed up the ranks til the point where I became the SME in some areas of the product. Got laid off because sales goals were not met while they retained people which I think were incompetent in their work. Even some guys which I think were better and more critical to the projects were dumped. I'm not climbing that ladder by being proactive and "pragmatic" again... Call me a paycheck steal…

Did you get cut cause "we need a number" and you're expensive? Were you the growth guy when they need run the busies blood and guts people? Did they save 2 people in some other department who matter more with some horse trading? You can go and be a clock puncher. It's perfectly fine to do so. I know plenty of them, some got laid off recently and cant seem to find jobs. The high achiever's the go the extra mile types…

Manager propaganda to make us go the extra mile, don't listen.

Re: The biggest source of waste is untapped skilled pragmatists

#187
post #41

This post is an introduction to the idea and then as a Part 2 for actions to take. For anyone who hasn't continued into Part 2, it goes into first steps on listening to different performers in your company and basically doing research on what makes everyone tick. There will be a follow-up Part 3. Just want to say that's an interesting way to blog, but a little unsatisfying since I'm not sure if I'll keep coming back…

> This post is an introduction to the idea and then as a Part 2 for actions to take.

Thanks for mentioning it, I missed the link to part 2.

I don't think I can see the connection between the two parts though. Part 1 places people on two axis "cares" and "conflicts", with the largest number high on "cares" and low on "conflict". It seemed high on "cares" is desirable, and that getting more people to voice their oppinions (higher on "conflict") would be an improvement.

Part 2 puts people on a single axis of how likely they are going to embed clean-up changes in their PRs. This is unlikely to be the "conflict" axis from part 1. If it is the "cares" axis, 75% would already show the desired behavior, with not much untapped potential remaining. Part 2 then continues by asking people about their oppinions. With most people on the lower half of the part 1 "conflict" axis it is surprising that everyone does even have an oppinion.

I'll place myself high on the "conflict" axis with this: Clean-up should not be hidden in other PRs. It increases time needed for review and risk for collisions. It also increases the effort required for an analysis of the history in a distant future. Separate PRs for clean-up.

Re: The biggest source of waste is untapped skilled pragmatists

#188

Enployees need three things to avoid becoming an uninspired cog: 1) Control 2) Responsibility 3) Recognition Control and responsibility of a project but no recognition will demotivate quickly Responsibility and recognition with no control means they’re a scapegoat for when things bad Recognition and control with no responsibility is like a third party who will take credit but has no reason to ensure success All three…

Do you count financial reward under recognition? Lot of places are generous with non-financial recognition but stingy with the monetary recognition.

Re: The biggest source of waste is untapped skilled pragmatists

#189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Boss makes a dollar, I make a dime. That's why I poop, on company time.

That was a rhyme from a simpler time. Now the boss makes a grand and I make a buck. So, let's steal the catalytic converter from the company truck.

Also saw:

The boss makes a dollar, I make a cent, need a side hustle just to pay the rent.

Re: The biggest source of waste is untapped skilled pragmatists

#190
post #7

I began as a junior dev and climbed up the ranks til the point where I became the SME in some areas of the product. Got laid off because sales goals were not met while they retained people which I think were incompetent in their work. Even some guys which I think were better and more critical to the projects were dumped. I'm not climbing that ladder by being proactive and "pragmatic" again... Call me a paycheck steal…

And in the end, the terrible people won. Because you stopped caring seeming about anything, you're likely living a worse more jaded life, and your next company isn't getting a good employee.

Learning an important lesson isn't about flushing your aspirations down the toilet. That's just cementing your destiny as someone who will never achieve moderate success. If that's your goal, shrugs?

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