Work Somewhere Dysfunctional • Hacker News Board

Re: Work Somewhere Dysfunctional

#21

Post by lanstin » Mon, Jan 17, 2022, 4:46 PM UTC

franklampard wrote: post #16

travisjungroth wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are at least two types of having problems. There's having a problem like having a jigsaw puzzle. It sits in front of you and is there to solve. Your organization's problem could be making a faster database or improving education outcomes in a neighborhood. An organization can remain functional in the face of these problems. There's another type of having a problem which is like having a cold. It's in you and af…

As an engineer, one would want to solve the first kind but leave the second kind to MBAs

Not if you have ever worked in a formerly successful org that got fixed by MBAs. People need to understand the nature of software before fixing organizations that make and maintain software. After being burned a few times, many engineers find it useful to at least wave off disasters waiting to be implemented and to reinforce the odd truly helpful suggestion from above. Best of all is creating technical solutions that enable the organization to function better, to increase lower level autonomy and decrease organizational coupling, to increase useful transparency so we can all see the ship and its vectors.

Re: Work Somewhere Dysfunctional

#22

Post by dexen » Mon, Jan 17, 2022, 4:52 PM UTC

>work somewhere dysfunctional

>bellmar.medium.com

I did a double-take to ensure it wasn't "ballmer.medium.com" :D

Re: Work Somewhere Dysfunctional

#23

Post by paulcole » Mon, Jan 17, 2022, 4:56 PM UTC

sdoering wrote: post #18

paulcole wrote: post #9

My favorite test of a workplace is to see how closely coworkers map to characters in the film Jurassic Park. The more obvious each casting choice is, the more dysfunctional the workplace.

I never heard this analogy. Mind to explain it further? What to look for, why these characters in this movie? I would love to dive deeper into the analogy.

It won't make any sense if you haven't watched the film.

Basically you're looking for charismatic/deeply delusional founder, money-grubbing lawyer, smartest-person-in-the-room theoretical person, old-fashioned person who complains about the new way of doing things (but who might be right), scientist who cares only about results and who has no ethics, annoying kids.

It's more a joke that I've seen play out in real life than a truely common method for analyzing dysfunction.

Re: Work Somewhere Dysfunctional

#24

Post by sshine » Mon, Jan 17, 2022, 5:00 PM UTC

WHA8m wrote: post #12

znpy wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

there you go: https://archive.fo/MwT63 :)

I haven't had any problem. Did you?

Yes, after about ten seconds, the page that otherwise appeared to load fine suddenly becomes a 500 that encourages me to read other Medium articles.

Re: Work Somewhere Dysfunctional

#25

Post by omginternets » Mon, Jan 17, 2022, 5:00 PM UTC

> Unfortunately, places with hard problems that haven’t been solved are also — inevitably — kind of dysfunctional.

This seems to conflate dysfunctional markets with dysfunctional workplaces. It seems like the author's thesis rests exactly on this logical error.

Re: Work Somewhere Dysfunctional

#26

Post by notpachet » Mon, Jan 17, 2022, 5:03 PM UTC

paulcole wrote: post #9

My favorite test of a workplace is to see how closely coworkers map to characters in the film Jurassic Park. The more obvious each casting choice is, the more dysfunctional the workplace.

Are we talking about the dinosaurs themselves?

Re: Work Somewhere Dysfunctional

#27

Post by notpachet » Mon, Jan 17, 2022, 5:05 PM UTC

bserge wrote: post #2

Yeah, you could also work somewhere not as developed. It's dysfunctional alright, and the pay can be shit. But if the company seriously considers your ideas, you'll be seen as some sort of prophet. Many ideas and systems that you take for granted simply don't exist in developing countries. And they really need them.

Unfortunately, the prophet is often also the first person the others come after with pitchforks when the crops fail to grow.

Re: Work Somewhere Dysfunctional

#28

Post by crispyambulance » Mon, Jan 17, 2022, 5:10 PM UTC

pram wrote: post #7

There’s really no good reason to stick your neck out at a dysfunctional place. It’s like that for a reason. You might get grit from the experience, but more likely you’ll just become a bitter cynical husk. I know, I worked at Oracle.

YMMV, but if the immediate team that you're working with has good leadership, sane people with rapport and trust amongst each other that can go a long way towards a positive working environment, even if the organization as a whole is an ocean of shit-show. It just means you got to be ready to jump ship quickly if something poisons your team (eg, an acquisition, or org-change).

Re: Work Somewhere Dysfunctional

#29

Post by etblg » Mon, Jan 17, 2022, 5:10 PM UTC

paulcole wrote: post #23

sdoering wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never heard this analogy. Mind to explain it further? What to look for, why these characters in this movie? I would love to dive deeper into the analogy.

It won't make any sense if you haven't watched the film. Basically you're looking for charismatic/deeply delusional founder, money-grubbing lawyer, smartest-person-in-the-room theoretical person, old-fashioned person who complains about the new way of doing things (but who might be right), scientist who cares only about results and who has no ethics, annoying kids. It's more a joke that I've seen play out in real lif…

And they were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should?

Re: Work Somewhere Dysfunctional

#30

Post by mannykannot » Mon, Jan 17, 2022, 5:11 PM UTC

I have worked in some dysfunctional places, and had the good fortune to work in places that were not. While I learned useful things from both, I got way more out of the latter. In many cases, it was on a level that the dysfunctional places simply could not reach.