Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The "Quiet Quitting" Myth Is Toxic for Tech

blackentropy.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–27 of 27 posts

Re: The "Quiet Quitting" Myth Is Toxic for Tech

#21

Post by benterix »

0x000xca0xfe wrote: post #15
delichon wrote: post #9

It's not that I'm lazy, it's that I just don't care. It's a problem of motivation. If I work my ass off and Initech ships a few extra units, I don't see another dime. So what am I working for? My only real motivation is not to be hassled; that, and the fear of losing my job. But you know, Bob, that will only make someone work just hard enough not to get fired. -- Office Space I think that the myth is that this is par…

Personally, I always had this mindset: I'm paid for 8 hours a day and when the day is over, the 8 hours are gone and absolutely nothing will bring them back. So why don't I use them to do the absolute best I can as a software engineer because doing great work will improve my skills in the future. I'm losing nothing because 8 hours are 8 hours and doing nothing instead does not gain me anything either. But by god this…

I have the same attitude and I don't care if it's rewareded or not, it just makes me happy (and, incidentally, well-remunerated).

Re: The "Quiet Quitting" Myth Is Toxic for Tech

#22

Post by dartos »

tivert wrote: post #18
dartos wrote: post #3

Idk what engineer gets paid 300k outside of giant tech companies and overvalued startups. I’m sure that level of pay doesn’t have many coasters. At $150k, I was coasting at a large company for a few years, but it wasn’t like I did _nothing_. I did my sprint work as assigned within the sprint.

> At $150k, I was coasting at a large company for a few years, but it wasn’t like I did _nothing_. I did my sprint work as assigned within the sprint. It's weird to count literally doing your job as requested as "coasting."

Welcome to big corpos.

If you’re not pushing the envelope to be noticed more and build your promotion packet, you’re coasting.

Re: The "Quiet Quitting" Myth Is Toxic for Tech

#23

Post by tivert »

dartos wrote: post #22
tivert wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> At $150k, I was coasting at a large company for a few years, but it wasn’t like I did _nothing_. I did my sprint work as assigned within the sprint. It's weird to count literally doing your job as requested as "coasting."

Welcome to big corpos. If you’re not pushing the envelope to be noticed more and build your promotion packet, you’re coasting.

> If you’re not pushing the envelope to be noticed more and build your promotion packet, you’re coasting.

No, I'd say that's just not being ambitious, which is different from coasting.

Re: The "Quiet Quitting" Myth Is Toxic for Tech

#24

Post by karmakurtisaani »

0x000xca0xfe wrote: post #15
delichon wrote: post #9

It's not that I'm lazy, it's that I just don't care. It's a problem of motivation. If I work my ass off and Initech ships a few extra units, I don't see another dime. So what am I working for? My only real motivation is not to be hassled; that, and the fear of losing my job. But you know, Bob, that will only make someone work just hard enough not to get fired. -- Office Space I think that the myth is that this is par…

Personally, I always had this mindset: I'm paid for 8 hours a day and when the day is over, the 8 hours are gone and absolutely nothing will bring them back. So why don't I use them to do the absolute best I can as a software engineer because doing great work will improve my skills in the future. I'm losing nothing because 8 hours are 8 hours and doing nothing instead does not gain me anything either. But by god this…

You keep your skills sharp and learn new things, so you're ready when a better opportunity presents itself.

Re: The "Quiet Quitting" Myth Is Toxic for Tech

#25

Post by salawat »

benterix wrote: post #21
0x000xca0xfe wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally, I always had this mindset: I'm paid for 8 hours a day and when the day is over, the 8 hours are gone and absolutely nothing will bring them back. So why don't I use them to do the absolute best I can as a software engineer because doing great work will improve my skills in the future. I'm losing nothing because 8 hours are 8 hours and doing nothing instead does not gain me anything either. But by god this…

I have the same attitude and I don't care if it's rewareded or not, it just makes me happy (and, incidentally, well-remunerated).

It also quite literally isolated decisionmakers above you from the fact of reality that not everyone is you.

This has taken me a long time to internalize, but it's finally managed to work it's way through a thick skull. When you're spending your time constantly bailing poor planners who reap the fruits of your heroics out while burning your own candle at both ends, you harm yourself, and anyone working for you, and anyone who works for the higher ups in question.

And the only ones who can recalibrate, are you, and the higher ups. Who won't, unless you force it.

Re: The "Quiet Quitting" Myth Is Toxic for Tech

#26

Post by dartos »

tivert wrote: post #23
dartos wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Welcome to big corpos. If you’re not pushing the envelope to be noticed more and build your promotion packet, you’re coasting.

> If you’re not pushing the envelope to be noticed more and build your promotion packet, you’re coasting. No, I'd say that's just not being ambitious, which is different from coasting.

Maybe I didn’t explain myself well.

My managers and principal engineers on my team made it clear that NOT actively working to build promotion packet materials and engaging in self-marketing within the company placed me at a lower rank over time.

It was explicitly not good enough to do my job as described. They used a system called stack ranking and (unofficially) they would put people lower on the ranks on PIPs and prepare to let them go even if they were fulfilling their responsibilities to the letter (but not above)

Maybe this wasn’t the case for staff level engineers, but it was for mid levels (which I was at the time)

Re: The "Quiet Quitting" Myth Is Toxic for Tech

#27

Post by MrHamburger »

delichon wrote: post #9

It's not that I'm lazy, it's that I just don't care. It's a problem of motivation. If I work my ass off and Initech ships a few extra units, I don't see another dime. So what am I working for? My only real motivation is not to be hassled; that, and the fear of losing my job. But you know, Bob, that will only make someone work just hard enough not to get fired. -- Office Space I think that the myth is that this is par…

In Eastern Europe is saying - They pretend that they pay us, so we pretend that we are working.
Post reply on HN