I automated my job over a year ago and haven't told anyone • Hacker News Board

Re: I automated my job over a year ago and haven't told anyone

#221

Post by jodrellblank » Wed, Jan 19, 2022, 5:34 PM UTC

patrickk wrote: post #126

oneoff786 wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1 for sikuli. Very nice little tool that makes it very easy to do something that would otherwise require a lot of specific knowledge

AutoHotKey and Pulover's Macro Creator[1] (which spits out AHK scrips from mouse and keyboard input) can do a similar job in a windows environment, and can trivially click on UI elements on the screen via PixelSearch. It runs lightning fast too, and is simple to learn. I've used it to automate simple web games for shits and giggles. [1] https://www.macrocreator.com/screenshots/

A cross-platform fork of Sikuli is at http://www.sikulix.com/ using Java, Python and OpenCV for automation.

PyAutoGui is another nice option - https://pyautogui.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ - cross platform Python module for keyboard and mouse automation with some support for taking and analysing screenshots.

Re: I automated my job over a year ago and haven't told anyone

#222

Post by twox2 » Wed, Jan 19, 2022, 5:34 PM UTC

zffr wrote: post #191

binarytox1n wrote: post #7

Many subreddits are simply themed containers of creative writing. With all the media attention the AntiWork subreddit has gotten lately that brings more karma farmers and therefore more fiction. It's an entertaining read, but not likely true.

I personally know someone who claims to have automated his work with Excel after learning how to code. He ended up telling his manager after feeling guilty. He got a promotion and eventually left the team to become a real software engineer. The rest of his team was eventually let go since they were not needed. This was at a large company you have definitely heard of. Its possible that my friend lied or exaggerated th…

A lot of industries, despite being "tech", are still just using computers to "push paper". That means a true technical person can often automate these jobs. It's real and it does happen. The thing is... most people like that are not content doing that and then fucking around all day. I've been in this position. I've shared my automation with the team I was on and the manager I had, and I got a raise. I did this at more than one company when I worked in operational roles, since then I'm more engineering focused so less opportunities to do so.

Re: I automated my job over a year ago and haven't told anyone

#223

Post by wonderwonder » Wed, Jan 19, 2022, 5:36 PM UTC

neom wrote: post #164

wonderwonder wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ok, lets go with that. What happens when the manager says "yes, implement the script and then we are going to fire you". What if Op refuses to implement the script then and just quits? A logical employee with rational self interest would never have that conversation because they know it likely ends with their termination. So in reality your proposal actually leads to the employee never implementing or recommending th…

Fire the employee and hire someone off fiver to look at the script and explain it, and then get an intern to run it once a week. If the script isn't written, I now know I can hire a consultant to write the script once. Sounds like a win for me. Except that's not how it would play out in one of my orgs, I'd chat with the employee and find a solution, if they're not excited about ANY other work in my business at all, I…

"Fire the employee and hire someone off fiver to look at the script" This is exactly why the employee is incentivized not to tell his employer. whether he voluntarily discloses how the script works or not there is a pretty good chance he loses his job as soon as he reveals its existence even if management is thrilled about it and tells him what a great job he has done.

"in one of my orgs, I'd chat with the employee and find a solution" Its a law firm, what is OP going to do abandon tech and become a paralegal?

Your arguments are all very much ignoring the point of how every facet of this situation incentivizes OP not to tell management and that the most likely outcome of telling them is that they lose their job while the company benefits from OP's work and slashes a 90k salary. You are ignoring that OP as a rational actor can only take 1 of 3 actions. 1. Create the script and don't tell management. This is a win / win. Company gets its documents processed on time and OP keeps his job. 2. Don't create the script. Lose / Don't Win. Documents continue to be processed behind schedule but OP keeps his job but does hours of slow manual labor. 3. OP voluntarily gives company his script. Win / Lose. Company gets their documents processed on time, and saves 90k in salary. OP loses his job.

Option 1 is the only option where both parties win.

Re: I automated my job over a year ago and haven't told anyone

#224

Post by Melatonic » Wed, Jan 19, 2022, 5:37 PM UTC

zffr wrote: post #191

binarytox1n wrote: post #7

Many subreddits are simply themed containers of creative writing. With all the media attention the AntiWork subreddit has gotten lately that brings more karma farmers and therefore more fiction. It's an entertaining read, but not likely true.

I personally know someone who claims to have automated his work with Excel after learning how to code. He ended up telling his manager after feeling guilty. He got a promotion and eventually left the team to become a real software engineer. The rest of his team was eventually let go since they were not needed. This was at a large company you have definitely heard of. Its possible that my friend lied or exaggerated th…

Sounds like your friend is a hell of a lot more honest than that guy who took on multiple sysadmin positions and then automated almost everything and for the remainder hired multiple overseas contractors to do the rest

Re: I automated my job over a year ago and haven't told anyone

#225

Post by rhino369 » Wed, Jan 19, 2022, 5:38 PM UTC

withinboredom wrote: post #211

rhino369 wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Two is infinitely more than zero.

My point was that they may not even be big enough for one. “Plug and play” might be good enough for now (a shared drive means someone is around though, someone had to set it up).

There are definitely small firms that rely on the young paralegal who is a self taught super user. But that sort of firm wouldn't pay someone 90k for doing a small part of all IT.

Slight chance this person was hired as a "case assistant" or "litigation support" and not IT. Firms definitely hire that sort of person--though they usually bill their time--so hopefully the OP isn't submitting fraudulent time entries. But 90k is a lot for that sort of role without expectation that you are performing other tasks.

Re: I automated my job over a year ago and haven't told anyone

#226

Post by brodouevencode » Wed, Jan 19, 2022, 5:38 PM UTC

giantg2 wrote: post #54

brodouevencode wrote: post #35

Great engineers try to automate their way out of a job. It would seem like their employer would reward them for using a little ingenuity. Why wouldn't he just come clean about it?

Why would he be rewarded? They would likely try to save that $90k by replacing him, or give him a lot more work with very little increase in comp. If there's anything I've learned in 10 years, you keep your mouth shut when things are easy because if you speak up they screw you with more work and the same (or nearly so) pay.

This is a very cynical way of looking at things. And maybe rightly so given your experience. Every job I've ever had though there's never been a shortage of work - the few examples that I can recall of whenever one of my engineers frees up a significant amount of time I gave them harder things to do and a recommended a raise (Im a lead not a people manager) to go along with it.

Re: I automated my job over a year ago and haven't told anyone

#227

Post by yung_steezy » Wed, Jan 19, 2022, 5:39 PM UTC

binarytox1n wrote: post #7

Many subreddits are simply themed containers of creative writing. With all the media attention the AntiWork subreddit has gotten lately that brings more karma farmers and therefore more fiction. It's an entertaining read, but not likely true.

I also think companies pay to have their totally-not-astroturfed subreddit featured on the frontpage such as /r/tinder

Re: I automated my job over a year ago and haven't told anyone

#228

Post by dave5104 » Wed, Jan 19, 2022, 5:39 PM UTC

Aissen wrote: post #142

binarytox1n wrote: post #7

Many subreddits are simply themed containers of creative writing. With all the media attention the AntiWork subreddit has gotten lately that brings more karma farmers and therefore more fiction. It's an entertaining read, but not likely true.

Even if that were true, no harm done… But imagine for a minute it isn't. What's the point of farming karma on a throwaway account ? Plus, we are social creatures, and sometimes we just need to offload our personal stories. Quite often there's a new fun thing that I wish I could write about or tell the world, but I don't because of real consequences to some people, or even myself. Recounting these stories is cathartic…

> What's the point of farming karma on a throwaway account ?

reddit accounts are built up and then sold[0][1], and then used for who knows what. Helps to have an "established" account with high karma and a post history.

In more popular subreddits (like /r/funny), you'll see frequent re-postings of content from 5+ years ago just for the "karma whoring" as it's called.

[0] https://www.soar.sh/service/buy-reddit-accounts/ [1] https://quantummarketer.com/buy-reddit-accounts/

Re: I automated my job over a year ago and haven't told anyone

#229

Post by Melatonic » Wed, Jan 19, 2022, 5:39 PM UTC

rhino369 wrote: post #134

michaelbuckbee wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That actually rang fairly true to me as some of the law offices I interacted with (consultant) did so as they did some sort of fractional billing to the clients for internal IT time. I actually wonder if that's not the bigger scam here, that the firm is re-billing this person's make-work job in some sort of time and materials way that there is financial incentive to keep him doing this unnecessary role.

If the firm was billing his time, he'd have to create a billing log. You generally can't get away with billing for IT. But you can bill for "litigation support" which is the intersection of IT and litigation. Though its much more involved than just uploading files to an FTP.

Depends how shady the firm is :-)

Also for probably any litigation that is IT related you could probably get away with a lot more

Re: I automated my job over a year ago and haven't told anyone

#230

Post by brodouevencode » Wed, Jan 19, 2022, 5:40 PM UTC

99_00 wrote: post #62

brodouevencode wrote: post #35

Great engineers try to automate their way out of a job. It would seem like their employer would reward them for using a little ingenuity. Why wouldn't he just come clean about it?

A small lawfirm that doesn't have its own IT department doesn't have engineering opportunities

That's fair, but his boss would almost gladly ask him what else could be automated. It would be a winning prop for both.