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Things I want to say to my boss

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Re: Things I want to say to my boss

#221

Post by ambicapter »

exasperaited wrote: post #196
ambicapter wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What were the "the US stock market reforms of the 1970s", roughly?

OK so I am not an expert here at all, but my broad contention is that much of the modern way business works traces back to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1975_Stock_Brokerage_Commissio... The equivalent in the UK — the Big Bang — was very much fresh in the minds of my leftie economics teachers in 1990 :-) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Bang_(financial_markets) On top of the creation of NASDAQ and subsequent NYSE r…

So it seems like kind of a mixed bag of democratizing access, but which also created a little more individualized, selfish pressures on the way the market behaves.

Re: Things I want to say to my boss

#223

Post by ProllyInfamous »

csours wrote: post #81

> "It’s the performance of ‘care’ from leadership. Saying one thing loudly and proudly, yet doing another quietly, repeatedly." It's the employee engagement survey where you want people to say that the company cares about you, and first line managers get in trouble from the results but executive leadership does not. It's the cognitive dissonance that you expect us to just deal with. It's the lack of communication whe…

I used to work in a fairly secure government data center. I was a facility electrician, but also sat on lower-level hire boards (i.e. blue collars). My RFID would grant me access anywhere across multiple facilities.

>It's the lack of communication when people are fired.

Arriving to work, I observed the long-time janitor, whom I'd helped hire and knew very well, stuck at the entryway. He was extremely helpful albeit not too bright — I had no reason to suspect his badge had been deactivated (==fired) so I badged him in (our offices adjoined).

Janny went to work, a typical Monday, following others to clean construction-related debris (he just thought his badge broke).

Not until he tried to return from lunch, was he informed that his employment had been terminated. When I asked the facility manager "WTF, dude?!" he made some snide remark about "ooops I forgot to tell him — don't worry they're able to land on their feet anywhere" (janny was a non-white citizen).

Started looking for a new jobsite immediately after this. Ignorance and hatred are odd bed-fellows.

Re: Things I want to say to my boss

#224

Post by exasperaited »

frm88 wrote: post #216
dogleash wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Why are we sensitive about the word "resource"? It's simple dehumanization. It's not outlandish or anything, it's just really easy to notice. And the sophistry to try make them equivalent terms is also easy to notice. For a business to need resources it means a category of stuff that can include people, tools, raw materials, etc... Using the name of a category to mean one thing inside it instead of explicitly naming…

Because starting from the 1980's corporate organisation was focused on managing resources, of which humans were a part that had to be dehumanized to fit with the rest of the theory. There was a brief phase where it was called HCM - human capital management, but that never caught on widely; so HRM it is with a focus on managing as opposed to organising and supporting. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/evolution-hr-termin…

Human capital is even worse!

Re: Things I want to say to my boss

#225

Post by Sohcahtoa82 »

didibus wrote: post #76
reallymental wrote: post #3

I think y'all (i.e. who've contributed anonymously to the article), have taken these words too literally. I think we're finally seeing the culmination of around 15+ years (post '08) of leadership mindset finally reap its rewards. Over the last decade (last 3+ decades realistically, I'm around 35, so that's all my personal anecdotal data goes back to), these "leaders" have all thrown away the facade of "mentorship", "…

> Profit at any cost Yes, but I think you're overlooking a hugely important factor in all this... You boss is just some average manager that very often could even be below average. Your boss is under their own pressure to perform and most of them will similarly struggle because they're not that good. Most workers at any roles are just average by definition. And the higher up you go, the more timing and luck plays a r…

> But optimizing for profit often aligns with engineering well being, a robust, productive team, an environment conductive to innovation and quality with high velocity, etc. Those are good both for the employed engineers and profit.

True for a tech company startup, almost absolutely false for a well-established company, especially a non-tech one.

Re: Things I want to say to my boss

#226

Post by strangattractor »

nosianu wrote: post #131
strangattractor wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's face it. Working for other people sucks. They set the agenda. They make the decisions. Often those decisions and agendas will not be what you think is best. It maybe the case that you are correct. Go start your own thing and run it how you see fit. Now if you want to see what a really "caring boss" is like watch this video of former employees of Musk. The real interesting thing is some of them seem to like the…

> Working for other people sucks. Depends. I worked and even had a business with and/or worked for three people that I've known for a long time. And had loud substantial disagreements with - before going into business. Worked like a charm every single time. The personal side I mean, business was neutral once, a complete failure but I only wanted the paycheck anyway once, and a resounding success in a traditional busi…

It's true there is no silver bullet. I did contract work after 2000 dot bomb. I enjoyed working for myself.

The thing I liked most is that when my clients would ask me to do things - I would often propose things more reliable and less time to implement solutions. They would then opt for the less optimal thing sometimes for good reasons. If I was an exempt employee that would have meant me spending my personal time on the extra work to meet deadlines. The contractor me would bill them for the hours:)

Re: Things I want to say to my boss

#227

Post by didibus »

Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #225
didibus wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Profit at any cost Yes, but I think you're overlooking a hugely important factor in all this... You boss is just some average manager that very often could even be below average. Your boss is under their own pressure to perform and most of them will similarly struggle because they're not that good. Most workers at any roles are just average by definition. And the higher up you go, the more timing and luck plays a r…

> But optimizing for profit often aligns with engineering well being, a robust, productive team, an environment conductive to innovation and quality with high velocity, etc. Those are good both for the employed engineers and profit. True for a tech company startup, almost absolutely false for a well-established company, especially a non-tech one.

I admit for a non-tech company I do not know, that's a blind spot for me.

I'd want to assume that it would be the same except that they are even less likely to know it's good for their profit and therefore to not properly invest in it.

For well established tech companies, my experience is that still aligns with maximizing profit, but two things happen:

The company has so much buffer to be inneficient, they can also brute force their way into new territories or markets. They can hire more, they can contract out, they can buy up other companies, they have existing leverage from their current customers or other products, etc.

They are more focused on reducing cost than growth. They turn their current tools and products to "maintenance mode", and that requires less excellence to achieve and is more mundane work, sometimes all it takes is just more hands on it or people willing to work off-hours or long hours to get the ticket queue down to 0, which means running it like a sweat shop can meet their needs.

Re: Things I want to say to my boss

#228

Post by linhns »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #181
agenticfish wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mad Men isn’t a documentary. Contemporary work culture influenced its creators, so you’re likely seeing a reflection of that when you watch the show.

Most so called documentaries contain a lot of fiction too.

Yep, considering they need actors also for those flashback scenes.

Re: Things I want to say to my boss

#230

Post by breppp »

alephnerd wrote: post #202
pwillia7 wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tell me more

When I was in the policymaking world and was considering grad school/academia, an underlying theme in my research was that the principal-agent problem is a reflection of misaligned incentives which leads a stag-hunt dynamic to become a Nash Equilibrium. Long story short, incentives matter, and understanding how to align your initiatives with the incentives of veto players helps build coalitions that you need to get i…

> but I also taught myself how to do basic FP&A, marketing, user experience research, and other functions

Any recommended resources?

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