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

Quitting a New Job

yolken.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 246 posts

Re: Quitting a New Job

#31

Post by yosefjaved1 »

nickff wrote: post #2

I realize that HN is very employee-centric, but "exploring new opportunities but don’t quit until something better is lined up" is rather harmful to the team you're working with. If someone's just started, they're generally a net-negative, so the individual is both drawing pay and sucking resources. This is almost 'quitting in-place'. If we expect startups and companies to act ethically (in terms of pay, benefits, op…

I'm confused by the statement on ethics. What ethic is being broken by the employee, who is searching for a new job from a new company, while still under employment with his current company?

Re: Quitting a New Job

#32

Post by francisofascii »

I definitely can relate to this. I also went to work for a software/hardware company which had tight, open office desks, hardware everywhere, no remote options, longer hours, stressful deadlines, etc. I knew I made the wrong decision during my orientation. I choose option 3, which was was stick it out for two years. Ironically by the time 2 years was up, I was in a much happier state. I had just become used to the situation. I learned a ton from the experience and all the smart people working there, but I would never want to go back.

Re: Quitting a New Job

#33

Post by analog31 »

nickff wrote: post #2

I realize that HN is very employee-centric, but "exploring new opportunities but don’t quit until something better is lined up" is rather harmful to the team you're working with. If someone's just started, they're generally a net-negative, so the individual is both drawing pay and sucking resources. This is almost 'quitting in-place'. If we expect startups and companies to act ethically (in terms of pay, benefits, op…

I think the general theory is that the employee has the net disadvantage. If they lose their job, it's 100% of their livelihood, whereas for the employer, losing one employee out of a dozen or more is rarely an existential threat. Also, the employer has more power over the work environment.

Re: Quitting a New Job

#34

Post by Animats »

At Stripe and each of my jobs before that, I had had a short commute to a beautiful office, and got to experience the instant gratification associated with developing purely software-based products. Now, I was stuck taking a crowded train to a dark office littered with hardware parts, working on a product that would take many years to reach mass-market adoption due to pesky little things like manufacturing and road safety.

This is after he went to a robotics company because it seemed different.

He may also have felt out of place with people who know computers, electrical engineering, and mechanical engineering. If all you know is webcrap, you may feel way over your head in a robotics company.

Re: Quitting a New Job

#35

Post by macintux »

sethammons wrote: post #16
janosett wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the risk with at-will employment in CA. The employer could very well decide after two days of you working there that they wanted to let you go -- there's no part of the contract keeping either side from ending things early. I don't think it's unethical to leave after a short amount of time given the employer has no equivalent expectation.

A buddy of mine got a new job, quit the old one, showed up day one and was laid off immediately. Apparently their budget had changed. Oof! We also hired a c-level exec who came aboard apparently having already accepted a different offer and came on for under a month to collect pay and get some juicy stock. Apparently they negotiated well and walked off very, very well paid. Edit: not sure if I have a point there othe…

> We also hired a c-level exec who came aboard apparently having already accepted a different offer and came on for under a month to collect pay and get some juicy stock.

At a previous job, I worked fairly closely with a sales representative who, it turned out, was working in sales “full time” for two different tech companies in different fields.

Needless to say, once he was discovered he was jobless (unless, of course, there were more undiscovered jobs out there).

Re: Quitting a New Job

#36

Post by TylerE »

nickff wrote: post #2

I realize that HN is very employee-centric, but "exploring new opportunities but don’t quit until something better is lined up" is rather harmful to the team you're working with. If someone's just started, they're generally a net-negative, so the individual is both drawing pay and sucking resources. This is almost 'quitting in-place'. If we expect startups and companies to act ethically (in terms of pay, benefits, op…

How come almost no company that wants that kind of loyalty is willing to pay for it?

Like, say, 6 months of guaranteed pay if you are let go for any reason non-criminal.

Re: Quitting a New Job

#37

Post by r00fus »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #3

> As I noted in a previous post, switching teams is a lot easier than switching jobs. I didn’t do this before I left Stripe because there weren’t any other teams that I was super enthusiastic about at the time. But, in retrospect, I probably should have given this a try before quitting. A few years ago, I was looking for a new job after being laid off. I had two competing companies to choose from, and chose the one t…

> But after I announced my departure, a few engineers from other teams came up and told me they wished I'd let them know before quitting, since they would have been glad to have me on their team instead.

You know I know folks who've actually taken these kind of opportunities and sometimes it works, but other times it results in a) you finding out there are problems with the transfer (headcount or manager blocks transfer) and b) being distracted from getting out of your current situation.

It's 20/20 hindsight, for sure - but I like to think of opportunities missed as simply "outside my light-cone". How likely was it you would have broadcast your departure early?

Re: Quitting a New Job

#38

Post by spectramax »

janosett wrote: post #6
nickff wrote: post #2

I realize that HN is very employee-centric, but "exploring new opportunities but don’t quit until something better is lined up" is rather harmful to the team you're working with. If someone's just started, they're generally a net-negative, so the individual is both drawing pay and sucking resources. This is almost 'quitting in-place'. If we expect startups and companies to act ethically (in terms of pay, benefits, op…

This is the risk with at-will employment in CA. The employer could very well decide after two days of you working there that they wanted to let you go -- there's no part of the contract keeping either side from ending things early. I don't think it's unethical to leave after a short amount of time given the employer has no equivalent expectation.

Nailed it. At-will employment in CA, so the employee can be fired or laid off instantly in an afternoon - happens all the time. But, they're generally expected (not required) to give 2-3 weeks notice. I always found this a bit asymmetric.

Re: Quitting a New Job

#39

Post by jnwatson »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #3

> As I noted in a previous post, switching teams is a lot easier than switching jobs. I didn’t do this before I left Stripe because there weren’t any other teams that I was super enthusiastic about at the time. But, in retrospect, I probably should have given this a try before quitting. A few years ago, I was looking for a new job after being laid off. I had two competing companies to choose from, and chose the one t…

This strongly depends on the company structure and the political structure. There are many managers that would rather have an employee leave than go to a rival team.

Re: Quitting a New Job

#40

Post by maximente »

nickff wrote: post #2

I realize that HN is very employee-centric, but "exploring new opportunities but don’t quit until something better is lined up" is rather harmful to the team you're working with. If someone's just started, they're generally a net-negative, so the individual is both drawing pay and sucking resources. This is almost 'quitting in-place'. If we expect startups and companies to act ethically (in terms of pay, benefits, op…

capital can feel free to take a good faith first step by doing things such as sharing salaries, equity control, how much $ you would actually get were the company to be sold for $1B tomorrow, etc., or offering contractual employment (not at-will).

until then, no thank you - if you are hoping to win people over by using warm-sounding moving targets like "ethics", well, hopefully we've seen enough of that to know better by now.

Post reply on HN