Forgotten Employee (2002) • Hacker News Board

Re: Forgotten Employee (2002)

#31

Post by matsemann » Wed, Oct 19, 2022, 4:55 PM UTC

Have a friend this kinda happened to. He joined a company as a consultant. Right before starting, the team he was assigned to got dismantled. They still wanted him for a new team/project about to start. That of course got delayed and delayed, so he had no team or tasks assigned to him for months.

And it's not like he was hiding. He never got access cards etc, so he had to ask the boss each morning to come and let him in. Then said he still didn't have a project or anyone ordering access for him. Then sat as his desk all day and went home.

Re: Forgotten Employee (2002)

#32

Post by throwaway1022 » Wed, Oct 19, 2022, 4:55 PM UTC

shubhamjain wrote: post #3

I read it a while back. The story is probably fiction, but I have no trouble believing there must be shitload of people who must have worked an arrangement like that for themselves—taking paychecks without work. What surprises me is that almost always these people don't use their free time to do something productive—like picking up a hobby or up-skilling, they squander most of it. Ex: a programmer who outsourced his…

> What surprises me is that almost always these people don't use their free time to do something productive

Relatable.

I am at a job currently where I can get past by working 3 hours a day. But what do I do with rest of time...well not much.

And I felt the same way during Covid when WFH started. If you had told me a month prior to that that I'll be able to save 3 hours extra every day from mindless commute, in office chatter etc I'd have told you about my grand plans of how I'd make the best use of those 3 hours taking that course I have been meaning to take or reading that book that's lying unread. BUT when I did have those extra 3 hours, I didn't really do much of it.

I guess it's some version of Murphy's law - aimless surfing expands to take the time available for it? Not sure.

Re: Forgotten Employee (2002)

#33

Post by gs17 » Wed, Oct 19, 2022, 4:57 PM UTC

natural20s wrote: post #11

This happened to someone I knew back in 2014 or so. We were hired together at C** Consulting and I was immediately shipped off to Dallas to help with an eCommerce program at a famous Watch & Accessory brand. My buddy from orientation in NJ kept in touch and was jealous I was on a project so quickly. He went back to his home and went into the C** office dutifully for the first month and just did training, enablement a…

My dad had a friend who did similar at an even larger company. The way the story was passed down to me, his whole floor was laid off while he was on some sort of leave/vacation and so the paperwork didn't get filed right, leaving him disconnected from the organizational tree but still in payroll. It's amazing the mistakes bureaucracy can make.

Re: Forgotten Employee (2002)

#34

Post by ghaff » Wed, Oct 19, 2022, 4:57 PM UTC

throwaway1022 wrote: post #32

shubhamjain wrote: post #3

I read it a while back. The story is probably fiction, but I have no trouble believing there must be shitload of people who must have worked an arrangement like that for themselves—taking paychecks without work. What surprises me is that almost always these people don't use their free time to do something productive—like picking up a hobby or up-skilling, they squander most of it. Ex: a programmer who outsourced his…

> What surprises me is that almost always these people don't use their free time to do something productive Relatable. I am at a job currently where I can get past by working 3 hours a day. But what do I do with rest of time...well not much. And I felt the same way during Covid when WFH started. If you had told me a month prior to that that I'll be able to save 3 hours extra every day from mindless commute, in office…

Parkinson's Law actually--although the original version was a little different. (Expansion of British Admiralty staff even as the navy was shrinking.)

Re: Forgotten Employee (2002)

#35

Post by scarby2 » Wed, Oct 19, 2022, 5:02 PM UTC

jvm___ wrote: post #6

shubhamjain wrote: post #3

I read it a while back. The story is probably fiction, but I have no trouble believing there must be shitload of people who must have worked an arrangement like that for themselves—taking paychecks without work. What surprises me is that almost always these people don't use their free time to do something productive—like picking up a hobby or up-skilling, they squander most of it. Ex: a programmer who outsourced his…

"The water in your body is just visiting. It was a thunderstorm a week ago. It will be the ocean soon enough. Most of your cells come and go like morning dew. We are more weather pattern than stone monument. Sunlight on mist. Summer lightning. Your choices outweigh your substance." - The CryptoNaturalist We think ourselves as a stone monument "I'm productive" "I'm this or that", but the truth is what we do daily defi…

i do the same thing work or not. Think.

Right now i think about how to re-define technical processes and patterns to reduce CFR, increase deploys etc.

When i was off work for a while i think about cooking, video games, restoring a car, emerging tech, how i can help others, refining social patterns etc.

There's not that long that I'm not thinking about something, just usually people pay me to think about something.

Re: Forgotten Employee (2002)

#36

Post by r3trohack3r » Wed, Oct 19, 2022, 5:08 PM UTC

shubhamjain wrote: post #3

I read it a while back. The story is probably fiction, but I have no trouble believing there must be shitload of people who must have worked an arrangement like that for themselves—taking paychecks without work. What surprises me is that almost always these people don't use their free time to do something productive—like picking up a hobby or up-skilling, they squander most of it. Ex: a programmer who outsourced his…

We like to believe ourselves capable of anything if we just tried. If we never try, we die thinking we may have squandered our potential. If we give ourselves space to try and succeed, we die knowing what was on the other side of trying. If we give ourselves space to try and we fail, we die knowing there wasn’t any potential to squander.

Re: Forgotten Employee (2002)

#37

Post by r3trohack3r » Wed, Oct 19, 2022, 5:13 PM UTC

antisthenes wrote: post #23

shubhamjain wrote: post #3

I read it a while back. The story is probably fiction, but I have no trouble believing there must be shitload of people who must have worked an arrangement like that for themselves—taking paychecks without work. What surprises me is that almost always these people don't use their free time to do something productive—like picking up a hobby or up-skilling, they squander most of it. Ex: a programmer who outsourced his…

> What surprises me is that almost always these people don't use their free time to do something productive—like picking up a hobby or up-skilling, they squander most of it. Do you actually have any data on this, or is this pure conjecture? You seem to have a sample size of 1, and perhaps 2, if you include the fictional story. Both indirect sources. > But when we do get total freedom, we hardly remain as productive a…

Thought the same thing

> I have no trouble believing there must be shitload of people who must have worked an arrangement like that for themselves—taking paychecks without work. What surprises me is that almost always these people don't use their free time to do something productive

OP seems to go from being unsure if this group exists (thinking it highly likely but having no reference data to back it up) to knowing something intrinsic about them (everyone who does it has this trait). The two sentences seem to be at odds.

Also seems like projecting their personal experience onto everyone else.

Re: Forgotten Employee (2002)

#38

Post by ta94455 » Wed, Oct 19, 2022, 5:17 PM UTC

My father worked for a large telecommunications provider in the late 90's, after their merger he was left as the site manager but with no employees. Just him and the custodial staff in the building for ~2 years. The site was 7 minutes from our house and was mostly defunct. He'd show up at 9am, come home for lunch, then back to the office and leave at 3. Occasionally he'd need to reboot something or ship back infrastructure but primarily he would spend his time watching historical Korean dramas on PBS and learned conversational Korean from it.

Re: Forgotten Employee (2002)

#39

Post by bee_rider » Wed, Oct 19, 2022, 5:19 PM UTC

throwaway1022 wrote: post #32

shubhamjain wrote: post #3

I read it a while back. The story is probably fiction, but I have no trouble believing there must be shitload of people who must have worked an arrangement like that for themselves—taking paychecks without work. What surprises me is that almost always these people don't use their free time to do something productive—like picking up a hobby or up-skilling, they squander most of it. Ex: a programmer who outsourced his…

> What surprises me is that almost always these people don't use their free time to do something productive Relatable. I am at a job currently where I can get past by working 3 hours a day. But what do I do with rest of time...well not much. And I felt the same way during Covid when WFH started. If you had told me a month prior to that that I'll be able to save 3 hours extra every day from mindless commute, in office…

We're very social animals, I wonder if the aimless surfing is the "interact with people" instinct misfiring.

I've noticed that when I have a choice, the tasks that I pick first are the ones that somebody else will see the results of. It'd be interesting to hear the experience of a couple friends who'd taken a couple months off and worked together on a project. I bet they'd be pretty productive. Although it would be hard to coordinate.

Re: Forgotten Employee (2002)

#40

Post by agent008t » Wed, Oct 19, 2022, 5:20 PM UTC

shubhamjain wrote: post #3

I read it a while back. The story is probably fiction, but I have no trouble believing there must be shitload of people who must have worked an arrangement like that for themselves—taking paychecks without work. What surprises me is that almost always these people don't use their free time to do something productive—like picking up a hobby or up-skilling, they squander most of it. Ex: a programmer who outsourced his…

> Lacking objective, or structure in the day, I found myself playing video games or surfing web pretty much all day.

I think the key is to identify these timesinks and to eliminate them one-by-one. Often these are dopamine-hijacking activities.

So, suppose you decided to yourself that you are not going to be surfing the web at all, or limit it to a strictly scheduled timeslot, or only use the web when you have a specific purpose in mind.

Suppose you did the same with videogames - limit it to a specific timeslot in your week, or eliminate it altogether.

What would you do then? What would you find yourself doing if you found yourself in living conditions where you do not have access to such easy entertainment?

You would probably get very bored at first. That's great! The first step is to stop seeing boredom as something to be avoided at all costs. It is ok to be bored - in fact it is good to be bored. Sit with it and do not allow yourself to fall back onto the easy entertainment options.

You will find that after a while you are actually just going to pick up that physics textbook you meant to study off the shelf - or end up doing whatever interesting project you thought you would be doing. It will be easy, interesting and natural. Just like it was when you were a child on summer holidays and probably didn't have access to unlimited video games, broadband internet or other dopamine-hijacking forms of easy entertainment!

Just eliminate the timesinks from your life one-by-one and allow yourself to become bored.