Live data from Hacker News

When Smart People are Bad Employees

bhorowitz.com

41–43 of 43 posts

Re: When Smart People are Bad Employees

#41

From the article: "Being effective in a company also means working hard, being reliable, and being an excellent member of the team." Translation: keep your head down, don't rock the boat and don't have any passion for what you do. This is the recipe for 'success' (i.e. continued employment) at big companies. "As a result, a company needs lots of smart, super engaged employees who can identify its particular weaknesse…

With regards to "identifying the true power structure in a corporation" I've found this post from Rands on the "Culture Chart" to be helpful:

http://www.randsinrepose.com/archives/2008/10/12/the_culture...

The linked post is recycled as a chapter in his book Being Geek which I also find fabulously useful.

Re: When Smart People are Bad Employees

#42
post #4

There is another important example that the author didn't mention. The inquisitor. Anyone who's been in the workforce long enough knows the guy who can't ever accept the directions he gets without questioning every aspect of the decision. Also, this person tends to have a problem with authority and will always test his or her boundaries. That said they tend to be among the most creative thinkers in the entire company…

This kind of guy usually needs to lead or he is probably smarter than everyone else in the room.

Quite so. The project manager comes to you with an underoptimized set of step-by-step instructions; you help him to give you a minimal set of defensible business goals instead.

Next step: meet those goals in the most effective way you know how.

Re: When Smart People are Bad Employees

#43
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is really sad how relevant and spot on your analysis is. I have moved from a small typical 10-15 guys IT shop to a well established national player in private banking and it is unbelievable how crippling and exhausting work is there - but I am working much fewer hours for a much better pay. The attrition of daily 9-5 not-project work, all "serious business" and no "play" is horrible for even a mildly creative pers…

(this is part 2, should have posted it first, D'oh!) Large organizations can breed certain kinds of psychotic behaviour, such as out and out lying. Your boss (or someone else with power) may order you to do one thing, and then next week demand to know why you haven't done some other thing. You say "because you told me to do X" and they tell you they never said such a thing. Never ever ever trust that person again. Ne…

Great and valuable read! Is that from your blog or did you write a book? Would love to see more!

Now here is where that last part is really funny in my situation: most everyone of my peers could easily be my mom or dad, they are all way older than me, got family and kids, so there are no after work activities at all, there is no typical coffee room or balcony for smokers where you would "naturally" meet and talk to people, we do deal with different departments as our customers but 95% of them are in that "way older" group too.

Don't get me wrong, I am not one of those young whippersnappers ragging on "old people"; far from it, I am well approaching my 30s faster than I shall like and there are "older than me" people who can really open your eyes with some fascinating stories or experiences! I just find them here all unnaturally passionless, whining and downright boring somehow... not a lot of professional expertise where you could actually LEARN something. More times than not, it is me (from the outside) giving them an idea or suggestion based on technical knowledge. And I have just been here for maybe 3 or 4 years now... most everyone else has been here 10-20+ years.

And I'm the "expert" in my small little local kingdom so, sadly, what I say just goes and there really honestly is practically no one I could get mentoring from, even I don't consider myself that "good" at all, I still am the go-to guy and have always been that everywhere I worked at.

I know my weakness, I know I don't really excel and come up with incredibly creative, sweet solutions.. I guess I am just good enough to know how bad I am and still manage to do well enough.

Post reply on HN