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Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

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Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#671

Post by abledon »

Random_Person wrote: post #658

That'd be great. I'm actively searching, but a 40 year old junior dev isn't in high demand. I took my present job hoping for some mentor-ship to better develop my skills. My days are spent in my office, with no concrete understanding of what is expected of me. I have projects that are "mine"... and by that, I mean that no other developer has a clue what I do. There is no team. No goals. No targets. I just work on wha…

talk to people around the office and figure out the mission of the company, figure out how to make peoples tasks easier to complete so they have less work to do, and can work easier throughout the day.

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#672

Post by scott_s »

reificator wrote: post #115
thijsvandien wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are the arguments against version control here (if any)? Honestly the project sounds quite interesting, but I can imagine the circumstances make it painful.

> What's are the arguments against version control here (if any)? * I don't understand it * You're overcomplicating things * We're not using any of that free shit here * It doesn't say Microsoft or IBM * The last guy we hired that tried to use it was smarter than I was so anyone else who tries is a threat to my leadership. (because everyone knows you can only manage people who have a strict subset of your own knowled…

I've learned there are arguments that are not worth winning, and if you find yourself in one, your priority should be getting out of the situation that created the argument.

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#673

Post by ru999gol »

syntheno wrote: post #217
rjplatte wrote: post #100

I'm the sole developer working on my current project, which is overhauling a massive DOS era application, as well as overhauling an early 2000s era CRM/business management tool, that almost all of our work happens through. Did I mention that the DOS application is a HIPAA billing application that must meet all HIPAA guidelines as well as write EDI X12 billing files? I'm very junior, been coding for ~5 years, 3 profes…

Yo, git can be used locally. I highly recommend it.

this whole story probably just boils down to people not understanding the difference between github and git.

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#675

Post by squeaky-clean »

sAbakumoff wrote: post #504
rovr138 wrote: post #478

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe they needed or wanted a reason to fire them. If that’s the case, it was all ready to go on HR.

I mean it only happens in movies when an employee gets fired and immediately put his stuff in the box and leaves the building. In real life there are labor regulations that don't allow this, there is the notification period et cetera

I saw this go down right in front of me once. She technically still worked for us for 2 weeks I believe, but I saw HR approach her, bring her out of the room for a few minutes, then she came back and started quietly packing things into a box, and left within the hour.

I don't know the full details, I think she did have some kind of warning weeks before, but ignored it because she thought she was immune to being fired. She was the worst developer I've ever worked with so far though, personality-wise and skills, she definitely lied in her PHP interview. That's also on that company though, I have no idea how she passed that interview (okay, I do have an idea, no programmers ever spoke with her).

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#676

Post by tootie »

fortran77 wrote: post #196
throwaway58129 wrote: post #64

I didn't know this format was a thing and am so very excited to discover it. I hope you folks enjoy reading horror stories. I got a job as a Software Engineer in my current company 4.5 years ago; friend-of-a-friend sort of thing. The company had an apparently disastrous piece of software that was their main LOB. They had gone through pretty much every local consulting agency - at least once, on a few occasions they h…

I've worked for Fortune 500 and even Fortune 50 companies that acquired tech companies with no due diligence (usually in a panic) and I've had to clean up the mess. And the acquired folks usually leave in exactly a year and one day, after vesting. And, even in 2019, I've gotten calls to clean up messes from people that have hired a software developer (for a company whose business isn't software) who doesn't use sourc…

One of my first jobs as a teenager was not software related, but basically just accounting support. A mid-size retail chain had acquired another retailer and needed help going over the books. This was in the 90s and I was basically typing stuff in an Excel sheet and getting a sum. Last day on the job I gave them the bottom-line number of something (revenue?) and my manager looked at it and said it seemed way off. Whatever, I'm done for the summer. Few weeks later there's a story that the company they acquired had lied about their value by a large margin and it was enough to put them out of business forever. Close all their stores and liquidated. I know it was not my fault at all, but I like to think it was my Excel sheet that destroyed them.

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#677

Post by ufmace »

edraferi wrote: post #615
dav1app wrote: post #403

On my last job, a new manager called me for a meeting on Friday 4PM. I spent the whole month on an extremely stressful project. The meeting was about an app that integrates credit card payments, billets and bank account on a terminal that is going to be available to the general public. The deadline? 11PM of the same day. Final version. From 0 to 100% in 6 hours. I said that it was impossible. He said that I was incap…

BTW that was probably an illegal act by your employer. They gave you a clearly impossible task then fired you when you couldn’t complete it. That’s unreasonable. You might want to contact an employment attorney in your state for a consultation. Your state Bar association can give you a referral and probably a free consultation. They will be particularly interested if this was the culmination of a pattern of bullying…

I believe that this sort of thing usually isn't worth the trouble. Acts of revenge are rarely really satisfying. Just find a new job at a better-run place. Then email all of your old colleagues about how much better the new place is - maybe you can recruit some of them and get a bonus for that too.

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#678

Post by scoutt »

throwaway58129 wrote: post #64

I didn't know this format was a thing and am so very excited to discover it. I hope you folks enjoy reading horror stories. I got a job as a Software Engineer in my current company 4.5 years ago; friend-of-a-friend sort of thing. The company had an apparently disastrous piece of software that was their main LOB. They had gone through pretty much every local consulting agency - at least once, on a few occasions they h…

Thank you for sharing this.

I love how the story goes through everything that should not be done, from blind investment to breaches and personal information leak (in a thumb-drive!!).

And this is just one company.

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#679

Post by Random_Person »

abledon wrote: post #671
Random_Person wrote: post #658

That'd be great. I'm actively searching, but a 40 year old junior dev isn't in high demand. I took my present job hoping for some mentor-ship to better develop my skills. My days are spent in my office, with no concrete understanding of what is expected of me. I have projects that are "mine"... and by that, I mean that no other developer has a clue what I do. There is no team. No goals. No targets. I just work on wha…

talk to people around the office and figure out the mission of the company, figure out how to make peoples tasks easier to complete so they have less work to do, and can work easier throughout the day.

It's not that I don't have work. I have plenty of things I could be doing on a daily basis. It's that there is no direction. No plan. No priority. I just show up and do whatever I do and go home. Once a week, I send a report to my supervisor of my activities for the week. My projects are entirely separate from the other developers here, so it's not really an option for me to go sit with them and co-work because we don't know each other's codebase.

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#680

Post by sciurus »

sAbakumoff wrote: post #504
rovr138 wrote: post #478

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe they needed or wanted a reason to fire them. If that’s the case, it was all ready to go on HR.

I mean it only happens in movies when an employee gets fired and immediately put his stuff in the box and leaves the building. In real life there are labor regulations that don't allow this, there is the notification period et cetera

That's simply not correct, at least in the US. The process I've seen is the employee is taken to a meeting room, they're told they've being let go, they're walked to their desk to retrieve their personal belongings, and they're walked out the door. From the employees perspective one minute they're working like normal, and perhaps a half-hour later they're standing outside unemployed.
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