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Forgotten Employee (2002)

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Re: Forgotten Employee (2002)

#71

Post by xivzgrev »

deanmen wrote: post #52
jiggliemon wrote: post #12

Does anyone have the “Bob code” story? Where some guy renamed PHP to BOB and proceeded to pretend that he was unfirable with much success?

https://thedailywtf.com/articles/We-Use-bobX

Brian sounds like the drag on the company, not Bob.

Bob is simply offering a deal that is in his best interests. Brian is the enabler, and I'm surprised HE wasn't fired.

Developers are expensive to recruit and train. If your department keeps losing them, because of the environment, then maybe you need a different environment.

Re: Forgotten Employee (2002)

#72

Post by dang »

Related:

Forgotten Employee - The American Dream (2002) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31255298 - May 2022 (2 comments)

Forgotten Employee (2002) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17332440 - June 2018 (166 comments)

Forgotten Employee (2002) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6087935 - July 2013 (291 comments)

The Life of a Forgotten employee - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1320310 - May 2010 (28 comments)

Others?

Re: Forgotten Employee (2002)

#73

Post by sirmarksalot »

Lammy wrote: post #16

For history's sake, here are 3 of 5 parts of the original story preserved in the SA Goldmine for anyone who wants to read 2002 forum comments: Part 1: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=18... (dead link) Part 2: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=20... (dead link) Part 3: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=26... Part 4: https://forums.somethingawful…

I remember when that happened. "Sir" or "kind sir" had become a cliche, and the mods added a replacement filter to discourage people from using it. Understand that SA at the time lived by the edgelord ethos, "if I don't mean it literally, it's not offensive," so this kind of thing wasn't seen as homophobic, even though it totally was.

Re: Forgotten Employee (2002)

#74

Post by yamtaddle »

harryvederci wrote: post #69
jonah wrote: post #65

Happened to me to a minor degree. After a couple years at the first company I worked for, a number of very senior folks resigned - decimating a department which was a key part of the co's DNA. I transferred into that department - working under the remaining sr. staffer trying to pick up the pieces and keep thing moving ahead. Soon afterwards, the company "reorganized", selling off all their products, focusing on one…

Do you regret asking them? Sounds like you missed out on a lot of free cash, but I guess this stupid thing called "conscience" might have spoiled the fun of that eventually anyway..

Lots of us find that kind of situation completely miserable. Not because we love work and just can't stand not being productive but because it's living with a Sword of Damocles over your head and it threatens future employability. Unless you've already got fuck-you money it's very stressful, even if you don't give a shit about ensuring the shareholders are getting a good return on their investment (I sure as hell don't).

Re: Forgotten Employee (2002)

#75

Post by tenpoundhammer »

shubhamjain wrote: post #13
iamjackg wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious: how long were your breaks? I've had two rather long (>6 months) breaks in my career, and I've enjoyed them immensely and have been very productive: finished personal projects, made music, YouTube videos, learned new skills. However, both times it took at least a couple months of passive life before I could do anything productive at all: I just slept, cooked, read, played video games, and scrolled Reddit.…

My break was almost 5-6 months. It's not like I didn't do anything. I revamped my website, shipped a puzzle game, wrote articles. But I had months where I basically didn't do anything. And it was hard to climb out of the stretch of unproductivity. The main issue was that I didn't have any concrete goals. And while theoretically I could have done anything, my mind was digressing everywhere and ended up doing nothing.…

It makes me wonder if humans are aligned much more to primitive life than we believe. I wonder if our ancestors spent long stretches of time living off reserves and waiting for spring to come. Then in spring they started working hard to replenish store. Maybe it's natural or instinctual to do very little when we aren't motivated by the need to provide for ourselves?

Re: Forgotten Employee (2002)

#76

Post by reaperducer »

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 story is probably fiction

I can believe it is real, if possibly embellished or simplified. Crazy things happen in larger organizations, especially before every department's computers were all tied together.

I was once the subject of a dispute between three departments in a large company, and ended up spending several months at work with nothing to do but browse lolcats. I had to put on a suit and come to the office every day, but I was prohibited from doing any work.

I was NOT popular among the people who knew that I was collecting a paycheck all that time.

Re: Forgotten Employee (2002)

#78

Post by nebulousthree »

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…

You say you don't deride it but you just made a judgement call by calling it "squandering".

I guess time spent relearning to walk after a traumatic injury is also squandered time as well then?

Re: Forgotten Employee (2002)

#80

Post by nebulousthree »

CodeSgt wrote: post #58
dinosaurdynasty wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Time enjoyed is not time wasted

I disagree. I might enjoy 2 months of sitting on my couch, smoking weed, and playing video games stoned out my gourd. That time would still be very much wasted.

That's just because you limit your view to 2 months and look at it in a vacuum.

If you extend your timeline, you may find that you get bored or restless and want to change things up. That "wasted time" is necessary in order to get into a different headspace. It's the equivalent of riding an elevator for your brain... It takes you to a different stage of life.

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