Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

news.ycombinator.com

851–860 of 862 posts

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#851

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I sit during my teams standup, it’s a standup because it’s a daily sync not because of literal standing.

actually it is supposed to be a literal standup. standing encourages very quick and to the point updates.

You are missing my point entirely. Yes its called a standup because standing encourages brevity. Just because you sit or stand doesn't mean its a standup in literal definition though.

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#852
post #425

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can have a git repo on a server that developers use ssh to access just with git. The bells and whistles aren't part of the core job. It's just my general griping about software these days.

Good luck doing code reviews with a distributed team using that.

Linux is one of the most massively distributed projects in the world, and it just works fine without GUI review tools. If Linux devs don't need such tools like gitlab, why you?

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#853

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're going to be sticking around, is there someway you can (perhaps covertly) pivot within the company? You didn't mention what the platform does, but is there some featureset you could work on in your free time, and then surprise the company?

I don't think I could do something within the platform itself because it's a different team, a different tech stack and a different mindset. They are disconnected from reality and build whatever features the product owner & CTO puts on their plate. The only thing I could do is to try to convince Sales or Account managers that we need new integrations and POC projects...

Okay, how about: make extremely casual friends with the developers you can resonate with the easiest, and unofficially learn about any and all pain points and so forth. Maybe even hint at the truth about not having enough work to do, if you think it would be understood correctly (something to play by ear), and point out the specific area of tooling you work on.

If you play your cards right, you might be able to go up your chain at the same time you get your new friend(s) to go up their chain, producing a most odd coincidence where some random idea you offhandedly mention to your boss one day happens to be exactly what the boss heard the developer team lead really wanted :) or something to that effect.

Basically figure out how to engineer a planets-aligning moment in terms of approval. If possible, mix things up so it looks like your initiative was key in the new feature happening.

Maybe (more playing by ear) you could skip the coincidence stuff and just mention that you happened to grab lunch with a developer and heard they really wanted XYZ feature (that happens to be exactly the kind of thing you'd be perfect to implement etc etc). Sort of sounds a tad less impressive put that way, but could still work.

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#854

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…

This, right here is the problem with our industry. Someone has a brain wave and asks a [set of] hardworking engineer(s) to 'make it happen yesterday'. Engineers toil away and bring out something useful by making all possible hacks since yesterday has already passed. Early engineers get frustrated and leave only to be replaced with some more hardworking engineers who now have to clean up the mess, keep the lights on _and_ implement the next brain wave that the idea man came up with. The problem is, a lot of 'thinkers' are becoming entrepreneurs - most of them have no idea about the complexities or intricacies of software or those who wrote code so long ago that they largely worked on monoliths and have absolutely no idea how complex systems work together 'in the cloud'. We need more 'builders' (engineers) as entrepreneurs. It'll invariably lead to people working on more sensible, real world problems that need real solutions - since, hopefully, builders would know what it takes to build out something and won't waste resources on frivolous and ill thought out ideas.

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#855

Earlier quoted context omitted.

actually it is supposed to be a literal standup. standing encourages very quick and to the point updates.

Yes but the act of standing is a crutch, if you pardon the pun. What matters is brevity.

Agreed, I don’t need to stand to ensure my teams concise in their update. The parking lot concept is a great way to shorten meeting and politely interrupt people when they are long winded.

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#856

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don’t to me, I spent the last 4 months saving every penny to so that I had 7mths runway in the bank as I was approaching the inevitable “fuck this point”. I accepted an offer for a new job yesterday and so I won’t need that buffer but I’m keeping it, ISA’s and pensions are all good but I didn’t leave myself enough readily accessible cash to just say fuck it and walk if I needed to.

Smart person. Now don't stop saving and increase your runway even further. The difference between having a few years worth in the bank and not is incredible.

New offer comes with a big salary increase (and me and my partner are saving for a house) so I'm going to be able to save about 70% of my salary after all outgoings - outside of work my goal now is to max out ISA's and then save the rest until I have enough to cover at least 2 years - I noticed there is a peace that comes from having immediate access to enough money to quit (even if you have no intention).

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#857

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…

hi, i've pasted your story here. the account password is passwort1 if you're uncomfortable with that and want to delete it https://able.bio/throwthrowthrowyourboat/my-grand-ulcer-name...

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#858

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe it's bull. But it has the ring of truth to it, to me, and I've worked for a few healthcare startups. A lot of developers think of themselves as "just developers" and a lot of people are brutally incurious about the world until it hits them in the face.

> ... are brutally incurious ... This is an amazing phrase.

Thank you. I try sometimes. ;)

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#859
Don't want to be fired.

However, what would get me the most is the interaction/attitude between my team and boss.

Also, a terrible salary makes for a low tolerance.

From a programmatic point-of-view, inadequate framework, legacy code, and disagreeable methodologies.

Re: Ask HN: Who Wants to Be Fired?

#860
post #677

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

way strong, this one's long game is
Post reply on HN