5 ms·

Checking in with work like this is a sign you aren't well organised or the structure of the company isn't correct. Why aren't you keeping colleagues informed e

Checking in with work like this is a sign you aren't well organised or the structure of the company isn't correct. Why aren't you keeping colleagues informed enough to cope without you for even a week. Why are you the only person contactable for certain issues. etc. Drives me mad when schools shut for summer and the only person who can purchase things has sodded off.

onion2k 11y ago
Why are you the only person contactable for certain issues. etc. One of the best pieces of advice I was given very early in my career was 'If you can't be replaced then you can't be fired, but you can't be promoted either.' Being indispensable is a career limiting move.
- FilterSweep 11y ago
  That second part of the advice just rocked my world as a young guy. Thanks.
yummyfajitas 11y ago
It's not always easy or possible to have redundancy for every role. At a company with 20 devs, hiring 2pms, 2 data scientists and 2 DBA just to handle vacation coverage is not realistic. At MS or FB this makes sense, but lots of places are much smaller. Sometimes the best business decision is not the most convenient one for the employees - life is full of tradeoffs.
- cmdkeen 11y ago
  But you're also a country with mostly "at will" employment laws - any one of those employees can quit with no notice. If you can't cope for a week without any of those individuals then you have some serious business risks. Except "coping" isn't what everyone thinks about, there's some bizarre expectation of 100% efficiency for short notice things. If the DBA needs a week off then plan around it. I can see a case in a small firm for some people to be contactable in case of dire emergencies - but with significant costs like holiday day reimbursement and cash if activated. Not an expectation of any contact, view that as a significant failing.
  - yummyfajitas 11y ago
    Many small companies are stuck with serious business risks, such as critical people leaving. Their goal is to grow fast enough to work around those risks. Some will die due to those risks. Most likely the right way to mitigate those risks is not European style work/life balance but rather Valley style "pay the SPOF a lot, give him ownership, and make him feel highly valued".
    - cmdkeen 11y ago
      Well there might be sufficient data to bear that out. Plenty of startups are adopting work / life balance friendly policies. It would be interesting to see if they have a better / worse change of success... Perhaps one for Mattermark
- Fuxy 11y ago
  Is it really a good business decision if loosing one of your employees could send ripples through your products and negatively affect it for months to come?
- mseebach 11y ago
  It doesn't have to be 1:1 personal redundancy -- it's more like, several of the 20 devs being able to assume lightweight PM/DS/DBA responsibilities for a few weeks while that person is away (I've personally as a dev covered for pretty much that set of roles -- and always had a renewed appreciation for the skills of that person when they returned). In other words, don't silo your roles too rigidly, especially when you're small and can't afford 1:1 redundancies. And if your company absolutely 100% relies on having a full-blown PM/DS/DBA around at all times, well, then you DO need (at least) two of each, otherwise your company tanks if your one DBA gets sick or leaves for a company where they don't have to suffer the permanent stress of being a SPOF. And if you CAN survive for a few weeks while you hire and train a new DBA in that situation, then you can survive for a few weeks while your DBA is on holiday.
- CaptainZapp 11y ago
  So, how do you handle this in a country, in which you're legally obliged to provide vacation to your employees? Just flout the law?
  - fulafel 11y ago
    It's less of an issue where people take their vacations at the same time (eg 4 weeks summer, 1 week christmas, etc). Then you just need a skeleton crew, no PMs and your CTO & other founders can be on-call for ops emergencies. As your company grows so that you no longer have technically competent management you start having 2 PMs and 2 DBAs too :)
  - yummyfajitas 11y ago
    I'd just avoid hiring in such countries. India and the US have lots of great developers. I don't see a reason why I'd ever hire devs in Europe.
    - deleted 11y ago
      [deleted]
    - rpwilcox 11y ago
      ... so you just hire developers in the United States then? (India has a mandatory vacation policy, or so appears to say Wikipedia...)
      - yummyfajitas 11y ago
        Employment laws in India more or less apply only to either larger companies or friends of connected people. I would have no concerns hiring someone and telling them "hey, I'm paying you well because I need you available all the time, just in case." They will almost certainly lack the ability to use the legal system to screw me over.
    - wfo 11y ago
      You're right, we should just move our businesses to whichever countries currently allow the most exploitation and abuse of workers and race to the bottom. Why not just cut to the chase and implement slavery already? It's the most economically efficient method of production after all.
- onion2k 11y ago
  Sometimes the best business decision is not the most convenient one for the employees - life is full of tradeoffs. That's very true, and sometimes the best business decision is one that favours staff retention over short term profit. Losing the experience and expertise of someone who's been in the company a while just because you can't manage your team well enough to get people trained to cover one another's vacation time is going to get expensive when people burn out and quit, not to mention the effect it'll have on staff morale and your business's reputation as a bad place to work (which has a knock-on effect on sales). You're entirely right that a small business can't afford to have complete redundancy for every staff position - the appropriate strategy is to put well documented processes in place, with good handover management and proper knowledge sharing. Discouraging people from taking vacation time to the point where you'd only hire in countries where you can give your staff zero paid vacation days is not.

onion2k 11y ago

Why are you the only person contactable for certain issues. etc. One of the best pieces of advice I was given very early in my career was 'If you can't be replaced then you can't be fired, but you can't be promoted either.' Being indispensable is a career limiting move.

FilterSweep 11y ago
That second part of the advice just rocked my world as a young guy. Thanks.

yummyfajitas 11y ago

It's not always easy or possible to have redundancy for every role. At a company with 20 devs, hiring 2pms, 2 data scientists and 2 DBA just to handle vacation coverage is not realistic. At MS or FB this makes sense, but lots of places are much smaller. Sometimes the best business decision is not the most convenient one for the employees - life is full of tradeoffs.

cmdkeen 11y ago
But you're also a country with mostly "at will" employment laws - any one of those employees can quit with no notice. If you can't cope for a week without any of those individuals then you have some serious business risks. Except "coping" isn't what everyone thinks about, there's some bizarre expectation of 100% efficiency for short notice things. If the DBA needs a week off then plan around it. I can see a case in a small firm for some people to be contactable in case of dire emergencies - but with significant costs like holiday day reimbursement and cash if activated. Not an expectation of any contact, view that as a significant failing.
- yummyfajitas 11y ago
  Many small companies are stuck with serious business risks, such as critical people leaving. Their goal is to grow fast enough to work around those risks. Some will die due to those risks. Most likely the right way to mitigate those risks is not European style work/life balance but rather Valley style "pay the SPOF a lot, give him ownership, and make him feel highly valued".
  - cmdkeen 11y ago
    Well there might be sufficient data to bear that out. Plenty of startups are adopting work / life balance friendly policies. It would be interesting to see if they have a better / worse change of success... Perhaps one for Mattermark
Fuxy 11y ago
Is it really a good business decision if loosing one of your employees could send ripples through your products and negatively affect it for months to come?
mseebach 11y ago
It doesn't have to be 1:1 personal redundancy -- it's more like, several of the 20 devs being able to assume lightweight PM/DS/DBA responsibilities for a few weeks while that person is away (I've personally as a dev covered for pretty much that set of roles -- and always had a renewed appreciation for the skills of that person when they returned). In other words, don't silo your roles too rigidly, especially when you're small and can't afford 1:1 redundancies. And if your company absolutely 100% relies on having a full-blown PM/DS/DBA around at all times, well, then you DO need (at least) two of each, otherwise your company tanks if your one DBA gets sick or leaves for a company where they don't have to suffer the permanent stress of being a SPOF. And if you CAN survive for a few weeks while you hire and train a new DBA in that situation, then you can survive for a few weeks while your DBA is on holiday.
CaptainZapp 11y ago
So, how do you handle this in a country, in which you're legally obliged to provide vacation to your employees? Just flout the law?
- fulafel 11y ago
  It's less of an issue where people take their vacations at the same time (eg 4 weeks summer, 1 week christmas, etc). Then you just need a skeleton crew, no PMs and your CTO & other founders can be on-call for ops emergencies. As your company grows so that you no longer have technically competent management you start having 2 PMs and 2 DBAs too :)
- yummyfajitas 11y ago
  I'd just avoid hiring in such countries. India and the US have lots of great developers. I don't see a reason why I'd ever hire devs in Europe.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
  - rpwilcox 11y ago
    ... so you just hire developers in the United States then? (India has a mandatory vacation policy, or so appears to say Wikipedia...)
    - yummyfajitas 11y ago
      Employment laws in India more or less apply only to either larger companies or friends of connected people. I would have no concerns hiring someone and telling them "hey, I'm paying you well because I need you available all the time, just in case." They will almost certainly lack the ability to use the legal system to screw me over.
  - wfo 11y ago
    You're right, we should just move our businesses to whichever countries currently allow the most exploitation and abuse of workers and race to the bottom. Why not just cut to the chase and implement slavery already? It's the most economically efficient method of production after all.
onion2k 11y ago
Sometimes the best business decision is not the most convenient one for the employees - life is full of tradeoffs. That's very true, and sometimes the best business decision is one that favours staff retention over short term profit. Losing the experience and expertise of someone who's been in the company a while just because you can't manage your team well enough to get people trained to cover one another's vacation time is going to get expensive when people burn out and quit, not to mention the effect it'll have on staff morale and your business's reputation as a bad place to work (which has a knock-on effect on sales). You're entirely right that a small business can't afford to have complete redundancy for every staff position - the appropriate strategy is to put well documented processes in place, with good handover management and proper knowledge sharing. Discouraging people from taking vacation time to the point where you'd only hire in countries where you can give your staff zero paid vacation days is not.