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Almost every not-typical-big-corporate job has less bullshit work assigned than the lot of BS assigned to typical big corporate job workers. Startups and even m

Almost every not-typical-big-corporate job has less bullshit work assigned than the lot of BS assigned to typical big corporate job workers. Startups and even mid-size companies don't magically solve the problem of having to do BS work, there's typically just a lot less of it. When what you do or don't do is all up to you, the portion of BS work goes to 0 because you don't want to do it so you don't. Companies fall on a BS scale that correlates to their size and determines how much BS work you don't want to do that you have to do anyway (or rather, you always have a choice, but if you don't do it then you're fired/the company goes out of business/a customer is pissed off and sues you/etc. which makes it not much of a choice at all).

SonicSoul 11y ago
I've worked at larger co's (1k+ employees) where BS work was actively eradicated in order to have breathing space to move forward and innovate. This is possible but requires vigilant management and hiring the kind of people that want to make a difference. There's more red tape at corps which may be part of the BS you're pointing out but even that was actively fought. I see it similar to technical debt. It's easy to accumulate if you're not careful and easy to live with at first but will slowly come back and take you down.
- cobaltblue 11y ago
  I would describe your experience as atypical, wouldn't you? Just like Valve's nearly-flat management is atypical and requires a certain mesh of personalities and pruning to work at all. Counterexamples exist, it's not a perfect correlation, but unless they're plentiful they don't really change the typical.
  - SonicSoul 11y ago
    You do have a point. I suppose that is why you generally make more working at a corp, to either deal with the BS or ideally figure out a way to solve it which is never easy. All I was saying is that there are ways around it and long term solutions that work if you're willing to sink your teeth in and try to improve the status quo. The feeling of looking back and seeing that 80% of BS from last year was eliminated can be quite satisfying even if you're not at a game changing startup.

SonicSoul 11y ago

I've worked at larger co's (1k+ employees) where BS work was actively eradicated in order to have breathing space to move forward and innovate. This is possible but requires vigilant management and hiring the kind of people that want to make a difference. There's more red tape at corps which may be part of the BS you're pointing out but even that was actively fought. I see it similar to technical debt. It's easy to accumulate if you're not careful and easy to live with at first but will slowly come back and take you down.

cobaltblue 11y ago
I would describe your experience as atypical, wouldn't you? Just like Valve's nearly-flat management is atypical and requires a certain mesh of personalities and pruning to work at all. Counterexamples exist, it's not a perfect correlation, but unless they're plentiful they don't really change the typical.
- SonicSoul 11y ago
  You do have a point. I suppose that is why you generally make more working at a corp, to either deal with the BS or ideally figure out a way to solve it which is never easy. All I was saying is that there are ways around it and long term solutions that work if you're willing to sink your teeth in and try to improve the status quo. The feeling of looking back and seeing that 80% of BS from last year was eliminated can be quite satisfying even if you're not at a game changing startup.