12 ms·

Bullshit Job Notes

124 points by luu 8y ago

dsr_ 8y ago
"I think a thing that’s going on with the notes is that gatekeeping makes sense in some circumstances (such as the company buying a braille keyboard for a blind programmer)" ... No. Your employee who uses a computer shows up and says they are blind and need Braille accomodations? You don't wait for a doctor's note, that is explicitly unreasonable. Gatekeeping is appropriate, if at all, where an accommodation is nice for lots of people who will somehow cost the company a lot of money if they receive it and it is difficult to determine the reasonability of the request on an individual basis without invading their privacy - so you ask a doctor to stand in as a firewalling proxy that tells you whether it is reasonable in this case without telling you the underlying cause.
- buckminster 8y ago
  Except the doctor doesn't do that. The doctor says "patient reports x". Which you already know. The point is to create inconvenience for any employee who claims x. You might as well ask the employee to fetch a stone from the top of the nearest mountain.
  - paultopia 8y ago
    which isn't a terrible strategy if you're trying to ration the benefit to the employees who want it the most
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
    - undreren 8y ago
      Not if you totally ignore the human aspect. We are not machines, and we do not like to follow (what to us seems like) pointless and arbitrary rules. It will just foster resentment.
      - paultopia 8y ago
        Oh, believe me, I work at a "public" university, where even though I have tenure and near-total control over my time (in principle, not so in reality), and work like 60 hours a week, I still have to file a timesheet every month to record that I didn't spend any "sick leave." I know about resenting pointless rules.
  - wtracy 8y ago
    I don't think you're wrong, but I want to mention another possibility. It might just a CYA move on the part of an individual actor in middle management. The manager doesn't want to risk getting penalized for handing out "random perks", but also doesn't want to get in trouble for ignoring a "medically necessary" request. Put another way: That seemingly arbitrary behavior might make more sense if you assume that it's intended to protect an individual, rather than to protect the corporation.
    - undreren 8y ago
      I can totally see it from that angle. People will do what the must. Only then will they do what they can.
    - Rjevski 8y ago
      Why is "random perks" bad? Isn't the best interest of the company being making the employees happy so they are more productive? The negativity around giving "random perks" makes it feel like you're running a prison, where the point is to punish people instead of a workplace.
  - Consultant32452 8y ago
    >I hated working in an open office and tried to leverage my post-dental-surgery fragility into a private office or the right to work from home. Sounds like the employee in question was trying to get special accommodations they didn't really need and their employer was wise to their bullshit games. OP is the kind of person who makes these ridiculous authoritarian gatekeeper rules necessary.
    - buildme 8y ago
      I don’t blame anyone for trying to get away from the constant distraction and productivity-death of the trendy open office (which is actually just a way to avoid spending money).
- dudul 8y ago
  Agreed, the example about a braille keyboard is kind of odd. It's not like it's expensive, and if you give one to an employee, you won't have the whole department demanding that they are given one as well.
  - KSteffensen 8y ago
    And if you hired the person it shouldn't come as a surprise that they are blind
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
petermcneeley 8y ago
"This was a problem because what I really wanted was control over my environment, and that was the exact thing they didn’t want to give me." This is simply about power. At best case its paternalism and at worst case its calculated oppression. If you want to know where you stand in an org just observe how preferred your environment is to others.
- monochromatic 8y ago
  > At best case its paternalism and at worst case its calculated oppression. Neither one of those makes sense from a profit/loss standpoint.
  - michaelcampbell 8y ago
    Shockingly not all people in a company are about the bottom line. Perceived power is worth more to many.
  - maxxxxx 8y ago
    There are only a few people in a company that really care about profit/loss and have influence on it. Most just try to survive in the political environment and some of them get a power trip on the way.
  - Nasrudith 8y ago
    Well the managers are human and not perfectly rational, plus corruption is also a factor as well - doing it for their own purposes. If they were we wouldn't see systemic hiring discrimination - they would be fools to pass up undervalued labor. Instead they use their position to push their own values over money. Unfortunately own values often includes petty authoritarianism where they would rather go unquestioned than do things right.
- itronitron 8y ago
  >> If you want to know where you stand in an org just observe how preferred your environment is to others. That probably explains a lot of the resistance in old-school organizations to any type of working from home. The existing power brokers lose a good bit of leverage when everyone can cozy up in their own preferred environment, that they control.
treelovinhippie 8y ago
My first "real job" (31, had two, fired from both) was in a small web dev shop of about 15 people. One morning I walk into the office and there was a giant wet puddle on the carpet in the middle of the open office. The roof had leaked in the office building and gone through a few floors. The air was damp and all the windows covered in condensation. Clearly a safety and health issue. I lived about a 10min walk away, so figured I'd just work at home and announced that's what I'd be doing. Everyone wanted to work elsewhere or from home. However the boss decided that he'd cram everyone into the boardroom for the day. I was the only one who stood my ground and told the boss I was going home despite his bullshit about not being a "team player". Wage slavery is a dangerous mindset.
- monochromatic 8y ago
  Was this the episode that got you fired?
  - tru3_power 8y ago
    Hah. I hope not. If more people stood up to these things they wouldn’t happen so often.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - paulie_a 8y ago
    Years ago I had a meeting with my boss about an "incident" and flat out said I told a coworker to go fuck themself, twice and I wouldn't apologize for it. And then asked for a 20 percent raise. It was completely justified and my boss knew it. I also got the raise. Gp is right about wage slavery, sometimes people actually need to stand up for themselves.
  - treelovinhippie 8y ago
    Nah they eventually got me on a technicality. 3-day per week gig, but they kept pushing me into doing a 5-day week. I was the "innovation manager" funded by a government grant. So I was a one-man show expected to build, market and sell new profitable internal startups with zero resources or equity. On a Friday I found out the largest startup conference in Sydney was happening the next week. So I let the boss know I'd be going to that. No response. I went to the conference. When I got back to work they fired me for "not giving 2 weeks leave notice" as was in my contract lol. The story of how I got fired from the second job was even more sketchy. Involves the largest employer in the crypto industry. HR lied about giving me a warning about "behaviour" (never provided any evidence to the claim) and later admitted to having never contacted me. Small cartel of middle managers in a supposedly "decentralised company" fired me 2 weeks before a 6 month probation without any knowledge or consensus from my regional team or primary team. HR lady was fired 2 months later. They then strung me along for 2 months with a "soon to be proposed" rehire offer. Now they ignore my emails. Classy.
duxup 8y ago
A while back company I worked at was aquired and many months after the acquisition someone from the new corporate office showed up and got a tour. She repeatedly used the phrase "You let them have / do that?" The response was to things she saw at people's cubes like: * A mini fridge. * A blanket. * Some food at someone's desk. * A fan. And some random stuff. It didn't occur to anyone at that point that anyone had to "let" someone have those things at their desk. Eventually an email went out banning such things, no reason was given. An annoyed co-worker asked why via email and they were told food at their desk was "unnecessary" because there is a cafeteria. The only cafeteria was on the other side of the country at the new HQ in San Jose....they didn't respond to follow up emails. It always struck me that this person who visited's entire role was to enforce some arbitrary rules like they were our parents or something. The rules were complied with for about a month and as soon as visits stopped, everyone at our location just ignored them. Somehow nothing bad happened just as nothing ever had before. When visiting the HQ later I did eat something (breakfast bar) at my temporary desk. My coworkers in San Jose we're quite shocked, I was amused by their reaction. We all survived. Although security eventually caught me (came running even) for not wearing my ID "visible enough" ;)
- jarsin 8y ago
  These types exist all over corporate america because ton's of executive's suffers from extreme narcissism. All these ass kiss rule enforcers feed into these executives deep deep desire to fill important.
  - duxup 8y ago
    For some reason I can understand how people come do terrible things out of fear or whatever (bigots, or whatever).... but I find the casual jerkiness of these enforcers extra mind boggling. Why would people want to treat their coworkers this way? It seems so unnecessary and negative...
    - tru3_power 8y ago
      Same reason some kids want to be hall monitors. Some people just want to feel that they can project their will on other people. My guess is some deep seeded jealousy problems.
ballenf 8y ago
In the US, and perhaps other common law jurisdictions, there is an exception to the hearsay evidence rule for medical records. [1] This reflects or is a result of the same root cause as the issue discussed here: there is an almost mystical air surrounding items written by a medical doctor, even if what's written is just parroting the patient. Or maybe the two things aren't related, but they're both weird in the day and age where TV commercials urge us to prod our doctor into prescribing the latest drug. [1] https://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/fre/rule_803 https://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/fre/rule_803
- dannyw 8y ago
  There's nothing strange about that. Read further and "Records of a Regularly Conducted Activity" is also excepted, and so is absense of records. It's almost like a timestamp tool. "One year ago I suffered from XYZ" has little value. But a piece of paper, written by a doctor, that confirms one year ago you said you suffered from XYZ, is worth more. Doesn't mean XYZ is true, but it means you said that one year in advance.
darkerside 8y ago
No, your company is not evil. You are being a pain in the ass, ergo they are treating you like one. Just because your coworker didn't cop to complaining doesn't mean he didn't make it known he didn't appreciate sitting in the dark. Did you ask him first? > [Patient] reports back pain that would be improved by a chair they have chosen. Doctor writes a semantically ambiguous note. Reasonable to assume medical professional is not playing word games.
- jay_kyburz 8y ago
  The guy gets headaches under the lights. I believe it. Are you are accusing him of being liar? Perhaps you are discriminating against him for what is essentially a disability. You -> "Guy in the wheelchair is a real pain in the ass because he wants a ramp." Also, It's not really his job to tease out his co-workers thoughts and feelings, he said its fine so its fine.
  - timv 8y ago
    The article was updated. It now says > he told me it was fine It used to say > he told me he didn't complain They're different. The original article definitely read like I decide to turn the lights off in a shared office without checking with anyone else, but my office-mate assures me that he wasn't the one who ratted me out
    - wincy 8y ago
      I was really annoyed by my coworkers turning off the lights. It was dark and it made me sleepy. Eventually we just pulled out half the light bulbs which everyone seemed happy with.
      - bradknowles 8y ago
        Years ago, I shared an office with a guy when I was working at UT Austin in the Communication Center (COM) building. He liked to have the overhead fluorescent lights turned off, and use natural light coming in through the tiny window at the end of the room. I liked to have more light on for the room. We compromised on the rule that whoever got to the office first would get to set the light switch policy for the day. It worked for us. No one needed to complain to HR or our manager. Sometimes, if we are civil human beings to each other, we can work out solutions to problems that may not be ideal for everyone, but at least aren’t as bad as the other alternatives. Of course, some businesses are too big to let that kind of thing happen, and some people are incapable of treating others like human beings or compromising. And then there are cases where it simply isn’t possible to compromise. I wish everyone good luck on this subject, and hopefully you won’t have too many of those bad situations in your life.
d-sc 8y ago
In my working experience, mainly with small companies: if you consistently deliver good value, management and other employees shield you from most of the BS out there. If you don’t provide as much value you get to deal with the unpleasantries of this world.
- john_moscow 8y ago
  There's a catch though: you won't get a chance of a raise because you are needed to just keep on delivering the value while others get promoted behind your back for selling it internally.
  - nstart 8y ago
    A peculiarity exists here in the political world. If you do your work in a way that saves your manager's bacon, do it well enough that there's no question of your abilities, and you show no threat at all to your manager, there's a very high chance that a manager will treat you very well. They know a winning horse when they see one and will do what it takes to protect it. Of course this doesn't mean they'll freely drop a raise on your table. You go ask for it. The difference is you'll rarely if ever get assigned any bs targets assigned because the manager knows they don't have the control over you. You could walk out and they'll lose and you'll still likely win a job. It's lose lose for them. Delicate balances exist here such as how much you get paid Vs the manager and what not. Also, this does depend on your manager not being self destructive. Generally though I dont say this as something to subscribe to. And I'm glad I no longer deal with this. Good managers are good at coaching and leading. They'll do what it takes to make a team that's happy and does the work as needed as opposed to creating a single star. But something I learnt as I gave up some of my youthful idealisms is that everywhere there are differing flavours of politics. As long as it's not identity based discrimination or anything else illegal: Don't fight against it. The company doesn't need revolutionaries no matter how much better you think it'll make the company. Don't fight in it. Most people get busy trying to play the system and get played instead. Work with the currents. Take what you need. Call it a day. It's less "fulfilling" but at the same time it's always less draining and you get to be at peace with things eventually.
msadowski 8y ago
The most bullshit thing I've experienced in my engineering career so far was making "business cases". I was to make a business case for getting me a decent PC that would allow me to perform simulations that would allow me to test some concepts without risking damage to hardware. Another business case I had to make was when I proposed we give give out one unit of our product (valued at 400-1000 eur) for Google Summer of Code developer working on a library that we supported and it easily generated around half of the product sales. In the same company I had to get out of my way to make them buy heaters in winter and fans in the summer because the building was a badly insulated warehouse made of metal. This experience made me highly allergic to bullshit rules and being cheap. My philosophy now is that is you can't afford a reasonable working conditions and hardware then I can't afford working for you.
- JoeAltmaier 8y ago
  Yeah I needed more RAM to load humongous log files and filter them. Submit the business case - avoid 20 minute waits to do a search, save hours each day and finish the project faster. So, of course the RAM showed up 2 weeks after the project was over.
  - danpalmer 8y ago
    I’m lucky to work in a company where I can just sign in to my company Amazon account and buy more RAM. I might sanity check with a colleague before doing so if the expense is over £50. One of my old colleagues came from Amazon where he had to buy his own RAM upgrade to do his work as they wouldn’t give him more than 4GB and he did heavy Excel work. They did not let him expense it.
  - bklaasen 8y ago
    I've simply ponied up for the extra RAM myself and neither asked for permission nor forgiveness. The €70-odd it cost was worth it to me. I left the RAM in place as a nice surprise for whoever inherited the laptop after me.
    - JoeAltmaier 8y ago
neilwilson 8y ago
Peopleware - Part II Particularly the 'bring back the door' chapter. https://amzn.to/2xbNtRx https://amzn.to/2xbNtRx Then realise this book was first written 30 years ago based upon research done in the late 1970s. Tech may change rapidly but, unfortunately, people don't.
- eafkuor 8y ago
  Can’t recommend that book enough! The third edition is out, IIRC
bambax 8y ago
Bureaucracies love papers. Two years ago I took an international flight with no checked luggage and had a bottle of mouthwash in my bag. (I'm used to this brand of mouthwash and apparently it's not available outside my own country). The security guy found it and said it was forbidden aboard the plane for security reasons, except if I had a prescription. I didn't have a prescription. So he threw it away. I thought "next time I will". Now before taking a flight I just print a "prescription" with a random doctor name, saying in so many words that his patient (me) needs this mouthwash to travel, and sign it myself with a big, illegible signature. I have used this meaningless piece of paper all over Europe, the US, Africa and it never failed to work. Let's just hope the bad guys don't have access to a printer.
- fastbeef 8y ago
  Uuuuuuh, so you really want to take (albeit small) risk of commiting fraud and getting on the bad side of a organization able to detain you for hours/days to prove a point over freaking mouth wash? I sure as hell value my time and sanity higher than that.
  - enriquto 8y ago
    You are all a bunch of ridiculous cowards. The mouthwash anecdote is funny and refreshing. I will do that next time I fly.
  - bambax 8y ago
    I don't really care; I'm not trying to "prove a point", I just want my mouthwash. I too value my time very much, that's why I don't want to either argue with pseudo-cops or go see a real doctor for something that doesn't concern them (and would waste their time).
- jankotek 8y ago
  Forgery is a criminal offense. You may get thrown out of country, years after this accident.
  - 8y ago
da_murvel 8y ago
I have worked for three companies, two medium sized and one quite large (in Europe), and I've never experienced this. If anything, the culture feels rather the opposite. "Whatever you want you can have, within a reasonable budget". For example, I wanted a smaller screen as I got neck pains having to turn my head to reach the edges of the screen I was using. Sure my boss chuckled a bit when I traded a 32" Samsung for a 17" HP screen, but there was never any debate and definitely no doctor's note ... I don't get why companies would prioritize office facism over letting their employees be happy by being pain free, eating breakfast at their desks, using a blanket etc.

124 points by luu 8y ago

dsr_ 8y ago

"I think a thing that’s going on with the notes is that gatekeeping makes sense in some circumstances (such as the company buying a braille keyboard for a blind programmer)" ... No. Your employee who uses a computer shows up and says they are blind and need Braille accomodations? You don't wait for a doctor's note, that is explicitly unreasonable. Gatekeeping is appropriate, if at all, where an accommodation is nice for lots of people who will somehow cost the company a lot of money if they receive it and it is difficult to determine the reasonability of the request on an individual basis without invading their privacy - so you ask a doctor to stand in as a firewalling proxy that tells you whether it is reasonable in this case without telling you the underlying cause.

buckminster 8y ago
Except the doctor doesn't do that. The doctor says "patient reports x". Which you already know. The point is to create inconvenience for any employee who claims x. You might as well ask the employee to fetch a stone from the top of the nearest mountain.
- paultopia 8y ago
  which isn't a terrible strategy if you're trying to ration the benefit to the employees who want it the most
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - undreren 8y ago
    Not if you totally ignore the human aspect. We are not machines, and we do not like to follow (what to us seems like) pointless and arbitrary rules. It will just foster resentment.
    - paultopia 8y ago
      Oh, believe me, I work at a "public" university, where even though I have tenure and near-total control over my time (in principle, not so in reality), and work like 60 hours a week, I still have to file a timesheet every month to record that I didn't spend any "sick leave." I know about resenting pointless rules.
- wtracy 8y ago
  I don't think you're wrong, but I want to mention another possibility. It might just a CYA move on the part of an individual actor in middle management. The manager doesn't want to risk getting penalized for handing out "random perks", but also doesn't want to get in trouble for ignoring a "medically necessary" request. Put another way: That seemingly arbitrary behavior might make more sense if you assume that it's intended to protect an individual, rather than to protect the corporation.
  - undreren 8y ago
    I can totally see it from that angle. People will do what the must. Only then will they do what they can.
  - Rjevski 8y ago
    Why is "random perks" bad? Isn't the best interest of the company being making the employees happy so they are more productive? The negativity around giving "random perks" makes it feel like you're running a prison, where the point is to punish people instead of a workplace.
- Consultant32452 8y ago
  >I hated working in an open office and tried to leverage my post-dental-surgery fragility into a private office or the right to work from home. Sounds like the employee in question was trying to get special accommodations they didn't really need and their employer was wise to their bullshit games. OP is the kind of person who makes these ridiculous authoritarian gatekeeper rules necessary.
  - buildme 8y ago
    I don’t blame anyone for trying to get away from the constant distraction and productivity-death of the trendy open office (which is actually just a way to avoid spending money).
dudul 8y ago
Agreed, the example about a braille keyboard is kind of odd. It's not like it's expensive, and if you give one to an employee, you won't have the whole department demanding that they are given one as well.
- KSteffensen 8y ago
  And if you hired the person it shouldn't come as a surprise that they are blind
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

petermcneeley 8y ago

"This was a problem because what I really wanted was control over my environment, and that was the exact thing they didn’t want to give me." This is simply about power. At best case its paternalism and at worst case its calculated oppression. If you want to know where you stand in an org just observe how preferred your environment is to others.

monochromatic 8y ago
> At best case its paternalism and at worst case its calculated oppression. Neither one of those makes sense from a profit/loss standpoint.
- michaelcampbell 8y ago
  Shockingly not all people in a company are about the bottom line. Perceived power is worth more to many.
- maxxxxx 8y ago
  There are only a few people in a company that really care about profit/loss and have influence on it. Most just try to survive in the political environment and some of them get a power trip on the way.
- Nasrudith 8y ago
  Well the managers are human and not perfectly rational, plus corruption is also a factor as well - doing it for their own purposes. If they were we wouldn't see systemic hiring discrimination - they would be fools to pass up undervalued labor. Instead they use their position to push their own values over money. Unfortunately own values often includes petty authoritarianism where they would rather go unquestioned than do things right.
itronitron 8y ago
>> If you want to know where you stand in an org just observe how preferred your environment is to others. That probably explains a lot of the resistance in old-school organizations to any type of working from home. The existing power brokers lose a good bit of leverage when everyone can cozy up in their own preferred environment, that they control.

treelovinhippie 8y ago

My first "real job" (31, had two, fired from both) was in a small web dev shop of about 15 people. One morning I walk into the office and there was a giant wet puddle on the carpet in the middle of the open office. The roof had leaked in the office building and gone through a few floors. The air was damp and all the windows covered in condensation. Clearly a safety and health issue. I lived about a 10min walk away, so figured I'd just work at home and announced that's what I'd be doing. Everyone wanted to work elsewhere or from home. However the boss decided that he'd cram everyone into the boardroom for the day. I was the only one who stood my ground and told the boss I was going home despite his bullshit about not being a "team player". Wage slavery is a dangerous mindset.

monochromatic 8y ago
Was this the episode that got you fired?
- tru3_power 8y ago
  Hah. I hope not. If more people stood up to these things they wouldn’t happen so often.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- paulie_a 8y ago
  Years ago I had a meeting with my boss about an "incident" and flat out said I told a coworker to go fuck themself, twice and I wouldn't apologize for it. And then asked for a 20 percent raise. It was completely justified and my boss knew it. I also got the raise. Gp is right about wage slavery, sometimes people actually need to stand up for themselves.
- treelovinhippie 8y ago
  Nah they eventually got me on a technicality. 3-day per week gig, but they kept pushing me into doing a 5-day week. I was the "innovation manager" funded by a government grant. So I was a one-man show expected to build, market and sell new profitable internal startups with zero resources or equity. On a Friday I found out the largest startup conference in Sydney was happening the next week. So I let the boss know I'd be going to that. No response. I went to the conference. When I got back to work they fired me for "not giving 2 weeks leave notice" as was in my contract lol. The story of how I got fired from the second job was even more sketchy. Involves the largest employer in the crypto industry. HR lied about giving me a warning about "behaviour" (never provided any evidence to the claim) and later admitted to having never contacted me. Small cartel of middle managers in a supposedly "decentralised company" fired me 2 weeks before a 6 month probation without any knowledge or consensus from my regional team or primary team. HR lady was fired 2 months later. They then strung me along for 2 months with a "soon to be proposed" rehire offer. Now they ignore my emails. Classy.

duxup 8y ago

A while back company I worked at was aquired and many months after the acquisition someone from the new corporate office showed up and got a tour. She repeatedly used the phrase "You let them have / do that?" The response was to things she saw at people's cubes like: * A mini fridge. * A blanket. * Some food at someone's desk. * A fan. And some random stuff. It didn't occur to anyone at that point that anyone had to "let" someone have those things at their desk. Eventually an email went out banning such things, no reason was given. An annoyed co-worker asked why via email and they were told food at their desk was "unnecessary" because there is a cafeteria. The only cafeteria was on the other side of the country at the new HQ in San Jose....they didn't respond to follow up emails. It always struck me that this person who visited's entire role was to enforce some arbitrary rules like they were our parents or something. The rules were complied with for about a month and as soon as visits stopped, everyone at our location just ignored them. Somehow nothing bad happened just as nothing ever had before. When visiting the HQ later I did eat something (breakfast bar) at my temporary desk. My coworkers in San Jose we're quite shocked, I was amused by their reaction. We all survived. Although security eventually caught me (came running even) for not wearing my ID "visible enough" ;)

jarsin 8y ago
These types exist all over corporate america because ton's of executive's suffers from extreme narcissism. All these ass kiss rule enforcers feed into these executives deep deep desire to fill important.
- duxup 8y ago
  For some reason I can understand how people come do terrible things out of fear or whatever (bigots, or whatever).... but I find the casual jerkiness of these enforcers extra mind boggling. Why would people want to treat their coworkers this way? It seems so unnecessary and negative...
  - tru3_power 8y ago
    Same reason some kids want to be hall monitors. Some people just want to feel that they can project their will on other people. My guess is some deep seeded jealousy problems.

ballenf 8y ago

In the US, and perhaps other common law jurisdictions, there is an exception to the hearsay evidence rule for medical records. [1] This reflects or is a result of the same root cause as the issue discussed here: there is an almost mystical air surrounding items written by a medical doctor, even if what's written is just parroting the patient. Or maybe the two things aren't related, but they're both weird in the day and age where TV commercials urge us to prod our doctor into prescribing the latest drug. [1] https://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/fre/rule_803 https://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/fre/rule_803

dannyw 8y ago
There's nothing strange about that. Read further and "Records of a Regularly Conducted Activity" is also excepted, and so is absense of records. It's almost like a timestamp tool. "One year ago I suffered from XYZ" has little value. But a piece of paper, written by a doctor, that confirms one year ago you said you suffered from XYZ, is worth more. Doesn't mean XYZ is true, but it means you said that one year in advance.

darkerside 8y ago

No, your company is not evil. You are being a pain in the ass, ergo they are treating you like one. Just because your coworker didn't cop to complaining doesn't mean he didn't make it known he didn't appreciate sitting in the dark. Did you ask him first? > [Patient] reports back pain that would be improved by a chair they have chosen. Doctor writes a semantically ambiguous note. Reasonable to assume medical professional is not playing word games.

jay_kyburz 8y ago
The guy gets headaches under the lights. I believe it. Are you are accusing him of being liar? Perhaps you are discriminating against him for what is essentially a disability. You -> "Guy in the wheelchair is a real pain in the ass because he wants a ramp." Also, It's not really his job to tease out his co-workers thoughts and feelings, he said its fine so its fine.
- timv 8y ago
  The article was updated. It now says > he told me it was fine It used to say > he told me he didn't complain They're different. The original article definitely read like I decide to turn the lights off in a shared office without checking with anyone else, but my office-mate assures me that he wasn't the one who ratted me out
  - wincy 8y ago
    I was really annoyed by my coworkers turning off the lights. It was dark and it made me sleepy. Eventually we just pulled out half the light bulbs which everyone seemed happy with.
    - bradknowles 8y ago
      Years ago, I shared an office with a guy when I was working at UT Austin in the Communication Center (COM) building. He liked to have the overhead fluorescent lights turned off, and use natural light coming in through the tiny window at the end of the room. I liked to have more light on for the room. We compromised on the rule that whoever got to the office first would get to set the light switch policy for the day. It worked for us. No one needed to complain to HR or our manager. Sometimes, if we are civil human beings to each other, we can work out solutions to problems that may not be ideal for everyone, but at least aren’t as bad as the other alternatives. Of course, some businesses are too big to let that kind of thing happen, and some people are incapable of treating others like human beings or compromising. And then there are cases where it simply isn’t possible to compromise. I wish everyone good luck on this subject, and hopefully you won’t have too many of those bad situations in your life.

d-sc 8y ago

In my working experience, mainly with small companies: if you consistently deliver good value, management and other employees shield you from most of the BS out there. If you don’t provide as much value you get to deal with the unpleasantries of this world.

john_moscow 8y ago
There's a catch though: you won't get a chance of a raise because you are needed to just keep on delivering the value while others get promoted behind your back for selling it internally.
- nstart 8y ago
  A peculiarity exists here in the political world. If you do your work in a way that saves your manager's bacon, do it well enough that there's no question of your abilities, and you show no threat at all to your manager, there's a very high chance that a manager will treat you very well. They know a winning horse when they see one and will do what it takes to protect it. Of course this doesn't mean they'll freely drop a raise on your table. You go ask for it. The difference is you'll rarely if ever get assigned any bs targets assigned because the manager knows they don't have the control over you. You could walk out and they'll lose and you'll still likely win a job. It's lose lose for them. Delicate balances exist here such as how much you get paid Vs the manager and what not. Also, this does depend on your manager not being self destructive. Generally though I dont say this as something to subscribe to. And I'm glad I no longer deal with this. Good managers are good at coaching and leading. They'll do what it takes to make a team that's happy and does the work as needed as opposed to creating a single star. But something I learnt as I gave up some of my youthful idealisms is that everywhere there are differing flavours of politics. As long as it's not identity based discrimination or anything else illegal: Don't fight against it. The company doesn't need revolutionaries no matter how much better you think it'll make the company. Don't fight in it. Most people get busy trying to play the system and get played instead. Work with the currents. Take what you need. Call it a day. It's less "fulfilling" but at the same time it's always less draining and you get to be at peace with things eventually.

msadowski 8y ago

The most bullshit thing I've experienced in my engineering career so far was making "business cases". I was to make a business case for getting me a decent PC that would allow me to perform simulations that would allow me to test some concepts without risking damage to hardware. Another business case I had to make was when I proposed we give give out one unit of our product (valued at 400-1000 eur) for Google Summer of Code developer working on a library that we supported and it easily generated around half of the product sales. In the same company I had to get out of my way to make them buy heaters in winter and fans in the summer because the building was a badly insulated warehouse made of metal. This experience made me highly allergic to bullshit rules and being cheap. My philosophy now is that is you can't afford a reasonable working conditions and hardware then I can't afford working for you.

JoeAltmaier 8y ago
Yeah I needed more RAM to load humongous log files and filter them. Submit the business case - avoid 20 minute waits to do a search, save hours each day and finish the project faster. So, of course the RAM showed up 2 weeks after the project was over.
- danpalmer 8y ago
  I’m lucky to work in a company where I can just sign in to my company Amazon account and buy more RAM. I might sanity check with a colleague before doing so if the expense is over £50. One of my old colleagues came from Amazon where he had to buy his own RAM upgrade to do his work as they wouldn’t give him more than 4GB and he did heavy Excel work. They did not let him expense it.
- bklaasen 8y ago
  I've simply ponied up for the extra RAM myself and neither asked for permission nor forgiveness. The €70-odd it cost was worth it to me. I left the RAM in place as a nice surprise for whoever inherited the laptop after me.
  - JoeAltmaier 8y ago

neilwilson 8y ago

Peopleware - Part II Particularly the 'bring back the door' chapter. https://amzn.to/2xbNtRx https://amzn.to/2xbNtRx Then realise this book was first written 30 years ago based upon research done in the late 1970s. Tech may change rapidly but, unfortunately, people don't.

eafkuor 8y ago
Can’t recommend that book enough! The third edition is out, IIRC

bambax 8y ago

Bureaucracies love papers. Two years ago I took an international flight with no checked luggage and had a bottle of mouthwash in my bag. (I'm used to this brand of mouthwash and apparently it's not available outside my own country). The security guy found it and said it was forbidden aboard the plane for security reasons, except if I had a prescription. I didn't have a prescription. So he threw it away. I thought "next time I will". Now before taking a flight I just print a "prescription" with a random doctor name, saying in so many words that his patient (me) needs this mouthwash to travel, and sign it myself with a big, illegible signature. I have used this meaningless piece of paper all over Europe, the US, Africa and it never failed to work. Let's just hope the bad guys don't have access to a printer.

fastbeef 8y ago
Uuuuuuh, so you really want to take (albeit small) risk of commiting fraud and getting on the bad side of a organization able to detain you for hours/days to prove a point over freaking mouth wash? I sure as hell value my time and sanity higher than that.
- enriquto 8y ago
  You are all a bunch of ridiculous cowards. The mouthwash anecdote is funny and refreshing. I will do that next time I fly.
- bambax 8y ago
  I don't really care; I'm not trying to "prove a point", I just want my mouthwash. I too value my time very much, that's why I don't want to either argue with pseudo-cops or go see a real doctor for something that doesn't concern them (and would waste their time).
jankotek 8y ago
Forgery is a criminal offense. You may get thrown out of country, years after this accident.
- 8y ago

da_murvel 8y ago

I have worked for three companies, two medium sized and one quite large (in Europe), and I've never experienced this. If anything, the culture feels rather the opposite. "Whatever you want you can have, within a reasonable budget". For example, I wanted a smaller screen as I got neck pains having to turn my head to reach the edges of the screen I was using. Sure my boss chuckled a bit when I traded a 32" Samsung for a 17" HP screen, but there was never any debate and definitely no doctor's note ... I don't get why companies would prioritize office facism over letting their employees be happy by being pain free, eating breakfast at their desks, using a blanket etc.