6 ms·
I find this post to be relatively unimpressive. He spends a great amount of time complaining about how the company was shit in a way that implies he was persona
by kaiabwpdjqn 7y ago
I find this post to be relatively unimpressive. He spends a great amount of time complaining about how the company was shit in a way that implies he was personally offended, but the title says he got a generous salary for little expected work. It’s not clear to me why he is bitter about anything. I have no doubt that the company was genuinely poorly run. His observations about problems in the sales culture are likely true. But he could have left any time and instead chose to stay there for 3 years. And I get that leaving a job isn’t always an option for people but those reasons don’t feel relevant for his situation.
Author reads as overly entitled and arrogant imo.
- noncoml 7y agoIt’s a symptom of our dysfunctional industry. We are stuck in that old Annie Hall joke: “A guy walks into a psychiatrist's office and says, hey doc, my brother's crazy! He thinks he's a chicken. Then the doc says, why don't you turn him in? Then the guy says, I would but I need the eggs”
- liquid153 7y agoStupid joke. Don’t quit your day job
- A4ET8a8uTh0 7y agoDitto. Taking into consideration average salary in US it is just asking for rather uncharitable read. And that is not taking into consideration in demand skill set that could land him another like job with relative ease. I don't often go for dismissive, but cry mich ein river.
- jdmichal 7y ago> cry mich ein river That should be "cry mir ein river". You want the dative case, because you are requesting that the river be cried for you.
- ginko 7y ago"cry mir einen river" since river is masculine
- klipt 7y ago"People called Romanes, they go, the house?"
- DonHopkins 7y agoRight. Now don't do it again! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3gNdGHsEIk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3gNdGHsEIk
- jdmichal 7y agoI mean, sure Fluss is masculine... But it seems like borrowed English nouns generally end up masculine also. So sure, why not!
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- A4ET8a8uTh0 7y agoThank you for that. I haven't used German since HS so I am a little rusty. I can still order a beer though. With that said, I picked that particular version of the phrase from zero punctuation. I did not intend for it to be grammatically correct.
- jdmichal 7y agoNo worries... It's been almost 15 years for myself. Even when I was much better, I used to describe myself as competent enough to get into trouble, but not back out again.
- Moto7451 7y agoAgreed. My work had a six month period where they wouldn’t really let me do anything meaningful while they were in analysis paralysis (other than keeping the ship steady) so I found other useful things to do and trained myself on some new tech. Clearly this is not the worst thing that has ever happened to a worker.
- bob33212 7y agoIt is an interesting story and I can relate. I don't think anyone should feel sorry for the author or me though. In the grand scheme of things it is a good job, just a shitty company. I find Warren Buffet's commentary to be interesting as well but I don't feel sorry for him when he makes a mistake or has a problem.
- meowface 7y agoI don't read it as bitterness over his personal situation. Clearly it was pretty comfortable for him. It seemed to me more like bewilderment and amusement over the whole Kafkaesque abomination. If I were in his position, I would've kept taking the paycheck without complaints, but once I was no longer there, I'd definitely consider writing something like this.
- _bxg1 7y agoThe fact that he turned down $50k to write this post makes me think it's more than just out of amusement
- robocat 7y agoIf he had another job lined up, the $50k was $0. He wrote about the other conditions which you are ignoring.
- _bxg1 7y agoIs severance contingent on unemployment? I thought it was usually a flat amount.
- throwaway744678 7y agoIt was an explicit condition of the contract. Not sure if it is legal though.
- dnautics 7y agoYeah that's fine, but it's informative to more junior people who might consider employment at pivotal so they can go in with more (if biased) information.
- GuiA 7y agoThe author is experiencing cognitive dissonance because he was expecting professional life to push him to his limits, in an environment designed for maximal productivity and innovation, working with people who care about doing the best work of their life. A lot of overachievers in school have that outlook. There are some jobs that are like this, but they are very few and far between. There are far more companies that claim to be like this when really it’s just a convenient excuse for treating their employees poorly. The reality is that if you care about your craft a tiny bit more than average, you will most likely end up feeling that you are overpaid for trivial work, that you could do so much more for the company, that your coworkers and hierarchy are apathetic to things that do not directly affect them (and will seek to avoid any change as much as possible). The more you stay in this situation, the likelier you are to burn out. If you are that kind of person, then you need to GTFO and start your own thing - have your own skin in the game - or accept that that’s the reality of being a mere employee. That doesn’t mean that you can’t do good work, btw - just that you’ll have to find your sources of life fulfillment elsewhere.
- v01dlight 7y ago> The reality is that if you care about your craft a tiny bit more than average, you will most likely end up feeling that you are overpaid for trivial work, that you could do so much more for the company, that your coworkers and hierarchy are apathetic to things that do not directly affect them (and will seek to avoid any change as much as possible). Damn, I've never read a better articulation of how I feel at work haha. I'm in cybersecurity and the box checking "just need to get through the next audit" mentality is RAMPANT.
- TeMPOraL 7y agoThis has to stop, or we'll never progress as a civilization. See all this incompetence revealed across the entire economy and governance in the wake of COVID-19? Apathetic people ticking boxes is a big component of the cause.
- jchmbrln 7y agoThank you for saying this. It’s much-needed food for thought in my current situation.
- gregd 7y agoWhile I don't disagree with most of what you're saying, this idea that people should (or can) just leave employment, needs to stop. This is not the way most of the world works and many people are "stuck" in very shitty situations that don't have many opportunities, out. But with regard to the rest of your comment, absolutely. This guy is a knob.
- chrisseaton 7y ago> this idea that people should (or can) just leave employment, needs to stop I don't think this applies when you are pulling down nearly a quarter of a million dollars a year - then I think you probably have quite a lot of freedom to just walk out the door anytime you want.
- brutal_boi 7y agoIf the mortage/rental and family expense is in the same order of magnitude as the salary, it's little different than everywhere else.
- chrisseaton 7y agoDoes this really apply to people earning as much as a quarter of a million? Surely at that point most of your money is disposable income?
- zacym 7y ago>Surely at that point most of your money is disposable income? Not if you're living in a major city with wife, kids, and a mortgage.
- Traster 7y agoIt doesn't matter what your salary is, if you've got a big old mortgage and a wife and kids then losing your income is really scary. What if the job search takes longer than you expected? What if it takes much longer? He's already remote working, that massively narrows down his options. It's not as simple as just "get another job" and every day he doesn't have a job, bills are piling up.
- jvanderbot 7y agoI regret to inform you people can become weary of work/dollar as a metric, and can become enchanted with hands-on work or what they perceive as meaningful contributions.