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I should probably stop reading her posts when they are submitted (I think I skipped the last few). Invariably I agree with portions of what she says, but it's a

I should probably stop reading her posts when they are submitted (I think I skipped the last few). Invariably I agree with portions of what she says, but it's always couched in what I view as a very poor attitude. I get it. She's a jaded bay area developer. I sure hope it's mostly just a persona for her blog, because otherwise why put yourself through such misery? She obviously doesn't respect anything about the companies she's working for, if her writing is anything to go by, and she's obviously in demand enough to get jobs at big companies. I think she would be happier if she looked for a different class of employer. If that's hard to find here, move somewhere else. Do what you have to to be happy. > As for why I didn't recognize the CEO: I had just started, and it's not like I memorize names and faces of these people. Hello, stalker-ville or ass-kisser-ville, and I am neither. That's just great. I'll just be over here, being a "stalker" and "ass kisser" because I want to know who I'm working for before I join a company. But that's just me, I'm sure I'm being overly cautious. It's not like a bunch of developers have joined horrible companies helmed by horrible people that have instilled a horrible corporate culture before because they didn't pay attention to that... Right?

probably_wrong 6y ago
> I sure hope it's mostly just a persona for her blog, because otherwise why put yourself through such misery? I don't follow her blog enough to fill in the details, but if I understand correctly this is from a job she hated and left recently-ish due to how bad everything was [1]. So she's not putting up with it, but rather giving retrospectives on a bad couple of years. [1] http://rachelbythebay.com/w/2020/03/04/annoyed/ http://rachelbythebay.com/w/2020/03/04/annoyed/
- kbenson 6y ago
  Honestly, that link reads like I remember all the posts of hers I remember reading. In summary: - stuff sucks here, but I fight the good fight, and do the right thing even though others don't always - I say the truth, publish it even, but people don't want to hear it. Sometimes people people are so unappreciative they actually say mean things to me. Sometimes they even put it in writing! - I have enough clout I can ignore some of the normal procedures and policies for the betterment of all. Some people aren't appreciative of this. Some of those people are managers, even my manager. Those are all the bad people though. - they try to force me to change, but screw them. This is obviously their problem. I'll stand by my principles by walking out and into some other high position at another company, where they appreciate when I call the management bozos... After a few posts like that, it starts to to feel like maybe a big chunk of the problem might be her. At this point, I really hope someone will come out and point out how there were all these positive posts I missed over the last few years. That's entirely possible. The HN selection filter (which is how I see these) might be biased towards a certain type of article of hers, and I might have missed some/most that made it here. I would rather rather be wrong in any of numerous ways than actually have her be as miserable and miserable to be around as she sounds at this point.
  - mellow2020 6y ago
    > After a few posts like that, it starts to to feel like maybe a big chunk of the problem might be her. I don't really blog, but I occasionally write lyrics. All of them are bitter and critical, so over a the years I accumulated a collection of that. That's not because I'm a bitter person, it's because I only ever write lyrics to complain. When I'm happy, I sing and dance, I code or call friends, I do a million things and not ever write lyrics. Similar with forums: I vote to agree, I respond to disagree or correct or add a link. Anyone who tried to judge me, as a person, by that and other output without even having met me, because things "start to feel" or "sound" a certain way (for everyone, in their mind), can come up with all sorts of "assessments", many of them mutually exclusive. It's a fine waste of time and that's all it is. But I don't think the fallacious extrapolation of web output to the whole person is the sole cause here. After all, if someone's blog is full of things they installed and described their first steps with, without any follow-up posts about their in-depth, day-to-day usage of the thing, people wouldn't pile on to point out that this person "seems like" they constantly change stacks, without getting to know any of them. And if someone had a blog with just the crazy retro hacks they do, we wouldn't assume they don't have a phone or have never seen a modern game. And so on. But when someone writes a lot about negative work experiences, without mentioning the good ones, they must be a terrible person and think they're better than everyone else, naturally. Except it's not ever put that bluntly, e.g. > it starts to to feel like maybe a big chunk of the problem might be her 1. starts to 2. feel like 3. maybe 4. a big chunk 5. might be out of 71 chars in that quote, 40 belong to weasel words. That and other comments lead me to suspect it might be the confidence and the chutzpah to talk back publically and not sugar coat things. If people can't be snarky on their own blog without people who never met them, and don't even know the company they describe, much less worked for it, telling everybody what kind of person the author might be... how about a union at least? edit: this sums this thread up perfectly: https://rachelbythebay.com/w/2020/05/23/nope/ https://rachelbythebay.com/w/2020/05/23/nope/ > But still, thanks for hyperbole to try to make me look bad! You have no idea what went on there, and you think you just HAVE to insert yourself into it. Meanwhile HN wonders how a BBQ grill could ask to be the default browser, and I can tell you exactly how: a bunch of people went along to get along, and/or conditioned themselves to consider any inane crap awesome and a great growth opportunity.
- rumanator 6y ago
  If you endured two years at a company then the onboarding process, choice of laptop, and delay in providing a desk to someone who showed early after deciding to skip the onboarding process is not, obviously, the problem. I get it, the author is trying to vent frustration for a personal choice that now regrets. Yet, the ranting also sounds like a thinly veilled attempt to smear the company's image to those in the know by resorting to petty criticism. That speaks more about the author than it does about the company, the CEO, the direct manager, or those who designed the onboarding process.
brailsafe 6y ago
Seems like that's exactly what she did.

probably_wrong 6y ago

> I sure hope it's mostly just a persona for her blog, because otherwise why put yourself through such misery? I don't follow her blog enough to fill in the details, but if I understand correctly this is from a job she hated and left recently-ish due to how bad everything was [1]. So she's not putting up with it, but rather giving retrospectives on a bad couple of years. [1] http://rachelbythebay.com/w/2020/03/04/annoyed/ http://rachelbythebay.com/w/2020/03/04/annoyed/

kbenson 6y ago
Honestly, that link reads like I remember all the posts of hers I remember reading. In summary: - stuff sucks here, but I fight the good fight, and do the right thing even though others don't always - I say the truth, publish it even, but people don't want to hear it. Sometimes people people are so unappreciative they actually say mean things to me. Sometimes they even put it in writing! - I have enough clout I can ignore some of the normal procedures and policies for the betterment of all. Some people aren't appreciative of this. Some of those people are managers, even my manager. Those are all the bad people though. - they try to force me to change, but screw them. This is obviously their problem. I'll stand by my principles by walking out and into some other high position at another company, where they appreciate when I call the management bozos... After a few posts like that, it starts to to feel like maybe a big chunk of the problem might be her. At this point, I really hope someone will come out and point out how there were all these positive posts I missed over the last few years. That's entirely possible. The HN selection filter (which is how I see these) might be biased towards a certain type of article of hers, and I might have missed some/most that made it here. I would rather rather be wrong in any of numerous ways than actually have her be as miserable and miserable to be around as she sounds at this point.
- mellow2020 6y ago
  > After a few posts like that, it starts to to feel like maybe a big chunk of the problem might be her. I don't really blog, but I occasionally write lyrics. All of them are bitter and critical, so over a the years I accumulated a collection of that. That's not because I'm a bitter person, it's because I only ever write lyrics to complain. When I'm happy, I sing and dance, I code or call friends, I do a million things and not ever write lyrics. Similar with forums: I vote to agree, I respond to disagree or correct or add a link. Anyone who tried to judge me, as a person, by that and other output without even having met me, because things "start to feel" or "sound" a certain way (for everyone, in their mind), can come up with all sorts of "assessments", many of them mutually exclusive. It's a fine waste of time and that's all it is. But I don't think the fallacious extrapolation of web output to the whole person is the sole cause here. After all, if someone's blog is full of things they installed and described their first steps with, without any follow-up posts about their in-depth, day-to-day usage of the thing, people wouldn't pile on to point out that this person "seems like" they constantly change stacks, without getting to know any of them. And if someone had a blog with just the crazy retro hacks they do, we wouldn't assume they don't have a phone or have never seen a modern game. And so on. But when someone writes a lot about negative work experiences, without mentioning the good ones, they must be a terrible person and think they're better than everyone else, naturally. Except it's not ever put that bluntly, e.g. > it starts to to feel like maybe a big chunk of the problem might be her 1. starts to 2. feel like 3. maybe 4. a big chunk 5. might be out of 71 chars in that quote, 40 belong to weasel words. That and other comments lead me to suspect it might be the confidence and the chutzpah to talk back publically and not sugar coat things. If people can't be snarky on their own blog without people who never met them, and don't even know the company they describe, much less worked for it, telling everybody what kind of person the author might be... how about a union at least? edit: this sums this thread up perfectly: https://rachelbythebay.com/w/2020/05/23/nope/ https://rachelbythebay.com/w/2020/05/23/nope/ > But still, thanks for hyperbole to try to make me look bad! You have no idea what went on there, and you think you just HAVE to insert yourself into it. Meanwhile HN wonders how a BBQ grill could ask to be the default browser, and I can tell you exactly how: a bunch of people went along to get along, and/or conditioned themselves to consider any inane crap awesome and a great growth opportunity.
rumanator 6y ago
If you endured two years at a company then the onboarding process, choice of laptop, and delay in providing a desk to someone who showed early after deciding to skip the onboarding process is not, obviously, the problem. I get it, the author is trying to vent frustration for a personal choice that now regrets. Yet, the ranting also sounds like a thinly veilled attempt to smear the company's image to those in the know by resorting to petty criticism. That speaks more about the author than it does about the company, the CEO, the direct manager, or those who designed the onboarding process.

brailsafe 6y ago

Seems like that's exactly what she did.