5 ms·

In my experience "going above and beyond" tends to get you more work and responsibility for roughly the same pay. I did get the occasional 5% annual raise inste

by jobu 6y ago

In my experience "going above and beyond" tends to get you more work and responsibility for roughly the same pay. I did get the occasional 5% annual raise instead of the standard 2-3% that most of my coworkers received. Even then the raises were usually more dependent on how well the company performed vs how well I performed.

asdff 6y ago
I've noticed this a few times in my career and have had to start slowing myself down at times. If I deliver in a day instead of the expected two for example, I don't get that second day off, I get twice as much work and get paid the same for it. The harder I work, the less I make. If they want me to bust my ass and sacrifice sleep I need to be given hazard pay.
- anon9001 6y ago
  You're right, and as a result I try to work no more than 4 hours a day, preferably less. I take every possible opportunity to extend timelines, create buffer, and reduce scope. I'm highly incentivized to farm as much time as possible, so that's what I do. I try to target obscure projects that I already know how to do, where there's an assumption that nobody really knows how to do it because it's obscure. Complexity and obscurity are great cover. Picking up legacy projects on old tech is a good way to do this. "Oh no, PHP sucks! Nobody's touched this code in years! Not to worry, give me a couple of days I'm sure I'll figure it out." Now my estimate is 3x longer than it would be if I was working in the areas under normal development. I've also got my notifications pretty dialed-in so I never appear absent when someone needs me. I prevent slack from marking me idle. I turn my notifications to a more aggressive setting when I want to take a nap. Nobody knows how long it takes to get a piece of code working, not even other programmers, so who cares if it takes a week instead of a day. Sometimes I keep a local branch that's represents my actual work and a second branch for pushing to the team. If I get in "flow" and want to get something done in a block of many hours, I can drip-feed the commits over a couple of days instead of dropping a PR at 2am and having everyone think I'm free to work on something else tomorrow. With a little shell scripting, I can make commits and push on a timer too, which is sometimes useful if I need to "work late" because everyone is stressed. When something blows up in prod, I put in the extra hours with a good attitude. That helps create the perception that I'm the go-to person for things and a team player, so it's not surprising to anyone if I'm running a little late on a deliverable because I had to drop everything and help with something important (another way to add more buffer). I also try to pair sometimes, especially with new coworkers, so that they can see me working in short bursts. Pairing serves as a psychological anchor that I must work that way all the time. After all, I don't want people thinking I'm lazy. Sometimes mistakes happen and I do get stuck working an 8 hour day, but those mistakes would have been 16 hour days if I wasn't actively avoiding doing as much work as possible. As much as I can stomach it, I try to use the extra time to socialize with coworkers to help raise my visibility and build allies. That's the smart thing to do. In reality, I mostly play video games, do housework, and anxiously wait until work is "over" for the day so I can detach from my notifications. Has tech turned me into a sociopath? Maybe. Do I feel like a prisoner in my own home? Certainly. But if I don't use this strategy, I'll constantly be over-committed, burned out, salty, and missing social connections with coworkers that are more valuable than the actual work. I can't wait until I have enough money to be financially independent and never have to do this nonsense again.
  - _bj1k 6y ago
    I've started my first dev job earlier this year at a small company, around 10 people. And it scares me that I already do this. I used to deliver as quick as possible and working my ass off and finding that the only thing it got me was a little praise and that more was expected from me the next time. Now I'm browsing HN during work time still delivering within deadlines, just not a week ahead, and most importantly, I feel like I'll be sane doing this work for more than a year.
    - monknomo 6y ago
      think this way - you have 40-50 years of work in front of you. Can you sprint the whole time? Work your ass off when it's important, and just work otherwise. A valuable skill is distinguishing important from urgent
  - randomNumber7 6y ago
    What brought me to do something similar in a former job was, that I realized it only hurts my coworkers when I do more than the average. The management would say to everyone with performance below average something like: "How can we help you to improve your performance? What do you plan to improve your performance?" The result was that most people stopped working once they reached their goals because otherwise they would only increase the average^^ I read a lot during this job xD
  - throwf129 6y ago
    I love this comment so much.
  - rorykoehler 6y ago
    This sums up perfectly why I’m pro universal basic income. How many people do this? Think of all the collective brain cycles wasted. We’re stealing from our future. You’re clearly smart and capable. Work you don’t find rewarding stole your motivation. If you could work on projects that reflect the world you want to live in you would create something much more valuable top society than whatever it is you’re half assing now.

by jobu 6y ago

asdff 6y ago

I've noticed this a few times in my career and have had to start slowing myself down at times. If I deliver in a day instead of the expected two for example, I don't get that second day off, I get twice as much work and get paid the same for it. The harder I work, the less I make. If they want me to bust my ass and sacrifice sleep I need to be given hazard pay.

anon9001 6y ago
You're right, and as a result I try to work no more than 4 hours a day, preferably less. I take every possible opportunity to extend timelines, create buffer, and reduce scope. I'm highly incentivized to farm as much time as possible, so that's what I do. I try to target obscure projects that I already know how to do, where there's an assumption that nobody really knows how to do it because it's obscure. Complexity and obscurity are great cover. Picking up legacy projects on old tech is a good way to do this. "Oh no, PHP sucks! Nobody's touched this code in years! Not to worry, give me a couple of days I'm sure I'll figure it out." Now my estimate is 3x longer than it would be if I was working in the areas under normal development. I've also got my notifications pretty dialed-in so I never appear absent when someone needs me. I prevent slack from marking me idle. I turn my notifications to a more aggressive setting when I want to take a nap. Nobody knows how long it takes to get a piece of code working, not even other programmers, so who cares if it takes a week instead of a day. Sometimes I keep a local branch that's represents my actual work and a second branch for pushing to the team. If I get in "flow" and want to get something done in a block of many hours, I can drip-feed the commits over a couple of days instead of dropping a PR at 2am and having everyone think I'm free to work on something else tomorrow. With a little shell scripting, I can make commits and push on a timer too, which is sometimes useful if I need to "work late" because everyone is stressed. When something blows up in prod, I put in the extra hours with a good attitude. That helps create the perception that I'm the go-to person for things and a team player, so it's not surprising to anyone if I'm running a little late on a deliverable because I had to drop everything and help with something important (another way to add more buffer). I also try to pair sometimes, especially with new coworkers, so that they can see me working in short bursts. Pairing serves as a psychological anchor that I must work that way all the time. After all, I don't want people thinking I'm lazy. Sometimes mistakes happen and I do get stuck working an 8 hour day, but those mistakes would have been 16 hour days if I wasn't actively avoiding doing as much work as possible. As much as I can stomach it, I try to use the extra time to socialize with coworkers to help raise my visibility and build allies. That's the smart thing to do. In reality, I mostly play video games, do housework, and anxiously wait until work is "over" for the day so I can detach from my notifications. Has tech turned me into a sociopath? Maybe. Do I feel like a prisoner in my own home? Certainly. But if I don't use this strategy, I'll constantly be over-committed, burned out, salty, and missing social connections with coworkers that are more valuable than the actual work. I can't wait until I have enough money to be financially independent and never have to do this nonsense again.
- _bj1k 6y ago
  I've started my first dev job earlier this year at a small company, around 10 people. And it scares me that I already do this. I used to deliver as quick as possible and working my ass off and finding that the only thing it got me was a little praise and that more was expected from me the next time. Now I'm browsing HN during work time still delivering within deadlines, just not a week ahead, and most importantly, I feel like I'll be sane doing this work for more than a year.
  - monknomo 6y ago
    think this way - you have 40-50 years of work in front of you. Can you sprint the whole time? Work your ass off when it's important, and just work otherwise. A valuable skill is distinguishing important from urgent
- randomNumber7 6y ago
  What brought me to do something similar in a former job was, that I realized it only hurts my coworkers when I do more than the average. The management would say to everyone with performance below average something like: "How can we help you to improve your performance? What do you plan to improve your performance?" The result was that most people stopped working once they reached their goals because otherwise they would only increase the average^^ I read a lot during this job xD
- throwf129 6y ago
  I love this comment so much.
- rorykoehler 6y ago
  This sums up perfectly why I’m pro universal basic income. How many people do this? Think of all the collective brain cycles wasted. We’re stealing from our future. You’re clearly smart and capable. Work you don’t find rewarding stole your motivation. If you could work on projects that reflect the world you want to live in you would create something much more valuable top society than whatever it is you’re half assing now.