7 ms·

Ask HN: Who want to be fired?

74 points by karamazov 5y ago

Is your job terrible? Would a sense of relief wash over you if you didn't need to come in tomorrow? Talk about it with your friend, the internet!

adenozine 5y ago
This is an interesting question, but it seems like it would get better traction on Twitter rather than HN.
- kid8919 5y ago
  Disagree. Now Twitter is going mainstream with social manipulation, I would rather receive feedbacks from HN
- ezekg 5y ago
  This isn’t the first time this topic has been posted [0]. A couple years ago, the “who wants to be fired?” post hit the front page. So I disagree with you. [0]: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=who%20wants%20to%20be%20fired&sort=byDate&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...
  - adenozine 5y ago
    It feels too much like memeposting. It sidesteps actual issues like burnout and dissatisfaction over long periods of time, frustration with commutes. These are all concrete issues that leave people feeling this way, and could be talked about distinctly and purposefully. To me, it seems dismissive to just ask "Who wants to be fired?" when there have been those whom we've lost to suicide or cardiac events from being overworked and overlooked. It's just not right to reduce that problem to "haha, fire me, durrr" I had a friend of a friend in NY some years ago not show up to work, and my friend was weirded out because it was unusual. The guy was some director of account management or something at Goldman, and he jumped in front of a train around Canarsie or somewhere. Guy had a wife and a newborn and a toddler. This stuff really happens, in my experience.
    - Spooky23 5y ago
      Finance is insane. My uncle worked backend systems for a trading floor in the 90s. His last straw was when a vendor CE died in the datacenter, iirc of a heart attack during an early morning repair. Someone called 911 when he was discovered, but the fire/ems guys got into a fight with the management and security and stormed off. They ended up getting threatened to complete the repair or get fired and rolled the dude into a cold corner of the datacenter, where he sat for several hours.
      - adenozine 5y ago
        That's unbelievable, and yet, entirely believable. Wow. I'm sorry he was a part of that, and I'm glad he got out. It's such a nasty, awful industry. I've done some report generation stuff for banks (way before they called it data science) and it was strange being around people who were so highly strung and odd. I mean, there's parts of their personalities that just gave off "I could snap any moment" vibes. Anyhow. Yeah. Finance sucks. They ought to make it illegal to work more than 40hrs in that industry, right away.
    - ezekg 5y ago
      I understand, but as somebody who has wanted to be fired, I value the stories. It lets me know that I'm not the only one in my industry with these kinds of feelings.
high_byte 5y ago
I get people want compensations or whatever, but if you dislike your job you should quit rather than waste people's time, include your own! I'm all for quitting. I have friends leaving their jobs within first few days, better sooner than later.
- ceilingcorner 5y ago
  If you can afford to quit your job on a whim and get a new one, you are luckier than about 99.99% of the population. Most people work jobs they dislike because they have to in order to survive.
  - high_byte 5y ago
    I imagine most hackernews work hitech, high paying jobs. let me know otherwise
    - ironmagma 5y ago
      That’s not exactly true. Many on HN are unemployed or underemployed, even if they are in tech. The industry has a pretty wide range, it’s only the VC capitals that have amazing pay, benefits, etc.. Most programming jobs have average salary and standard crap benefits.
    - ceilingcorner 5y ago
      Definitely not true. Big variety of people here
- ASalazarMX 5y ago
  > I have friends leaving their jobs within first few days, better sooner than later. What kind of jobs? A few days are too few to judge a workplace, I've never seen someone quitting before completing their probation period.
  - greenyoda 5y ago
    I can see someone leaving immediately if they arrive at a new job and find out that they've been blatantly lied to about what they'll be working on, what their working conditions would be (e.g., amount of on-call time), their compensation package, or other fundamental facts about their job. Unfortunately, such things happen.
linschn 5y ago
I will quit my job on Friday. I will still have to work a few months and I dread it. I actually would be happier if I got fired, effective immediately. I won't badmouth my employer here because I don't think they have done anything wrong. We just don't fit. I'm lucky that my wife makes enough money for both of us, so I won't look for a new job, I'll just become a stay at home dad, and pursue my side projects while the kids are at school and the home duties are done.
- ASalazarMX 5y ago
  About 15 years ago I quit my job at a consulting company, and the realization that I was happier sick than healthy and working there made me quit. It really liked it at first, but it was a slow burnout, so slow I didn't realize I ended up hating it. The funny thing is, I recovered in one month, quit, and had the happiest two months after that; but after the fourth month I also realized that I still like doing my job, just not there. It took me three more months to find a new job I liked, meanwhile the initial happiness rush became boredom. My point is, working with your side projects will improve your skills and stave boredom; and who knows if you'll find you just needed a sabbatical instead of staying at home forever.
  - thrwawy4345784 5y ago
    Are you working on side projects? How do you manage that? After 8 hours pushing stuff around I don't feel like doing side projects anymore.
    - ASalazarMX 5y ago
      Same. I enjoy my current work, but I need to rest from it in my free time, otherwise I'd risk another burnout. I have little side projects implementing free software around the house, but it's mostly fiddling with new things. There's no shame in doing pleasurable things with our free time, not everyone has the same way of resting from work.
- mikewarot 5y ago
  It is nice that you can drop to one full time income, but I recommend you at least try to keep your skills up to date, to help keep the pressure off of her by knowing you are ready to dive back in. I left tech completely for 5 years, to make gears, which was rewarding, I stayed because I was part of a 4 man shop, and it was nice to not worry about servers on the weekends, etc. My wife's income took a hit, and now I've been out of tech for far too long... nobody programs in Pascal any more.
doggodaddo78 5y ago
1. Find another while still working. 2. Give the customary notice because you're a professional. 3. If it keeps happening, it might not be the jobs or it might be working for other people.
- ASalazarMX 5y ago
  Point 3 is very important: if every job sucks, it might be something about you rather than the companies you've worked for. I've worked with people who always complain, and when an object of their unhappiness disappears, they quickly replace it with another. It's as if they were unhappy with themselves and kept projecting it elsewhere.
  - ManlyBread 5y ago
    A string of bad luck is entirely possible. I hated my first three jobs, then the next one was okay up to a point and my current one is alright (although boring).
yukinon 5y ago
I'm burnt out. I'd love to be fired and given a severance package so that I can take a breather for a month. I'm completely sick of non-tech enterprises - the politics, the apathy towards development, the offshoring, the crazy deadlines set by executives and stakeholders that do not know tech, waterfall, development being seen as a cost center, etc.. There's just so much inertia. I have a comfortable life with not a bad salary. I have great wlb. And I work remotely. Everytime I think about leaving, I just focus on it maybe being a matter of perspective.
admissionsguy 5y ago
I fired a client recently. It felt like the last day of high school. It's incredible how draining some people and environments are compared to others. It may be the most important thing in life - to screen well, and failing that, to sever ties promptly. BTW Why do people always advise others to find a new job before quitting the current one? The finances of software people cannot be that precarious. Are you afraid of the mythical gap in the resume, or what?
- brtkdotse 5y ago
  > The finances of software people cannot be that precarious. You’d be surprised. hedonic treadmill intensifying
- muzani 5y ago
  "Why do people always advise others to find a new job before quitting the current one?" There are a lot of jobs out there but the interview process can take months and after being exhausted from searching, you may well just accept a bad deal. I've been in bad jobs though, and tried to job hunt from there. There was one where there's a meeting every half day to discuss progress. It was so draining that it was a confidence hit during interviews. I quit and it felt like the days were literally more beautiful.
- throwaway4233 5y ago
  To provide context, I have gone around 6 months without working since I left my last job without another offer in hand. I have done the same thing with my previous 2 jobs as well, but at those times I managed to find a new job within a month. What changed was impact of pandemic and my interest in finding a job in another country. > Why do people always advise others to find a new job before quitting the current one? 1. Interviews are complicated (and not just technical skill dependent) and sometimes time consuming especially if you are looking for specific companies or domains to work in. Your pace at getting the job might not match the company's. Hence your plan of savings for 3 months might have to be stretched to fit for 5 or 6 months. 2. Explaining why I quit my previous job without another offer was a constant question asked during the initial HR interviews and that required carefully worded answers. Since it was during the covid pandemic the general assumption would have been that I was part of a mass layoff. 3. Your existing job provides the stability for you to negotiate better since you already have something to fall back on. This matters only if you do not have an existing offer in hand.
maelvathk 5y ago
I'd love to be fired. I hate the job, I hate the work environment, I hate the pay and I hate programming.
deanmoriarty 5y ago
Getting fired would be the best thing that could happen to me, I would be smiling like a kid on Christmas morning feeling pure happiness and relief. I hate the job, I hate the pressure, I hate the environment. The pay is very good, but I have many years of living expenses saved up, so the pay is not a factor anymore. Why am I not quitting? I was hired to be a tech lead/manager a bit more than a year ago and a lot of people rely on me, it would suck immensely to have a boss that everyone likes quit on you after just one year. I have been on the other side and I know how bad it would feel. People love me, as I turned around a heavily burned out team, unfortunately severely burning myself out in the process… But realistically, I’ll most likely quit soon regardless, I am on the edge and one little crisis from here (production outage, argument with my director, …) will push me over. Some of my direct reports have been telling me: “I see you are burning out, let me know anything I can do to help, it would be awful if you were to quit and we were to report back to the old management”. I am in an insanely stressful hedge fund, the quintessential definition of pressure cooker. 70-80h a week of distress and brutal oncall, including weekends. It’s tough for individual contributors who have to deliver work, but for (technical) managers is hell on earth.
- cpach 5y ago
  Have you considered funemployment?
  - deanmoriarty 5y ago
    Totally. When I quit (or get fired haha), my plan is to take one entire year off to spend with family, travel in SE Asia, and ultimately get bored, then get a low paid/low expectations job just for fun. Might not even be tech.
    - cpach 5y ago
      Sounds like a good plan IMO. Best of luck!
- davidajackson 5y ago
  What was the original attraction to working at a hedge fund? For 70-80 hrs of work, are you just getting paid a lot more than a typical SV eng (sounds like 2 jobs a week!)?
giantg2 5y ago
I hate my job but need the income and benefits.
thrwawy4345784 5y ago
I would like to be fired because then I don't have to quit myself. I am currently in a IT project I don't want to be in. There is too much going on and there is so much shit here. They told me that it was going to be X and I was already hesitant, but I had to do it and now it is more like XXX. I am still here because I don't know what I should do else and I like the pay (but I don't need it and it isn't that great). Also, I know the book of Cal Newport "So Good They Can't Ignore You", but I don't know how to implement his advices. Probably I will not like my next job or the next thing I would do (if I know what it would be).
HerbsMan 5y ago
So, there is more of us. I'm working for the company close to 5 years now, every year is worse, all the "G" heads left already, management formed from CEO mates, absolutely no experience - Smoke, mirrors and total chaos. I would love to be fired as I don't have balls to resign, to handle the stress from being unemployed EVEN with savings, big enough for doing nothing in the next 3 years, while maintaining the same life standard. I'm affraid of not being ready to satisfy requirements in the new place, I guess its called lack of confidence and longer you sit in bad company, smaller you feel. Apart from that I'm massively burned out and HR doesn't even want to promote still remaining guys, instead they actively looking for new candidates. The job really killing my comfort and I don't learn anything new, but the salary is good.

74 points by karamazov 5y ago

Is your job terrible? Would a sense of relief wash over you if you didn't need to come in tomorrow? Talk about it with your friend, the internet!

adenozine 5y ago

This is an interesting question, but it seems like it would get better traction on Twitter rather than HN.

kid8919 5y ago
Disagree. Now Twitter is going mainstream with social manipulation, I would rather receive feedbacks from HN
ezekg 5y ago
This isn’t the first time this topic has been posted [0]. A couple years ago, the “who wants to be fired?” post hit the front page. So I disagree with you. [0]: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=who%20wants%20to%20be%20fired&sort=byDate&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...
- adenozine 5y ago
  It feels too much like memeposting. It sidesteps actual issues like burnout and dissatisfaction over long periods of time, frustration with commutes. These are all concrete issues that leave people feeling this way, and could be talked about distinctly and purposefully. To me, it seems dismissive to just ask "Who wants to be fired?" when there have been those whom we've lost to suicide or cardiac events from being overworked and overlooked. It's just not right to reduce that problem to "haha, fire me, durrr" I had a friend of a friend in NY some years ago not show up to work, and my friend was weirded out because it was unusual. The guy was some director of account management or something at Goldman, and he jumped in front of a train around Canarsie or somewhere. Guy had a wife and a newborn and a toddler. This stuff really happens, in my experience.
  - Spooky23 5y ago
    Finance is insane. My uncle worked backend systems for a trading floor in the 90s. His last straw was when a vendor CE died in the datacenter, iirc of a heart attack during an early morning repair. Someone called 911 when he was discovered, but the fire/ems guys got into a fight with the management and security and stormed off. They ended up getting threatened to complete the repair or get fired and rolled the dude into a cold corner of the datacenter, where he sat for several hours.
    - adenozine 5y ago
      That's unbelievable, and yet, entirely believable. Wow. I'm sorry he was a part of that, and I'm glad he got out. It's such a nasty, awful industry. I've done some report generation stuff for banks (way before they called it data science) and it was strange being around people who were so highly strung and odd. I mean, there's parts of their personalities that just gave off "I could snap any moment" vibes. Anyhow. Yeah. Finance sucks. They ought to make it illegal to work more than 40hrs in that industry, right away.
  - ezekg 5y ago
    I understand, but as somebody who has wanted to be fired, I value the stories. It lets me know that I'm not the only one in my industry with these kinds of feelings.

high_byte 5y ago

I get people want compensations or whatever, but if you dislike your job you should quit rather than waste people's time, include your own! I'm all for quitting. I have friends leaving their jobs within first few days, better sooner than later.

ceilingcorner 5y ago
If you can afford to quit your job on a whim and get a new one, you are luckier than about 99.99% of the population. Most people work jobs they dislike because they have to in order to survive.
- high_byte 5y ago
  I imagine most hackernews work hitech, high paying jobs. let me know otherwise
  - ironmagma 5y ago
    That’s not exactly true. Many on HN are unemployed or underemployed, even if they are in tech. The industry has a pretty wide range, it’s only the VC capitals that have amazing pay, benefits, etc.. Most programming jobs have average salary and standard crap benefits.
  - ceilingcorner 5y ago
    Definitely not true. Big variety of people here
ASalazarMX 5y ago
> I have friends leaving their jobs within first few days, better sooner than later. What kind of jobs? A few days are too few to judge a workplace, I've never seen someone quitting before completing their probation period.
- greenyoda 5y ago
  I can see someone leaving immediately if they arrive at a new job and find out that they've been blatantly lied to about what they'll be working on, what their working conditions would be (e.g., amount of on-call time), their compensation package, or other fundamental facts about their job. Unfortunately, such things happen.

linschn 5y ago

I will quit my job on Friday. I will still have to work a few months and I dread it. I actually would be happier if I got fired, effective immediately. I won't badmouth my employer here because I don't think they have done anything wrong. We just don't fit. I'm lucky that my wife makes enough money for both of us, so I won't look for a new job, I'll just become a stay at home dad, and pursue my side projects while the kids are at school and the home duties are done.

ASalazarMX 5y ago
About 15 years ago I quit my job at a consulting company, and the realization that I was happier sick than healthy and working there made me quit. It really liked it at first, but it was a slow burnout, so slow I didn't realize I ended up hating it. The funny thing is, I recovered in one month, quit, and had the happiest two months after that; but after the fourth month I also realized that I still like doing my job, just not there. It took me three more months to find a new job I liked, meanwhile the initial happiness rush became boredom. My point is, working with your side projects will improve your skills and stave boredom; and who knows if you'll find you just needed a sabbatical instead of staying at home forever.
- thrwawy4345784 5y ago
  Are you working on side projects? How do you manage that? After 8 hours pushing stuff around I don't feel like doing side projects anymore.
  - ASalazarMX 5y ago
    Same. I enjoy my current work, but I need to rest from it in my free time, otherwise I'd risk another burnout. I have little side projects implementing free software around the house, but it's mostly fiddling with new things. There's no shame in doing pleasurable things with our free time, not everyone has the same way of resting from work.
mikewarot 5y ago
It is nice that you can drop to one full time income, but I recommend you at least try to keep your skills up to date, to help keep the pressure off of her by knowing you are ready to dive back in. I left tech completely for 5 years, to make gears, which was rewarding, I stayed because I was part of a 4 man shop, and it was nice to not worry about servers on the weekends, etc. My wife's income took a hit, and now I've been out of tech for far too long... nobody programs in Pascal any more.

doggodaddo78 5y ago

1. Find another while still working. 2. Give the customary notice because you're a professional. 3. If it keeps happening, it might not be the jobs or it might be working for other people.

ASalazarMX 5y ago
Point 3 is very important: if every job sucks, it might be something about you rather than the companies you've worked for. I've worked with people who always complain, and when an object of their unhappiness disappears, they quickly replace it with another. It's as if they were unhappy with themselves and kept projecting it elsewhere.
- ManlyBread 5y ago
  A string of bad luck is entirely possible. I hated my first three jobs, then the next one was okay up to a point and my current one is alright (although boring).

yukinon 5y ago

I'm burnt out. I'd love to be fired and given a severance package so that I can take a breather for a month. I'm completely sick of non-tech enterprises - the politics, the apathy towards development, the offshoring, the crazy deadlines set by executives and stakeholders that do not know tech, waterfall, development being seen as a cost center, etc.. There's just so much inertia. I have a comfortable life with not a bad salary. I have great wlb. And I work remotely. Everytime I think about leaving, I just focus on it maybe being a matter of perspective.

admissionsguy 5y ago

I fired a client recently. It felt like the last day of high school. It's incredible how draining some people and environments are compared to others. It may be the most important thing in life - to screen well, and failing that, to sever ties promptly. BTW Why do people always advise others to find a new job before quitting the current one? The finances of software people cannot be that precarious. Are you afraid of the mythical gap in the resume, or what?

brtkdotse 5y ago
> The finances of software people cannot be that precarious. You’d be surprised. hedonic treadmill intensifying
muzani 5y ago
"Why do people always advise others to find a new job before quitting the current one?" There are a lot of jobs out there but the interview process can take months and after being exhausted from searching, you may well just accept a bad deal. I've been in bad jobs though, and tried to job hunt from there. There was one where there's a meeting every half day to discuss progress. It was so draining that it was a confidence hit during interviews. I quit and it felt like the days were literally more beautiful.
throwaway4233 5y ago
To provide context, I have gone around 6 months without working since I left my last job without another offer in hand. I have done the same thing with my previous 2 jobs as well, but at those times I managed to find a new job within a month. What changed was impact of pandemic and my interest in finding a job in another country. > Why do people always advise others to find a new job before quitting the current one? 1. Interviews are complicated (and not just technical skill dependent) and sometimes time consuming especially if you are looking for specific companies or domains to work in. Your pace at getting the job might not match the company's. Hence your plan of savings for 3 months might have to be stretched to fit for 5 or 6 months. 2. Explaining why I quit my previous job without another offer was a constant question asked during the initial HR interviews and that required carefully worded answers. Since it was during the covid pandemic the general assumption would have been that I was part of a mass layoff. 3. Your existing job provides the stability for you to negotiate better since you already have something to fall back on. This matters only if you do not have an existing offer in hand.

maelvathk 5y ago

I'd love to be fired. I hate the job, I hate the work environment, I hate the pay and I hate programming.

deanmoriarty 5y ago

Getting fired would be the best thing that could happen to me, I would be smiling like a kid on Christmas morning feeling pure happiness and relief. I hate the job, I hate the pressure, I hate the environment. The pay is very good, but I have many years of living expenses saved up, so the pay is not a factor anymore. Why am I not quitting? I was hired to be a tech lead/manager a bit more than a year ago and a lot of people rely on me, it would suck immensely to have a boss that everyone likes quit on you after just one year. I have been on the other side and I know how bad it would feel. People love me, as I turned around a heavily burned out team, unfortunately severely burning myself out in the process… But realistically, I’ll most likely quit soon regardless, I am on the edge and one little crisis from here (production outage, argument with my director, …) will push me over. Some of my direct reports have been telling me: “I see you are burning out, let me know anything I can do to help, it would be awful if you were to quit and we were to report back to the old management”. I am in an insanely stressful hedge fund, the quintessential definition of pressure cooker. 70-80h a week of distress and brutal oncall, including weekends. It’s tough for individual contributors who have to deliver work, but for (technical) managers is hell on earth.

cpach 5y ago
Have you considered funemployment?
- deanmoriarty 5y ago
  Totally. When I quit (or get fired haha), my plan is to take one entire year off to spend with family, travel in SE Asia, and ultimately get bored, then get a low paid/low expectations job just for fun. Might not even be tech.
  - cpach 5y ago
    Sounds like a good plan IMO. Best of luck!
davidajackson 5y ago
What was the original attraction to working at a hedge fund? For 70-80 hrs of work, are you just getting paid a lot more than a typical SV eng (sounds like 2 jobs a week!)?

giantg2 5y ago

I hate my job but need the income and benefits.

thrwawy4345784 5y ago

I would like to be fired because then I don't have to quit myself. I am currently in a IT project I don't want to be in. There is too much going on and there is so much shit here. They told me that it was going to be X and I was already hesitant, but I had to do it and now it is more like XXX. I am still here because I don't know what I should do else and I like the pay (but I don't need it and it isn't that great). Also, I know the book of Cal Newport "So Good They Can't Ignore You", but I don't know how to implement his advices. Probably I will not like my next job or the next thing I would do (if I know what it would be).

HerbsMan 5y ago

So, there is more of us. I'm working for the company close to 5 years now, every year is worse, all the "G" heads left already, management formed from CEO mates, absolutely no experience - Smoke, mirrors and total chaos. I would love to be fired as I don't have balls to resign, to handle the stress from being unemployed EVEN with savings, big enough for doing nothing in the next 3 years, while maintaining the same life standard. I'm affraid of not being ready to satisfy requirements in the new place, I guess its called lack of confidence and longer you sit in bad company, smaller you feel. Apart from that I'm massively burned out and HR doesn't even want to promote still remaining guys, instead they actively looking for new candidates. The job really killing my comfort and I don't learn anything new, but the salary is good.