4 ms·

> At the end of the day, the business has to do the right thing for the organization, even when that's not to the benefit of an individual in the organization.

by foepys 5y ago

> At the end of the day, the business has to do the right thing for the organization, even when that's not to the benefit of an individual in the organization. How dystopian. When a colleague of mine burned out they talked to their boss and the boss assured them to take as much time as they needed. Then the boss made sure that everybody took as much load off of them as possible so they don't have to worry about projects and other things work related. In the end my colleague was home for about 12 months, then returned to work, and is still working there, just not as many hours. No problems anywhere, everybody is happy. The boss is happy because they have an experienced employee back and the employees that their boss cares about them.

sulam 5y ago
How utopian. I manage a team with hundreds of engineers on it. If I have someone who is taking a year off (with pay I presume), I have to give their work to people. Once enough people do that, I have exhausted the capacity of the team and will surely see the team enter a spiral of burnout that I can only solve by adding dramatically more people or radically reducing our commitments. This will negatively affect our business, potentially putting the entire team's jobs at risk.
- aprdm 5y ago
  Maybe pitch less work for your team? Set more realistic goals ? Fight for them? Not every business is a startup fighting to survive or grow like hell within a year. Some businesses have been around for decades and are in a comfortable place, they can very easily ramp up or down the amount of work they have to accomplish to keep talent happy. And how can you manage hundreds of engineer?
  - sulam 5y ago
    I listen to the whole team. Including the people who have to pick up the work left by the person on leave. Don’t get me wrong, I insta-approve leave requests that are measured in months. A year is just too long.
- foepys 5y ago
  Your capacity planning is off. If a few people out of hundreds are out sick, this should in no way affect the others as a whole.
  - sulam 5y ago
    "out sick" is one thing. Taking a full year off is another. Our capacity plans include set aside time for people for sick leave, vacations, meetings, and things like "Hack week", etc. We don't have capacity set aside for people to take a year off like it ain't no thang.
    - foepys 5y ago
      That's a problem for you. It's not a problem in Germany when a few people out of hundreds are out healing.
- piva00 5y ago
  > Once enough people do that, I have exhausted the capacity of the team and will surely see the team enter a spiral of burnout that I can only solve by adding dramatically more people or radically reducing our commitments. This will negatively affect our business, potentially putting the entire team's jobs at risk. There it is: address the issue before enough people do that. There will only be lots of people taking a year off if you ran them into the ground, if capacity planning is decent you won't have a significant percentage of the workforce out sick...

by foepys 5y ago

sulam 5y ago

How utopian. I manage a team with hundreds of engineers on it. If I have someone who is taking a year off (with pay I presume), I have to give their work to people. Once enough people do that, I have exhausted the capacity of the team and will surely see the team enter a spiral of burnout that I can only solve by adding dramatically more people or radically reducing our commitments. This will negatively affect our business, potentially putting the entire team's jobs at risk.

aprdm 5y ago
Maybe pitch less work for your team? Set more realistic goals ? Fight for them? Not every business is a startup fighting to survive or grow like hell within a year. Some businesses have been around for decades and are in a comfortable place, they can very easily ramp up or down the amount of work they have to accomplish to keep talent happy. And how can you manage hundreds of engineer?
- sulam 5y ago
  I listen to the whole team. Including the people who have to pick up the work left by the person on leave. Don’t get me wrong, I insta-approve leave requests that are measured in months. A year is just too long.
foepys 5y ago
Your capacity planning is off. If a few people out of hundreds are out sick, this should in no way affect the others as a whole.
- sulam 5y ago
  "out sick" is one thing. Taking a full year off is another. Our capacity plans include set aside time for people for sick leave, vacations, meetings, and things like "Hack week", etc. We don't have capacity set aside for people to take a year off like it ain't no thang.
  - foepys 5y ago
    That's a problem for you. It's not a problem in Germany when a few people out of hundreds are out healing.
piva00 5y ago
> Once enough people do that, I have exhausted the capacity of the team and will surely see the team enter a spiral of burnout that I can only solve by adding dramatically more people or radically reducing our commitments. This will negatively affect our business, potentially putting the entire team's jobs at risk. There it is: address the issue before enough people do that. There will only be lots of people taking a year off if you ran them into the ground, if capacity planning is decent you won't have a significant percentage of the workforce out sick...