3 ms·

What are the likely consequences of this difference ?

paulcole 5y ago
If I’m going to know you for less than a year before I bounce, it’s easier to tell you what I think you want to hear instead of being myself and being honest with you. I don’t need to be that concerned with the consequences of my actions. Everything I do is gonna be somebody else’s problem soon enough. I can probably keep some kind of fiction together long enough to get to my next VC-funded shitshow gig. But if I do that, after 2,3,4,7,12 years, it’s going to be obvious to the people I work with I’m a fake weirdo who’s miserable to work with and not a genuine person. This will be true even if nobody else works there for 15 years — it’ll get passed down from new hire to new hire.
- SimonPStevens 5y ago
  My experience was the opposite of this (not saying yours is wrong, just that it might be different for different people) I did a 7 year stint as a contractor in which I worked at 7 different places, plus multiple smaller ad-hoc projects. Most contracts started with 1-3 month engagements. Most were also extended multiple times. But I never made any assumptions about extensions. Knowing that I was only ever going to be somewhere short term made it a while lot easier to be be fully honest with people, instead of just telling them what I thought they wanted to hear. I found it put me in a great position to point out problems or give advice and recommendations for improvements based on my experience without any worries about upsetting anyone who was personally invested in the existing status quo. Because the consequences of the personal relationships weren't so critical, I would be leaving anyway Knowing I was only there temporarily also made me much more conscious of writing up or handing over knowledge of the things I worked on. I always tried to make sure I was building up the client to succeed after I left. I always wanted to do a great job, so doing something poorly because I didn't have any long term consequences was never really a factor. Many clients reached out and offered repeat business too, so the lack of long term consequences isn't really true anyway. If you do a good job, it adds to your future revenue stream. I try to carry this mentality forward now I've returned to more conventional employment. Being honest about improvements needed, and working to help the team succeed in the long term.
- vmception 5y ago
  > I can probably keep some kind of fiction together long enough to get to my next VC-funded shitshow gig. ha, love to see this so pragmatically written

If I’m going to know you for less than a year before I bounce, it’s easier to tell you what I think you want to hear instead of being myself and being honest with you. I don’t need to be that concerned with the consequences of my actions. Everything I do is gonna be somebody else’s problem soon enough. I can probably keep some kind of fiction together long enough to get to my next VC-funded shitshow gig. But if I do that, after 2,3,4,7,12 years, it’s going to be obvious to the people I work with I’m a fake weirdo who’s miserable to work with and not a genuine person. This will be true even if nobody else works there for 15 years — it’ll get passed down from new hire to new hire.

SimonPStevens 5y ago
My experience was the opposite of this (not saying yours is wrong, just that it might be different for different people) I did a 7 year stint as a contractor in which I worked at 7 different places, plus multiple smaller ad-hoc projects. Most contracts started with 1-3 month engagements. Most were also extended multiple times. But I never made any assumptions about extensions. Knowing that I was only ever going to be somewhere short term made it a while lot easier to be be fully honest with people, instead of just telling them what I thought they wanted to hear. I found it put me in a great position to point out problems or give advice and recommendations for improvements based on my experience without any worries about upsetting anyone who was personally invested in the existing status quo. Because the consequences of the personal relationships weren't so critical, I would be leaving anyway Knowing I was only there temporarily also made me much more conscious of writing up or handing over knowledge of the things I worked on. I always tried to make sure I was building up the client to succeed after I left. I always wanted to do a great job, so doing something poorly because I didn't have any long term consequences was never really a factor. Many clients reached out and offered repeat business too, so the lack of long term consequences isn't really true anyway. If you do a good job, it adds to your future revenue stream. I try to carry this mentality forward now I've returned to more conventional employment. Being honest about improvements needed, and working to help the team succeed in the long term.
vmception 5y ago
> I can probably keep some kind of fiction together long enough to get to my next VC-funded shitshow gig. ha, love to see this so pragmatically written