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The people who do this aren't interested in putting in full workweeks and delivering good work. Their goal is to find jobs and managers with low expectations,
by PragmaticPulp 4y ago
The people who do this aren't interested in putting in full workweeks and delivering good work.
Their goal is to find jobs and managers with low expectations, then sandbag as much as possible ("Gee, this task is harder than I thought. Going to take a couple weeks longer than we estimated!").
Had a team member try this and an old company. We caught on quickly when they couldn't keep up with their workload and were constantly unavailable during the day. Really sucked for the rest of the team who had to pick up the slack this person created by pretending to work full time.
- harles 4y agoI think this highlights one of the most important problems with people taking on multiple tech jobs: it’s the fellow employees that suffer the most. Some lost money is a drop in a bucket for most big companies, but other people just trying to do well at a single job really pay the price.
- iwork3jobs 4y agoThere are companies where the level of expertise is so low, you look like a genius beside them. I did this, I worked several jobs in parallel. The pay was... not really amazing, about 8k/mo when I had 3 projects at the same time. And in most of the cases I was a main player in some important parts of the system. I think _some_ people caught on. But I also think they didn't care that much because I solved their problems, unblocked their people and was always responsive, if push came to shove, I would put in the extra time to make the damn thing work and ship it.
- ishjoh 4y ago8k/mo total or per project?
- iwork3jobs 4y agoTotal. Rates were... not great. They sucked, honestly, at least compared to what I hear on here on HN. Slightly over 45 Eur/h all project rates summed. Somewhere in Eastern Europe. That's great for someone who grew up and went through college on about 150 USD/month, so of course I felt like a king.
- ClumsyPilot 4y agowell if the work got done, and stuff shipped, then it does not look like anyone has the right to be angry. i personally tried to do two jobs (with full agreement from both sides) splitting my week half half. It was a real struggle, but it is possible.
- Nextgrid 4y agoIt’s actually really hard if you approach this from a well-meaning perspective, because typically you’d still be selecting the jobs based on your normal (when having a single job) criteria. The key is to turn the thing upside down and seek out the jobs you’d normally reject - shifty companies with lower pay, bad tooling, tons of bureaucracy, etc - basically a place where no sane developer would willingly apply. Then, you’ll be the smartest person in the room without having to do anything special and the extra bureaucracy can be either automated away or come in handy as an excuse when you fall behind, while the lower pay isn’t really a problem if you have 4 of them running concurrently.
- ClumsyPilot 4y agothen beurocrats are a feature protecting you, not a bug
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- harles 4y agoStuff ships because people work hard to make that happen. If one member was dead weight, it’s not fair to simply point to a successful product - other people had to put in the work, probably extra work, to make that happen.
- Dracophoenix 4y agoGiven your username, how did/do you manage to pass the interview for all those jobs? At least one of your interviewers would likely have asked if you've "finished" working with your "previous" employer or a question alluding to it. Either that or they would have done a background check via Experian or LexisNexis.
- smeagull 4y agoWho quits their job before finding another one?
- Dracophoenix 4y agoIt's not necessary for one to have already quit one's job. A question I've received is "What made you want to change jobs?" The question assumes that you are or will be removing yourself from a position at one's current/previous employer upon being accepted for the new job.
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- kache_ 4y agoMaybe don't have such low expectations that someone can moonlight your job for shits. Fire non performers fast.
- roflyear 4y agoCompanies take forever to fire people.
- dvtrn 4y agoThough I have worked for companies where “hire slow fire fast” was an actively spoken belief by senior leaders and executives. They currently sit at a 2.8 on Glassdoor. Think of that however you will.
- thaumasiotes 4y agoIf you're going to fire fast, what is the benefit of hiring slow?
- dvtrn 4y agoThe dopamine hit that comes from selection bias, probably. Last I heard, the executive who manifested this mindset is gone, too. Poetic. If my snark wasn't clear, it's a mindset of hiring and personnel management that I think is lazy at best, total shit at worst.
- HWR_14 4y agoIn theory, hiring slow gets you better employees. Firing slow gets you better employees. So if you combine the two, you get the best employees. Not what I believe, but that's the logic they were using
- HeyLaughingBoy 4y agotsk! you're not supposed to ask that!
- aledalgrande 4y agoThis is what consultancies do all the time.
- danenania 4y agoThe issue is mainly one of false advertising. Companies are looking for very different things in a consultant vs. a ft employee. If you want to do this “scam” in an ethical way without the reputation risk, just be a consultant, work for multiple companies, and be honest about it. You won’t get benefits and finding clients will probably be harder, but you can set your own schedule and charge a lot more for your time.
- aledalgrande 4y agoI'm not saying they are in the right, I'm just saying we accept consultancies adding hours for nothing as a default nowadays. But yeah being a freelance would give you the freedom (at the cost of more time spent selling yourself).
- danenania 4y agoSorry, I meant the impersonal “you” (anyone reading the comment), not you specifically.
- PragmaticPulp 4y ago> This is what consultancies do all the time. No, consultancies do not double-bill multiple clients for hours worked. In fact, anyone billing a company in full for time that someone wasn't actually working on their project is committing fraud. Fraud that leaves a paper trail. This story would be brought to light very quickly by a disgruntled employee somewhere.
- aledalgrande 4y agoNo, they bill senior hours for people with 3 years experience. Same thing.
- HWR_14 4y ago> Really sucked for the rest of the team who had to pick up the slack this person created by pretending to work full time. The solution is to escalate the "sandbagger" problem to someone who can fire and replace them, not cover for them.