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Is there a story behind all this bitterness? MFA for every login is a very good idea. If you're having to log in to the same service over and over again within

by elric 4y ago

Is there a story behind all this bitterness? MFA for every login is a very good idea. If you're having to log in to the same service over and over again within a short amount of time, someone is doing something very wrong. Sending out company newsletters seems like a nice way to let everyone know what the company is up to. Not sure how you go from that to reminding lowly engineers of their "insignificance". Social events are a great way to get to know your coworkers and to improve cooperation. Awareness training (I'm imagining you mean things like Security Awareness and such) also seem like an overwhelmingly good thing. Everyone has actual work to do. All the stuff you perceive as meta comes with the territory of working anywhere with a non-trivial number of people.

nonrandomstring 4y ago
> Is there a story behind all this bitterness? Does it even need saying? Of course there is. Many stories. Over many decades. It's sad watching great people quit and wonderful projects die because of a poor working environment and the selfishness of others who inflict their narrow values in others. If you're one of the people who see these as good things then naturally you'd frame criticism as "bitterness". But as another commenter said, these are personal stories. Your own subjective peeves might strike me as strange. Do please open your mind to a world that contains different people with different values.
_djo_ 4y ago
> Sending out company newsletters seems like a nice way to let everyone know what the company is up to. Not sure how you go from that to reminding lowly engineers of their "insignificance". Speaking as someone working in a small company that was acquired by a much larger corporation that shows all the signs being discussed here, it's not just newsletters. Those are useful. It's being sent dozens of spammy emails a week about initiatives that are clearly some VP's ego project and have no relevance you other than clogging your inbox and taking away some of your time and attention. One recent example I got was three days of emails telling me to 'get ready' for an internal initiative but mentioning nothing else except a name. No links to click, no calls to action, no useful information at all. Only for the final email to reveal it was about a non-strategic initiative that applied to some other site only, despite all the emails being sent to the global company. All attempts at getting that sort of thing off the all-hands mailing list have been rejected. A place that thinks that's okay does not respect the time or attention of its employees, and it does tend to make you feel reminded of your insignificance.
ThePadawan 4y ago
> Sending out company newsletters seems like a nice way to let everyone know what the company is up to. Not sure how you go from that to reminding lowly engineers of their "insignificance". I agree with both you and parent. I've enjoyed getting a monthly newsletter by email in past jobs, letting me know "hey so we just signed a contract with a client that is twice as big as the biggest one we've had so far". Makes sense - I'm not the one to be greatly inspired by something like that, but it's good for perspective. I've also worked at a company where every single salesperson was allowed and encouraged to email all@company.com whenever they closed a sale. This was around 3 times a week. Not terrible - however, everyone in the company was also officially encouraged to "congratulate" any such "successful sales" emails with "encouraging words" such as simply adding "Congrats!" and hitting "Reply All". The head count at this company was around 400. I wish I was kidding. I think I lasted 3 days before I created a filter rule in my email client.
- Yahivin 4y ago
  I hope the filter rule auto-replied "Congrats!" and archived the thread :)
  - ThePadawan 4y ago
    Thankfully, I was not part of sales. But looking back (I have left this company since then), I believe your strategy would have genuinely had a positive effect on any employee's career path.

by elric 4y ago

nonrandomstring 4y ago

> Is there a story behind all this bitterness? Does it even need saying? Of course there is. Many stories. Over many decades. It's sad watching great people quit and wonderful projects die because of a poor working environment and the selfishness of others who inflict their narrow values in others. If you're one of the people who see these as good things then naturally you'd frame criticism as "bitterness". But as another commenter said, these are personal stories. Your own subjective peeves might strike me as strange. Do please open your mind to a world that contains different people with different values.

_djo_ 4y ago

> Sending out company newsletters seems like a nice way to let everyone know what the company is up to. Not sure how you go from that to reminding lowly engineers of their "insignificance". Speaking as someone working in a small company that was acquired by a much larger corporation that shows all the signs being discussed here, it's not just newsletters. Those are useful. It's being sent dozens of spammy emails a week about initiatives that are clearly some VP's ego project and have no relevance you other than clogging your inbox and taking away some of your time and attention. One recent example I got was three days of emails telling me to 'get ready' for an internal initiative but mentioning nothing else except a name. No links to click, no calls to action, no useful information at all. Only for the final email to reveal it was about a non-strategic initiative that applied to some other site only, despite all the emails being sent to the global company. All attempts at getting that sort of thing off the all-hands mailing list have been rejected. A place that thinks that's okay does not respect the time or attention of its employees, and it does tend to make you feel reminded of your insignificance.

ThePadawan 4y ago

> Sending out company newsletters seems like a nice way to let everyone know what the company is up to. Not sure how you go from that to reminding lowly engineers of their "insignificance". I agree with both you and parent. I've enjoyed getting a monthly newsletter by email in past jobs, letting me know "hey so we just signed a contract with a client that is twice as big as the biggest one we've had so far". Makes sense - I'm not the one to be greatly inspired by something like that, but it's good for perspective. I've also worked at a company where every single salesperson was allowed and encouraged to email all@company.com whenever they closed a sale. This was around 3 times a week. Not terrible - however, everyone in the company was also officially encouraged to "congratulate" any such "successful sales" emails with "encouraging words" such as simply adding "Congrats!" and hitting "Reply All". The head count at this company was around 400. I wish I was kidding. I think I lasted 3 days before I created a filter rule in my email client.

Yahivin 4y ago
I hope the filter rule auto-replied "Congrats!" and archived the thread :)
- ThePadawan 4y ago
  Thankfully, I was not part of sales. But looking back (I have left this company since then), I believe your strategy would have genuinely had a positive effect on any employee's career path.