4 ms·

Or the far more likely scenario is that your job is only barely needed in the first place, and you were hired because some line manager knows that increasing th

Or the far more likely scenario is that your job is only barely needed in the first place, and you were hired because some line manager knows that increasing their head count is the best way to get promoted. And since their manager is thinking the same (and probably one layer above too), and the company is still doing gangbusters on ad revenue, no one really questions it.

ryandrake 4y ago
I just don’t get how this is possible. Every single company I’ve ever worked at (large and small) has had at least 10x more work in the backlog than could possibly be done with the staff they have. Everyone’s JIRA queue is stuffed full, and since there is so much work, things have to be brutally prioritized and even high-value stuff has to be cut, since there are just not enough people-hours to get it all done. Where are these companies/teams who have nothing to do, or so little to do they have time for side projects??
- ninkendo 4y ago
  Just because you have a full JIRA queue doesn't mean any of the work is worth doing. Management tends to want to build empires, and that can mean taking on projects that don't contribute at all to the company's bottom line, or are so high-effort/low-impact that any sane company wouldn't even bother with the project. See also Google's new chat app every year, or how companies decide to rewrite their UI every six months, refactoring legacy code that works just fine, chasing the latest framework du jour, etc etc etc. Teams tend to take on work on a whim, and there's rarely anyone at the top keeping tabs on which of the projects are actually useful vs just spinning your wheels.
- pharmakom 4y ago
  Tackle just enough of the tickets to not arouse suspicion. Managers won’t be able to estimate how hard the tickets really were.
  - eclipxe 4y ago
    Is this based on your actual experience at Google/Meta or are you guessing?

ryandrake 4y ago

I just don’t get how this is possible. Every single company I’ve ever worked at (large and small) has had at least 10x more work in the backlog than could possibly be done with the staff they have. Everyone’s JIRA queue is stuffed full, and since there is so much work, things have to be brutally prioritized and even high-value stuff has to be cut, since there are just not enough people-hours to get it all done. Where are these companies/teams who have nothing to do, or so little to do they have time for side projects??

ninkendo 4y ago
Just because you have a full JIRA queue doesn't mean any of the work is worth doing. Management tends to want to build empires, and that can mean taking on projects that don't contribute at all to the company's bottom line, or are so high-effort/low-impact that any sane company wouldn't even bother with the project. See also Google's new chat app every year, or how companies decide to rewrite their UI every six months, refactoring legacy code that works just fine, chasing the latest framework du jour, etc etc etc. Teams tend to take on work on a whim, and there's rarely anyone at the top keeping tabs on which of the projects are actually useful vs just spinning your wheels.
pharmakom 4y ago
Tackle just enough of the tickets to not arouse suspicion. Managers won’t be able to estimate how hard the tickets really were.
- eclipxe 4y ago
  Is this based on your actual experience at Google/Meta or are you guessing?