4 ms·

"Rest and vest" is a phrase that gets bandied about often -- including by people who are trying to do it. I couldn't tell you what fraction of employees, but t

"Rest and vest" is a phrase that gets bandied about often -- including by people who are trying to do it. I couldn't tell you what fraction of employees, but there are folks hiding in all of the big tech companies that are happy with their comp, aren't trying to advance, and have adopted the "do the minimum to not get fired" approach to their work. If too many of these get together in one org or on one team, the whole thing gets poisoned and everyone starts barely getting anything done.

BobbyJo 4y ago
My experience at Google (which matched other large companies I've been at) was more that the "smartest" (I.E. earliest) members of a team laid down so many road blocks for later members, in the form of tech-debt and undocumented knowledge, that the output difference between coasting and working yourself to death was pretty small. It's an easy environment to get discouraged in.
- powerhour 4y ago
  My fear is that is what I'm doing right now. I've been writing code alone for a while, it's very possible it will be hard for new hires to understand or update. I know there is tech debt but I don't have time to fix it (because I'm alone, natch). Oh well. Maybe they can spend their time replacing my work.
  - Spoom 4y ago
    No worries, inevitably whatever framework you're using right now will be deprecated and replaced within a few years anyway.
- hot_gril 4y ago
  My experience at Google was that until I decided the company was kinda directionless and started selectively ignoring leadership to get stuff done. Of course avoiding the "insubordination" line. Turns out they're still happy as long as you give them what they want in the end, or if not, what their boss wants. And I'm happy to see things work.
danaris 4y ago
> that are happy with their comp, aren't trying to advance Why does this > and have adopted the "do the minimum to not get fired" approach to their work necessarily have to go with this? What's wrong with deciding "I don't need to advance further; I like the work I do, I make enough money; I don't need to be hustling anymore"? It seems to me the concept of "enough" is hard to grasp for a lot of people, especially those who are deep in any high-paying field (not just SV tech types, but certain kinds of doctors, lawyers, etc). If there's no place in Silicon Valley for people who know what "comfortable" feels like, then it's definitely a place I'd prefer to stay away from.
- mirker 4y ago
  A rational actor will notice they get either a promotion or less work in the high/low work instances. If you work in between those boundaries, you get nothing extra.
  - danaris 4y ago
    In some cases, yes. In others, as implied by the post I was replying to, people think that if you're not constantly Striving, you're not good enough.
    - mirker 4y ago
      This seems cyclical to me. If you do the bare minimum and get fired, that is a contradiction. If the bare minimum is getting promoted then that means there is no room to slack. If you look like you are slacking to your coworkers, then you probably are not doing the bare minimum. The bare minimum would be exactly what it takes to keep your job. So I believe what you are saying is that there are multiple bare minimums from various perspectives. In those cases, you take the biggest one. Another example for a gameable aspect of promotion is cutting up your achievements to look more favorable during a promo round e.g., salami slicing. If you hit a promotion, save the extra stuff for the next round. And if you are at a large organization, you certainly have the data to estimate exactly the bars for promotion.
closeparen 4y ago
Doing work is a low status activity. If too many people in your team or org are trying to get ahead, you will be drowning in project management and recurring cross-team syncs and grand plans but with hardly anyone writing code.

BobbyJo 4y ago

My experience at Google (which matched other large companies I've been at) was more that the "smartest" (I.E. earliest) members of a team laid down so many road blocks for later members, in the form of tech-debt and undocumented knowledge, that the output difference between coasting and working yourself to death was pretty small. It's an easy environment to get discouraged in.

powerhour 4y ago
My fear is that is what I'm doing right now. I've been writing code alone for a while, it's very possible it will be hard for new hires to understand or update. I know there is tech debt but I don't have time to fix it (because I'm alone, natch). Oh well. Maybe they can spend their time replacing my work.
- Spoom 4y ago
  No worries, inevitably whatever framework you're using right now will be deprecated and replaced within a few years anyway.
hot_gril 4y ago
My experience at Google was that until I decided the company was kinda directionless and started selectively ignoring leadership to get stuff done. Of course avoiding the "insubordination" line. Turns out they're still happy as long as you give them what they want in the end, or if not, what their boss wants. And I'm happy to see things work.

danaris 4y ago

> that are happy with their comp, aren't trying to advance Why does this > and have adopted the "do the minimum to not get fired" approach to their work necessarily have to go with this? What's wrong with deciding "I don't need to advance further; I like the work I do, I make enough money; I don't need to be hustling anymore"? It seems to me the concept of "enough" is hard to grasp for a lot of people, especially those who are deep in any high-paying field (not just SV tech types, but certain kinds of doctors, lawyers, etc). If there's no place in Silicon Valley for people who know what "comfortable" feels like, then it's definitely a place I'd prefer to stay away from.

mirker 4y ago
A rational actor will notice they get either a promotion or less work in the high/low work instances. If you work in between those boundaries, you get nothing extra.
- danaris 4y ago
  In some cases, yes. In others, as implied by the post I was replying to, people think that if you're not constantly Striving, you're not good enough.
  - mirker 4y ago
    This seems cyclical to me. If you do the bare minimum and get fired, that is a contradiction. If the bare minimum is getting promoted then that means there is no room to slack. If you look like you are slacking to your coworkers, then you probably are not doing the bare minimum. The bare minimum would be exactly what it takes to keep your job. So I believe what you are saying is that there are multiple bare minimums from various perspectives. In those cases, you take the biggest one. Another example for a gameable aspect of promotion is cutting up your achievements to look more favorable during a promo round e.g., salami slicing. If you hit a promotion, save the extra stuff for the next round. And if you are at a large organization, you certainly have the data to estimate exactly the bars for promotion.

closeparen 4y ago

Doing work is a low status activity. If too many people in your team or org are trying to get ahead, you will be drowning in project management and recurring cross-team syncs and grand plans but with hardly anyone writing code.