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Did you see the photo of the employee sleeping on the floor? I'd link it but twitter is down.
by sigmar 4y ago
Did you see the photo of the employee sleeping on the floor? I'd link it but twitter is down.
- piqi 4y agoShe was fired not long after that all-nighter.
- JumpCrisscross 4y ago> Did you see the photo of the employee sleeping on the floor? I’ve done this. I had lots of fun—everyone, from the CEO down, was crunching—and became financially independent after it. It’s usually a sign of under-resourcing. But almost every start-up experiencing unexpected growth should be ready for it. It’s unusual at Twitter’s scale, but closed to mismanagement than abuse.
- runarberg 4y agoPlease don’t do that. You deserve better as a worker. If a company is unable to function without infringing on the free time of their workers, that company should not exist.
- MrOwnPut 4y agoI believe GP said he had fun. People should be allowed to work how they want to, they have the freedom (especially in this industry) to go elsewhere. I've pulled late nights, they bought us pizza and gave us a half day later. Sometimes you have to put in work during critical times. It's certainly not construction work anyway, people are kinda soft here sometimes.
- runarberg 4y ago> People should be allowed to work how they want to I disagree. There is a race to the bottom and a tragedy of the commons. A company could easily exploit this by gamifying the work and hiring workers with addictive tendencies. Most national labor laws and labor contracts set a maximum number of daily and weekly working hours for a reason. Workplace safety is only one of those reasons.
- MrOwnPut 4y agoSafety laws are fine, we're talking about a person saying they enjoyed a late night coding session.
- runarberg 4y agoYes, and if they do, there is a risk of company exploiting that person and their co-workers for underpaid labor. One worker’s enjoyment of work does not justify this risk.
- MrOwnPut 4y agoWho said they were underpaid?
- runarberg 4y agoNobody, but you must see how this can be abused to do so. A system that can be abused will be abused given the right incentives. As it stands companies are incentivized to pay as little for labor as they can get away with, and if they are allowed to “allow” workers to work excessive overtime, they will. And it will cost every other worker our free time. If you enjoy your work, that’s great, just do your work during work hours, don’t use your free time to undervalue other workers in the industry.
- MrOwnPut 4y agoI'm simply saying you don't know the situation, how GP was compensated, etc. Yes, shit companies exist and abuse their employees. You quit and move on. There's no indication that this was happening.
- runarberg 4y agoI think we might be arguing about different things here. You’re saying that it worked for OP, that is fine, I don’t disagree with that, however I do disagree with this practice, because as a whole it is not good for us workers in this industry. This behavior is ripe for abuse, and companies do abuse it unless there is a collective action against it (through regulation, union contracts, etc.) Like you said, if you work for a company which expects this from you, and you quit as a result, they can simply hire someone else that takes the abuse, and that is not a good prospects for us workers in this industry. Which is the reason I’m asking OP not to do this. Even though they had fun and were handsomely compensated, this behavior does a net disservice for the rest of us.
- JohnFen 4y agoIt all depends. If a business operates expecting this from employees, that business is being abusive. If a business got into trouble and employees are sacrificing to help it out, that's just an emergency. And it should be exceedingly rare -- if it's not, that's a poorly run business.
- MrOwnPut 4y agoCertainly. I've been in a poorly run business that did this, and I quit. But I don't mind working late every now and during crunch time, it gets paid forward, usually with time off later. It's about your relationship with your company. My point was from the sounds of it GP had a good relationship and had fun and no-one on HN should tell them what to do because they don't know the situation.
- roflyear 4y agoMaybe he had fun, but almost everyone has better things to do than to spend 24hr+ at their office in a row. I worked some 16 hour shifts (got OT) and I regret it.
- JumpCrisscross 4y ago> deserve better as a worker I had equity in the outfit, I made my first million from it, and again, I had fun. If the CEI were at home partying, it would have been a different story. But we were all there. Kidding, coding and trying to keep something we were building together alive.
- roflyear 4y agoGlad it worked for you. For every person like you there are a thousand where they were mistreated and it didn't lead to success.
- JumpCrisscross 4y ago> every person like you there are a thousand where they were mistreated and it didn't lead to success And they should have recourse. That doesn’t mean we ban or automatically condone the practice.
- roflyear 4y agoRight, but you're essentially saying (or it is being interpreted this way by many) "Do the time, it worked for me!"
- JumpCrisscross 4y ago> you're essentially saying (or it is being interpreted this way by many) "Do the time, it worked for me!" I’m not saying that. I’m saying doing the time isn’t equivalent to abuse. The facts and circumstances matter, e.g. who is doing it, how often it’s required, and what everyones’ stakes are.
- roflyear 4y agoWell, that's how it reads. Sorry.
- smcl 4y ago
- pcwalton 4y ago> I’ve done this. I had lots of fun—everyone, from the CEO down, was crunching—and became financially independent after it. OK, but this doesn't seem relevant to the situations Twitter's (former, in many cases) employees are in at all. There's no quick path to financial independence working at Musk's Twitter--the company is losing money faster than it was when it was public, Musk is cutting costs everywhere, and there are well-documented instances of employees being shown the door after sleeping on the floor. In general, I'm pretty sure that in the vast majority of cases, people who sleep on the floor at the office do not end up financially independent for it.
- edgyquant 4y ago> In general, I'm pretty sure that in the vast majority of cases, people who sleep on the floor at the office do not end up financially independent for it. Doesn’t matter. In the context of software design it’s a well known trope and most who do it enjoy the work:
- rgbrenner 4y agoThat's great that it worked out for you.. That twitter employee wasn't so lucky... she was fired last week: https://thehill.com/policy/technology/3876505-twitter-employee-who-slept-on-floor-laid-off-in-latest-musk-cuts/ https://thehill.com/policy/technology/3876505-twitter-employ...
- MrOwnPut 4y agoA picture of someone sleeping on the ground is not really a good indicator of their work performance one way or the other. Only the company would really have insight into that. Pulling a late night and sleeping on the ground does not make you immune to a layoff.
- shadowgovt 4y agoA valuable lesson to teach the next generation lest they repeat the mistakes of mine.
- roflyear 4y agoOh my god man work is not a slumber party.