5 ms·
Signs that I've seen before leaving: * There are more VPs than there are restrooms. * The free coffee and soda is no more. * Engineers are co-opted as salesp
by kabdib 3y ago
Signs that I've seen before leaving:
* There are more VPs than there are restrooms.
* The free coffee and soda is no more.
* Engineers are co-opted as salespeople ("... and why is the project late?").
- gwern 3y agoThe soda is a classic: https://steveblank.com/2009/12/21/the-elves-leave-middle-earth-%E2%80%93-soda%E2%80%99s-are-no-longer-free/ https://steveblank.com/2009/12/21/the-elves-leave-middle-ear...
- x86x87 3y agoClassic. When the free soda goes things are about to go down.
- nradov 3y agoThere's nothing wrong with occasionally pulling in engineers to help salespeople with writing proposals or participating in sales calls. Smaller companies can't afford to have sales engineers as dedicated specialist positions.
- kabdib 3y agoAgreed. In fact, the better that engineers understand the customers and end-users the better-off the company probably is. That is a good, healthy practice. But having engineers actually trying to do sales to make up for revenue shortfall . . . not so much :-)
- magicalhippo 3y agoHeck I wish they'd involve us more often at our place. After all, it's us devs who are left with the burden when it's discovered a few days before go-live that sales has sold something we don't have because they missed some nuances in what the customer said or similar.
- d0gsg0w00f 3y ago+1 for removal of snacks and coffee as a reliable canary
- AnarchismIsCool 3y agoIf they can't justify a few dollars for snacks, what do you think they're gonna do about your six digit salary...
- tmpz22 3y agoCan't justify money for snacks but can justify executive bonuses is why we need unions.
- AnarchismIsCool 3y agoPrecisely. Spending ones life making other people rich is a waste.
- soupfordummies 3y agoCompany I worked for announced a big promotion for a senior exec... on the same day they did one of their biggest rounds of layoffs.
- valdiorn 3y agoI'm pretty sure that "removing the free soda/coffee/tee/biscuits" is an intentional action to reduce headcount. The effect it has on productivity by destroying morale is vastly more than the money saved. I noticed this at my very first job (a govt. owned company which had to remove a bunch of perks because of bad media coverage of an unrelated scandal, because the "optics" were bad), and I just refuse to believe that the "people in charge" (generally; the MBA suit and tie crowd) are too dumb to understand this. It must be intentional even if nobody admits it, and it's a way to drive out people. Ironically, it also drives out the people that know they have better options, while you're left with the worst workers who are desperate and don't think they can get another job. But they don't care as long as the headcount target is met, and they can get that performance bonus.
- Scoundreller 3y agoToilet paper quality is a good metric. Nice thing is that it’s easy to do pre-employment testing.