4 ms·

The last part is what constantly destroys me :)

ZaoLahma 3y ago
For extra amusement, make it so that you have responsibility without authority. I.e. you know what is broken and roughly how to fix it and in everyone's view it absolutely is your responsibility to "git'erdone", but you can't since you either don't have access or resources to do what needs doing and you won't get the access or the resources due to office politics or some other equally unfixable issue. That's a fun little stress-biscuit to eat.
- adrianmsmith 3y ago
  Or you literally aren't allowed to fix it, while it also being your responsibility to fix it. For example you see are responsible for fixing problem X, so you go to do it, and are told that X isn't on the planning board this month (because problem X hadn't occurred yet when planning happened at the start of the month) therefore you aren't allowed to work on it. But in other meetings, it's your fault it's not fixed, X is your job after all.
  - peteradio 3y ago
    Now this is podracing I mean Agile! - Aintworkin Scumwalker
  - Qwertious 3y ago
    Responsibility without authority is a game of "stop hitting yourself".
- whstl 3y ago
  > For extra amusement, make it so that you have responsibility without authority. Ah! The good old recipe for burnout.
- dxxth 3y ago
  This is very real in the context of many locked down, tightly-regulated industries such as DoD manufacturing gigs with poorly-managed webs of IT and Engineering infrastructure. Data governance and security, change and configuration management, are all cross functional teams with their own political priorities, cultures, budgets, and requirements. Sometimes even separate tools anf platforms with zero integration or worse, financial redundancy. It is pain to work in such an environment.
  - pnutjam 3y ago
    Nothing is an emergency no matter how much you press, until one day it's a pants on fire, after hours wake-up call emergency. You cannot predict when this will happen.
- tristor 3y ago
  > For extra amusement, make it so that you have responsibility without authority. Funny thing, that's basically the job description of a Product Manager, although HN loves to roast them, some of the hilarity comes from the fact you're accountable for outcomes and responsible for a process to get to those outcomes, but have no budget, have no reports, and you're trying to convince completely different management structures in completely different parts of the company that the thing you're working on is the thing they should prioritize or it all falls apart. Getting any significant new feature or new product to launch in any large company is basically a miracle, even if it arrives to launch hollowed out on the inside. This is mostly not a consequence of how well you do your job, it's a consequence of how dysfunctional the organization is, and I'll let you in on a secret.. /all/ large companies are deeply dysfunctional.

For extra amusement, make it so that you have responsibility without authority. I.e. you know what is broken and roughly how to fix it and in everyone's view it absolutely is your responsibility to "git'erdone", but you can't since you either don't have access or resources to do what needs doing and you won't get the access or the resources due to office politics or some other equally unfixable issue. That's a fun little stress-biscuit to eat.

adrianmsmith 3y ago
Or you literally aren't allowed to fix it, while it also being your responsibility to fix it. For example you see are responsible for fixing problem X, so you go to do it, and are told that X isn't on the planning board this month (because problem X hadn't occurred yet when planning happened at the start of the month) therefore you aren't allowed to work on it. But in other meetings, it's your fault it's not fixed, X is your job after all.
- peteradio 3y ago
  Now this is podracing I mean Agile! - Aintworkin Scumwalker
- Qwertious 3y ago
  Responsibility without authority is a game of "stop hitting yourself".
whstl 3y ago
> For extra amusement, make it so that you have responsibility without authority. Ah! The good old recipe for burnout.
dxxth 3y ago
This is very real in the context of many locked down, tightly-regulated industries such as DoD manufacturing gigs with poorly-managed webs of IT and Engineering infrastructure. Data governance and security, change and configuration management, are all cross functional teams with their own political priorities, cultures, budgets, and requirements. Sometimes even separate tools anf platforms with zero integration or worse, financial redundancy. It is pain to work in such an environment.
- pnutjam 3y ago
  Nothing is an emergency no matter how much you press, until one day it's a pants on fire, after hours wake-up call emergency. You cannot predict when this will happen.
tristor 3y ago
> For extra amusement, make it so that you have responsibility without authority. Funny thing, that's basically the job description of a Product Manager, although HN loves to roast them, some of the hilarity comes from the fact you're accountable for outcomes and responsible for a process to get to those outcomes, but have no budget, have no reports, and you're trying to convince completely different management structures in completely different parts of the company that the thing you're working on is the thing they should prioritize or it all falls apart. Getting any significant new feature or new product to launch in any large company is basically a miracle, even if it arrives to launch hollowed out on the inside. This is mostly not a consequence of how well you do your job, it's a consequence of how dysfunctional the organization is, and I'll let you in on a secret.. /all/ large companies are deeply dysfunctional.