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Bitter story time: I made a config change to our AWS instances and projected approximately $10MM/year in AWS costs savings (pre-savings). My boss asked me "Wh

by leoqa 2y ago

Bitter story time: I made a config change to our AWS instances and projected approximately $10MM/year in AWS costs savings (pre-savings). My boss asked me "Who told you to do this? We need to focus on $project instead". I found another team and transferred out. 3 months later there was a big fire drill about AWS costs and they took my 1-pager and executed it. Didn't get any credit in the shipped email nor did the manager reach out to apologize.

cj 2y ago
The organization still got the end result, though (to play devil's advocate). That sounds like a win for the company. They got the cost savings, plus they redirected attention back to a project that was higher priority than saving $10m 3 months earlier than they could have.
- klodolph 2y ago
  It may be a win for the company in some categories, but a loss in others.
heavenlyblue 2y ago
Of course you didn't. You used your time to promote yourself instead of doing what you were asked to do instead. That could have cost a promotion for your manager who could have promoted you.
- noncoml 2y ago
  I don’t know you are downvoted. Aligning the personal interest vector with the companies interest vector is a huge problem that is usually underrepresented in NH comments. Usually we only complain about the short sighting of the CEOs that prioritize short term stock gains over long term prosperity, but that also is just a specialized case of the success vector misalignment
  - nostrebored 2y ago
    This is a poor way to view salaried work. If OP is meeting deliverables and did this on the side, this is a great example of a story that would make me inclined to hire.
    - ckdarby 2y ago
      The problem is OP didn't meet deliverables and the team was behind schedule. Helpful in the right light, but equally not helpful in another.
      - shermantanktop 2y ago
        “Team behind schedule” usually means that some manager promised an arbitrary date based on an imaginary timeline. Every team needs slack. Bad managers hate slack. Good managers hide slack.
    - noncoml 2y ago
      I think maybe my point was misunderstood. I was trying to say that the employee tried to do what’s good for the company. However that backfired as his personal, and his manager’s, success vector are not aligned with the company’s. Hence although he did something that benefited the company it hurt his and his manager’s performance (exactly because they are not aligned with that of the company’s). Hope it clears things up.
- leoqa 2y ago
  We were migrating to Kubernetes from fixed hosts and had to buy the capacity. I just spent a day looking at our utilization and made a better decision about what instance type to use.
RobRivera 2y ago
Sounds like a fantastic way to maneuver and get credit for someone else's proactive engenuity

by leoqa 2y ago

cj 2y ago

The organization still got the end result, though (to play devil's advocate). That sounds like a win for the company. They got the cost savings, plus they redirected attention back to a project that was higher priority than saving $10m 3 months earlier than they could have.

klodolph 2y ago
It may be a win for the company in some categories, but a loss in others.

heavenlyblue 2y ago

Of course you didn't. You used your time to promote yourself instead of doing what you were asked to do instead. That could have cost a promotion for your manager who could have promoted you.

noncoml 2y ago
I don’t know you are downvoted. Aligning the personal interest vector with the companies interest vector is a huge problem that is usually underrepresented in NH comments. Usually we only complain about the short sighting of the CEOs that prioritize short term stock gains over long term prosperity, but that also is just a specialized case of the success vector misalignment
- nostrebored 2y ago
  This is a poor way to view salaried work. If OP is meeting deliverables and did this on the side, this is a great example of a story that would make me inclined to hire.
  - ckdarby 2y ago
    The problem is OP didn't meet deliverables and the team was behind schedule. Helpful in the right light, but equally not helpful in another.
    - shermantanktop 2y ago
      “Team behind schedule” usually means that some manager promised an arbitrary date based on an imaginary timeline. Every team needs slack. Bad managers hate slack. Good managers hide slack.
  - noncoml 2y ago
    I think maybe my point was misunderstood. I was trying to say that the employee tried to do what’s good for the company. However that backfired as his personal, and his manager’s, success vector are not aligned with the company’s. Hence although he did something that benefited the company it hurt his and his manager’s performance (exactly because they are not aligned with that of the company’s). Hope it clears things up.
leoqa 2y ago
We were migrating to Kubernetes from fixed hosts and had to buy the capacity. I just spent a day looking at our utilization and made a better decision about what instance type to use.

RobRivera 2y ago

Sounds like a fantastic way to maneuver and get credit for someone else's proactive engenuity