Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

I had a boss that took the opposite approach. Whenever I started to lose productivity, he'd put me on work he knew I'd hate, telling me I'd get to do more interesting things when I showed him I could be productive. So I started working on side projects at the office just to keep my mind from going and became less and less productive until I quit.

He was a talented engineer himself and a good friend. We ended up working together again at another company. A few months after he arrived, I had a slump and the cycle repeated itself. This time we had long meetings where he accused me of being cynical and questioned my dedication; I defended it ("I'm here making much less than I was before, aren't I?"), which was exhausting in itself. I thought the problem was all on my side, so I didn't put up much of a fight when he told me I'd be writing integration tests full-time--no more "real" coding--until I proved whatever he thought needed proving. I forced myself to ignore any side projects I had going. He called me in again later to complain that the tests weren't coming along quickly enough and that they "read like sketch comedy routines". (They did, actually. I was bored, and the tests were full of things like, e.g., Eve getting unfriended by Alice but not Bob and, wounded, trying to spy on Alice. It did tehnically test our access controls!)

Because I was convinced it was my problem, I stuck around long enough to get fired this time. I'm lucky enough right now to have very interesting work (at a big company, of all places), but this article has given me an opportunity to reconsider what happened at the old job in a different light.




This person is/was not your friend.


Not a friend, but more importantly, not a very good boss either.


Definitely not a good boss, but possibly still a friend.

(No, I'm not just trying to fill out the matrix here. ;)

It's important not to take management too personally. Just because this guy was horrible at understanding motivation doesn't mean he was a bad person or a bad friend, just that he was a really lousy boss. Lots of people don't understand how to motivate others. Lots of people don't consciously understand how to motivate themselves, in fact.

It's probably a good idea not to put up with this forever, but it doesn't mean you can't be friends. I have many friends whom I would never work for. Most of us do, I'm sure.


+1 insightful.

I've had one job in my adult life go completely sour. I was there for about 3 months and never really found a way to fit in culturally. My aspirations exceeded my role, and I was probably pretty difficult to deal with I imagine.

After I left the company, I thought that my boss would have a lot of animosity towards me. He didn't. Turns out, he knew I was struggling and while he wanted to keep me (I was productive at the very least), he didn't hold any ill-feelings towards me leaving.

As a boss now, I always try to keep that in mind. I inevitably develop personal relationships with every employee I've had. Even when that doesn't work out, I always support them however I can.


He was a friend before, which is why I spent as much time as I did trying to convince him to join the company, and trying to convince everyone that he'd be a good hire for VP of Engineering. We'd hang out on occasion, talk shop on the phone, etc. He's a pretty cool guy, but I don't especially care to see him again. (I was not the only or first one fired; I didn't make any efforts to conceal what I thought about our sysadmin getting fired.)


Sounds a lot like, "The beatings will stop when morale improves."


It sort of was. At one point, he said to me, "What are you complaining for? I haven't even started the death-march yet."


Ah, that's the point where you start your resume marching....


I could have written this post.

I'm increasingly picky about who I'll work for (as a direct report), missed this one.

All the more pity as it is/was a great company with a great and respected product.

I've also had very good management (recognized my skills, focused on them, steered me away from the boring crap mostly, Got What I Needed To Do The Job[tm] (permissions, software, hardware, people, information, consultants). And when the shit hit the fan with the company and all contractors were cut, didn't raise my stress levels by drawing out the drama -- it was a clean, fast, surgical cut (there had been FT/Perm cuts before, and most of the executive suite left a month or so later). One of the best bosses I've had, and he /wasn't/ overtly technical.


The moral of the story: be cautious about blaming yourself for your performance problems within organization.

If cannot figure it out - find another job.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: