
A programmer automated their data-entry job. Now: tell their employer? - submeta
https://qz.com/1019161/a-programmer-automated-their-data-entry-job-now-the-question-is-whether-to-tell-their-employer
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merricksb
Heavily discussed 2 days ago:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14656945](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14656945)
(660 points, 506 comments)

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redmattred
This article is almost entirely direct quotes from a forum thread with little
to no commentary or narrative on top of it.

~~~
bistian
Yeah, it's an aggregation of comments from HN, Reddit and Stack Exchange, and
a couple of examples of this happening before. Might be helpful for people who
missed it but kinda silly to post it to HN

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partisan
When I automated the documentation of nightly job processes using Tivoli
Maestro configuration files and Visio, my employer didn't know what to do with
me so they promoted me. It never crossed my mind not to say something. I
wasn't there to produce output. I was there to bring value to the
organization.

At another employer, I worked alongside a customer service rep who automated
much of the time consuming work he had to do. He wasn't a programmer by trade,
but having a hacker mindset, he learned to do so after tiring of the same old
work. Despite the annoyance of the security team and other developers who felt
threatened by his work, he was promoted to IT and they locked down the
workstations so it wouldn't happen again.

~~~
patcheudor
> Despite the annoyance of the security team and other developers who felt
> threatened by his work

Depending on what he did the security team may have rightfully had issues with
the work. I've seen it time and time again. Someone automates something, the
tool gets released to users and it's full of SQLi, XSS, and RCE
vulnerabilities, sometimes opening up a once protected data-set or systems to
company or Internet wide exposure. It's shadow IT/Dev work like this which
tends to be responsible for the most security incidents.

~~~
austinshea
> It's shadow IT/Dev work like this which tends to be responsible for the most
> security incidents.

Most security incidents? Sounds unsubstantiated.

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kirykl
"Your replacement won't understand" I've heard that over and over. So I say
"No boss I didn't use VBA or JavaScript to generate these reports" It would
get me fired.

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77pt77
What do you do?

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kirykl
Business analysis for a Fortune 500. I've been asked to write an SOP that any
random person can understand if I want use VBA. Instead of writing a text book
I just say it's done without it.

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Houshalter
There's a story by Feynman where he automates some simple thing on his first
job. It was some kind of telephone system, and he attached strings to the
lines so he could see where the call was coming from in another room. And he
got in trouble for it because his boss didn't understand it or appreciate it.
The moral of the story was that people don't generally like innovation or
change. Especially if it's just your time being saved and not theirs. If you
can get away with it, don't tell your employer.

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tyingq
I remember a similar story about a developer that outsourced their work to a
low cost offshore worker. Can't find it now...Google fu is off today.

~~~
snug
[http://articles.latimes.com/2013/jan/17/business/la-fi-mo-
ma...](http://articles.latimes.com/2013/jan/17/business/la-fi-mo-man-
outsourced-job-to-china-20130117)

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based2
[https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgrammerHumor/comments/4nd8q4/pro...](https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgrammerHumor/comments/4nd8q4/programmer_automates_his_job_for_6_years_finally/)

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watertorock
A reblog vomit with a garbage bait headline composed of comments on
hackernews? What a turd of an "article" and I assume it represents all of
"qz.com" quality

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petra
I don't understand whole this ethics talk, should ethics be 2 sided ? do
companies usually do their part ?

