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They need something to provide to their boss so they can show what they have been doing.
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Sep 3, 2021 18:56
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deep dish peat moss posted:What's up with that, anyway? "Send us a comprehensive list of everything you did today every day" has become a go-to for every remote job. The same employers never cared what people were accomplishing when they were in-office and they tend to demand it in such awkward formats (like that story of having to send it to 6 different places) or in such absolute detail that it suddenly becomes a major time sink. Are they just trying to force stats to show lowered productivity (b/c of all the time spent cataloging my job description for these people who hired me to do it) so they can clean house and hire cheaper people because it's remote? It's literally micromanagement so that bad people managers and project managers can pretend they're adding value in some way. It just slows things down, crushes morale, and makes things worse. Especially since everyone lies about it anyway.
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Sep 3, 2021 18:58
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Elephant Ambush posted:Pre-covid this is actually a really good practice that generates better code faster and you don't have to do separate code reviews and developers can learn things from each other. Pair programming is useful, but it generally doesn't involve getting rid of half the computers.
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Sep 3, 2021 19:11
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Elephant Ambush posted:It's literally micromanagement so that bad people managers and project managers can pretend they're adding value in some way. It just slows things down, crushes morale, and makes things worse. Especially since everyone lies about it anyway. Yup. Then meeting eight hours a day with your management peers to shuffle numbers around to show how agile you are.
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Sep 3, 2021 19:23
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ultrafilter posted:Pair programming is useful, but it generally doesn't involve getting rid of half the computers. yeah what the gently caress. Pair programming has been useful to me only when I was stuck on something (or when someone else was stuck on something else), but gently caress that doing it all day every day.
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Sep 3, 2021 19:25
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deep dish peat moss posted:What's up with that, anyway? "Send us a comprehensive list of everything you did today every day" has become a go-to for every remote job. The same employers never cared what people were accomplishing when they were in-office and they tend to demand it in such awkward formats (like that story of having to send it to 6 different places) or in such absolute detail that it suddenly becomes a major time sink. Are they just trying to force stats to show lowered productivity (b/c of all the time spent cataloging my job description for these people who hired me to do it) so they can clean house and hire cheaper people because it's remote? My semi-remote job with an office of like 7 employees started this. They sent out an excel sheet with a list of all of the different codes to log. And there are more then 50 items. Checking email is one, but emailing clients is another, and emailing clients about specific projects is another.
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Sep 3, 2021 19:49
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Barudak posted:Does anyone have a revenge list saved of past employees/managers? I've got a list of people I saved that if I ever have the power to have removed from my business I would do so. At a previous firm I had an incredibly brilliant (in our field) yet also insane and toxic coworker with serious anger issues (and he was an Alex Jones Kool-Aid conspiracy theorist). His unstable and explosive personality made my life hell for three years until I amassed enough experience to quit and join my dream firm in town. I quickly made my way up to highly treasured employee there and when my former coworker applied a few years later (probably assuming he had an in because he knew me) I told my boss that I would not under any circumstances work with that guy again. Felt loving great.
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Sep 3, 2021 20:37
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Sloppy posted:At a previous firm I had an incredibly brilliant (in our field) yet also insane and toxic coworker with serious anger issues (and he was an Alex Jones Kool-Aid conspiracy theorist). His unstable and explosive personality made my life hell for three years until I amassed enough experience to quit and join my dream firm in town. drat that owns. Rewatching office space in background today. Peter gets his own cubicle with walls high enough to have shelves. Lumbergh has a BS in Physics from MIT instead of zero experience in the field of which he oversees his workers. They have wall decorations instead of endless beige. Dunno why Peter was upset.
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Sep 3, 2021 20:55
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Hyrax Attack! posted:drat that owns. Office Space, while still very good, aged so poorly in the satire it was supposed to be. Oh wah, Peter has a job with benefits and can afford an apartment alone. But his boss sucks and he works in a cubicle? How difficult.
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Sep 3, 2021 20:58
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deep dish peat moss posted:The first job I ever had was for GoDaddy. During new hire orientation there was an entire day devoted to learning about Bob Parsons' heroic past, such as the story of the time he was a soldier in Vietnam and he walked into a hut and saw a grenade on a table, so he heroically dived on top of it and covered it with his body. The grenade was not live and did not explode but IF IT WAS LIVE AND DID EXPLODE, he would have been EVEN MORE heroic. Or so the story goes. I once saw a car on the street and HEROICALLY dove in front of it but it was parked.
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Sep 3, 2021 20:59
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Yorkshire Pudding posted:Office Space, while still very good, aged so poorly in the satire it was supposed to be. Feels like this should be a crosspost with the boomer thread.
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Sep 3, 2021 21:01
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Yorkshire Pudding posted:Office Space, while still very good, aged so poorly in the satire it was supposed to be. I'd disagree, for a 22 year old movie it holds up well regarding an unhappy office worker having to deal with the whims of bad management and consultants, and his work being meaningless with no reward for extra effort or punishment for the bare minimum. I agree Peter's life isn't hellish and nobody makes him work at Initech (and eventually leaving greatly helps his happiness) but he doesn't seem affluent and we have no info on the quality of his benefits. He doesn't need roommates but his walls are paper thin and his place isn't very big, and his car is a standard econo-box. Edit: missed before how they hint at the awfulness of the plan to put a virus on the system in that Michael labels the folder "VIRUS." I know it's for the benefit of the audience but could also be clue Michael is making lots of mistakes. Hyrax Attack! fucked around with this message at 21:58 on Sep 3, 2021 |
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Sep 3, 2021 21:20
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I would agree - Office Space is dated, but it still holds up in all the ways you mentioned - cube hell, soulless job, etc. Plus, printer scene! Here's some super dumb poo poo my as-of-today-former job did: For some reason my boss has been giving me the cold shoulder for 3-4 months - suddenly she's difficult to reach, doesn't respond to emails/text/phone calls, dicks me over on assignments for the last couple of months. We never had a falling out, or argued, or backstabbed each other, nothing. For 6 years prior she was actually pretty decent. But whatever, she can be a shitbag all she wants as I'd been considering leaving anyway. So I found another job, and two weeks ago put in my resignation. My letter was all gratitude: Been there for 7 years, really enjoyed it, learned a TON, made a lot of new friends, it was genuinely great. I truly wouldn't have wanted to go through the pandemic with any other team (I'm a nurse, BTW). My resignation was met with complete silence. Waited a day. Contacted HR to see if I needed to do anything, they sent me a checklist and gave me a lot of guidance. Waited another day. Nothing. So I emailed her asking her to confirm she'd received the letter. Her response: "yes, i received it, thanks" Today was my last day. Lots of tough goodbyes this week. Never heard another word from my boss. What an absolute bitch.
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Sep 4, 2021 02:31
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a mysterious cloak posted:I would agree - Office Space is dated, but it still holds up in all the ways you mentioned - cube hell, soulless job, etc. Plus, printer scene! Either she thinks you did something to her or that she did something to you.
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Sep 4, 2021 03:26
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Barudak posted:Many companies, especially those in asia, use bonus structures as the standard method of payment. I know this is from a few pages back but I used to work for the Australian arm of a Malaysian conglomerate, and they used to give very generous bonuses because it was easier to justify bonuses to the parent corporation than salary increases. Of course, the moment the company hit “hard times” ie. it was still very profitable but not making the absurd amounts of money the management was used to seeing, the bonuses disappeared. Two thirds of the staff left the following month.
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Sep 4, 2021 11:24
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So the chinese government finally started cracking down on corporations running their workers 996 which stands for 9am-9pm 6 days a week. Bytedance, for instance, told all employees they would no longer be pressured to work Saturdays. As part of no longer working those 4 days a month they slashed employee salarys by up to 17% with the argument well those days should have been thought of as overtime even though these were salaried jobs.
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Sep 4, 2021 13:36
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Sloppy posted:At a previous firm I had an incredibly brilliant (in our field) yet also insane and toxic coworker with serious anger issues (and he was an Alex Jones Kool-Aid conspiracy theorist). His unstable and explosive personality made my life hell for three years until I amassed enough experience to quit and join my dream firm in town. Hah! At a hospital I worked for, the pathology transcriptionist was always late, always drunk. He'd bring in his "coffee" in a huge styrofoam cup. His quality of work was getting worse and worse, and he eventually got kicked out of his office in pathology and back in with the rest of the transcriptionists, still doing the work He went full high catty bitch after this, and I would have to fix his gently caress ups, because our lovely "manager" was previously the admin assistant to the department and had no real managerial experience and no idea of conflict resolution. Anyhow, he started showing up to work, swiping his badge in the entrance lobby, and then just... leaving. It was random if he'd remember to come back and swipe back out for the day. It took MONTHS for the hospital to shitcan him, probably out of fear of a discrimination lawsuit (dude was gay, and very loudly insinuated it was discrimination every time he got asked to do anything). So when the managers at the next two places I worked for asked me about his name on resumes, the look of horror on my face was all it took to get him binned. gently caress you, dude.
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Sep 4, 2021 13:45
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deep dish peat moss posted:What's up with that, anyway? "Send us a comprehensive list of everything you did today every day" has become a go-to for every remote job. The same employers never cared what people were accomplishing when they were in-office and they tend to demand it in such awkward formats (like that story of having to send it to 6 different places) or in such absolute detail that it suddenly becomes a major time sink. Are they just trying to force stats to show lowered productivity (b/c of all the time spent cataloging my job description for these people who hired me to do it) so they can clean house and hire cheaper people because it's remote? It can be used to reorganize in a detrimental way to the line employees: speaking of Office Space that's literally all the Bobs do. In those cases it's couched in terms like "day in the life analysis" and "process optimization" if they don't admit a full on reorg. When done right this can help line employees too if it's used to bridge dumb rear end silos and bust the dumbass in a pointless sinecure back to productive line employee. The day to day thing is more like trying to ferret out slackers. If you aren't trying to fuel a reorg but you are requiring 15 minute time blocking or coding tasks you are absolutely thick as a manager because all those dense reports go nowhere/into a chart concluding ?????? We occasionally have HR tell us the new hires should be doing some basic journalling in consulting but it primarily only comes out for the PIP. The thought in both cases being it can be easy to glide through assignments making an impression on noone especially if you aren't yet adept at commandeering high visibility easy bullshit. You just need like a quick 4-6 line outline for the week to give it a smell test and give suggestions, and then they are looking to pick up at least enough work to not feel embarassed when all their report says is "answered emails." zedprime fucked around with this message at 13:53 on Sep 4, 2021 |
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Sep 4, 2021 13:51
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Sloppy posted:At a previous firm I had an incredibly brilliant (in our field) yet also insane and toxic coworker with serious anger issues (and he was an Alex Jones Kool-Aid conspiracy theorist). His unstable and explosive personality made my life hell for three years until I amassed enough experience to quit and join my dream firm in town. That is the best feeling, it's life changing. Basically having enough experience, good reputation, and being "essential" giving you the power dynamic that the company needs you more than you need them is completely mind-changing in how you perceieve your job and quality of life. I've also done the "if this person joins the team then I'm looking for another position because they are toxic" and it's great. On the other hand, being new to the industry or starting out can be hell when you have no leverage and have to suffer assholes etc. because you have nowhere else to go and need that reference desperately. I hated those days when you basically had to stay in the position because you needed it on your CV and needed the reference but hated the manager and the work.
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Sep 4, 2021 16:53
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zedprime posted:It's an old Lean thing I guess managers are remembering they can do to help them feel better about not lording over a bullpen. Oh yeah the Bobs. Something that stood out was how they were doing real work and challenging management. When there was a payroll issue they took the initiative to fix it and had urgency to complete interviews and provide value to Initech, rather than do nothing and keep invoicing the company forever.
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Sep 4, 2021 17:04
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Outrail posted:Either she thinks you did something to her or that she did something to you. I honestly don't know. Literally nothing happened between us and she wasn't talking, so it's all on her. Who knows. New job, easy commute, more money, who cares.
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Sep 4, 2021 17:39
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Hyrax Attack! posted:Oh yeah the Bobs. Something that stood out was how they were doing real work and challenging management. When there was a payroll issue they took the initiative to fix it and had urgency to complete interviews and provide value to Initech, rather than do nothing and keep invoicing the company forever. The Bobs truly believe in their mission. They come in, stick around for a week or two, fix poo poo, move on to the next company. Never a dull day, Bob!
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Sep 4, 2021 17:50
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Are cubicals actually a common thing in the US? I thought they were just a way for TV/Film productions to allow characters privacy for one-on-one diaglog etc.
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Sep 4, 2021 19:32
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Incoming Chinchilla posted:Are cubicals actually a common thing in the US? I thought they were just a way for TV/Film productions to allow characters privacy for one-on-one diaglog etc. I've had a job with a cubicle. I really would have preferred the full height thing over the weird half-height one that I had. There's a lot of commercial space with giant open floors so it's a way to have any kind of privacy and freedom from distractions in one of those places.
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Sep 4, 2021 19:35
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Ugly In The Morning posted:I've had a job with a cubicle. I really would have preferred the full height thing over the weird half-height one that I had. There's a lot of commercial space with giant open floors so it's a way to have any kind of privacy and freedom from distractions in one of those places. Or you could be like every game company I’ve worked at and be like “gently caress you, here’s twenty people in the same room, now write some code with those bastards constantly talking.”
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Sep 4, 2021 19:42
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chglcu posted:Or you could be like every game company I’ve worked at and be like “gently caress you, here’s twenty people in the same room, now write some code with those bastards constantly talking.” I have a desk that’s directly in the middle of a warehouse floor, it’s awful. And they just banned eating/drinking at desks on the floor. I’ve had to drag my laptop into the break room whenever I have any kind of substantial paperwork to do so I can avoid the noise and have my snacks/coffee while I do it.
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Sep 4, 2021 19:47
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Every office I've seen in the UK has been open plan with no cubes. usually some kind of desk divider between people sitting opposite (not adjacent) but only like a foot in height. I feel like if you work in the type of place where everyone can chat all day you could probably wear headphones and if you are in the kind of place that doesn't allow headphones they won't want chatting either. I'd feel trapped in a cube. It feels like it would be even worse than workin in bedrooms during the pandemic.
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Sep 4, 2021 20:22
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Having worked in a cubicle and done the same job working from home I would much rather work in the cubicle. I need some kind of division between work and home.
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Sep 4, 2021 20:25
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Incoming Chinchilla posted:Every office I've seen in the UK has been open plan with no cubes. usually some kind of desk divider between people sitting opposite (not adjacent) but only like a foot in height. I personally find headphones intensely uncomfortable over long periods and they make me constantly worry someone is standing right behind me. They are the usual solution to open offices, but they make me absolutely miserable. I’d kill for a cube. e: I’d kill more to keep working from home though. Before, I ended every single day drained and with a massive headache. Since WFH, I’ve felt awesome and ready to do other stuff after work is done. chglcu fucked around with this message at 20:36 on Sep 4, 2021 |
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Sep 4, 2021 20:25
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Incoming Chinchilla posted:Are cubicals actually a common thing in the US? I thought they were just a way for TV/Film productions to allow characters privacy for one-on-one diaglog etc. Cubicles were a common thing in the US. Companies realized they could save even more money by just forgoing all the cubicle walls and forcing everyone to open office floorplans. Outside of absolutely massive headquarters with thousands of employees that were redesigned for cubicles and then never upgraded again because that represents a real cost burden, you don't see them anymore.
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Sep 5, 2021 03:53
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They get some use at call centers, but they are crap and don't do all that well with muffling sound since everyone is packed in so tightly. 
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Sep 5, 2021 04:04
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Zil posted:They get some use at call centers, but they are crap and don't do all that well with muffling sound since everyone is packed in so tightly. When I worked at the IT help desk for Kroger, we had cubicles like that but the side walls only extended as far as the desk edge. There's reasons why I don't shop at Kroger and most of them have to do with the 18 months I spent working at that call center...
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Sep 5, 2021 04:17
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Zil posted:They get some use at call centers, but they are crap and don't do all that well with muffling sound since everyone is packed in so tightly. gently caress we had those same cubes the boss bought them from a scrap yard or some poo poo
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Sep 5, 2021 04:20
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Reminds me of Office Space
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Sep 5, 2021 05:28
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We had tall wall cubicles until a few years ago, when they had to do major renovations after a fire, and replaced everything with half wall cubicles and stuff. the cubes were their own miserable experience, but at least i had room to pin up poo poo on the walls. now people stack boxes and poo poo to recreate the tall wall experience and get some separation, but it ends up eating into their space by virtue of having much thicker walls than a tall cubicle wall.
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Sep 5, 2021 05:34
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Cthulu Carl posted:When I worked at the IT help desk for Kroger, we had cubicles like that but the side walls only extended as far as the desk edge. Every call center I've worked at would be aghast at the idea of giving someone privacy to hide behind like walls on their cubicle and instead would give everyone a $500 headset with a directional mic to ensure that the customer couldn't hear the cacophony of bullshit screaming in the worker's ears all day long while still providing management clear line of sight to everyone's workstation screens at all times
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Sep 5, 2021 05:39
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Are these the cubes that bosses forbid you from decorating with any personal items, to make sure they stamp out any expression of personality so you become a corporate zombie?
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Sep 5, 2021 07:13
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Scientastic posted:Are these the cubes that bosses forbid you from decorating with any personal items, to make sure they stamp out any expression of personality so you become a corporate zombie? Yes, but then they discovered that they could remove the cubes and add a "hotdesk" policy, so now if we leave anything on our desk it gets tossed overnight. It's even more dehumanising than cubes. It's like they have some fantasy about getting rid of all the workers so there is only clean, white, sterile office rooms forever. Only they can't get rid of the workers, so they settle for removing any trace of humanity. Close enough, I guess.
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Sep 5, 2021 08:27
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Enfys posted:It's hard to work if you have to keep track of a bunch of slurs you're not allowed to say In the early 2000s I had a tolerance seminars with a bunch of STEM poisoned chemists and engineers and there was the inevitable very long argument between them all about how bullshit it was to not be able to use "technically accurate" terms, and I'm sure everyone can imagine just how fun that was to sit through. So I asked the person giving the seminar if the company could provide a list of acceptable slurs for staff to use. Turns out, no, they could not.
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Sep 5, 2021 10:50
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Megillah Gorilla posted:In the early 2000s I had a tolerance seminars with a bunch of STEM poisoned chemists and engineers and there was the inevitable very long argument between them all about how bullshit it was to not be able to use "technically accurate" terms, and I'm sure everyone can imagine just how fun that was to sit through. But the US Army can ! During the 1st Gulf War the American Army had a list of officially approved slurs for the enemy.
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Sep 5, 2021 11:43
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