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Doing Everyone Else's Job

215 points · 115 comments · luu

  1. maerF0x0 · · focus · HN ↗
    > and most managers fail to punish at least some of these slow learners of theirs

    False, they punish by not crediting that work as work.

    Glue work, keeping things tidy, dealing with that annoyance that everyone else has been able to get away with suffering through (and ignoring), all of this will be worth approximately 0 at performance review time because your time is a zerosum game that is traded off with highly visible, political, and otherwise rewardable work.

    It's been my experience that in larger companies you generally have to play in the framework.(I'd roughly draw the line at 1000+ employees), at quite small companies (or as a self employed / entrepreneur, roughly <200 employees) you should follow the path of highest EROI on your efforts regardless of who's job it is. In the gap you have to read the culture and management.

    1. yosefk · · focus · HN ↗
      Right, but that's more a lack of reward than outright punishment. If you work with these people on something that "crosses boundaries" and that something succeeds, you can credit them and in the hope to help their career. I agree that larger places are worse in this regard (though there can be a small part of a large place which is, well, small enough to work like a small one), and that you should generally make sure you're rewarded for your work, and if you're not, either work less or work elsewhere.
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