Comment by amir734jj | Hacker News Reader

Comment by amir734jj | Hacker News Reader

I work at a financial company (200B assets) writing software to analyze bond market. When pandemic started and stock crashed, our software didn't expect such a market crash (obviously, it's called a pandemic ...), so I had to work 80+ hours to get it fixed as everyone else who worked on the application already left and the new people didn't have any clue. Fast forward to the post-mortem phase which also happened to be annual review time, my manager told me I am a toxic person and I made everything worse during the crisis.

To make the matter worse the night when everything was fixed, I was on my way home at 3:30am and I got a speeding ticket for going 60mph over the limit. I fell asleep behind the wheel, thank God I'm still alive.

I left that team immediately, and exactly one year has passed and they haven't been able to find another person to replace me but what bothers me is they promoted that manager because I left and he got all the credit.

In summary, I will never ever work over 40 hours for any company.

Sounds like your manager is a toxic person, who gaslights underlings, takes credit for their work, blames the worker for something they don't want to be accountable for.

I know a good number of people like these, and sadly they get promoted much quicker than everyone else. Its an archetype that survives and thrives in the corporate setting. The thing about this personality type is that they are incapable to seeing truths that will damage their ego in such a way that reveals themselves to be flawed or incorrect. To clarify, these people live by lies of self-deception - telling the "truth" to how they see the world, but clearly the world they speak from is false.

Best thing to do when you see this is to just leave. You wont get credit for anything good you did, you'll be scapegoated for everything that went wrong, and anything good that happens is because of them. The number one rule when dealing with these personality types is that they they are right even when they are unquestionably wrong, and that is one ship no self respecting person should be on.

Thank you for understanding. Thank you!

Hey, no problem man, wish you, not necessarily luck, but wisdom into your future. Life is all about these experiences. As long as we're growing, is all that matters. Thank god you're alive.

> In summary, I will never ever work over 40 hours for any company.

Even if anyone can, please don't (exception applies). Especially if you're a developer, 40+ hour a week will burn you out fast.

I don't have any issues with 40 hours a week. But at 40 I drop it all. Knowing I have the self discipline to do that, 40 is fine. I have had the "go ahead and fire me talk" with more than one manager.

> In summary, I will never ever work over 40 hours for any company

Thank You!

"In summary, I will never ever work over 40 hours for any company."

In general I would say, don't generalize.

If you are with a good company and in a great team, you might want to make exceptions again to succeed as a team.

(exceptions as in at critical times, family would still come first)

I would not consider a company or team that pushes you to work over 40 hours to be good.

Not to be it the norm. But at critical times .. I can see the neccesity. (if it was not bad planning)

But even if it's bad planning, as long as it's acknowledged and fixed, I get over it. The worst thing is IMO if the extra hours are required often and not reimbursed in some way.

My previous team would consistently burn through people after setting irrational deadlines, promise to be better with planning next quarter except it would be just the same as the previous. I left. I've heard they're doing better now but it took pretty much everyone to leave (except some super senior people who are probably paid their weight in gold every month) for management to see it as a problem. And worse, it wasn't the team managers who saw it as a problem but the HR who were concerned about bad retention in this team.

In my current team, I've also had crunches and I worked until 1AM on some ocassions, but after the crunch my manager or team lead would just reach out and say 'take it easy now for a couple of days and no need to file PTO' and they'd actually try to amend the planning next time. What a difference it makes.

Most people mean it as a rule of thumb. If it becomes a pattern you have to put your foot down. Some people are fine with it. I'm not, and I have walked over the issue. I'll do it for a week or two but after that it's just a indicator of poor management and poor company culture. Also I avoid startups who don't pay by the hour :)

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