Comment by cpitman | Hacker News Reader

Comment by cpitman | Hacker News Reader

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Here's a non-conspiratorial reason: many engineers are not used to the uncertainty involved in day to day business negotiations and sales, and allow themselves to be stressed out what they see how the sausage is made. The reality is that lots of deals fall through, and that is normal. But if someone hasn't had a front row seat to that, they start wondering "are we failing?", "am I not doing a good enough job?", "is our product a failure?" etc etc.

I say this as someone who leads a team that handles the promotion and enablement of engineers into a role where they have a lot more visibility into sales and strategy, and have learned that they really need to have someone reassure them until the point that they realize that things are working out just fine.

That being said, I'm not sure of the wisdom of inflicting that stress on employees that don't have a need to see the Backoffice negotiations. Is there anything productive they can do, other then getting stressed?

> many engineers are not used to the uncertainty involved in day to day business negotiations and sales

7 person startup, right? Presumably they hired people who can wear lots of hats and who can deal with uncertainty.

> they start wondering "are we failing?", "am I not doing a good enough job?", "is our product a failure?" etc etc.

Good. Questions lead to answers where there's transparency. I'd hope that the people making the product would understand the product, the business, and the customers.

This. Additionally this should lead to more responsible decision making when questions like “is my re-architect gone wrong going to sink the company?” are pondered at all levels. This could lead to more stress sure but if someone can’t handle it probably best to go work at big corp.

    7 person startup, right? Presumably they hired people who can wear 
    lots of hats and who can deal with uncertainty.

Not necessarily! Or not necessarily all of them. As a small startup you also don't have much money so may hire very junior people as that's all you can afford.

    Good. Questions lead to answers where there's transparency.

Only they don't always ask these questions - especially if they're junior. Sometimes they just keep it to themselves and worry instead of asking for clarification.

If you work for a company so small that it's possible to have that transparency, the assumption that your job is safe should never have entered your mind. Startups that small are always a risk. Anyone joining a company like that must know that going in. Making sure people are aware of that risk is part of full transparency.

This is some very SV-centric view. That kind of transparency is possible with up to ~50 employees and plenty of businesses in the 10-50 person range are stable enough you can assume your job is safe. Not everywhere is searching for PMF-to-hyperscale.

My first real job was at a company in Pennsylvania with a few dozen employees. They laid off half their staff and implemented mandatory overtime. Many of my college friends that never left the area lost their jobs during the pandemic working for exactly the kinds of companies you describe. Every five to ten years of my adulthood has been marked with economic downturn that overwhelmingly shutter small businesses. What kind of stability is that?

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