Ask HN: Any stories about defying management?

I don't defy them, I just don't care. I do the best I know and I can (e.g., be proactive, bring good practices, help others, etc.) but I reject stuff like working extra hours because of tight deadlines. I couldn't care less about deadlines: if something cannot be done working regular hours, that's management's fault because they do not know how to manage things.

If I don't get my salary raise after 9-12 months, I simply leave. Sometimes I stay one more year (2 years look better than 1 in the cv for any given role) but I use that time to prepare myself for my next role and learn cool things (unrelated to work) on working hours.

This is in Europe, though. If they fire you (which it's quite hard to do) they give you a period notice of 2 months. So, I don't see the point of defying management at all. Besides, most of them (from my limited perspective) are in the same boat as me (they want more by doing less, and promoting me and giving me raises is a way to achieve that... it's a win-win, well, the only one who loses is the company, but usually no one gives a damn about companies nowadays over here).

And not get fired ?

In my experience you can defy management, accomplish the impossible on schedule and under budget and still get a bad performance review from your manager because by doing so you made him look bad.

So many. But I’ve been fired every time. Each time, I came out with an amazing story. In hindsight I wouldn’t have done it any differently. Makes life more interesting. Probably not good advice for everyone.

Manager told me to implement an analytics backend for our website. I said it was a waste of time since we could just use Google Analytics and get better analytics than if I spent several months on the projects. Manager told me to do it anyway. End of discussion. I defied him and connected our website to Google Analytics instead. He admitted that Google Analytics worked perfectly and saved us tons of work. Then told me that if I ever did that shit again and disobeyed him I would get fired.

Plenty. They’re not worth talking about. There’s nothing pleasant about unreasonable people and learn there were darker deeper plans in motion. The only thing I learned is that HR works for management. If there is any hint of legal action, get your own lawyer. Often times people will help you secretly if you discreetly let known your lawyer’s contact info. Surprisingly I was never fired but work was still hell and I have bitter memories.

My tip is that being managed out is way worse than being fired.

What is the different between defying and disagreeing ?