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Comment by charlie0 | Hacker News Reader

"Also there's something really offputting about the 'get it done' phrase/mentality for public companies." This really resonates with me. I work at a larger company and sometimes get pressure to finish work faster. I don't know why I should, what I'm working on is clearly not critical to the company. At lot of this "work faster" is just there to meet arbitrary and questionable scrum practices. The only thing the manager cares is that I got x mount of story points done this sprint.

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> The only thing the manager cares is how much more work they can get out of you to show to their managers.

*appear to get out of you

Which is why shit, unmaintainable code often goes unpunished

Yes, there's a lot of technical debt in the codebase.

    I don't know why I should, what I'm working on is 
    clearly not critical to the company.

Isn't it better to get more done than less (at the same amount of time), even if it's not critical? The only case where it's puzzling is if you're left twiddling your thumbs after you're done, rather than get more work.

Better for who?

You’re advocating for finishing work faster so that you can be given more work faster? Sound like something to pitch to owners, not salaried workers

For whoever is doing the pressuring to work faster, supposedly the manager who is supposedly doing it for the benefit of the company.

I'm not saying this is better for the employee, but if you're asking "why are they pressuring me to work faster, my work is not critical" then the answer is "they still want to get as much out of you as they can, even when it's not critical".

I know why bosses/owners want it. I'm asking why a commentator is advocating for it

Am I that commentator?

I'm not advocating for anything, I guess the original phrasing of the question was ambiguous- I read it as "I don't know why my boss cares how fast I work if my work is not critical" and am answering that question.

But it can also be read as "why is it to my benefit to work as fast as I can?", which is apparently how you interpreted it.

Exactly, working faster just gets you more work, and if you're lucky maybe the bosses will throw in an extra 2-3% on top of your 2% raise at the end of the year. If you're really lucky, you might promoted. Now you're working 60 hours (50% more) for an extra 10-15% a year. Congratulations! Feel free to spend that extra money on a shiny new BMW to show everyone you've made it.

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