Hacker News Reader

Comment by Etheryte | Hacker News Reader

Ah yes, the classic low-skill management maneuver of setting an unrealistic deadline in the hopes that people will then work faster. Naturally, Joel has written about this [0], see point 12.

[0] https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/03/29/painless-software-...

View on HN

Not related to this case. Once, when I was super young, someone put me in a project that clearly would take 3x more people and 2x more time.

They said it was challenging because they couldn't loose the project bla bla and if everything went ok we would all be promoted.

People worked almost 24x7 for months. But the project got done with no major delays.

When time to credits came, a friend of the boss who was actually in another team got the promotion and we all heard that there were not enough vacancies for promoting the team but they wanted us to know that they appreciated the effort and it wouldn't be forget.

Months later, a layoff came and half of the team got laid off.

Since then, I only work extra time with OT and I demand that to be written as a plus in my formal evaluations.

Does it help? No. But

Yep, companies don't care about your overtime, and neither should you care about their overneeds.

> 8) Put in line items for Vacations, Holidays, etc. If your schedule is going to take about a year, each programmer will probably take 10 to 15 days of vacation.

That's so little vacation. America is wild.

Wild is a nice way of saying crushing my soul. I've worked at companies that give you 10 days, that they choose, for your first five years. I have no clue why we do this to ourselves other than the person in charge is not bound by it, and one day we all hope to be in charge.

> “I've worked at companies that give you 10 days, _that they choose_, for your first five years.”

They choose? I’ve worked in a lot of companies in a lot of parts of the US, and have never heard of employers choosing a worker’s vacation days. That’s awful.

I think they're talking about holidays. Like Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc. Pretty much every US company does this.

Wait, basically every single company in the world gives you their local bank holidays off, here in the US we have 10-15 of those depending on what your particular company decides to give, and then additionally I have yet to hear of a white collar company that doesn’t also give you at a min 12, but lately I’ve seen 15-20 be the norm.

Most countries in the world don't do the 'depending on what your particular company decides to give'. California recognizes 18 holidays. Average holidays given is 6 (https://money.com/columbus-day-who-has-to-work-why/)

Lately I've seen a lot of 'unlimited' - read as less than your boss takes

In Europe 20 is the legal minimum

Unlimited isn't the worst possible vacation situation, but it can definitely be bad depending largely on your boss.

I took a job with "unlimited vacation" at one company and then AFTER I started my boss "explained" to me that "Unlimited means 4 weeks here." About two months after I started I was moved to a different team new boss. My new boss (same company) had clear deliverables and said, "Unlimited means Unlimited so long as you hit your deliverables." Glad I was moved to a new team.

Wait until you hear about the fact that your sick leave time is also covered in those 15 days, so every day that you rest at home when sick is another day less that you get of that vacation you had planned. Definitely a system that encourages people to spread illnesses through the office.

There was also this weird flex I've had older coworkers do where they brag about never taking their vacation time and just cashing it out instead at the end of the year. It happens a lot less nowadays but it was definitely part of the "grind culture" to show you were a hard worker before, maybe it still happens in certain fields.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com