Comment by mxuribe | Hacker News Reader

Comment by mxuribe | Hacker News Reader

During my previous jobs, i used to use a sort of "end of day review" to see both what i accomplished that day (which made me feel good when i completed things), plus also get allowed me to get ready for what i need to do the next day. I suppose its similar to the habit denoted in this piece; pretty cool!

At my current job, things are messier and shall we say not sustainable - culture is simply toxic. I actually can not do a review...because the moment someone sees that i am still logged on, i get bothered...Mostly this is from folks in other time zones (who don't care that its my end of day...like i said, its toxic here). So, i started doing the review offline, but saw that i needed to be logged on to review stuff...i started jumping through too many hoops to still access info as inputs for review and next-day prep...but appear to be offline...so, instead, nowadays, at a very strict time, i log off, and have abandoned my formal end of day review...I mean i still review my thoughts...but its not as structured, and i don't write anything down...and, i see the difference (sadly)...but, mostly, i just don't like my current job. ;-)

Genuine question, why do you feel the need to respond to every message? I work in a place with teams on my project split across multiple time zones, and I reply to people when I'm able. If something is really on fire, I'll get a load of messages but generally that stuff should go to the team chat and not at me directly.

Of course, we all keep some 'favourites' we do the odd favour for, but if you can't find 15 minutes to work interrupted (and your review is work) then you really need to think about how you're working as you're making the problems worse.

Being the superhero feels good for the first decade, eventually you realise you're Brent from the Phoenix Project and you're really part of the problem.

Not a personal attack, mxuribe, just some crap I worked out over the years. YMMV.

I appreciate your comments @cyberpunk!

> ...I work in a place with teams on my project split across multiple time zones, and I reply to people when I'm able...

I've worked in other places where i did just as you noted! But, here, at my current dayjob, the culture is vastly different in some ways compared to all the other companies that i've worked for (over the quarter century that i've sent being part of digital/technical teams across many medium and large enterprises).

Further, i wouldn't say that i'm trying to be a superhero, its merely that there's political pressure here to be "on"/activated all the time. I've been on global teams before, and as you noted, unless there is some massive issue, availability of members of the team is assumed to be within a reasonable range of hours per one's timezone...But, here, many enterprise cultural norms are thrown out the window. I kinda would assume that maybe some unique startup that is so new to the world might behave like this, but this company has been around a long time...and they seem to have lots of churn of their digital/tech teams....and although no company is perfect, this firm's issues i believe stems mostly from its toxic culture. So, for now, i'm doing my time, putting up with the annoyance for the time being, until it suits me to jump ship. Just not worth it for my peace of mind.

Does your chat client or whatever is making you visible logged on have an “away” mode?

Good idea, i'll give that a shot. Thx for the tip!

Another options (particularly if your org runs off MS outlook & Teams) - pencil in the review time as an appointment in your calendar, so your status shows as 'Busy' during that time. If that's not sufficient, you can even make it a Teams meeting with only yourself in it, so then your Teams status would show that you're in a call.

Yeah, i use this technique - both a simple blocking appointment as well as a fake meeting with only myself...but what has even happened a few times is that someone will see that i have an appointment or meeting near the end of the day, and they figure they can book a short meeting with me immediately after that block...I have a colleague at work who from about 6pm until the following day blocks his calendar with an "out of office" signal...so its 100% clear that he is off the clock and not available...but still people in this company (from other timezones mostly but sometimes also the same timezone) harass others regardless if a calendar os blcoked, etc...Like i said its simply toxic where i work in this way. But, i appreciate the idea, thanks!

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