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Comment by dmurray | Hacker News Reader

One of the things I hate about my current job is that it's impossible to do this.

Everything is locked behind multiple layers of permissions. It takes weeks to get the correct permissions set up even for my actual job (which I see any time changing roles here, or when onboarding new hires). Getting the permissions to jump in and improve some other part of the system that I don't officially own - even though I might get granted them if I ask nicely, because nobody knows who is actually meant to have what permissions - is so much higher friction than asking the "right" person.

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That org is too large for you. At large orgs when you see a problem you think you can fix, someone will tell you that's not your job. At small orgs when you see a problem you think you can fix someone will thank their lucky stars you offered to help.

I worked at a company where you could do it, but some people take fixes as insults to their mother's honour, so all in all probably on a personal level it is best to avoid doing it.

I’ve only worked in a single company where it really worked out, and it took a massive amount of work to massage egos on both sides of the “fix” (one side sees their hammer tool and wants to fix everything with it, and the other has the mother’s honor issue). You really had to spend time with both parties helping them understand things were a certain way for a reason, but that there were always small changes that could improve things.

Encouraging the inverse of fixing relationship helped both parties as well.

That said, I’ve worked in a few other shops that either had the permissions/compartmentalization shit show as a permanent blocker, or were just completely devoid of a culture encouraging people to care about anything beyond their own career/fiefdom. I absolutely despise both cases.

such companies deserve to fail and the most honorable thing you can do is find another job or start a competitor.

Many many companies are like this. Most people are happy doing their very narrow range of things and put blinders on to everything else. They either don't have the time, interest, or energy to do more, and they learned to not really care what happens to the company beyond their own position... that's above their pay grade.

If you attempt to make it easier for yourself to do more, you might wear yourself out too. The organization has become a demoralization engine, and some can continue on this way for a very long time. Some people might even be frustrated that you're trying to do anything differently.

But sometimes you can make inroads, and you can make things easier for everyone. Through finding the right people to ask, you can start to document or at least remember how to avoid the friction, reduce it, and make things better.

Companies underestimate how much this murders productivity. All friction compounds.

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