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Comment by rdtsc | Hacker News Reader

Remember if anyone promised you verbally any financial windfall in exchange for loyalty, no matter how charismatic they are don't fall for it. In the end they would end up most likely not delivering (and of course they will blame on an external scapegoated 3rd party for it).

It is a good idea to always be read to leave. Don't burn bridges but don't assume the company you work for is your family. Why? They extract double the work from you working nights in exchange for fluffy promises. A lot of managers are managers because they know how to promote well. Promote themselves well and promote the company to you. Be aware of that.

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I'd always give my manager a chance to keep their promise. If they fail and start making excuses instead of taking responsibility, I can also work with that, but it's not going to be the same in terms of motivation and productivity.

Many managers got their education straight from Dilbert or the movies. They think screwing you over and maintaining ambiguity is "business-savvy". It's well known that employees will grow resentful when your actions cost them money. It's one of the few HR areas with actual studies and it's common sense in general. Good managers are pretty rare though indeed.

I (hopefully) learned from mistakes of others. My friend got burned. He was promised a "share of the profits" if company gets sold, he was young, after college, his boss knew how to take advantage of him. Sure enough company gets sold. Most good people had left (except as it turns out the others who also got promised privately large exclusive! windfalls). In the end it was, of course, blame on some technicality. "Sure I would have given you those millions, if it wasn't for the lawyers, those pesky lawyers, wouldn't you just want to drown them, sheesh...", stuff like that. Oh well, he runs his own company now, but it was a valuable lesson.

Yes, this is a good example. I have my own timeout value for promises - about 6 months. That should be enough.

I tell people that I consider oathbreakers as worse than murderers. This generally happens early in the business relationship, and has considerably cut down on the number of brawls I have found myself in.

You and Dante. His ordering of the circles of Hell:

Limbo, Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Anger, Heresy, Violence, Fraud, and Treachery.

Exactly, I think it's a good heuristic that people who ask for loyalty don't deserve that loyalty. People who do deserve it rarely have to ask, because they are busy turning the situation into a win-win, or at least symmetric in risk-profit, so that you both take a risk for profit, and if the risk is realized you are in the same boat, rather than you in the sea, and them sitting comfortably somewhere else.

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