What Silicon Valley gets about engineers that traditional companies do not

Re:What Silicon Valley gets about engineers that traditional... by danielheath on Sunday January 10, 2021 @11:18PM (#25724427)

Essentially, developers with substantial domain experience / familiarity with the problem space tend to do what they think is best, instead of following orders.

Accepting the value of that behavior requires a great deal of personal and organizational maturity, especially when you want to try something out quickly and your developers refuse.

Sample phrases include: "Why did the customer ask for that - it sounds like our planned implementation won't satisfy their goals", or

"Won't this change mean we operate at a loss to subsidize your other company, which will affect staff bonuses".

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Re:What Silicon Valley gets about engineers that traditional... by v8engine on Monday January 11, 2021 @03:07AM (#25726084)

>"Won't this change mean we operate at a loss to subsidize your other company, which will affect staff bonuses".

I don't get it. Can you explain?

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Re:What Silicon Valley gets about engineers that traditional... by danielheath on Monday January 11, 2021 @09:50AM (#25729519)

Boss owns two companies.

Staff at company A have negotiated a profit share / performance bonus.

Boss directs company A to provide services “below cost” to company B. Company A now has no profit to share; it has been funnelled elsewhere to avoid paying the staff their bonus.

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Re:What Silicon Valley gets about engineers that traditional... by tinix on Tuesday January 12, 2021 @05:39PM (#25754973)

This is a dirty tactic, but I've seen it used... a lot.

It has slimy tax advantages too, for the company.

If you're getting profit sharing, you should be able to see the books, and have controlling shares, too... IMO.

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