Tell HN: Beware 'Ungrowth' in Your Job

Re:Tell HN: Beware 'Ungrowth' in Your Job by topkai22 on Tuesday October 18, 2022 @12:40PM (#33250170)

I have a good friend who runs a smallish (100 person) company with about 30-40 (mechanical) engineers. One of their long-term custodians got ill for a long spell and so engineers were asked to take out their own trash. Some people just refused to do so, to the point it got smelly and affected the org. One of the execs got fed up and took all the smelly trash out herself one night and then started going around and individually directing the engineers in person to take out their trash when she thought it was too full. For the people who didn't take out the trash, it was considered in annual reviews.

Be thoughtful in what you evaluate as a "bogus" task. What is hard or complex isn't always what is important or noticed.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Tell HN: Beware 'Ungrowth' in Your Job by cestith on Tuesday October 18, 2022 @01:41PM (#33251140)

Pitching in on one's own space is different from being demoted to being a custodian that costs the company like an engineer. It's well within the company's rights to ask employees to keep a tidy office.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Tell HN: Beware 'Ungrowth' in Your Job by LawTalkingGuy on Tuesday October 18, 2022 @03:51PM (#33252906)

You can hire a temp cleaner instantly in almost any city. They literally wasted more money arguing with engineers than they would paying for the work to be done.

> Be thoughtful in what you evaluate as a "bogus" task.

Well, no. a business is all about money and if the engineers can bill they shouldn't waste their time on anything else. Management in a firm basically exists to facilitate billable hours so the employee here is right, both personally and professionally, in realizing that this is not only silly but corporate suicide.

> What is hard or complex isn't always what is important or noticed.

This is true. If you have a chance to pick your boss's suit up before a meeting or drive them to the airport it is probably worth doing, little favors go a long way.

[ Parent | on HN ]