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0 points0xBDB2y ago0 comments

I was hired to implement and operate a specific product for a specific customer who paid for four years of onsite support. I do other things too, but that's my one contractually obligated responsibility and my primary one.

Turns out the customer didn't read the (enormously expensive) SOW. They don't want the product, can't ingest its output, don't want to do the work necessary to implement it, and on a recent roadmap review listed its function as their absolute last priority. I am not sure whether there's been a change in management, or some salesperson talked really fast, or what.

I am trying to appreciate this as 'salary for nothing' and use the time to study for other things but it turns out that for me this is an anxiety-inducing and unhappy experience.

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12 comments · 4 top-level

d_burfoot2y ago· 4 in thread

One of the weirdest psychological insights, which many people including myself have discovered recently, is that a fake job that doesn't actually require any work can be more stressful and unpleasant than a real job.

spit2wind2y ago

This reduces to a belief, which I also hold, that you have inherent worth.

It's like Bret Victor's story of Puddles. Imagine you adopt a puppy. You name him Puddles. You take puddles home and you give them a little snack and you stick puddles in the cage and you lock the door forever and never open it again. Most, although not all, would agree this is cruel.

We have a notion of what it means to live a full doggy life. Dogs have to run around. They sniff other dogs and they pee on things. That's kind of what it means to be a dog. Dogs have a set of capabilities and we recognize that a dog has to be allowed the full free expression of its entire range of capabilities in order to be a dog.

The same is true for people. Like a dog needs to hunt, people seek meaning. They wither away without it.

https://vimeo.com/115154289

kubanczyk2y ago

This is quite a humble take on definition of value, I like it.

epolanski2y ago

A consulting firm I worked with had great sales people.

They could get software consultants anywhere, especially where they were not needed.

A former colleague of mine got assigned along another to assist an Italian bank with their software projects.

He told me that in his office there were 6/8 people, barely doing any work. Two of them were leads in that office and did their best to never ever be seen or meet anyone. They would just close themselves in the office the whole day doing god knows what. If you knocked they would pretend to not be there.

My colleagues tried to get some work to do desperately for months, but consultancy said to shut up because the contract was huge.

He says it was one of the most miserable periods of his life because "there's enough Youtube a person can watch for 18 months" and there were more than 2 hours per day of commuting on top of that.

replwoacause2y ago

I can attest to this phenomenon too.

zer00eyz2y ago· 4 in thread

I have had this job before.

You have two choices.

1. Start a side gig. Be busy at work make extra money.

2. Work on open source. Find a project you like or want to work on and do that.

PS: set up a home lab and learn to love SSH tunnels.

langsoul-com2y ago

You cannot legally do 1 or 2. They'd both belong to the company because ip work laws

alfanick2y ago

That purely depends on jurisdiction (country, there is no world universal law) and your contract. A lot of companies smuggle that in a contract, often they’re happy to drop these kind of clauses.

justsomehnguy2y ago

Depends on the country.

bruce5112y ago

Another alternative is to become actually useful in that spare time.

Doing what depends on the business - it can take some detective work to figure it out.

Then again, the detective work could quickly show this is someplace you don't want to be long-term.

In which case yeah, find something productive to do, or treat this as that paid learning time to build some new skills.

Best part of learning is test it's defensible ... "oh, I'm busy doing an assessment on the pros and cons of rewriting the system using node.js. "

gedy2y ago

> for me this is an anxiety-inducing and unhappy experience.

Don't measure yourself by goofy corporate politics. It's not your fault (and ignore their political blame games). You can make the world a better place by the pay you are receiving.

drpotato2y ago

Get another job or use the money for counselling / therapy, your mental health is more important than the job.

Hell, maybe try work two jobs if you can!

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