Comment by bluGill | Hacker News Reader

Comment by bluGill | Hacker News Reader

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There is only so much need for programmers in environmental volunteering. There is a great need for programmers who can write software for insurance companies. I know a number of great programmers who have left those jobs because they are doing boring. The ones who remain find things to enjoy outside of work. Some love programming and are happy to be paid to do it, but most are just great programmers doing a boring job 9-5 and going home at night to something they love. The only thing they love about their job is it is 9-5, overtime is rare, and they have to take a two week paid vacation every year (a fraud prevention measure to make it hard to cover any wrong doing).

Likewise, nobody is passionate about hauling my trash to the dump. (I have kids in diapers so my trash stinks) Nobody is passionate about cleaning septic systems. The jobs have to be done though.

All of the above jobs have something in common: well paid compared the the level of skill required. The people who do them have learned to do their job, and they have learned to find something else in life to enjoy.

What do you mean by "(a fraud prevention measure to make it hard to cover any wrong doing)"?

It's not all that common for developers, but forced vacations are fairly normal in accounting and finance - or at least they were in another lifetime when I worked in accounting.

There have been cases where an employee has been committing fraud, but it wasn't discovered for years because the person never took a day off and so was able to continually cover up their wrongdoing.

There's a decent discussion of it here on Stack Exchange: https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/107060/mandator...

but forced vacations are fairly normal in accounting and finance - or at least they were in another lifetime when I worked in accounting.

It probably hasn't been ten years since my aunt's most recent husband got caught in that exact manner, and I'd frankly be surprised if it weren't still common, given that it appears to work.

(As a footnote, it was an interesting phenomenon to watch. "He's an accountant at some no-name company, and she sells Mary Kay. Where the hell are these Bahama vacations and the big house coming from? Mary Kay didn't give her that Cadillac, she bought it because no one buys Mary Kay. I dunno, must be up to their eyeballs in debt." Of course, looking back now it was friggin' obvious. His unfortunate solution to the hammer that was soon to fall on his head involved a 12 gauge shotgun.)

I could be inspired to haul trash. If I knew the system put in place was designed to get people to minimize their actual trash, that organic waste was being reused properly for compost, and that multi-stream recycling was in place, I would feel pretty good about what I was doing. Work in waste management: save the planet.

I don't know how to get established cities to follow such a program, but Taiwan seems to have figured it out. https://www.wsj.com/articles/taiwan-the-worlds-geniuses-of-g...

Hauling trash in USA is a terrible job. Overflowing with criminals and safety hazards.

https://features.propublica.org/sanitation-salvage/sanitatio...

I think there's quite a big difference between the trash business in New York City and most other places in the country.

Sure there will be boring tasks to do in every project, but there are usually interesting ones too. If you can have fun with your co-workers, it also makes boring work more enjoyable.

The most boring job I ever held was working in an office supply store. The people were boring, the customers were boring (and there weren't that many of them). I even worked in a warehouse on a packing line. That was pretty boring work, but the staff there found ways to amuse themselves and it was always busy. The days went by quickly.

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