> you probably don’t have access to half of what you need to in order to fix any given problem and are even more unlikely to be able to get it
I once sat down with a data engineer to try to fix a specific problem they had and that was 100% accurate. They were left to die by Ops and CISO.
For example, Operations might demand that Engineering develops an increasingly-byzantine approvals process, to stop Sales from over-promising impossible or unprofitable projects.
I’ve found this to be one of my largest day-to-day problems even in a relatively functional organisation. Particularly when it involves something I can’t run on my own machine, like an AWS service.
In a previous role I often found myself constructing elaborate hypotheses about what was going on inside systems I couldn’t see into. I’d then need to try to verify it with someone on another team, in another timezone, who had the access but not necessarily the development background. Which usually meant getting on a screen share and asking them to click various things I wasn’t allowed to. If I was wrong, back to the drawing board and start again.
Immensely frustrating and draining where you can have accomplished ~nothing in a full day of work to fix what should have been a five minute change.
"I would like to make this systemically better by addressing our second order problems that are causing our very visible first order problems"
You will be told that we absolutely do not have time for that. The only actions you're allowed to take are fighting the fires closest to you, not turning off the pumps that spray the gasoline everywhere.
Typically this is only even possible because nothing that you're doing is actually used or scrutinized since if it was, someone would have immediately noticed that nothing works. Usually this is at places running on varying levels of investment dollar three-card-montey.
And — not to take away from the piece – If noone noticed the logs have been garbage for two years, they can't be that important.
The people with experience and knowledge get pushed aside in favor of someone who can talk management-speak and (often) looks the role. Suddenly meetings where Things Get Decided only include managers who don’t know what they’re doing.
The best is when they make a mess and then get tremendous accolades for half-fixing it.
I’ve even seen it happen within relatively small startups. It’s a sign of rotting culture, but sometimes you have a mortgage to pay and have to get comfortable with the situation until you can find a better gig.
The logs are stupid (sorta) but imagine how many other issues can exist if we uncover something like this every time we open something.
This is the first I've heard anyone say that. Can you elaborate? We've got more leave (separate holiday and sick leave), none of the "at-will" stuff, right to disconnect, less hours, etc.
Fully remote. I can expense $120/month for phone and internet, and a few lunches each month, too. I can get a new laptop and/or monitor sent to me just by asking.
When I do visit the office, the trip is fully expensed. Free daily lunch. Coffee and drinks and snacks everywhere, free. Private desks in a semi-open office with couches scattered around. Lounges with hundreds of board games, nearly all of which have seen table time during work hours.
Primary projects are tracked in a knowledge-sharing system, but I can mostly work on what I want to. I’m encouraged to merge small fixes and refactors without any ticket-pushing at all. Yelling by managers or anyone would not be tolerated.
“At-will” is more FUD than reality in my experience. Most companies, when firing or laying someone off, give something like 2 weeks of severance for every year of service.
Are there specific protections that are lacking in the US that you would expect to result in worse employee outcomes?
Again, I'm not arguing about who has it better. I am asking a very narrow question about worker rights differences between the two countries. If you want me to say that US software workers have it better, then sure. But that's not really what I'm asking.