My work (part-time) officially pays me for existing.
I’ve finished my last assigned task around 1,5 years ago now and they just keep paying me money to keep me in staff in case they ever need it.
I don’t ever come to the workplace, I don’t even communicate with anyone. I just have money coming on my card twice a month.
Hope they never stop!
How do people like this not get roped into countless meetings? Do workplaces exist in the digital space that actually communicate without a meeting culture?
Yep.
100% remote here – staff not permitted in the office (5 ‘hotel’ spots and a walk-in desk behind a buzz-door staffed by a rotating helldesk rep to receive deliveries and give/get laptops for repair/re-image/replacement. This from like 400 onsite) unless there’s a good reason.
We have a few meetings, but they typically go 15 min or so; CAB meetings, strategy, an hour’s status-and-plans that goes long at 30 min, a ‘watercooler’ meeting for breakfast and random chat, to build the team and get the nerd zoomies out. No one wants to prolong a meeting, and that’s awesome. It’s an interruption, but they block together what they can so it gets it out of the way, and Monday and Friday are kind-of a bust because it’s common for 9x9 ‘compressed’ time workers to take those days off. So Monday and Friday are quiet work-times.
Everything else is handled by a slack-like chat setup, but we light a call if someone needs to show a screen or we need fast chat between many people – crises and the like.
You should come work here. We have a few spots open but they go fast; and people only leave on retirement (thus the opening today).
I have a standup meeting that lasts 10-30 minutes every morning.
Occasionally I have meetings where we plan, but they’re known about in advance and we can usually get a lot of the work done on the side before hand so we’re “done” by the time the meeting occurs (agendas help).
I can make it through my whole week with less than 3 hours of “being on a meeting call”
They scripted their attendance with python.
The realization that if I won the lottery I would browse 4chan all day
Ya don’t need a million dollars to do nothin’. Hell, lookit my cousin. He’s broke don’t do shit.
My best friend has this kind of situation working for Draft Kings. When your whole business is a massive government approved ponzi scheme with very little overhead compared to profits, the job can be pretty relaxed.
This is the kind of automation I believe in: Bottom-up, with no permission asked and no goal but to hold down one thriving wage with minimal effort and maximum free time. My only critique is that they felt the need to brag in public. You teach this shit in secret so the bosses never twig.
tbh this story isn’t new, the IT guy who has scripted everything and works 1 hour a week even in the office has been around since like the 80’s
I used to shoot fireworks professionally as a side gig, and the guy running the show was essentially working full time, but he had another full time job and i eventually asked him how the hell he did it.
It was this same story. He automated his shit, set up catches and only he would recwicer the alerts so he had time to be where he needed to be when they finally called him to fix it
Happy cake day!
Yeah, but I do shut up about it. Doesn’t matter what we internet folk think is common knowledge. The majority of bosses only have a faint idea of what is going on. And we should keep it this way.
This is how I keep my boss happy. By keeping him in the dark ❤
Keep them in the dark and feed them shit 🍄🍄🍄
I know you just said you shut up about it, but I’m currently in a junior sysadmin role and was wondering what area of IT you’re in?
From personal experience, sysadmin/engineer work. Unfortunately some places use sysadmin to refer to high level tech support, but I’m talking about the people who keep back end infrastructure running. If the back end systems are kept working and you have a project that is simultaneously technical enough and sounds important enough, people will often just leave you to it.
There is a lot of downtime. I’m paid for my knowledge and ability to solve complex problems quickly when they arise, not to be cranking out manual work 40 hours a week. However, there are absolutely times where I’ve got to full focus in, full hours. They just are the exception rather than the norm.
The biggest tool for this is learning the automation tools and systems your company uses. More you can automate, the more actions you can take in a shorter time, giving you more down time. This also increases opportunities to break shit exponentially, so you’re trading knowledge, risk (especially while you learn), and up front time for time later.
Always remember this table as well. Automation can free you but it can also be a trap.
I’ve referenced this table many times with new hires so they can see first hand how much time automation can save or suck.
theyd fire me for not understanding the table
