from Hacker News

Protecting your time from predators in large tech companies

by alexmolas on 1/24/25, 7:09 PM with 38 comments

• by tetromino_ on 1/25/25, 2:29 AM

  Not all Big Tech is the same. At Google, for example, the social norm is that if someone not on your team helps you out in a notable way, you thank them with a peer bonus. The peer bonus, in addition to being a bonus, will notify the helper's manager and is a publicly visible artifact that the helper can put in the community contributions category of their next performance assessment.

• by easypeasycccc on 1/25/25, 6:29 AM

  I always say, if it takes longer than 15/30min. Go get it approved. If it's not approved by my manager and it's not on the roadmap. I'm not touching it. They get the message and move on to the next sucker. :)

• by qzum on 1/24/25, 9:47 PM

  I can't say that these behaviors are predatory, but author appears like toxic person with some god syndrome.

  Overtime can be predatory, but please don't call kindness, teamwork, or simple help as prey trait

• by mv4 on 1/24/25, 10:10 PM

  Most of these behaviors seem perfectly normal to me. When I worked at FAANG, I often had to ask people (not my direct reports) to do something for me. And that was often the only way to get things done, "influencing without authority". Of course, I've always helped them with something else in return, publicly gave them credit etc.

• by andrewstuart on 1/25/25, 3:52 AM

  This is a really weird attitude to work.

  To see everyone around you as a predator.

  You’re there to do work and be helpful to people. Do it if you can. If you can’t, explain why and don’t do it.

  I can’t imagine someone who sees their colleagues as predators is much fun to work with. There’s going to lots of attitude and angst. Steer clear of employing this type of developer.

• by nine_zeros on 1/24/25, 9:33 PM

  The fact that engineers now think that helping others and working with others is negative value, just shows how terrible tech culture has become.

  This all comes from management wanting to assign and claim credit. It is this credit system that ensures that people will not cooperate but instead let "others" fail.

• by minipci1321 on 1/25/25, 1:43 PM

  Ooooh, that hit the nerve )).

  The author, rather unfortunately, focuses primarily on the predation from the "generalized colleague", and that wasn't welcomed by many commenters, possibly because people in big-tech tend to be young and do need help, so have to ask for it.

  But the way I see it, the predation is institutionalized in big companies.

  -- The Intellectual Property department blocking the entire R&D of the entire product division for the whole day, to give a presentation on how to file a patent. Knowing full well that only a dozen of these people will every do, at best.

  -- IT dept locking down everything, because, you know, there are risks and we don't want to take it. Doesn't matter if it slows down everyone else everywhere.

  -- "Security" disabling access to slightest technical information, because, you know, someone could steal it. Just ask and you'll have access. (How does one asks for something one doesn't know exists?)

  -- Purchasing that shortlists only some contracting shops and not accepting any others. Doesn't matter if the shortlisted one don't "carry" the competence (e.g., try EMC specialists).

  All these people consider that as their achievements and are not shy about it when yearly appraisal comes. We all work as one team aren't we? And then comes the day of layoffs. One reason of it being that the R&D hasn't been performant enough. Guess what, we aren't so much of one team anymore.

• by throwaway290 on 1/25/25, 1:40 PM

  I disagree with the take. You do whatever you do and then you go home. If you help someone at the expense of real priorities that's your fault. If you have spare time and do something for someone then why not. You get paid a fixed amount. Everything else is politics.

• by gunian on 1/25/25, 5:14 AM

  the politics of the companies my idols created really makes me wonder if AI getting good enough in 50 years to take most dev jobs is a good thing