I have been bloody fortunate during this pandemic to have kept my job. As have a lot of people in tech. Considering the huge butterfly effect it’s had on our civilisation towards some level of doom, tech has largely continued its upward trajectory of growth and it’s been great to be a part of the ride.
This is massively attributable to already having an established form of working in isolation and remotely. So imagine my surprise when a pandemic hits and suddenly the C-Execs want ‘to bring us together’ by getting us to continue making our way to the office. The first thought is - why the fuck are we being treated like we’re family, where we’re not allowed to make our own decisions suddenly?
So let’s tick through why that might be, shall we?
- They miss us
- They want direct communication
- They’re paying a shit ton of money for an empty office
- Pandemics don’t exist
- Productivity will drop dramatically if we’re not being eyed off like hawks
It’s fantastic when people make shitty assumption and don’t have a full blown discussion on how to move forward. When we were told we had to come in via email, it started off like this: ‘The executives and I have decided…’. Really? You all decided on our wellbeing without discussing what an appropriate move would be with your team? No. Fuck that. Most times I’ll just say ‘yeah, sure’. But not during a fucking pandemic, where people are dying. So I messaged the devs and said that I was working remotely and stood my ground. Fortunately they eventually changed their mind, but with strings attached. Every morning there were little quips about how much better it’d be if we were all together. We get it, none of us want to stay stuck in one place forever with nothing but the internet to – well, actually that sounds pretty sweet.
Bro, Do you even Startup?
Back to the situation about refusing to adapt - I work at a startup. By definition you’re supposed to adapt. So imagine my surprise when I’m hearing about how little they’re wanting to switch things up because time’s precious, especially when you’ve got a higher cash burn/profit ratio.
This is was the first of two main flags that hit me hard during my time working. And it’s really sad to experience, especially when you believe in the company’s success and you’re suddenly stuck between a joint and hard place.
Malleability
There were some great things to take home(lol, I’m already home, stupid) - malleability in a startup is a huge advantage over larger companies, so utilise that as much as you can. Larger companies are struggling logistically to get organised, while a startup can adjust to having everyone home and working by lunch time. This was a prime opportunity to just go for it and reduce the cash burn rate and dim the lights in the office a little, thereby buying you time and potentially leveraging that extra cash to obtaining more personnel, expediting development… hopefully. There have been some awkward hires. Like me.
Discussions
Aside from the malleability of the startup, a giant office discussion would’ve boosted morale, brought us closer and helped everyone to really chip in to prevent a fall out. We’re only a team of 15, so it would’ve been quite simple to arrange for such a call. This is something I hope to alleviate if something similar happens once our startup gets going.
This is a quick insight into how horribly biased we are as humans. We are capable of doing some amazing things, and yet we still can’t develop that fucking sense of foresight that we so badly need. How can you work in tech - yet deny science without sound reasoning? Is this the point of tech? To advance so far that some dipshit human can badmouth science and refute the facts without any forethought?