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Do you have this guy at work? I do
(lemmy.ml)
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this post was submitted on 06 Jul 2024
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My previous work used two mission-critical software for continuous operation.
One was some guy's university project written in Object Pascal and PHP and largely untouched since 2006. I tried offering fixes (I also knew Pascal), but I was rejected every time because the cumulative downtime caused by software issues was not enough to justify the downtime caused by the update (obviously this was determined by a Middle Manager (derogatory)).
The other was (I shit you not) an Excel spreadsheet with 15000 lines and 500 columns. I tried making a copy and cleaning it up, but Excel couldn't handle the amount of data and ran out of memory.
I absolutely cannot stand this kind of logic.
"We make a shit ton of money on this very critical piece of software!"
"Then let me fix it!"
"NO! It's making us money NOW! It only stops making us money when it's broken. At which point then we fix it."
"But that might be hours. We can minimize downtime if we plan properly."
"But it's making us money NOW!1!1!”
I shit you not I have had various versions of this conversation throughout my career, across industries, across disciplines.
True zen is achieved when you realize it's not your problem. Even better when the thing eventually breaks and you can be smug about it.
I'm not in the industry anymore, but every time I raised an issue to the boss that got ignored, I used to like to keep a little folder where I'd print the emails or just take notes about the issue, the proposed fix, and when and why it got rejected.
Then, 8 months later when everything is on fire, I could point at the date February 12, where at 3:40 PM I raised this specific issue that got ignored.
It never benefitted me, not once, in fact I sincerely think my boss at the time thought I was a smug little prick. Which was fair, I was one. But credit where it's due, every time I brought the folder back out, he'd get a look like he just swallowed a mug full of cold piss and tell me I was right. That's all I really wanted out of that folder anyway.
lmao
worth it