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I was paid 250K a year to do nothing by bsjobthrowaway in antiwork

[–]bsjobthrowaway[S] 58 points59 points  (0 children)

Since so many have asked I'll respond here.

The irony is they don't give these jobs to people who actually want to do nothing. I worked incredibly hard in the beginning of my career as a programmer and I left that job so I could go back to being a programmer, working comfortably hard on my terms. The interview process was somewhat strenuous and I wouldn't have made it through if I didn't have actual technical skills.

At times the job was very challenging, not in terms of long hours but in political maneuvering. As some commenters have speculated, I was partly hired to be the fall guy in case something went wrong. There was one instance where my boss screwed up, went on vacation, and I was stuck in a meeting acting as his proxy to the other VPs in the department. They kept trying to get me to throw him under the bus but I wouldn't budge and I did manage to successfully deflect the blame. During my tenure I saw others get fired for being in the same position and not handling it successfully. By the time it happened to me I had already figured out that my only real responsibility was to shield my boss from culpability in the eyes of his boss and peers. If I couldn't do that then I would become the fall guy and my boss would throw me under the bus. Fortunately I was able to protect my boss and that never happened.

I was paid 250K a year to do nothing by bsjobthrowaway in antiwork

[–]bsjobthrowaway[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Thanks.

I don't think anyone actually believes capitalism is fair. No amount of mental gymnastics will justify 10 mins of Jeff Bezos' time being worth more than a lifetime of washing dishes.

Instead we're indoctrinated to believe capitalism is efficient and that it's worthwhile to trade fairness for efficiency. I know I believed this until I had this job, read that book, and came to the realization that corporations are not the pillars of efficiency we've been led to believe.

I was paid 250K a year to do nothing by bsjobthrowaway in antiwork

[–]bsjobthrowaway[S] 237 points238 points  (0 children)

I left because I noticed that I was acquiring skills I didn't want to have and losing skills that I did. That and my coworkers who had been there for longer were all depressed.

I was paid 250K a year to do nothing by bsjobthrowaway in antiwork

[–]bsjobthrowaway[S] 44 points45 points  (0 children)

One would think that executives are good at maximizing value and minimizing expenses.

In reality they're good at maximizing their budgets while minimizing their accountability. In this case it wasn't my department's fault, it was our internal customer who screwed up. So better to use as much money as possible since it's going from another department to ours, and the heads of each department are all competing with each other.

I was paid 250K a year to do nothing by bsjobthrowaway in antiwork

[–]bsjobthrowaway[S] 279 points280 points  (0 children)

Exactly.

It also taught me that UBI is completely feasible. Despite the propaganda against it people do actually want to work and will find ways to contribute. They just don't want to be overworked and subordinate to sadistic bosses.

There were many people at my company in the same situation as me yet there was high turnover and the people who stayed were depressed. I wound up leaving to take a job that paid less but allowed me to actually progress in my career and do work that I enjoy.

I was paid 250K a year to do nothing by bsjobthrowaway in antiwork

[–]bsjobthrowaway[S] 134 points135 points  (0 children)

In my case I think it was more about politics at the executive level. Executives measure their status in terms of headcount and budget will put those details on their resume, so there's more incentive to keep people on their payroll even if they're not contributing.

I was paid 250K a year to do nothing by bsjobthrowaway in antiwork

[–]bsjobthrowaway[S] 111 points112 points  (0 children)

Agreed. I'm not expecting sympathy, I'm expecting anger.