The Water Cooler

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8:46 AM

Q: Merge Tags: workload and workload-distribution

The workload and workload-distribution tags each have only a handful of questions. The latter seems like an unnecessary specification. Even if we were to define them differently, I expect most users would still pick one at random. I suggest that all questions under workload-distribution be merge...

discussion

Could a mod have a look at this when they have the time to merge? :)

7 hours later…

Aaron Hall

3:22 PM

Anyone around?

enderland

sure

Aaron Hall

I just gave an answer on management, I hope I don't embarrass myself.

Every answer is a risk. Answers on workplace.SE are bigger risks.

enderland

you mean you didn't just say "quit?" :P

Aaron Hall

I never just say "quit"

but the question was from a CEO.

enderland

I know, but the "quit" or "fire them" perspective is way easier to say than a complex answer (turns out people are complex)

Hmm, interesting to read. Most of those ignore that the OP can't really replace them easily

Aaron Hall

3:29 PM

If I give a simplistic or "wrong" answer that gets popular sentiment upvotes I'll get in trouble.

I made a study of managing knowledge workers while working on my MBA.

enderland

I wish the OP had explained (or knew) why they were doing these things, too

Aaron Hall

The problem is that the "right" answer and one that reflects popular sentiment are sometimes orthogonal.

Which is why I usually don't answer.

enderland

That happens on Workplace often :\

Miscommunication/misunderstandings result in a lot of situations like that, too

Aaron Hall

Yeah, the question reflects non-communication.

enderland

@AaronHall questions which go on the "hot questions" list suffer from this a lot more often than not

Aaron Hall

3:40 PM

If I were solely in charge of hiring someone, the fastest way to get my ok on it would be for them to tell me that they always try to follow best practices and they make a study of best practices in everything they do. People who tell me they just learn on the job are ~ somewhat ~ saying the opposite of the above.

enderland

I think Joel's answer is pretty good, but it is also assuming that they have already talked to them about this issue (which is probably an ok assumption, if that hasn't happened this asker has more serious issues than this question)

Aaron Hall

It was the best of the the lot before I answered. :D

enderland

I think too that Workplace could be more proactive in downvoting answers that aren't good

Aaron Hall

4:21 PM

Well, I just used some rep on downvotes.

2 hours later…

Chad

6:01 PM

Q: We are #1 in our industry. However because we aren't a hot startup anymore some workers leave. How to manage this?

We were a hot startup and, long story short, we reached to be a slow-growth (mature?) company being more or less #1 in our industry. However there are workers which are leaving from our company. Asking them in head-to-head talks "why?" they answered (almost) invariably "because I want more money...

management team human-resources

This question is a gorrilla v shark question There is no one right way it is really too broad to handle in one answer I think

but i dont know if it can be changed now

Aaron Hall

6:12 PM

I think it will get good answers

I had the first downvote on the bottom answer though! :D

enderland

6:52 PM

@Chad I think it's an ok question, it has two good answers now so other answers will be... clearly bad

I thought we had a good "startups vs megacorp?" question somewhere though

1 hour later…

enderland

8:07 PM

Q: Airship Aircraft Carrier Dimensions

I'm currently writing a military science fiction story set in a post cyberpunk world I've been building. The story focuses on a tank crew, but it also prominently features an enormous airship that functions as a flying airfield or aircraft carrier. I'm trying to get a sense of scale such a ship w...