this post was submitted on 21 Jun 2023
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[–] Hart@beehaw.org 63 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Engineers, raise your hand if you've tried to do good work despite your management's 'support.' Oh, look at all the hands going up!

[–] kitonthenet@kbin.social 23 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

This is true, but when safety is on the line it actually goes further than that. As an engineer you have an ethical duty to say no to making a product unsafe for end users or the general public.

It doesn’t matter if you get fired, if your boss goes to the media to bitch about you, if your boss threatens to sue you, you as an engineer hold a position of public trust to keep the people that use your product safe. If you don’t respect that and take it seriously, well we see where oceangate ended up.

[–] EthicalAI@beehaw.org 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah my boss has been going back and forth with me on this for months. Wanting to release unsecured products to the general public. I’m getting exhausted with him. I hold the keys and frequently I’ve told him no, and threatened to quit. Each time they just retreat back and hold a meeting how it will “stay on dev for now”. The features aren’t even feasible to release in the near future but I know they will force the issue. My resignation letter is on the table.

[–] kitonthenet@kbin.social 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I’ve been there, my boss once interrupted me to ask me to turn our product into a quadcopter

[–] sparkl_motion@beehaw.org 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

“Sir, with all due respect, I don’t believe turning a commercial diesel filling station into a quad copter doesn’t seem feasible.”

[–] Deestan@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago

It tracks with the zoomers. Make it happen.

[–] kent_eh@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

“Sir, with all due respect, I don’t believe turning a commercial diesel filling station into a quad copter doesn’t seem feasible.”

You just need to think outside the box. like these lads did: https://youtu.be/ReAa2WFm8Vc?t=16

[–] realChem@beehaw.org 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

This is the most management-ass thing I've heard in a while!

[–] dark_stang@beehaw.org 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The number of times I've rejected something because of security flaws (usually database injection), only to see other engineers later approve and merge the pull request is infuriating. There seems to always be an engineer who is willing to make an unsafe product.

[–] kitonthenet@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago

Yep, it's a damn shame, but we're gonna let them do that because we don't want to be responsible for deaths or security flaws and ultimately there's organizations and people out there who value that if our current jobs don't

[–] chrisn@beehaw.org 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That value is instilled in many types of engineering, but not as much in software engineering.

[–] RandoCalrandian@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

And the people paying the engineers are highly motivated to keep it that way

[–] bfg9k@kbin.social 18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Tale as old as time.

Engineers: "This is possible but we will need to equip every car with an expensive sensor suite"

Management: "So you're saying we can just remove the sensors and figure it out with your engineering magic, you guys are really good at that, you got my iPhone connected to ICloud so you must be reeeally good with technology."

Engineers: "..."

Management: "Also, anyone not up to this task is fired."

[–] Butterbee@beehaw.org 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Also, we are shipping it next week.

[–] albert@lemmy.sysctl.io 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] ivereadalltheory@beehaw.org 2 points 1 year ago

Boss: Eating a snickers "Oh, you guys weren't finished with that?"

[–] borkcorkedforks@kbin.social 9 points 1 year ago

After the meeting a few of the smart ones asked for clarification over email to get it writing.

[–] ozoned@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago

Management ALWAYS knows what's best! Obviously!

Hence why they constantly come running for us to fix it when shit goes as we say it will.