[distract8901]

My last job was a corporate hellscape. I worked really hard to move up to assistant manager, then corporate put me in a failing store on the other side of the state and just left me to rot. I had zero employees, just me and the manager. We constantly got berated for not meeting sales targets, which meant corporate sent us less product to sell, so our numbers got worse...

Then there was the mandatory unpaid overtime, the 12 hour days running the entire store solo. It nearly put me in the hospital, and I'm not exaggerating.

Then I got an unbelievable offer for a tech job ten minutes from my house. It was "only" twice my corporate salary, and I'm definitely being way underpaid for essentially being the senior R&D engineer. But it pays enough that my husband doesn't have to work and we don't want for anything. My job is so much fun, and my dedication is definitely noticed and appreciated. They've already given me a raise unprompted, and once we have enough revenue, I expect I'll get a much bigger one. Not that I really care about the money, I feel respected here, and I get to use all of my talents instead of cold-calling people to sell more crap.

I'll never go back to that corporate life. It was absolutely soul crushing for someone who has a lot of initiative and a lot of skills. This is where I was meant to be.

[neeleshs]

Curious question - how did you make the transition from being a store manager to an R&D Engineer? Was this a skill you already possessed but couldn't utilize before?

[distract8901]

Pretty much. I took the retail job because I couldn't find a programming job. Before that I was a video game programmer. I actually got hired here as a mid level unity programmer, but it quickly became clear that my other skills were more valuable.

I've done electronics as a hobby for most of my life, and I just have a natural talent for engineering and problem solving. R&D is something I've wanted to do since I first heard of it at 10 years old. The stars just never aligned until now.

[dopidopHN]

My previous R&D lead was a store manager just before as well. He was a stellar lead.

Maybe there is some untapped potential in all the store managers of the world?

[skeeter2020]

I bet they're great at solving a million little problems, shielding devs and getting shit done. If that's your priority/emphasis they'd be a great source of solid employees.

[red-iron-pine]

"the finest steel comes from the hottest dumpster fires" and man is retail often a non-stop dumpster fire. ditto for a lot of other service-ish jobs.

[flatline]

So-called “soft skills” are essential to effective management and hence team cohesion, employee happiness, and lots of other hard to measure metrics which still contribute directly to the bottom line and the team’s ability to deliver. Someone with minimal technical skills and great people skills can still effectively lead strong technical teams. If those skills are not present on a team at all, they will struggle 100% of the time. Nobody may even recognize the struggle if there is no one who can identify these things.

[xyzelement]

I actually bet your experience holding it down and getting shit done in that failing store was a good reflection of your ability and character and helped you get the next gig.

[gopher_space]

> Maybe there is some untapped potential in all the store managers of the world?

McDonalds is a great leadership pipeline because there's no reason for a competent assistant manager to stick around.

[biomcgary]

I've never worked in a large corporation, just academia and startups. The nature of exploitation in academia is reasonably well known and you pretty get much what you expect if you go in with eyes open (although there is variation depending on your academic advisor). I transitioned from academia to a startup that was far more exploitive than anything I experienced previously, but the exposure it gave led to another startup that has been the exact opposite (generous compensation and equity, great colleagues, etc).

In each case (various academic labs and the two startups), my loyalty was to the biological problem we were trying to solve rather than to the institution. I selected advisors and startup based on the problem that we were trying to solve (e.g. improving drug development and human health). As long as I thought the institution was making progress, I was willing to overlook a lot. I suspect that the video game industry and a few others might (space!) have a lot of people with a similar view of loyalty (and levels of tolerated exploitation).

[H8crilA]

Why did you not leave more or less immediately? I know that hindsight is 20/20, but still, it is pretty obvious you were not taken seriously at all.

[distract8901]

I was at the company for three or four years. It was fine working as a floor level employee, and my last manager encouraged me and gave me a lot of freedom to do what I wanted because I really did boost sales. I only took the assistant manager position because everyone around me told me I'd do great.

I lasted six months. The only reason I stayed that long was because we were promised some huge bonuses for meeting our sales targets, which never happened. I got like $50.

My manager gave her two weeks notice a week before I did and our region manager didn't find anyone to cover. He expected me to run the entire store by myself for a week. I said no and walked out. They had to leave the store closed for several days because absolutely nobody worked there. It was extremely cathartic.

[pierat]

Thats a no-brainer, really.

In the US (assumption of location), we have nearly no social net. We pay 30+% in taxes, but little to show for it if we lose jobs, or dealing with horrific jobs.

And with the spates of homeless arrests, even sleeping under an overpass or rough camping is illegal.

And of course, the worse the job, the less the pay, and the stickier the employees due to not being able to save.

Ive been in similar situations, with terrible jobs, up to and including a manager who ordered me to lie to a state entity over his botched fix.

[jjoonathan]

Those who make income pay 30+% in taxes.

Those who make capital gains do not.

Of course, those who make capital gains don't need a social safety net, but discussions about taxes need to include both tax tracks because they behave so very differently.

[lotsofpulp]

If your effective income tax rate is 30%+ in the US, you either have a very high income, easily top decile, or you live/work in Oregon (but that’s only a few million people).

[dmoy]

$90k in NYC is >30% effective after federal, state, city, and FICA.

But yea it's probably top 10%.

If you include medical costs outside of FICA, which many other Western countries get for near free after taxes, then it looks... quite different.

[lotsofpulp]

I guess certain cities like NYC/Philadelphia might also push effective income tax to over 30% for lower incomes, but for the purposes of comparing income tax rates and capital gains tax rates in the US, it does not make sense to include the social security component of FICA or medical costs.

Edit: I am barely getting 30% in NYC, even including FICA (zip code 10118)

https://smartasset.com/taxes/income-taxes

$90k as single is $27,171, or 30.19%.

$90k as married filer shows $20,758, which is 23.06% (incl FICA).

But, again, I would not include all of the social security portion of FICA (6.2%), since presumably you will be getting some of that back.

[zdw]

Sales tax + local/state/federal taxes + social security/medicare can be above 30% even for folks not in the highest brackets.

[lotsofpulp]

Sales taxes and social security taxes cannot be lumped in with income taxes, for the purposes of comparing income tax rates and capital gains tax rates.

[pierat]

True, but the post is about "workers" (who are being abused by management/ownership), who are getting "income". This isn't about the managerial or owner class.

Sure, there's edge cases where founders and early startup workers get paid income and capital (stocks, etc) both, but that's not the scope of the article.

[jjoonathan]

Right, but I detected a whiff of a complaint that taxes were high, so I wanted to emphasize that a huge chunk of the wealth out there is taxed at much lower rates. These are edge cases if you count by number of people, but not if you count by number of dollars. Rich people live in a different world.

[xyzelement]

This is amazing, thank you for sharing the story and the contrast between a good and bad workplace. It's not that different than marriage - if both parties are committed to acting well, it's amazing. If either party slacks/abuses its a nightmare.

[lotsofpulp]

That type of work environment is endemic to retail/hospitality/food service businesses. Combination of low quality of life at work and low pay.