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!
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 doesnât 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 donât respect that and take it seriously, well we see where oceangate ended up.
Yeah my boss has been going back and forth with me on this for months. Wanting to release unsecured products to the general public. Iâm getting exhausted with him. I hold the keys and frequently Iâve told him no, and threatened to quit. Each time they just retreat back and hold a meeting how it will âstay on dev for nowâ. The features arenât even feasible to release in the near future but I know they will force the issue. My resignation letter is on the table.
Iâve been there, my boss once interrupted me to ask me to turn our product into a quadcopter
âSir, with all due respect, I donât believe turning a commercial diesel filling station into a quad copter doesnât seem feasible.â
It tracks with the zoomers. Make it happen.
âSir, with all due respect, I donât believe turning a commercial diesel filling station into a quad copter doesnât seem feasible.â
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.
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
That value is instilled in many types of engineering, but not as much in software engineering.
And the people paying the engineers are highly motivated to keep it that way
Ocean gate hasnât faced any consequences yet
And neither have FAANG companies for the massive social consequences to ubiquitous surveillance
This moral high ground you think youâre standing on doesnât exist, and wonât until engineers who push back get the support from society to do so. They currently are very much expected to stand up to a corporation on their own, risking their own livelihood, and thatâs plain bullshit
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."
After the meeting a few of the smart ones asked for clarification over email to get it writing.
Also, we are shipping it next week.
Also, we shipped yesterday.
Boss: Eating a snickers "Oh, you guys weren't finished with that?"
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.
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!
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 doesnât 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 donât respect that and take it seriously, well we see where oceangate ended up.
Yeah my boss has been going back and forth with me on this for months. Wanting to release unsecured products to the general public. Iâm getting exhausted with him. I hold the keys and frequently Iâve told him no, and threatened to quit. Each time they just retreat back and hold a meeting how it will âstay on dev for nowâ. The features arenât even feasible to release in the near future but I know they will force the issue. My resignation letter is on the table.
Iâve been there, my boss once interrupted me to ask me to turn our product into a quadcopter
âSir, with all due respect, I donât believe turning a commercial diesel filling station into a quad copter doesnât seem feasible.â
It tracks with the zoomers. Make it happen.
You just need to think outside the box. like these lads did: https://youtu.be/ReAa2WFm8Vc?t=16
This is the most management-ass "feature" request
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.
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
That value is instilled in many types of engineering, but not as much in software engineering.
And the people paying the engineers are highly motivated to keep it that way
Ocean gate hasnât faced any consequences yet
And neither have FAANG companies for the massive social consequences to ubiquitous surveillance
This moral high ground you think youâre standing on doesnât exist, and wonât until engineers who push back get the support from society to do so. They currently are very much expected to stand up to a corporation on their own, risking their own livelihood, and thatâs plain bullshit
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."
After the meeting a few of the smart ones asked for clarification over email to get it writing.
Also, we are shipping it next week.
Also, we shipped yesterday.
Boss: Eating a snickers "Oh, you guys weren't finished with that?"
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.