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I'm currently 40h/week meeting attender. I'm not enjoying my life right now.

Today I have a meeting about the legal requirements of an invoicing system, in my role as database administrator — the meeting will mostly be lawyers bickering over what the addresses of subsidiaries look like on invoices and which taxes should apply to services provided across borders.

Wait, I can play Factorio during this meeting and say "yeah that sounds OK" once in a while. Not the worst job after all...

Comments
  • 6
    Wait legal requirements? As the solo dev on an invoicing system, this cracks me up
  • 11
    @epse There's a lot of stuff about international taxes and import/export fee rules. Things like "if a British expat works for a company in the Netherlands on a job in Germany, should we apply the intracommunitary benefits VAT reverse charge?"

    My only input on that is "I think meetings should be taxed by governments..."
  • 3
    @bittersweet sounds like great fun. My biggest legal mindfuck was trying to implement coupons (the kind where someone buys one for say €10 and gives it to another who then gets 10 off whatever they were buying)
  • 8
    @epse Changing requirements in invoicing is hell. These systems are usually built to be "mostly reliable and exact", but due to complexity end up with heaps of crazy fixes and sanity checks, all flowing together like spaghetti with a sauce of wet cement.

    Still, I'd rather change code on invoicing, than sit through a 4-hour meeting on font weights, like I did yesterday. Why would they even invite me with the message "your expertise is required". I don't know shit about design.
  • 3
    Yeah that sounds OK-ish
  • 2
    What really sucks about these types of meetings is when you're really in a good zone out idgaf moment and then they call your name for input.... fuck! Then you have to say those dreaded words of "I'm sorry could you repeat yourself"
  • 1
    @marcusp619 I've grown blunt enough to say: "This meeting has not been relevant enough for me to pay attention so far, if you want answers from me, try asking interesting questions".

    It does help to have a very solid contract. I have to wear underpants, but everything else is fair game — so I've kind of changed from a cynical introvert to a brutally honest extrovert.
  • 1
    @bittersweet you need to do a post or two on how to make this transition
  • 1
    @AmbientTea Do PR reviews for a year straight without taking holidays.

    It will steadily wear down the sweet masking layer on the outside of your personality, polish you into the bitter antisocial but carefree spirit you were always meant to be.
  • 0
    Better, you could steal a crash dummy or retail dummy put a mop on its head for a wig, staple a print out of your face to it, and write an Amazon echo skill to respond with "sounds good" and "let me check into that." In Microsoft sams voice.

    Like a gag straight from the office.
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