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How to deal with lazy people in a startup?

7 points by thiagodotfm ↗ HN
I'm working for a startup with no equity. I'm very skilled and in my country there aren't many good startups to work to.

Our team is composed of a CEO, a designer, 2 back-end developer(me and another), front-end developer, a social media girl and a secretary.

Here's the deal, the designer is really close to the CEO(friendshit) and gets a day off every fucking week, the front-end guy don't like to take orders(or isn't much interested in the startup success), the other backend guy is dating the secretary, the social media girl don't do shit and send wrong e-mails. I try really hard to find people that I can work with and are passionate about work, but I find none. How can I learn how to lead? How do I fix them without any powers?

I've been working here for a month and since I started the traffic DOUBLED and our main page load decreased by over 10x(shit n+1 queries noob previous developers, lazy load and cache properly configured -- did it all alone).

I don't mind getting fired, I'm going to get a better job anyways. And I don't want to start my own startup: all my projects fail and I don't have high social skills.

I want success way more than money or being right but this is fucking hard when everybody is so unmotivated(or lazy).

17 comments

[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 33.5 ms ] thread
thelerk
Bill Gates said that he would always hire a lazy person over a motivated person because they will find the easy way to do things ;)
mlguy
Why are you working with them in the first place?
thiagodotfm
Because I live in fucking third world country and good opportunities here(where I can work close to a product) are rather scarce.
brandoncordell
You said "I don't mind getting fired, I'm going to get a better job anyways.", so why take on a defensive attitude like this?
msahil
where are you based? you can mail me (see my profile) and we can then decide if something works out between us
thiagodotfm
Brazil and I can't see your e-mail, use it as your profile description/about.
wyclif
When I see devs calling themselves "rockstars" it's an instant red flag.
zaptheimpaler
I don't know the answer to the question, but ask on Quora - www.quora.com. You'll probably get a great answer.
thiagodotfm
Is Quora better for this kind of questions?
zaptheimpaler
Quora has extremely intelligent people with a huge variety of experience in all matters. This question looks like broad experience would help to answer it, which is why I recommend it. Just make an account and ask the question anonymously, you will get a great answer

IMO this should be your strategy - this company is shit so you have nothing to lose. More importantly, your efforts alone won't make much of an impact in the long run (and if they do, you have no equity and you hate the company, so who cares). So take shitloads of risks at work trying to understand how to be a leader/get better at socializing. Keep the actual work light so you can spend time outside of work actively looking for other companies, working on side projects - exploring your options. I guess the overarching theme is - if your efforts there are wasted, put less effort into it. You can spend very little time actually doing work and use it as a way to pay the bills while you explore your options.

chc
It would be more precise to say that Quora is for questions and HN isn't really.

HN is a link site with an "Ask" feature tacked on. "Ask HN" posts are actually penalized in the overall rankings, so it's relatively hard for them to get seen by many people. That's not to say that they're unwelcome, but it's just not a conducive environment for many questions.

Quora, on the other hand, is a question and answer site. Q&A is their bread and butter. That's what people go there for.

klaut
Please, don't take this the wrong way. But reading your post, it comes across a bit arrogant. How is it possible that everyone on the team is lazy and useless apart from you?

When you say: "And I don't want to start my own startup: all my projects fail and I don't have high social skills." I would suggest you to ask yourself WHY your projects fail. Perhaps what you really should do is to improve your social skills and try to be more humble?

My advice to you is, work hard, be humble, don't obsess what other people do. And eventually you will shine.

wyclif
If the work ethic is lacking among your team members, my best advice is to quit and get another job where people are pursuing excellence. Your work environment and co-workers are very important. Don't settle.