Open source maintainers at profitable companies: stop asking permission to fix what your employer already depends on.
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Open source maintainers at profitable companies: stop asking permission to fix what your employer already depends on.
No paperwork. No programme. No manager’s blessing. Just maintain it on the clock.
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Open source maintainers at profitable companies: stop asking permission to fix what your employer already depends on.
No paperwork. No programme. No manager’s blessing. Just maintain it on the clock.
Posted on Hacker News, if that's your thing: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48123015
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S simonjust@mstdn.dk shared this topic
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Open source maintainers at profitable companies: stop asking permission to fix what your employer already depends on.
No paperwork. No programme. No manager’s blessing. Just maintain it on the clock.
@mikemcquaid I've done this to some extent, but certainly by far not enough!
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@mikemcquaid I've done this to some extent, but certainly by far not enough!
@eliasp Hope this is an encouragement to do more!
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Open source maintainers at profitable companies: stop asking permission to fix what your employer already depends on.
No paperwork. No programme. No manager’s blessing. Just maintain it on the clock.
@mikemcquaid You have to be careful in some big companies, they claim copyright to everything you do and explicitly disallow stuff in contract.
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Open source maintainers at profitable companies: stop asking permission to fix what your employer already depends on.
No paperwork. No programme. No manager’s blessing. Just maintain it on the clock.
@mikemcquaid This is all well and good, but I am employed as an engineer in Germany and thus do not hold any IP rights over works that I create at work. So I and every other employed engineer in Germany automatically fails step 02.
Maybe the fight is not really about OSS but instead about fighting capitalism?
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@mikemcquaid This is all well and good, but I am employed as an engineer in Germany and thus do not hold any IP rights over works that I create at work. So I and every other employed engineer in Germany automatically fails step 02.
Maybe the fight is not really about OSS but instead about fighting capitalism?
@nor4 I'm not familiar with German law but potential options: do on personal equipment, negotiate a different IP agreement before starting the job.
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@mikemcquaid You have to be careful in some big companies, they claim copyright to everything you do and explicitly disallow stuff in contract.
@penguin42 You can and should negotiate on those terms in contracts. Using personal equipment may help here too.
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@penguin42 You can and should negotiate on those terms in contracts. Using personal equipment may help here too.
@mikemcquaid Yeh and (when I worked) i did; but it can be tricky; certainly it's worth checking you can legally just do 'No paperwork' - otherwise you can get the project you contribute to into trouble.
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Open source maintainers at profitable companies: stop asking permission to fix what your employer already depends on.
No paperwork. No programme. No manager’s blessing. Just maintain it on the clock.
No paperwork → I would be fired for cause
This is pretty bad advice for nearly everyone working in the tech sector.
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@nor4 I'm not familiar with German law but potential options: do on personal equipment, negotiate a different IP agreement before starting the job.
@mikemcquaid @nor4 only the latter is an option, the former makes no difference. This is due to the law on inventions this is based on - you could invent something at home in the shower, and the employer could still claim it.
You can renegotiate though, I've done it before. -
Open source maintainers at profitable companies: stop asking permission to fix what your employer already depends on.
No paperwork. No programme. No manager’s blessing. Just maintain it on the clock.
@mikemcquaid this could also backfire - and make managers take over the open-source projects for their own product roadmaps.
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@mikemcquaid this could also backfire - and make managers take over the open-source projects for their own product roadmaps.
@mahadevank yes, this can happen when you have a management that is not familar with how open source or free software actually works. They see employee contributions as a claim. @mikemcquaid
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Open source maintainers at profitable companies: stop asking permission to fix what your employer already depends on.
No paperwork. No programme. No manager’s blessing. Just maintain it on the clock.
@mikemcquaid
"No paperwork required. No internal programme. No request for a manager’s blessing. Treat it like the infrastructure and technical debt work it already is and just crack on."Ah there's a problem, I have to beg for time to fix technical debt and infrastructure work as well
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Edit: facetious reply aside, yes, wholeheartedly agree with this
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Open source maintainers at profitable companies: stop asking permission to fix what your employer already depends on.
No paperwork. No programme. No manager’s blessing. Just maintain it on the clock.
@mikemcquaid fait accompli, bitches
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Open source maintainers at profitable companies: stop asking permission to fix what your employer already depends on.
No paperwork. No programme. No manager’s blessing. Just maintain it on the clock.
i dont know. i like the idea, and i love anything that helps oss. but...
if i had, say, 1 hour a day that i could get away with *not* doing my prescribed work... why would i do *different* work? as opposed to nothing? or something relaxing?
maybe this makes more sense in some sort of office environment where you have to *appear* to be working, but could get away with it being on oss instead.
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i dont know. i like the idea, and i love anything that helps oss. but...
if i had, say, 1 hour a day that i could get away with *not* doing my prescribed work... why would i do *different* work? as opposed to nothing? or something relaxing?
maybe this makes more sense in some sort of office environment where you have to *appear* to be working, but could get away with it being on oss instead.
@Mumonkan If it's not your idea of fun: don't do it, that's fine. For a lot of us, it is our idea of fun.
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No paperwork → I would be fired for cause
This is pretty bad advice for nearly everyone working in the tech sector.
@krans If you read your employment contract you can also probably be fired for cause for a wide variety of reasons that are broadly ignored. I disagree it's bad advice although your employer may not agree. If they don't and they use open source software, they are freeloaders.
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@edd @penguin42 Unionisation may be good but it's not going to happen overnight. You can start working on open source in work hours tomorrow if you wish. You say "lots of employers": in my experience almost all will negotiate on this and, if they don't, you don't have to work there.
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@mahadevank yes, this can happen when you have a management that is not familar with how open source or free software actually works. They see employee contributions as a claim. @mikemcquaid
@chillicampari @mahadevank This is why I suggest not telling them.
