The Tech Jungle: The NYT's expose on Amazon's culture of overwork

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > The Tech Jungle: The NYT's expose on Amazon's culture of overwork

nachos: Jun 27, 2004; Wario Chalmers! WAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Much like how America is full of temporarily embarrassed millionaires, tech workers are temporarily embarrassed CEOs in the gig economy. People are taught to pay their dues and gain experience until they can find their passion and be their own boss or whatever. Nobody is going to dream of starting the next Uber while simultaneously pushing for unionization.

# ¿ Aug 17, 2015 18:26

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 12:06

nachos: Jun 27, 2004; Wario Chalmers! WAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Zarin posted:

I'm actually very curious how many people "want" to work 60+ hours per week, and how many are simply "talking the talk" while participating in an unfettered arms race that began with "to the next promotion" and has now reached its inevitable conclusion of "to not get fired and replaced by someone that arms races harder than me".

It seems that, psychologically, it is very easy to do. When I was working and going to school, I kept taking overtime (to try and pay for school) and ended up working 75 days in a row, 60 hours a week. Or, from January to Easter. When I hit Easter break and they shut the plant down, I had abandoned all my hobbies for so long that I had absolutely no idea what to do with myself. It was a mess, and I told myself I wasn't going to do that poo poo ever again.

As far as "talking the talk" goes, I do it quite a bit of it ironically, but I learned today that apparently it doesn't come off as irony. I had one of my co-workers chide me for being such a "company man" today, and it took me awhile to explain to them that it's all ironic and I hold no illusions that they could cut me tomorrow without so much as a "good luck". I have to imagine that at least some of this "I love working so many hours a week!" is a similar coping mechanism. I'd hope, anyway.

This, I think, is the real benefit of unionization: the protections and setting limits to say "This amount of time spent at work is *enough*. When you meet these criteria you are an employee in good standing". I figure, if someone *wants* to work more to chase that next promotion, well, then that's on them, but the arms race should not extend all the way down to simply trying to maintain your current spot on the treadmill. That's appalling.

I want to work 60 hours a week, but only if I'm in a management or executive role. I've done 60 hours as manager and developer and doing it as a developer straight up isn't sustainable. With agile/scrum/whatever peering into every moment of their lives, developers don't have the luxury to choose when they have easy weeks and when they decide to have unsustainable, intense bursts of work the way managers and execs do. Managers don't take this into consideration when writing job descriptions though because hey, I work 60 hours a week and it's not that bad! Why are they complaining with all the great free food we provide them?

# ¿ Aug 19, 2015 16:02

nachos: Jun 27, 2004; Wario Chalmers! WAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Tab8715 posted:

Yes, but unionization is such a large enough topic that it should have its own thread.

I'm more interested in how the hell work became a virtue and why anyone ever would think it's acceptable, normal or a require to consistently put in 40h/w on the job.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestant_work_ethic

# ¿ Aug 19, 2015 18:44

nachos: Jun 27, 2004; Wario Chalmers! WAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

The majority of startups fail so that guy's vision amounts to rich people getting to restart their little Galt's Gulch indefinitely while the lower class gets to "pivot" into new jobs and circumstances at a whim. Surely a country people will want to live in!

# ¿ Aug 19, 2015 20:19

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