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EnderMB ,

I work at a large tech company, and the feeling here is unlike anything I've ever felt before. There are a few camps:

  • Workers on visas that are utterly petrified of losing their jobs, and are struggling to plan for anything long-term, since companies that lay people off can't file green cards for employees.
  • Workers that are just numb to everything. They don't give a fuck, they are jaded with the bullshit their employer pulls, and work is just work.
  • People that would happily take a voluntary layoff to GTFO, spend some time with family, and potentially move to something better.

What seems to be the dominating feeling that everyone has, is that they no longer support their leaders. They feel there are too many middle-managers, they realise that their C-Suite staff are fucking useless, and the CEO's are almost universally awful as leaders. Sundar has caused Google to nose-dive in popularity, Jassy is so ineffective that no one even knows he is CEO, Musk is a known sociopath going through a mental breakdown, Zuck bet everything on VR to mask huge privacy/product failings, and alongside all of this are dozens of CEO's that forced employees back to the office or laid people off for bullshit reasons.

My hope from this dark time is that companies arise that focus on the employee first, learn from the mistakes made by big tech, and purposefully manoeuvre around FAANG until they are relegated to boomer tech. Until then, like most SWE's, I'm just hoping things get better soon...

nodsocket ,

Are you referring specifically to the big, popular tech companies everyone knows about or to the whole industry? Because there are a lot of smaller companies who aren't yet run by psychopaths, at least not any more than usual.

afraid_of_zombies ,

I trust my boss but his boss is the CEO and I think the CEO is a piece of garbage.

learningduck ,

an overpaid piece of garbage

afraid_of_zombies ,

Given that no one noticed he went on vacation for three weeks I agree.

Cosmicomical ,

To be honest that sounds like a CEO that trusts the workers, if he's letting you guys do the f you want. Unless i misunderstood and somehow he still manages to f stuff up for you.

afraid_of_zombies ,

Maybe I just don't really like being told what to do so I am being unfair to the guy. You do have a point.

Cosmicomical ,

But i agree that it's basically a useless role anyway, and it's paid 10-50x the average salary

iegod ,

I like your optimism. What would an employee first focused company look like?

EnderMB ,

I would say it would be similar to Google from the early-ish 2000's. Lots of offices worldwide to facilitate in-office working and immigration issues, while also having freedom to work remotely if desired. Also, a structure that leads with empathy, and managers judged on not just output but employee happiness.

There was a lot of freedom in big tech over the last few years. I could transfer pretty much worldwide within a month, I could work on several different moonshot industries with no worry of losing my job (because I'd just transfer to another team), and the market was good enough that if push came to shove I could take some time off and find a new role with minimal issues. I think an employee focused company would keep that freedom, while also keeping employees happy and without fearing for their job.

Buttons ,
@Buttons@programming.dev avatar

Keep in mind the core value of most of these companies is "we have a web page". If only all these unhappy developers could somehow create their own webpage and we could all switch to using the web page of a better company...

(Preaching to the choir here, since we're on Lemmy. I guess nobody is making money or employing people because of Lemmy though.)

bitwolf ,

We need a tech workers union.

I understand other workforces have it worse. however we could get there if we don't push back now.

afraid_of_zombies ,

There is one, Boeing engineers have a union. Also we have ASME and IEEE which are kinda like unions.

Chakravanti ,

There's always been the FSF.

Jimmyeatsausage ,

"It's a good time to unionize tech workers right now..."

Best time to form a union was yesterday. Next best is today.

uis ,
@uis@lemm.ee avatar

I remember seeing articles on habr about unionization and that it is better done now when it is eazy.

iegod ,

Is it easy? Tech salaries have crazy potential, I'm not sure I'd be willing to trade job security for the limitations on that potential that a collective agreement might impose. It'd still be a tough sell.

uis ,
@uis@lemm.ee avatar

Is it easy?

Relative to possible future? Sure.

the limitations on that potential that a collective agreement might impose.

I'm trying to imagine it... Trying to imagine "and salary shall not be more than xxx$/hr" in collective agreement. Sorry, I can't.

gaifux ,

Salaries != Wages. Found the dev who needs a union lol

uis ,
@uis@lemm.ee avatar

I wanted to say whatever "оклад" from russian labour laws translates to. Amount of money that will be paid no matter what.

Modern_medicine_isnt ,

I wouldn't be too concerned. 300k is not really that many compared to the size of the industry. And there is a ton of aging software that is falling apart due to a lack of investment. Like the airlines. And all the utilities that keep getting hacked. And hospitals. With governments starting to hold companies responsible for getting hacked, there will be jobs to rebuild hold software a plenty.

Buttons ,
@Buttons@programming.dev avatar

Most work environments I've been in enable 1 developer to do work that requires 2 developers to maintain.

Modern_medicine_isnt ,

Yeah, or 3. Lol.

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