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Over a Third of Americans Battle Job Burnout Every Single Week

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Re: Over a Third of Americans Battle Job Burnout Every Single Week

#121

Post by tra3 »

nradov wrote: post #68
rightbyte wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really. Developers are just held accountable or feel accountable for their own forced guesstymates. It was better when managers were guessing becouse they also have the means to change scope.

Accurate software estimation is a technical skill that can be learned like any other. It's disappointing that so many developers don't take it seriously or make disciplined efforts to improve their skills. https://stevemcconnell.com/books/

I feel like this is misleading. There’s no magic bullet for software estimation. McConnell’s book talks about various techniques but the takeaway is that you know very little at the beginning of the project. There various techniques for estimation but you can never get away from the essential unknown unknowns.

Re: Over a Third of Americans Battle Job Burnout Every Single Week

#122

Post by Goronmon »

jniedrauer wrote: post #33
radcon wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Please take some time off for a vacation and return to a normal 40 hour work week. You might as well say "Please win the lottery". Seriously though, please tell me you're not so out of touch with reality that you actually believe the sentence you wrote is meaningful advice. People can't just snap their fingers and create a better job out of thin air.

For technically inclined people in the United States, it can be. It's just a matter of whether or not you want to maximize your income or maximize your quality of life. It is definitely possible to get a tech job at a large company where work-life balance is taken seriously.

It is definitely possible to get a tech job at a large company where work-life balance is taken seriously.

It's possible, but as a more "average" level developer, it's pretty difficult to actually get hired at one of those companies.

Re: Over a Third of Americans Battle Job Burnout Every Single Week

#123

Post by gherkinnn »

beat wrote: post #100
gherkinnn wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. I’ve been working 4d/w for years now. I might do 5 for a while if work is interesting, but will take those days off another time. Easily one of my better decisions. Worth the 20% cut in pay. For someone with few responsibilities and no expensive hobbies, that is.

I don't even think a 20% cut in pay is fair. Is our productivity, at least in brain-driven jobs, equally distributed across all our working hours? In other words, if we work 20% fewer hours during the week, will we do 20% less work? Or is it more like 10%?

Feels like 10% less “work”. Mainly because there are fewer lapses in concentration.

Harder to quantify is the time your brain gets off to dream up creative solutions.

Re: Over a Third of Americans Battle Job Burnout Every Single Week

#124

Post by volkl48 »

mercutio2 wrote: post #65
Ididntdothis wrote: post #5

Americans really need more vacation time. For a while I worked with only 15 days a year. This never gives you the opportunity to ever really relax. Life becomes just one endless meaningless time of working year after year that kills any kind of creativity . I can see this in a lot of workaholics. They just go through the motions of working hard but don’t get much done. And once you have been in that machine for a whi…

“Only” 15 vacation days? I’m not sure if you’re in the US, or if you’re including paid holidays, but 15 days is the average number of vacation days for people with 25 years of tenure in full time jobs in the US. Most people with less tenure get much less. So that wouldn’t be an “only” in the US. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ebs.t05.htm

Your general position that Americans often don't get a lot of vacation time by the norms of developed countries isn't wrong, but your choice of data is.

That table is 23 years out of date, and it was only for employees at "small private establishments", which generally means ---------

As of 2017, the average in the US is around 15 days after 5 years, 17 days after 10 years, and 20 days after 20 years.

https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2018/private-industry-workers-r...

Approximately 90% of full time workers have paid holiday and vacation in some form.

https://www.bls.gov/ncs/ebs/benefits/2017/ownership/private/...

--------

Also, to note the obvious: The norms for your average HN reader in terms of benefits are likely to be different (better) from the average person in society. I would consider 15 days to be an "only" in the part of the job market I am in.

Re: Over a Third of Americans Battle Job Burnout Every Single Week

#125

Post by enraged_camel »

mercutio2 wrote: post #65
Ididntdothis wrote: post #5

Americans really need more vacation time. For a while I worked with only 15 days a year. This never gives you the opportunity to ever really relax. Life becomes just one endless meaningless time of working year after year that kills any kind of creativity . I can see this in a lot of workaholics. They just go through the motions of working hard but don’t get much done. And once you have been in that machine for a whi…

“Only” 15 vacation days? I’m not sure if you’re in the US, or if you’re including paid holidays, but 15 days is the average number of vacation days for people with 25 years of tenure in full time jobs in the US. Most people with less tenure get much less. So that wouldn’t be an “only” in the US. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ebs.t05.htm

10 business days, which comes down to 14 days when you include weekends.

Re: Over a Third of Americans Battle Job Burnout Every Single Week

#126

Post by krapp »

wonderwonder wrote: post #118
beat wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would everyone stop working? If you were given the choice, would you just sit around and eat M&Ms and watch tv all day? Or would you work anyway? Consider your examples. Who would grow the food? Farmers. Because people would grow food anyway (and do), whether or not they get paid, because it's intrinsically rewarding. Building houses? Jimmy Carter is rich and 90-odd years old and builds houses. Med school? Maybe…

Considering most farm workers are unskilled laborers making at or close to minimum wage, why would they work if they could get a UBI that covers all their needs? Farmers would still farm but that's because they own the land and directly benefit from it, they would not be able to perform all of the unskilled labor on their own. This could perhaps be offset if we drastically changed our guest worker program to allow un…

They will need to raise wages above what UBI offers (which will be subsistence level to begin with, likely lower than the current minimum wage) or else offer other benefits.

Re: Over a Third of Americans Battle Job Burnout Every Single Week

#127

Post by yardie »

WalterSear wrote: post #103
spking wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> First time I was junior enough to care and put up with it. I think that's the game at a lot of companies, to just prey on the young and hungry who probably don't know any better and are more likely to put up with bullshit like that.

I get the feeling that ageism in hiring is often driven by this.

As a fully formed adult with responsibilities and kids. There are so many job posts you can tell right away aren't for a certain demographic. People who may push back because they have a parent-teacher conference on the schedule already.

Re: Over a Third of Americans Battle Job Burnout Every Single Week

#129

Post by Goronmon »

mcv wrote: post #44
radcon wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Please take some time off for a vacation and return to a normal 40 hour work week. You might as well say "Please win the lottery". Seriously though, please tell me you're not so out of touch with reality that you actually believe the sentence you wrote is meaningful advice. People can't just snap their fingers and create a better job out of thin air.

People should and people have. A century ago, unions declared massive strikes for these and other issues. A normal, sane job is not as rare as winning the lottery. Entire countries have people working very normal, sane hours. Americans need to stop tolerating these ridiculously long hours. Do 8 hours of good work for 5 days a week, then relax, sleep well, so you start your next day well-rested and ready to deliver an…

Sacrificing your health and your life for your employer is idiocy.

Hardly anyone is sacrificing their health and lives for an employer. They are doing it for the money and hopefully insurance.

Re: Over a Third of Americans Battle Job Burnout Every Single Week

#130

Post by tasuki »

naringas wrote: post #59
throwaway129917 wrote: post #40

The American Aristocracy wants a return to slavery. Not in name, just in practice. This project is nearly complete.

> This project is nearly complete. wrong, it is already complete. But it's a sort of softer (or blurrier) slavery. one difference between old classic slavery and modern employment slavery is that the slave-employees are not bound to a single master. They are "free" to change employers. But they aren't really free to quit working altogether. Only people who own enough assets are free. And surely it could be argue that…

> They are "free" to change employers. But they aren't really free to quit working altogether.

Oh yes they are free to quit working altogether. One can choose to become homeless. The more fortunate ones wouldn't even become homeless and would just have to reduce their consumption. But we love consuming a whole lot.

> Only people who own enough assets are free.

In some way they're slaves to their assets. Karl Marx wrote about this in Kapital.

> But then "the market economy" will subtly force them into hiring employees.

They could easily forgo that. Few will though. Reminds me of the "the fisherman and the businessman" story.

Perhaps this is all because humans are human?

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