51–60 of 97 posts
I'm not sure what the best enforcement mechanism would be, but this should be addressed through national legislation. Perhaps mandatory overtime and/or some kind of business-level tax for anyone working more than 40 hours a week? Nobody should be "exempt" from earning overtime.
Second this scam jobs tend to thrive to down markets. I could see there rise as things go south as we come out of the recession and the number of white collar non-tech jobs continues to disappear over time.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What do they do that’s immoral?
Did you ever hear of Goldman Sachs? Here's a list that is safe enough not to cause litigation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldman_Sachs_controversies .
This is an investment bank, if they find a profitable trade they will make it. That’s not immoral, and if you disagree then you must think all the protagonists of The Big Short were villains too.
I call BS on the 95 hour claim. Among a lot of people, especially bankers, there is a sort of bragging right about making insane hours. But 95h/week is impossible. That would be almost 14h per day, for every day of the week. Or 19 hours a day when working week days. My impressions of bankers is that they are like programmers. They are paid to think . Performing research, reading reports, etc. Most people, myself incl…
One reason I love software so much, and am so glad I changed careers, is that the expectations on work/life balance are so different. 30 hours is considered a decent week. 40 hours is a demanding job. 50 hours is “abuse.” I’m thrilled to work in a field where people can say with a straight face that working 50 hours is “abuse,” because it makes my life so much easier and nicer.
I rarely comment on this because it’s not worth bike shedding, and software engineers who are complaining about work are generally unaware of how much harder most other jobs are. They’re sincerely expressing the stress they feel. But I do find myself rolling my eyes a little bit when software engineers complain about how hard they work. Hard work is a muscle, and when you’ve been tested by a truly grueling experience it makes you stronger and able to handle so much more, so work that used to feel hard doesn’t feel hard anymore.
The truth is we (Software Engineers) do a different kind of work, where not all hours in the chair are equal, and the best work happens in short, focused sessions with time to relax between them. And we do extremely scarce and valuable work, so we can demand amazing pay, benefits, and other things from our employers because if they won’t provide it we can just leave and immediately have work someplace nicer.
It’s a great life and I’m deeply, deeply grateful for it. I suppose my point in sharing this is just that I think we could all benefit from a little gratitude, and a little self awareness about the privilege our field offers.
A "Big 4" partner explained this to me years ago. It's an intentional system designed to extract the most resources from a college graduate as possible. Some are promoted up the ranks, but most leave with the resume line item to do something else. This has been the way for decades now.
I remember hearing from HR that the reason mandatory retirement was 60 there is that most partners died by 65. That coupled with the senior leaders endless travel, hollow marriages, trails of divorces made it unappealing.
I'm not sure what the best enforcement mechanism would be, but this should be addressed through national legislation. Perhaps mandatory overtime and/or some kind of business-level tax for anyone working more than 40 hours a week? Nobody should be "exempt" from earning overtime.