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I'm one of these. I'm an allrounder software dev in his late fourties, "lured" into a non-software middle management position by the promise of money and stability a few years ago. In practice, the money has never materialized because our sector took a big hit and much of that promise was tied to incentives based on the company's success. I can't really blame anyone for this, but that's strike one as far as job satis…
This is admirable but the truth is that these jobs will not disappear, they will simply be outsourced abroad. There’s swaths of competent people abroad that are happy to take your (overpaid) place and the major shift to remote work tools has made it all the easier to blend in your team even if they’re working from another country. On top of this, foreign workers usually get paid 1/3 of the American salary, so the emp…
How is it overpaid? Engineers provide a lot more value than they are getting paid. If anything, people abroad are underpaid.
Interesting shift but it’s probably confined to the US. It seems the US has been toughest on its lowest paid workers. Many if not most other western countries already have extensive welfare programs, with the benefits and ailments that it brings. This means many low-paid jobs simply don’t exist, e.g. bellhop, elevator operators, etc, and that any work requiring employees is much more expensive. The question is, can t…
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Cheap wants, expensive needs. This is our economy now. "I love my iPhone, but I worry about health insurance." as I've heard it put here on HN. Ironically, the Soviet system fell from opposite. Expensive wants, cheap needs. Everyone saw the West getting cheaper and cheaper consumer goods and central planning failed to keep up. Now we get to see what happens.
Soviet system fell because there was not enough to even satisfy needs. There were always some shortages.
But before then, housing, food, clothing all were cheap and available. The food was simple, the apartments small and the clothing dull, but it was all there and for very little cost.
https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP85M00363R0006014...
But they liberalized their economy in order to compete on the consumer goods boom in the West. That desire for consumer goods had a big role in destabilizing the system.
And today, the converse desire for cheap staples and necessities in the face of intense asset inflation may be destabilizing our current system.
The majority of people resigning their jobs are simply changing jobs, and the article doesn’t provide any evidence that people are changing to remote work in large numbers.
The biggest driver of the increase in job changes is simply the booming economy. We poured stimulus money into the economy at unprecedented rates and this has created economic booms at every level. Companies are scrambling to hire and wages reflect this, so people are taking the opportunity to switch up their careers and collect a pay bump.
Most of the business world appears to be snapping back to business as normal at a rapid rate, but with a booming economy pouring fuel on the fire. The media has been pushing narratives that COVID changes everything and that we’re entering a whole new world, but aside from companies adding a little more flexibility it seems most are eager to simply return to business as usual.
On the ground, I’m not seeing a massive shift toward remote work like I keep reading about in these articles. Yes, there are somewhat more remote jobs, but companies are largely eager to return to in-office work. Even many employees I know are eager to get back to the office because remote isn’t for everyone.
I am glad the pandemic has been a wake up call for so many people about the value of their time and how different things could be if they cut out pointless meetings and long commutes that they don’t even get paid for.
I know this is a very unpopular opinion here on HN threads about this situation. And all power to the people who love remote work.
But out of all the engineers I know personally and of all the people on my team and most of the other Googlers I've talked to off record personally in the last months... I'd say about 85%, 90% of them are eager for return to office.
So let's not assume homogeneity of opinion. Remote work is not for everyone. It may not even be the preference for the majority of us.
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> Jobs are handing out more money with more flexibility than ever seen before. I may be naive, but I guess this office-work-exodus would result to improvements in office spaces in general to attract devs (or other employees in tech). This would also make it easier for people who are looking to move to the US to find office jobs, since the competition is less fierce. Am I off mark here and too naive?
What’d be really interesting is if some companies start paying a premium for employees to be onsite. That might be something I’d bite on
This is admirable but the truth is that these jobs will not disappear, they will simply be outsourced abroad. There’s swaths of competent people abroad that are happy to take your (overpaid) place and the major shift to remote work tools has made it all the easier to blend in your team even if they’re working from another country. On top of this, foreign workers usually get paid 1/3 of the American salary, so the emp…
I welcome outsourcing though. I do quality work and know what it's worth and can advocate for myself. Any foreign worker who can do the same is welcome.
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The first counterargument that comes to my mind is timezones. I was on a team distributed across San Francisco, New York, London, Munich, Australia, Tokyo. Not being able to schedule a meeting time that works for everyone was a neverending source of friction and frustration. In other words while I don't disagree that there is a lot more work that can be outsourced, perhaps we will reach the limit earlier than you exp…
One growing trend in the US is outsourcing to South America. Lots of great value developers down there in the same timezone. The second issue that still comes up is communication and culture. Successful cross cultural communication requires more clarity in messaging and tasks. It can work and can work well and deliver good quality at great prices, but the obvious savings are partially offset by the higher communicati…
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Yes and no. It depends on what is being manufactured. We manufacture big, expensive things. I have friends that run Garment District companies, and they are pretty much a Bellwether for this kind of thing. > In the next decade, china itself will see large segments of its manufacturing labour gone to automation. I agree. It will be slower than Japan and Korea, because China has a much larger population of poor folks t…
I suspect, based on a type of ecological-thermodynamic reasoning, that china will never be middle class. I think the "global class structure" we have today might be the peak of history. The relevant calculation: Annual US Energy Consumption per Capia: 7,000 kg oil equivalent. China: 2,000 kg. So you're looking at +5,000kg per capita * 1.4bn people annual . So you'll need to add that energy capacity to the world, ie.,…