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From Burned Out Tech CEO to Amazon Warehouse Associate

jasonshen.com

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Re: From Burned Out Tech CEO to Amazon Warehouse Associate

#91

Post by jdwithit »

barbariangrunge wrote: post #2

I sometimes miss my old job hauling around boxes. It’s great exercise and you never have to take stress home with you. Good coworkers often times too It just doesn’t pay enough to retire off of. Can’t easily build savings. Can’t easily pay for the dentist or other emergencies Being a lead programmer pays a ton better. I just wish I wasn’t as stressful as it is

I have a friend who works in finance at a huge bank. He makes a killing, but absolutely despises his job. His stated goal is to make enough to retire early (we're ~40 now, so soon-ish) and then work part time at a hardware store just for something to do. Pretty much for the reasons you said, meet people, low responsibility and stress, the job ends when you punch out.

I think I'd get bored pretty quick, but I do understand where you're coming from.

Re: From Burned Out Tech CEO to Amazon Warehouse Associate

#92

Post by ericmcer »

symlinkk wrote: post #35
avgDev wrote: post #9

"The experience was physically taxing, he was diagnosed with tendonitis after moving hundreds of boxes a day, but it pulled him out of his depression and helped him gain perspective and a deeper sense of meaning"....... I have mixed feelings about this. What this has proven is working at amazon warehouse sucks, and is not sustainable. I've had many physical shitty jobs in my 20's. Then, I had some health issue and co…

Software development is taxing on your brain the same way physical labor is taxing on your body. It’s depressing, soul sucking work. You’re stuck inside, staring at a screen for 8+ hours a day.

Not to mention the perverse association you develop with the computer being a requirement for getting work done. My dopamine is so tied to ticking off boxes by finishing computer work that tasks like cleaning the kitchen have an empty feeling.

Re: From Burned Out Tech CEO to Amazon Warehouse Associate

#93

Post by logisticpeach »

avgDev wrote: post #44
symlinkk wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Software development is taxing on your brain the same way physical labor is taxing on your body. It’s depressing, soul sucking work. You’re stuck inside, staring at a screen for 8+ hours a day.

Working at amazon as an order picker is depressing, soul sucking and can wreck your body for the remainder of your life. Devs can get by working few hours a day, some barely do any work at all. I refuse to stare at a screen 8+ hours a day. I take healthy breaks and create boundaries. I rarely have to solve puzzles at work. The grunt of the work is almost the same thing over and over.

Devs can get by working few hours a day, some barely do any work at all

Not sure how others here feel, but I have to say that when I've found myself in situations where there isn't much work to be done I find it utterly soul destroying.

Always feel guilty doing anything else in down-time when I'm billing a client and so sometimes end up sitting in a weird stand by mode, feeling like I'm somehow being lazy.

Re: From Burned Out Tech CEO to Amazon Warehouse Associate

#95

Post by kjeetgill »

markdown wrote: post #59
avgDev wrote: post #9

"The experience was physically taxing, he was diagnosed with tendonitis after moving hundreds of boxes a day, but it pulled him out of his depression and helped him gain perspective and a deeper sense of meaning"....... I have mixed feelings about this. What this has proven is working at amazon warehouse sucks, and is not sustainable. I've had many physical shitty jobs in my 20's. Then, I had some health issue and co…

[flagged]

It's not propaganda, it's a perspective. He's pretty involved in activism on the behalf of trades work, not just the mouthpiece of some think tank ad campaign.

Re: From Burned Out Tech CEO to Amazon Warehouse Associate

#96

Post by themitigating »

spoonjim wrote: post #26

Working in an Amazon warehouse can be refreshing and restorative when you can quit after 10 weeks and have millions of dollars in the bank. Not so much when you get tendonitis after 6 weeks but have to stare down another 30 years of this and still won’t have any savings.

Yes and we are all aware of that. Are you saying that his experience and blog cause harm to those people who have to do it? There's been countless posts about Amazon warehouse conditions on Hackernews and other news sources.

Re: From Burned Out Tech CEO to Amazon Warehouse Associate

#98

Post by jcheng »

margalabargala wrote: post #62
yuliyp wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How dare he find meaning in things that are different from you. Congratulations on figuring out how to find fulfillment and a balanced life before the rest of us. Philip's journey toward that is clearly different from yours.

He describes exactly what things he finds meaning in: > For me, a lot of my meaning comes from two things. One is doing something in the world that feels like it's actually making things a little better somehow. And so contributing to society in some meaningful way. The parent is commenting on how Philip's previous (and new!) work positions apparently fulfilled those criteria in no small way, in Philip's view. They a…

From his LinkedIn:

> Launched a global health software nonprofit, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, focused on using smartphones to improve rapid testing in low-income countries.

Granted that is 3 years out of a 20-odd year career, but it's the stint immediately preceding the events of the blog post.

Re: From Burned Out Tech CEO to Amazon Warehouse Associate

#99

Post by antiterra »

markdown wrote: post #59
avgDev wrote: post #9

"The experience was physically taxing, he was diagnosed with tendonitis after moving hundreds of boxes a day, but it pulled him out of his depression and helped him gain perspective and a deeper sense of meaning"....... I have mixed feelings about this. What this has proven is working at amazon warehouse sucks, and is not sustainable. I've had many physical shitty jobs in my 20's. Then, I had some health issue and co…

[flagged]

The most sinister thing about it is that we do need to honor those people who work incredibly hard and undesirable jobs, but by compensating them, not just worshipping them like heroes. Mike Rowe and the cabal that funded his character attempt to make the viewer feel self-righteous satisfaction merely from empty recognition of merit.

He argues against a minimum wage because some jobs are ‘stepping stones,’ but this runs counter to his whole narrative. Further, a proper trade skill training infrastructure a la unions or guilds would allow for experience ranked compensation. I get that people are wary of corruption and protectionism in unions, but it seems relatively fair in an adversarial market system.

(I’m also aware that simply expressing the need for higher compensation/benefits here is going to sound like bootlicking to smug leftists, but I would respect the dirty job of literal bootlicking.)

Re: From Burned Out Tech CEO to Amazon Warehouse Associate

#100

Post by tobyjsullivan »

nsxwolf wrote: post #89
tobyjsullivan wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might be surprised to learn that for every dev working “few hours a day” or barely doing anything at all, there is another engineer doing all their work for them - usually in a constant state of fending off burnout due to having to do other peoples’ work in addition to their own.

The trick is to avoid becoming that developer.

I think the trick is to give and take. And maintain teams that give and take.

Sometimes I need to take my foot of the gas. But I also appreciate that, when I do, someone else has to pick up the slack.

When I encounter teammates who only take, take, take, and never give, either they leave or I do (depending how much influence I have over their employment)

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