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Tech's Elite Hates Labor

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Re: Tech's Elite Hates Labor

#11

Post by jedberg »

monero-xmr wrote: post #6

I love labor and do everything I can to make them productive and happy in the service of working for me. I hate labor activists who want to tell me how to run my company and antagonize workers to see themselves in some sort of power struggle with management. We are all working for the same mission - make as much money as possible. I don’t need hostile people around.

> I love labor and do everything I can to make them productive and happy in the service of working for me.

> I hate labor activists who want to tell me how to run my company and antagonize workers to see themselves in some sort of power struggle with management

If you're actually doing everything you can to make them productive and happy, then you won't have labor activists because they won't have anyone to rally. And if you mean activists at other companies, they shouldn't affect you either, because you're already doing what they are asking for elsewhere, right?

> We are all working for the same mission - make as much money as possible.

They want to make as much money as they can for themselves which is diametrically opposed to your goal of making as much money for yourself. That's why it's looked at as hostile.

The only way to be a good employer of labor is if your goal is to provide a great wage and benefits to your employees and then keep what is left over. Your goal can not be to make as money money as possible, because then you have to keep it away from your workers.

Re: Tech's Elite Hates Labor

#12

Post by danuker »

thebradbain wrote: post #9

For another perspective on high-skill labor organization, also based in California, for an industry that dominates the industry of its biggest city and is also one of our nation’s most lucrative industries, let’s look to Hollywood. The Hollywood guilds should be held up as a model for high skilled labor. It’s also something tech and (and especially the gaming industry) can learn from. The WGA, for example, allows the…

I wonder how the WGA will change its tune when language models will write episodes of indistinguishable quality from human writers.

Re: Tech's Elite Hates Labor

#13

Post by luckydata »

danuker wrote: post #12
thebradbain wrote: post #9

For another perspective on high-skill labor organization, also based in California, for an industry that dominates the industry of its biggest city and is also one of our nation’s most lucrative industries, let’s look to Hollywood. The Hollywood guilds should be held up as a model for high skilled labor. It’s also something tech and (and especially the gaming industry) can learn from. The WGA, for example, allows the…

I wonder how the WGA will change its tune when language models will write episodes of indistinguishable quality from human writers.

wow it took only one comment to make the article right, and it's not only the elite, it's even the "little people" doing a lot of the hating.

Re: Tech's Elite Hates Labor

#14

Post by MrMetlHed »

thebradbain wrote: post #9

For another perspective on high-skill labor organization, also based in California, for an industry that dominates the industry of its biggest city and is also one of our nation’s most lucrative industries, let’s look to Hollywood. The Hollywood guilds should be held up as a model for high skilled labor. It’s also something tech and (and especially the gaming industry) can learn from. The WGA, for example, allows the…

Related: https://www.vulture.com/2023/01/inside-the-vfx-union-brewing...

One of the largest groups of non-union employees making movies are the VFX artists. Odd coincidence that they're paid much less and have worse working conditions.

Re: Tech's Elite Hates Labor

#15

Post by treis »

Sometimes I can't even begin to comprehend the POVs I read on the internet. The FAANGs and adjacent companies treat their workers better than pretty much any other company in the world. The idea that workers there are somehow this abused underclass is ridiculous.

Re: Tech's Elite Hates Labor

#16

Post by luckydata »

rektide wrote: post #10

Different topic, but tech to me is a craft, where there are a lot of integral issues of quality. Yet orgs at many levels rarely seem to care about software. It thinks on terms of business need, and seems to detest lowering itself to what actually is & makes up the product; it doesnt know (& maybe at best wants to trust this all is being well handled somewhere) does doesmt grapple with the other 50% of the org: the co…

I think the software engineering class has done some of that damage to itself over the years. We haven't been able to articulate a clear and actionable case for quality, different teams are wildly different in output and outcomes solving for the same problems... it's hard for the business side of the house to take you seriously if you can't back up any of your claims with data.

Re: Tech's Elite Hates Labor

#17

Post by fullshark »

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #7

I fear we're missing a bigger contextual change in the cost/benefit calculation that these people are making in regards to layoffs. For over a decade it was an absolute survival related imperative for these companies to hire as many people as possible , and to keep them from going to their competition. Google was so afraid of competition in the ads space that they bought entire companies for hundreds millions, and pa…

When there's a technological inflection point, there is a tremendous market share opportunity, so hire like crazy to win the market and then once it's solidified, either look for new markets or cut costs. All these VCs are desperately searching for these inflection points (metaverse! Web3! GPT models!) for that reason.

These companies all hired like crazy because they thought COVID might have been a cultural inflection point, and when it turned out not to be, they cut costs.

Re: Tech's Elite Hates Labor

#18

Post by luckydata »

shapefrog wrote: post #3

Tech's Elite Love Labor; without them they wouldnt have Gulfstreams, 400 foot yachts and billions of $$$s in the bank. They just don't want to see, pay or think about the little people - my jet is 2 years old, thats like keeping the same phone for 3 months, I am busy speccing out the gold toilet seat on my new one, please don't bother me.

they love labor the same way I love steak.

Re: Tech's Elite Hates Labor

#19

Post by vkou »

MrMetlHed wrote: post #14
thebradbain wrote: post #9

For another perspective on high-skill labor organization, also based in California, for an industry that dominates the industry of its biggest city and is also one of our nation’s most lucrative industries, let’s look to Hollywood. The Hollywood guilds should be held up as a model for high skilled labor. It’s also something tech and (and especially the gaming industry) can learn from. The WGA, for example, allows the…

Related: https://www.vulture.com/2023/01/inside-the-vfx-union-brewing... One of the largest groups of non-union employees making movies are the VFX artists. Odd coincidence that they're paid much less and have worse working conditions.

Yes, but they get access to a coffee machine and get to make memes during unpaid lunch, why would they bargain that sort of freedom away to get a union?

Re: Tech's Elite Hates Labor

#20

Post by camillomiller »

danuker wrote: post #12
thebradbain wrote: post #9

For another perspective on high-skill labor organization, also based in California, for an industry that dominates the industry of its biggest city and is also one of our nation’s most lucrative industries, let’s look to Hollywood. The Hollywood guilds should be held up as a model for high skilled labor. It’s also something tech and (and especially the gaming industry) can learn from. The WGA, for example, allows the…

I wonder how the WGA will change its tune when language models will write episodes of indistinguishable quality from human writers.

The Level of cringe of this comment is off the charts
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