The Burnout Machine
unionize.fyi
The Burnout Machine
1–10 of 695 posts
Re: The Burnout Machine
#2We joined the burnout machine under our own free will. What else did we expect? Moloch's not getting any less hungry.
Re: The Burnout Machine
#3Have there been successful general-software unions formed before? I see and hear this idea relatively frequently, but never past that.
I sort of feel like most people don't stay at a place long enough to get cohesion or see enough they don't want to stay in the first place, good people chase better job offers (and congratulate themselves for doing it on their own), less good may stick around longer because they can't move but also are more focused to just stay employed.
Software is also a broad industry in terms of the type of deliverable work (e.g. think buy-once software vs. SaaS vs. in-house industrial controls), skillsets, and environment. It's also hard for me to even conceive of what a typical fast-moving startup would look like full union. Lines between ownership and management and labor can get very blurred.
Is the best hope to look at things like the entertainment industry which are also extremely fluid, but have been very successful? Do we need a long-term period of dev salaries coming closer to median pay (which we might be entering now)? Do we need to better address the ageism monster?
The games industry recently made some real headway [1], which I applaud. Maybe focusing on smaller sectors is the right approach.
[1] https://www.gamedeveloper.com/production/industry-wide-union...
Re: The Burnout Machine
#4We joined the burnout machine under our own free will. What else did we expect? Moloch's not getting any less hungry.
It was not the burnout machine when all of us joined.
Re: The Burnout Machine
#5Have there been successful general-software unions formed before? I see and hear this idea relatively frequently, but never past that. I sort of feel like most people don't stay at a place long enough to get cohesion or see enough they don't want to stay in the first place, good people chase better job offers (and congratulate themselves for doing it on their own), less good may stick around longer because they can't…
The article mentions this union, not sure if it meets your definition of success: https://www.alphabetworkersunion.org/our-wins
Re: The Burnout Machine
#6Have there been successful general-software unions formed before? I see and hear this idea relatively frequently, but never past that. I sort of feel like most people don't stay at a place long enough to get cohesion or see enough they don't want to stay in the first place, good people chase better job offers (and congratulate themselves for doing it on their own), less good may stick around longer because they can't…
I have been part of quite successful unions in Germany and Latin America.
Even participated on a strike once.
Re: The Burnout Machine
#7What happens when your employer replaces union workers w/ more pliant immigrants on visas? Or just outsources their work entirely?
Are you going to picket an AWS DC in Ashburn?
Re: The Burnout Machine
#8We joined the burnout machine under our own free will. What else did we expect? Moloch's not getting any less hungry.
I joined a hungry machine that was desperate for my labor. I would love to be properly exploited like I used to be. Instead I'm expected to spend all my time faffing about talking about how i might actually do some work in some theoretical world. and that makes me miserable.
Re: The Burnout Machine
#9The ideal is to encourage developers to start their own small businesses and support each other by being customers. That, and when you find success/profitability, don't sell to a big tech nightmare or PE—just run the business.
The "machine" is a natural side-effect of mega corporations and creating unions will just encourage more creativity around stealing your soul or getting rid of your entirely.
Re: The Burnout Machine
#10We joined the burnout machine under our own free will. What else did we expect? Moloch's not getting any less hungry.
It was not the burnout machine when all of us joined.
Yep. It definitely wasn't the case 10 years ago.
It became significantly worse, with way more micromanagement, less productivity and lower quality products.