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The Burnout Machine

unionize.fyi

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Re: The Burnout Machine

#11

Post by film42 »

I think unions need to work on their marketing. I resonate with all of these problems, but the "fixes" sound like a politician saying, "elect me and I'll solve your problems."

What's the A+ example out there of a unionized engineering team that has been able to find a great work-life balance, great benefits, and a fun product development life-cycle that is profitable or clearly on its way to profitability? Show me this company.

I have family and friends who work for airline unions, parcel unions, teacher unions, etc. Some love it, some hate it. Those who love it had a broken fan in the van all summer with no air conditioning until the union stepped in. How would a union meaningfully improve that situation at a tech office with paid lunches and decent benefits?

Like, the promise of a better tomorrow from unions carries the same tone as a promise to IPO "really soon" from the CEO/CFO tag team at the annual kick-off meeting. What does it look like when rubber meets the road?

Re: The Burnout Machine

#12

Post by mattgreenrocks »

kelseyfrog wrote: post #2

We joined the burnout machine under our own free will. What else did we expect? Moloch's not getting any less hungry.

"We aren't like the other big companies," was a line I heard associated with some big tech companies circa 2006. Implication was that they saw the dysfunction at larger firms and chose to build something different.

Fast-forward twenty years, and they're just like them.

Re: The Burnout Machine

#13

Post by Muromec »

terminalbraid wrote: post #3

Have 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 work in a union shop and I admit that it doesn't seem to have all the problems I have with the big tech. People seem to care and have passion, but don't pretend to work 80 hours a week, some of them at least. Some of them are decades older then me. Nobody is ever fired, but it somehow pays well above the median pay, but not comparable to the big tech.

Re: The Burnout Machine

#14

Post by limusrazor »

How do you then compete with companies from other geographies willing to overwork US companies? Sounds great on the surface, but if you slow down the treadmill too much, you risk falling off completely.

Re: The Burnout Machine

#15

Post by drpossum »

linksnapzz wrote: post #7

What 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?

This was actually very popular with offshoring and the results spoke for themselves. I made a lot of money cleaning up those dumpster fires and it's hard for me to not encourage more of it.

Re: The Burnout Machine

#17

Post by sfpotter »

film42 wrote: post #11

I think unions need to work on their marketing. I resonate with all of these problems, but the "fixes" sound like a politician saying, "elect me and I'll solve your problems." What's the A+ example out there of a unionized engineering team that has been able to find a great work-life balance, great benefits, and a fun product development life-cycle that is profitable or clearly on its way to profitability? Show me th…

[flagged]

Re: The Burnout Machine

#18

Post by mattgreenrocks »

Class consciousness is firmly in the zeitgeist: witness season 1 of Severance.

There is no going back from this, as once you are disillusioned it is much harder to be re-illusioned. There will be some sort of collective response by white-collar professionals at some point. I think people are ready for change.

Re: The Burnout Machine

#19

Post by jegp »

As an outsider, I'm astounded why workers aren't unionizing to a much higher degree. It's been proven to work [1] against the misinformation, discord, and wealth inequality that companies will, inevitably, cause. Despite the small union fee, the individual clearly stands to benefit[1]. Is it because people are cheap? Or not familiar with history? You'd think that tech workers were quite informed.

[1]: https://nordics.info/show/artikel/trade-unions-in-the-nordic...

Re: The Burnout Machine

#20

Post by protonbob »

The author seems to think that everybody works this way. In reality, many of us work 40-45 hour weeks with no on call and low amounts of meetings. These jobs are in the boring (military, banking, insurance etc) sectors but I make a good, not great, living.
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