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Mental health impacts of a big tech job

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Re: Mental health impacts of a big tech job

#171

Post by mym1990 »

murgindrag wrote: post #147
mym1990 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A therapists job is literally to take time to address the root causes of complex issues. Maybe you’ve had bad experience with some therapists/counselors, but I wouldn’t extrapolate that to the whole field of psychology.

If the root causes is: - Financial constraints - A harasser - A medical problem - Etc. a therapist/counselor can't help you very much. Whenever I've had issues I needed help with, there were real issues behind it. A therapist/counselor won't be able to do much, if anything. If you're making a $350k salary in a hell-job while having $100k in financial obligations, the solution is simple enough. If you're making a $350…

Are you actually saying that people who go to therapy don't have 'real issues' behind their problems? Damn...

Re: Mental health impacts of a big tech job

#172

Post by mym1990 »

amelius wrote: post #34
mym1990 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A therapists job is literally to take time to address the root causes of complex issues. Maybe you’ve had bad experience with some therapists/counselors, but I wouldn’t extrapolate that to the whole field of psychology.

What are the odds of finding a good therapist? I fear that many psychologists chose their line of work not because of their analytical capabilities.

I think this depends on the source. One of the best ways to get a good therapist is to have one that has already been vetted through your circle of trust. This is obviously dependent on factors outside of your control, but sometimes you also just have to try some out. I think also...just because a therapist is 'good' doesn't mean they will be good for you in particular.

Re: Mental health impacts of a big tech job

#173

Post by rcarmo »

This is exactly how it’s been for me at Microsoft on occasion, except (since I’m in consulting services now) it’s mostly about customer requests and sales team expectations. The pandemic made it exponentially worse in some ways (Eternal September in video calls, dealing with dozens more people who lacked the ability to work effectively without meetings, and a dollop of uncertainty), but being fully remote made it a lot more bearable: I switch off my PC and I’m done for the day. No commute, no taking extra micromanagement calls in the car, people started being _civil_ about my availability and stopped expecting instant replies.

Re: Mental health impacts of a big tech job

#174

Post by rcarmo »

burntoutfire wrote: post #129
sg47 wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a H1B holder who's also a cancer survivor and suffering from severe health issues, I can tell you it's hell. I cry at least once a week at the fact that I cannot take a break without having to destroy my life and my family's life and 20+ years of life built up here. Everything this person said is absolutely true. The high compensation comes at a very high cost. It's not just mental or physical but also moral. You…

> You underlevel people because you have to have a high bar. > So someone with 20+ years of experience with subject matter expertise (not me) is a 'developing' Principal engineer. If one of your major complaints about work is that some other employees only make $300k while some arbitrary table made by the company says they should be making $400k-$500k, then perhaps you're in a pretty good position overall? In other w…

Underleveling people with 20+ years of experience depending on their origin or location is a real thing, and one that HR gets away with too often. My experience is that it contributes to so much pain and churn that it ought to be a legal and compliance offense, but there are no liability factors associated with it, so they keep doing it.

Re: Mental health impacts of a big tech job

#175

Post by rcarmo »

exBarrelSpoiler wrote: post #119
kyralis wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt it's a bias toward apple so much as Apple's a large company with a diverse set of teams. There are definitely some teams at Apple that I would never want to work for; there are also some teams at Apple that are pretty awesome. I suspect it's the same at all of the FAANGs, frankly. (Setting aside companies you may not wish to work for because of general company policy/work reasons)

No, to some degree it is Apple. No doubt any larger corporation has its share of worse offenders. But some of the toxicity that exists within Apple is specific to its DNA. The secrecy, siloing across departments and teams, obsession towards not just customer satisfaction but ironclad schedules, middle managers allowed to act like warlords, maybe even the legacy of Jobs' abusive behavior baked into the corporate DNA-…

I work at Microsoft and am old enough to have long-term friends and acquaintances at Apple, AWS, Facebook, Google, and IBM. The only ones whom I never hear from regarding corporate infighting between teams work at Oracle, and I suspect they keep changing the subject because it’s too traumatic…

Re: Mental health impacts of a big tech job

#176

Post by rcarmo »

kevinventullo wrote: post #156
ctvo wrote: post #86

> The manager of that team demanded I get the release out, and just ignored anything else I had to say. I pointed out that it took them a really long time to respond to my initial report of the issue and we may have been able to come up with something had they responded. The other team wasn’t buying it. From their perspective, the expectation had already been set, and it was up to us to get our job done no matter the…

As a former manager at a FAANG I completely agree. If this had been my report, I would’ve aggressively followed up with that manager about why exactly an engineer on my team was stressing out on a Friday evening about something they apparently didn’t need until the following Wednesday. If I didn’t get a satisfactory response, I’d be following up with their manager as well as my own.

Yes. This is the way. Management is there to set this kind of boundaries too.

Re: Mental health impacts of a big tech job

#177

Post by rcarmo »

exBarrelSpoiler wrote: post #89
KingMachiavelli wrote: post #72

> The build server needed to be rebooted, but this was during the pandemic when no one was in the office. Furthermore, it was a Friday making it even more unlikely someone was around to do something as simple as press a button to reboot a machine. WTF? Why is a company like Apple using one off machines for release builds? That should all be on a VM and a server with a management interface. I made that mistake once an…

Apple is a very old and heterogeneous company that flies by the skin of its teeth and there are engineering and organizational practices that would make the most hardcore Mac Addict blanch.

True, but that is changing.

Re: Mental health impacts of a big tech job

#178

Post by exBarrelSpoiler »

rcarmo wrote: post #175
exBarrelSpoiler wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, to some degree it is Apple. No doubt any larger corporation has its share of worse offenders. But some of the toxicity that exists within Apple is specific to its DNA. The secrecy, siloing across departments and teams, obsession towards not just customer satisfaction but ironclad schedules, middle managers allowed to act like warlords, maybe even the legacy of Jobs' abusive behavior baked into the corporate DNA-…

I work at Microsoft and am old enough to have long-term friends and acquaintances at Apple, AWS, Facebook, Google, and IBM. The only ones whom I never hear from regarding corporate infighting between teams work at Oracle, and I suspect they keep changing the subject because it’s too traumatic…

It’s not merely politics or teams in-fighting. It’s straight up unprofessional, abusive, insulting behavior that goes unchallenged. It’s belittling, bullying, traumatic environments that everyone accepts as is or are completely oblivious to because of an organization-wide code of silence. Mentally damaging.

Re: Mental health impacts of a big tech job

#179

Post by auspex »

41209 wrote: post #37

At this point I want to figure out a way to work 6 months out of the year at 75$ an hour or so. Then max out my 401k and take 6 months off( see my other thread , I'd do this in a cheaper country) My theory is I'd end up paying very little taxes compared to working myself mad trying to hit 200k a year.

I see the biggest problem here is that when you leave you’re gone for six months. When you come back it’ll take you a month to ramp back up.

Re: Mental health impacts of a big tech job

#180

Post by ffggvv »

iamevn wrote: post #128
ffggvv wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yeah cloud is a differnt beast. basically amazon within google

same here in cloud, y'all are making me wonder if maybe I shouldn't have given my 2 weeks the other day and instead tried to do an internal transfer

maybe, depends what you want for your career. imo best thing about working at google is just having it on your resume, which you already have
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