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People start hating their jobs at 35

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Re: People start hating their jobs at 35

#221

Post by misev »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #122
wernsey wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny, round about the time I turned 35 I stumbled upon Erik Dietrich's Defining The Corporate Hierarchy [1] blog. It cynically divides corporate workers into sociopaths at the top who step on other people to get where they are, idealists in the middle who don't realize they're being stepped on and think they'll eventually get to the top through hard work, and then pragmatists at the bottom who come in in the morning…

> and then pragmatists at the bottom who come in in the morning, do their work, and find meaning in their lives elsewhere, like family or hobbies. How do those pragmatists deal with the fact that, summing job, commute and sleep, over 2/3 of their lives is not part of the purpose?

Is it 2/3 though? With the assumptions below it comes out to about 40% of waking time:

- 8 hours of work + 2 hours of commute / 5 days per week

- weekend 2 days per week

- 20 days of vacation + 5 public holidays per year

Re: People start hating their jobs at 35

#222

Post by LUmBULtERA »

intended wrote: post #100
harperlee wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They have figured out that they are never going to get payed the true value of their work,and that is almost the definition of being an employee. A little bit too cynical for my taste. You make it sound as if companies serve no purpose other than extracting value from the employee to the company. Your work value inside the company is higher than the value of the work per se; the order that the firm institutes has a…

No this is correct. It’s about the mythical alpha. You can get the 1950s average unit of work out of a person, and maybe get 100 gidgets made in a day. Or you can figure out how to optimize the assembly line and reduce pee breaks and get the most out of those things you have to pay to employ. So now in the 2000s, you make 5000 widgets a day, employ fewer people and have identified more places where you can reduce cos…

"be a shareholder, not a worker"

This. In 2018 with our current economy, I think this is essential. Unfortunately there are some who won't be able to save and invest much.

Re: People start hating their jobs at 35

#224

Post by irrational »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #122
wernsey wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny, round about the time I turned 35 I stumbled upon Erik Dietrich's Defining The Corporate Hierarchy [1] blog. It cynically divides corporate workers into sociopaths at the top who step on other people to get where they are, idealists in the middle who don't realize they're being stepped on and think they'll eventually get to the top through hard work, and then pragmatists at the bottom who come in in the morning…

> and then pragmatists at the bottom who come in in the morning, do their work, and find meaning in their lives elsewhere, like family or hobbies. How do those pragmatists deal with the fact that, summing job, commute and sleep, over 2/3 of their lives is not part of the purpose?

Well, my commute is only 10 minutes and I'm not sure how sleep comes into it (sleep is my favorite part of the day!), but I'm definitely a pragmatist at my job.

Right now outside of my job I am replacing 100 feet of fence on my property. It is hot, sweaty, miserable work. At my job I sit in a very comfortable chair in A/C with snacks close at hand and headphones on doing work that I actually enjoy. My coworkers and boss are super nice. All in all my job is absolute luxury compared to the life of a manual laborer. Monday is my favorite day because I get to go back to work and relax instead of working on projects around the house ;-) Plus, they pay me really well.

Re: People start hating their jobs at 35

#225

Post by irrational »

misev wrote: post #221
TeMPOraL wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and then pragmatists at the bottom who come in in the morning, do their work, and find meaning in their lives elsewhere, like family or hobbies. How do those pragmatists deal with the fact that, summing job, commute and sleep, over 2/3 of their lives is not part of the purpose?

Is it 2/3 though? With the assumptions below it comes out to about 40% of waking time: - 8 hours of work + 2 hours of commute / 5 days per week - weekend 2 days per week - 20 days of vacation + 5 public holidays per year

That's the trouble, everyone is different. My commute is only 20 minutes total every day (30 minutes if I ride my bike). I get 36 days of vacation every year (and a 6 week sabbatical every 5 years), plus from memorial day to labor day we only work until noon on Fridays.

5840 hours of waking time a year.

1845 hours of work time (217 working days * 8.5 hours; 1590 hours in a sabbatical year).

3995 hours left over to potentially do whatever I want.

Re: People start hating their jobs at 35

#226

Post by harperlee »

throwaway2048 wrote: post #180
harperlee wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They have figured out that they are never going to get payed the true value of their work,and that is almost the definition of being an employee. A little bit too cynical for my taste. You make it sound as if companies serve no purpose other than extracting value from the employee to the company. Your work value inside the company is higher than the value of the work per se; the order that the firm institutes has a…

Firms exist to make money, ie get more value out of your labor than they pay you for.

Sure. But you (think average person, not specifically a valley programmer) probably can't generate as much value on your own as inside the firm, so in part they take the value that they put on the table.

Re: People start hating their jobs at 35

#227

Post by hobofan »

xevb3k wrote: post #205
hobofan wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The employment bubble you describe really only exists in the Bay Area. There are a lot of places where you get a job in this industry faster than you can say "Software Engineer", so it's definitely not only a Bay Area thing. NY/Berlin/London are just as bad from personal experience and as a rough estimate every city above 1mil population, is probably not too different.

The largest group in the poll was US (not including SF/NY) followed by Europe (not including UK). From your list that leaves Berlin. Few other towns have the density and variety of startups that the Bay Area has to be honest.

> Few other towns have the density and variety of startups that the Bay Area has to be honest.

This is about ease of finding a job in the field, and startups are not the only employers there.

Re: People start hating their jobs at 35

#228

Post by [deleted] »

vfc1 wrote: post #24

I think its because through experience people have figured out a lot of unspoken things about what its really like being an employee. They have figured out that its much more about connections and office politics than hard work. They have figured out that there is really no job security, and they could be one layoff wave away from unemployment. They have figured out that its much more about face time and spending lon…

[deleted]

Re: People start hating their jobs at 35

#229

Post by sbarre »

jasonkester wrote: post #92
sbarre wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spoken like an HNer who is incredibly lucky to be working in a field that has never-ending demand, and is probably good at their job. Just a heads up that the majority of people are not in your/our situation with regards to their employment.

Indeed. But we're discussing this here, with the audience you describe making up nearly all of us, so I didn't feel the need to add that caveat. So yeah, go us. Our gig gets better over time, while it appears that others don't.

For sure, I wasn't saying you were wrong in your statement, just pointing out that we are the exception, not the rule, when it comes to the employment landscape right now.

Saying things like "embrace no job security" is something most people simply cannot afford to do.

Re: People start hating their jobs at 35

#230

Post by chrisbennet »

nhfoiwehf wrote: post #203
3pt14159 wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey, I mean this in no way disrespectfully, but if you want to land a job you need to show that you're following the rules. I've hired a lot of people at different places over the years so I'm going to try to help you with some unsolicited feedback. Every comment like this on HN is an opportunity for someone desperate for talent to reach out to you. When you're job hunting make sure you use proper capitalization. Inc…

Please take my comment as constructive criticism. I'm sure you have good intentions. I found your comment extremely patronizing to the person you're replying to. HN is an informal place where people feel comfortable to speak casually. It's not necessary to have perfect grammar in the comments. Going through the trouble of rewriting their comment to be more professional implies that the original commenter can't write…

Not the original poster but I didn’t take it that way. It came off as gentle, sincere help for someone probably looking for work. I frequently see people reaching out to people in need of work.
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