Earlier quoted context omitted.
In which way is "working from home" "taking it easy"?
Because working from home is usually light on working.
It's usually more honest. I guarantee I'm not working 8 hours straight in the office.
Amazon is piloting teams with a 30-hour workweek
81–90 of 299 posts
Re: Amazon is piloting teams with a 30-hour workweek
#82Something about this bothers me. Time-keeping is already not straightforward for an engineer. Because the work is done in our heads and doesn't necessarily stop just because the workday is over. You don't have to be sitting at a keyboard for your head to be grinding on a problem. More often some problem takes hold of you, occupying some mental bandwidth even while you're away, at home trying to enjoy time with your f…
While all previous evidence goes towards pointing this to be another way for AMZN to squeeze more out of their employees, I think we could give them the benefit of doubt. I think they may have seen a segment of talented developers saying I don't want to be in this ratrace. I'd rather work 30hrs/week and make $100K to maintain work-life balance. 6hrs/week or 4 days/week. I wish more companies were open to this. It wou…
> I think we could give them the benefit of doubt
I've found that this is a much less stressful and more productive way to approach most things in life.
> Some of the 60 hr/week employees are gunning for promotions and probably don't care about work life balance. Why should everyone have to compete with that?
That seems totally reasonable. It's similar to the way tech companies have a concept of a "terminal level" where it's considered fine to spend your whole career with no pressure or expectations to earn further promotions.
Re: Amazon is piloting teams with a 30-hour workweek
#83Something about this bothers me. Time-keeping is already not straightforward for an engineer. Because the work is done in our heads and doesn't necessarily stop just because the workday is over. You don't have to be sitting at a keyboard for your head to be grinding on a problem. More often some problem takes hold of you, occupying some mental bandwidth even while you're away, at home trying to enjoy time with your f…
While all previous evidence goes towards pointing this to be another way for AMZN to squeeze more out of their employees, I think we could give them the benefit of doubt. I think they may have seen a segment of talented developers saying I don't want to be in this ratrace. I'd rather work 30hrs/week and make $100K to maintain work-life balance. 6hrs/week or 4 days/week. I wish more companies were open to this. It wou…
> While all previous evidence goes towards pointing this to be another way for AMZN to squeeze more out of their employees...
Why would you go against a theory that all evidence pointed toward? I think what you meant is that despite what it looks like at first glance, there could be reasons why this is a good idea. You should present evidence for those arguments, maybe based on personal experience
Re: Amazon is piloting teams with a 30-hour workweek
#84When I was at amazon I was routinely putting in 170hr+ work weeks. It was impossible.
Pff I do 171 hour weeks
Re: Amazon is piloting teams with a 30-hour workweek
#85Something about this bothers me. Time-keeping is already not straightforward for an engineer. Because the work is done in our heads and doesn't necessarily stop just because the workday is over. You don't have to be sitting at a keyboard for your head to be grinding on a problem. More often some problem takes hold of you, occupying some mental bandwidth even while you're away, at home trying to enjoy time with your f…
This is true of many more jobs, jobs that require you to think and use judgement. This isn't just engineering jobs.
Re: Amazon is piloting teams with a 30-hour workweek
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I wouldn't agree with this broad generalization. https://www.google.com/#q=amazon+sweatshop
Many of those are not about programmers, they are about the employees physically moving products around in warehouses.
That's not better, it's just a different class of employee.
Re: Amazon is piloting teams with a 30-hour workweek
#87Something about this bothers me. Time-keeping is already not straightforward for an engineer. Because the work is done in our heads and doesn't necessarily stop just because the workday is over. You don't have to be sitting at a keyboard for your head to be grinding on a problem. More often some problem takes hold of you, occupying some mental bandwidth even while you're away, at home trying to enjoy time with your f…
This is hardly unique to engineers though. Almost everyone whose job involves coming up with ideas and thinking through problems does some of it in the shower.
Re: Amazon is piloting teams with a 30-hour workweek
#88'Amazon is piloting 25% pay cuts'. I wonder if the group that does this will be viewed as lesser, e.g. work on less interesting projects, be less likely to be promoted, than the "40" hour employees.
They are piloting it on internal HR software which I think says a lot. To me this seems like a purely PR driven move after the lambasting their culture has taken lately.
> They are piloting it on internal HR software which I think says a lot.
There's a tendency for people to think that HR software and other internal tools are less important than public products, but if the company is allocating employees properly, that doesn't really make sense.
The engineers working on this HR software all passed the same technical interviews that everybody else did. Amazon could have easily allocated them to some flashy consumer product, but management decided that it's important to have a team working on HR software. So either somebody made a horrible miscalculation when they decided to build the HR software, or this work is equally valuable to all the other work happening.
Re: Amazon is piloting teams with a 30-hour workweek
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
Programmers can suffer from this problem as well as engineers. The project never fully leaves your mind and often I'll go home and mull over the reasons why things might not be working or how to start another task. No "actual" work gets done, but I'm still working; just as you described.
In this context, "programmer" and "engineer" are probably meant to be synonymous.
I don't doubt it. Some people see the two as similar trades, others are adamant they are completely separate.
I figured I would make the post for the second group.
Re: Amazon is piloting teams with a 30-hour workweek
#90Something about this bothers me. Time-keeping is already not straightforward for an engineer. Because the work is done in our heads and doesn't necessarily stop just because the workday is over. You don't have to be sitting at a keyboard for your head to be grinding on a problem. More often some problem takes hold of you, occupying some mental bandwidth even while you're away, at home trying to enjoy time with your f…
I agree with your general premise but disagree with the conclusion. I think this gives you an ability to commit to delivering less which results in less deliberation outside of your primary work hours.
Frankly though, if you love what you do you always take your work home with you (mentally anyway). So at the end of the day, there is no on/off switch for engineers (along with other types of careers) so although engineers are some of the highest paid you want them to be paid higher?
I am not saying I would disagree but also not saying I think I am under paid by any stretch of the imagination.