As a tech worker, I'm super happy they're being compensated so well. We're witnessing the power of workers organizing and I'm loving it. I would like to see unions in tech become a thing, but it's impossible to organize anything with the people here and talking about it openly will get you fired for "completely unrelated" reasons.
Hey, I’m a union organizer at a tech company! Union support is more likely than you think in the industry. It’s all about a strong OC forming connections with your coworkers. If you want to be the change, reach out to CODE-CWA!
I think there is real pressure to divide different workers. This article is just one I’ve been seeing that had this narrative. And no tech worker I know is angry.
It’s okay to be angry when it’s directed the right way. It’s not the driver’s with whom anyone should be upset; it’s the executives refusing to provide fair compensation that we should all be angry at.
Definitely true. It's kind of like any physically intensive job that you can only keep up for so long before your body gets messed up to the point where you have to quit early. That "big money" isn't forever, it has to be saved up while it's earned for retirement later, which might be sooner rather than later due to physical disability.
Plus there's the lack of holidays, and in fact crazier work hours with fewer breaks and no days off during the holidays, because that's when there's the most shipping going on. Much harder than coding or other tech work in air conditioned rooms and breaks during holidays, etc.
UPS is actually somewhere I’ve wanted to work since my uncle works there, I have a bunch of certs though so I’m going to at least try to make the tech world work for me post military
Its not like the companies can just replace them with cheap labor. Tech requires skills that are built over years of dedication. These companies wouldn’t even be able to get foreigners to replace the tech workers because 1) language barrier, 2) culture barrier, 3) legal barrier (taxes, labor laws, etc), 4) immigration barrier, 5) time to onboard and learn the codebase. Then it would inevitable lead to unmaintainable code because these companies will want the work to be done yesterday and see no value in maintainable code.
This is dumb. Are these angry tech workers less able to feed, clothe and house themselves and their families? It’s like the crabs in a bucket thing but these crabs already climbed out and are sad to see others making it over the rim.
To get a base salary of $170k you know you need to work hard as an Engineer, this sucks.
LOL - this motherfucker talkin about hard work. You actually think sitting in an office for 8 hours a day is working harder than the guy delivering packages? GTFO with that shit.
Bro. I’m an engineer. Have been for more than 20 years. This guy, talking about how his job is harder than someone who delivers packages for 10 hours a day is fucking lying. Either that, or he’s completely divorced from reality.
Yes, you need more schooling, and yes, solving puzzles all day is mentally draining. But you know what? I’ll take being mentally drained over having my body completely fall apart by 50 because of the toll my job took on it. Being an engineer is in no way harder than any blue collar job I’ve ever seen.
Edit: And also, if you’re mentally exhausted after reading for 10 minutes… that’s not normal. Have you been tested for things like dyslexia? Could be that you have some kind of processing disorder that makes it difficult to read.
Yes, I got diagnosed with ADHD as a child, but I don’t get why you would think that’s necessary to comment on.
I wasn’t commenting on your ADHD. I was commenting on the fact that you said “Try sitting still and reading a book for more than 10 minutes, and you will find that it can be exhausting to do.”, and pointing out that being exhausted after reading for 10 minutes is not normal. If you meant to imply that activities that are purely mentally focused can be draining, well, I agree. But you didn’t do a very good job of conveying that with the sentence you chose, so your meaning wasn’t clear to me.
I don’t think it’s fair to compare states in 50 years like this without mentioning the time lost from school and research + the better overall life quality that comes with more money.
Why not? All work is trading parts of yourself in exchange for money. Sometimes, that part of yourself is your mental focus, sometimes your physical health. I am well aware that people in STEM-type jobs have an increased incidence of depression and burnout. Hell, I stopped working for 5 years because I was depressed and burnt out.
But you know what? I was able to stop working for that long because I made a really good salary before leaving the workforce. And what I did was in no way more difficult than someone loading boxes into trucks in a hot warehouse, or remaining focused on traffic conditions for several hours per day then interspersing that with delivering those same packages to people’s homes and offices.
So, my job wasn’t harder, but it paid better. My back isn’t sore, but my mental health took a toll. The reality is, everybody suffers. And even if the UPS delivery guy got paid twice what I made, I still wouldn’t pick that job because my chosen field is easier and still pays pretty well.
So I’m not stressed in the slightest that they potentially got a bump (it still has to pass a vote). Good for them. They deserve it.
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