[formula1]

Perhaps this is a great contrast between individuals that pushed themselves into programming for a job and people who fell in love with it and got a job out of it.

Its also a shane that the former is what most people find themselves in. A means to an end in a world that isnt very kind to everyone.

[tyingq]

That's not the only two groups in question here.

There are those that spend off-time programming, just not for their employer's tasks.

The quid-pro-quo of employee-employer loyalty is largely gone these days, so it's not unreasonable to only work the hours you're compensated for.

[jdmichal]

Why would loyalty have any impact on gifting your employer free work? You can be loyal without giving away things for free.

[tyingq]

Perhaps we're using the term in two different contexts.

I'm using the term loyalty for lack of a better term. There was a time when employees would often go above and beyond for their employers, because the reverse was also often true. Roughly, the shift away from the "lifetime employment" model.

Things like:

- Somewhere in the 1980's, when layoffs started to happen even in relatively financially healthy companies

- The move from pensions to 401k's

- The shift of a higher percentage of healthcare costs to the employee's portion

- More focus on hiring outsiders into higher level positions, versus training/placing internal candidates

Specifically, I might be incented to occasionally "work for free" if I thought the company would, for example, not lay me off during a particularly rough financial period.

[jdmichal]

Ah, I see. Personally, I think it's a bit healthier regardless to see your employment as a fair exchange of time for money, and not read anything else into it. There's no confusion about who owes what -- it's all spelled out for you.

[coldtea]

It's actually the difference between professionals, who know how to negotiate and get compensation for their work, and naive exploited people who will get the short end of the stick in most deals and get dropped like dead weight when the company downsizes without a second thought for all their gift contributions...

[everfree]

I fell in love with programming but I think it's ridiculous to gift my free time to my employer. During my free time I'd rather write my own software (or open source) that has a chance of either benefiting humanity or getting me rich.

I think that people who work on their employer's projects during their own time are unimaginative - they could be writing their own software for their own benefit but they instead choose to make their employer rich and not see any of that compensation themselves.

This is of course assuming you're drawing a salary from the company and you're not mostly paid in equity, in which case putting in free hours might make more sense if you can make the product profitable.

[c_c_c]

What is the connection between "people who fell in love" with programming and donating your time to a for profit enterprise? If you love what you do, that's wonderful. However, work (and time) should be compensated for.