Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by w8rbt 2666 days ago
If you have only ever worked a 9 - 5 work week this may come as a surprise, but in the real world in America, lots of highly paid people routinely work weekends and nights and 12 or even 24 hour shifts. Doctors, Police Officers, Morticians, Firefighters, etc. They use schedules to spread the work and many only get one weekend off a month of totally free time.
5 comments
apercu 2666 days ago
> Doctors, Police Officers, Morticians, Firefighters

Hold on. A firefighter is on call in the in the firehouse during their shift. The aren't (except in emergencies) working straight 24 hour shifts. I see them at the grocery store a lot during the day. How many teams of software developers are gaming, shopping and sleeping during their shifts?

most patrol officers work 5 consecutive 8-hour shifts followed by two days off, though emergency callouts are part of the job.

I don't know any morticians but I assume that is the same. Doctors are in a different category all together, and I'll bet their shifts and culture surrounding their hours are responsible for many, many deaths.

link
cloverich 2666 days ago
Moreover Doctor's hours are controlled by doctor's themselves. If the mass of physicians would prefer lower salaries and better hours, they could and would achieve that.
link
bovermyer 2666 days ago
Just because it's common doesn't mean it's right.
link
pas 2666 days ago
That's sort of irrelevant. And employees can be motivated to work happily more than 40 hours a week. But ordering them is inefficient and wrong. (They very likely did not sign up for that.)
link
everdrive 2666 days ago
Policemen, Firemen, and Doctors are at least doing worthwhile work: usually saving lives and protecting the public.

Tech workers are merely making their CEO and some shareholders rich. They should only be working those long hours if it's going to benefit them, and they like the tradeoff.

I'm not implying that it's OK to overwork Doctors / Firemen / Policemen: simply stating that there's real good in the world they do, whereas most tech companies are net loss for humanity, and not worth the work.

link
pixl97 2666 days ago
And? That is just as unacceptable.
link