[brucemoose]

This seems all too often the case with development work in general. I see the same type of unreasonable expectations in devops.

Maybe it's compounded by the software industry liking to hire young people with less experience but more free time. They may not yet have the soft skills to navigate unreasonable demands and give hard answers, and logistically a single person can more easily pull extra hours.

I've found that as I get older it has become easier to push back on unpaid overtime type work (or simply not do it). Because it would be damaging to my family and relationships if I didn't, and that's a powerful motivator for me.

But at the same time it's hard to compete with the output of people who somehow can grind all day every day, and through the weekend. I don't know if there's a way to level the playing field as long as employers are allowing and even encouraging this kind of unpaid self sacrifice.

[klohto]

This is objectively wrong. DevOps continues to be the best paying field to work in. This is also accommodated by the fact that employers do not hire inexperienced people to DevOps because you probably don’t want them screwing up the whole release pipeline. Look up latest SO survey results and you’ll see that DevOps is very nicely paid even across Europe.

[brucemoose]

Oh... But I wasn't talking about salary, and Junior DevOps is most definitely a thing.