[kelnos]

Frankly I look at it the opposite way: that it's sad that people in non-tech fields are so used to being treated like garbage that it's accepted as the norm, and no one bats an eye.

Social norms are only norms if there's a mechanism in place to enforce them. Often that enforcement comes in the form of shaming people who violate the norm. If non-tech people are willing to continue to get treated poorly in this manner, I guess that's up to them, but I would rather work in a field where people show basic respect for each other. I know we all have a long way to go for that to be a universal thing, but stuff like this is a nice small step.

[Bakary]

Fundamentally it's the economic reality that determines norms. In demand people are tautologically treated well. It's relatively easy to negotiate when you have bargaining power. A tech worker can simply tweet or post on HN and something will happen. Just look at Timnit Gebru or the poster in this very thread who petitioned a high-ranking employee at Stripe. For non-tech people this is inconceivable science-fiction. For them, regaining bargaining power implies mass unionization and social unrest. If your status is strongly diluted the response has to be proportionally strong to have any effect. It has happened before multiple times, which is the reason we can work 8 hours a day today and have some standard of rights as opposed to say the 19th century.

Technically you are quite correct: it's up to non-tech people to decide to be treated better. But the reality behind that phrase hides a far more complicated reality than the mere words would imply. Just saying that you'd "rather work in a field where people show basic respect" completely elides the reality of the situation. It's like telling a trucker who just got automated "Well just learn some code and work harder, buddy!"