[me_me_me]

"All of our workers here at ACME corp were happy about annual anal probing to ensure they are all fit to work here, you should feel privileged to be able refuse ACME anal probing."

Thats some grim future we are heading with this. And that software dev field, one of most competitive fields for finding personnel. As soft dev you are in position of power and yet people put up with this stupid shit.

Good on you for telling them to fuck off.

It sounds like its quite common in Australia, but why?

[irvingprime]

No employer has ever given me the feeling that my software dev skills put me in a position of power. Quite the opposite. Every place I have ever worked at has acted as if

1) My skills are unimportant (except when they want overtime. Then, no noe else could possibly do the wonderful job I can!); 2) I am easily replaced (maybe by much cheaper contractors) and 3) My salary requirements are ridiculous. Only the top executives are worth that kind of money!

When I turn down an offer or even an interview over something ridiculous (What do you mean I need to sign an NDA just to be interviewed? Hell no!) they act as if I'm the unreasonable one. Somehow this never changes my mind.

[progman32]

Keep looking, friend. Respectful places _do_ exist!

[flashgordon]

I dunno about now about back when I was in Australia (about 10 years ago), over there swe felt a very under appreciated role. One company's non compete was so eggregious it forbade even ludicrous scenarios like "after leaving us thou shall not work with another ex-employee (who did not overlap in tenure with yours) even in an unrelated field (say pig farming) for atleast 9 months". Wtf!