Tech has become the type of job where people are ordered to abandon family and friends to keep insecure management happy by relocating closer to offices. Not a viable career if you want a life.
Right, I mean it's understandable that fields like healthcare, construction, food service all physically demanding, stressful, and have lower pay, because they can all be remote right? We work in one of the most privileged fields ever. We should never forget how lucky we have it.
Here in the UK tech workers are clustered around parts of London. You can count on your fingers how many own a property, let alone have a family. You see full grown adults living with housemates and their only financial asset is a macbook pro and an iphone, with occasional holidays in cheap countries.
Remote work allowed some to buy property but are struggling after being ordered to return to work. Those with kids basically leave children in nursers to be raised by the state.
How lucky do you think they are? And how lucky are you knowing you have nothing to your name but a jira case and a manager to remind you of your place?
I don't have to clean up and slog through fecal matter, which I've done. I don't have to pull electrical wire and get shocked, because it was still live, which I've done. I don't have to work in a kitchen that's 100 degrees and hope that I don't slip and spill 300+ degree oil on me, which I've done.
My friend almost got Hepatitis C, because he was trying to save someone's life. My other friend got Covid during the pandemic, because he was trying to save lives in an emergency department.
My career isn't over, because I broke my hand too many times and I can't lift a 14 inch skillet. I have heat, because I make more than $12.00 an hour. I have health insurance (I'm American).
I am sorry, but that's not how this works. Both software developers _and_ the jobs your described should benefit from better conditions. It would appear that you think that since other have it worse so should tech workers.
Most people on HN who speaks about how good tech is usually live in the US or Eastern Europe, where tech salaries are relatively high for relatively little upfront requirements.
On an unrelated note, I've had a former coworker who lived in the UK and was contracting to mostly US companies for this exact reason.
Yeah the UK is bust in terms of tech pay and conditions. But most tech workers have been in favour of hybrid or onsite. No wonder since the UK is rather under skilled, not just in tech. And usually it's those who can't work without endless talk due to lack of experience that want to be ordered back into offices. A shame, the UK used to be the lead in tech in Europe. No longer it seems - neither pay nor skill.
Tech is full of the softest people on earth. Unbelievable. Some people abandon their entire community to come to America for the privilege of working 80 hours a week washing dishes.
Soft how? For wanting to live in a house they own, and not wasting away hours on the highway, or to see their kids at dinner? I agree it is good to appreciate how good we have it compared to others, but that doesn't make our particular negative situation okay, when it doesn't have to be that way.
Have you ever looked at a career in medicine or national defense? If your job is actually important to the functioning of modern civilization then you should expect sacrifices. If your job is just a cash grab and nothing is impacted whether you do your job or not then I suggest you re-evaluate what's important in your life.
Yes, those people earn far more than software workers. Perhaps not early in their career but over time they do. Are you actually the type that tells an employer that “money isnt everything” while that employer splashes on things such as you know a home and a family, working from home, while you’re ordered back to an office?
> Yes, those people earn far more than software workers
You are seriously ill-informed. Very few people working in medicine make as much, let alone more, than software developers. Many software developers even make more than primary care physicians!
And national defense? You have to be kidding me! Software developers live like kings compared to those defending the country. First responders in general are in the same boat. Most of them would love to make the money an entry-level software developer makes!
As far as being ordered back to the office, it's been nearly four years since everybody was sent home. Many employees have been hired since that time. "Return to the office" is a change in the employment contract. Many states, though not all, prohibit termination due to a post facto change in the employment contract.
But don't expect the people I mentioned above to cry about our having to return to the office. What we should be doing is pointing out to them that our WFH is making their commute easier, lowers their car insurance premiums, improves their air quality - in other words, how it benefits them.
I would even add that companies willing to take distant remote has drastically reduced.