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In IB/PE we have exit opps like VC or PM, and there is a reckoning in IB/PE leadership that the old school 60-100 hour analyst work culture is toxic.

In Korean companies, the work culture is still stuck in the 90s era IB mentality, as a lot of management are much older and started their careers when chauvanism, racism, functional alcoholism, power politics, overwork, etc was still the norm.

Tbf, SK was still a developing country until 10-15ish years ago.

I didn't realize that South Korean was so behind the times until I read "Human Acts" by Han Kang. That book led me to perform quite a bit of research and further reading on Korea.

The US has plenty of issues, but a lot of Americans take for granted that most countries have even worse work cultures or compensation structures.

That said, it's good for us to keep striving to find an ideal balance between work and personal life.

toomuchtodo 765 days ago

This is why I love birth rates declining: makes labor scarce and forces the better treatment of those still in the labor force.

We won’t find better work life balance until workers organize and old folks in charge with old ideas and values die out.

> why I love birth rates declining: makes labor scarce and forces the better treatment of those still in the labor force

I'd like to have Social Security benefits in 30-40 years tbh, so not a fan of potentially declining birth rates. That said, immigration is absolutely our superpower, and something we need to support.

toomuchtodo 765 days ago

We see the world differently, but I don’t fault your incentives and desired outcome. I see this as an empowerment and agency issue in a suboptimal economic system (working humans hard or to death without a lot of options, depending on jurisdiction, treating humans as a resource to extract from, broadly speaking).

(I am bootstrapping a non profit to buy unwanted fertility, funded through carbon markets; bias disclosed)

tharmas 765 days ago

Immigration? You mean third world immigration like Canada?

Swedes and Canadians would like to have a word with you.

I'm assuming IB = investment banking, PE = private equity, VC = venture capital, and PM = public market. To be clear, I did not work for a private equity firm itself (I do not posses the psychopathic ambition required to do so), but for a company that ended up owned by a firm; that was the terrible experience.

By PM I meant Product Management. A lot of PMs with MBAs are burned out IB Analysts who did the MBA to escape the grind.

> for a company that ended up owned by a firm; that was the terrible experience.

That's a bit different. Depending on the type of PE, it may have been a PE of last resort.

You only sell to Thoma Bravo if your company is an absolute dumpster fire and has no roadmap forward, so it needs drastic restructuring.

Sucks for line level ICs ofc.

It was Apollo, but asking me to differentiate between them would be like the dentist asking me which drill I'd prefer; I really don't know the technical details, but they all seem very unpleasant.

PE is a broad industry, as it literally just means allocation of capital in the private market.

For example, VC is a subset of PE.

Apollo, KKR, Guggenheim, and Thoma Bravo are PE funds that have practices dedicated to acquiring non-performing assets (basically companies that are near the verge of collapse)

For us regular US employees it was 6 days a week 12 hours per day. If you were more than 90 seconds late clocking in you were written up. 3 write ups and you're gone. 30 minute unpaid lunch break, but you weren't allowed to leave the site. To be honest, the strict stuff like that wasn't applicable to me because I was the only one there who could run the 5 axis CNC machines and edit the code. Everyone else was disposable.

One of the most memorable examples of not being treated like a human was when a coworker of mine wished to take one hour off in order to see his daughter graduate from high school. He had 4 kids at one time. But he lost one to cancer and two others to gang violence. He put in a time off request more than 5 months in advance so he could see his only remaining child graduate.

They denied his request. On the day of the graduation he clocked out and went to the graduation. He was gone maybe 35 minutes total. He saw his daughter walk across the stage and then he returned to work. They were waiting for him at the time clock and fired him.

When it comes to the interns, I saw a lot of yelling, grabbing by the arms while admonishing, and making them work without meals. All of the full time Korean employees had their lunch catered every day. The interns weren't allowed to eat with the full time employees and they weren't allowed to take any kind of meal breaks at all as for as I know.

I'm sure there was much more that went on behind closed doors, but seeing grown men grab 19 year old girls by their arms and shake them while yelling at them was pretty enlightening.

Thank you for the additional color. I will say that aside from the physical stuff, this doesn't sound all that different from the treatment that workers for Amazon or a call center would be subject to. I had my own wage-slave days and navigating this type of employment was an incredibly demoralizing way to start a working life. I certainly don't take for granted the cushy role that I have at a software company now, in spite of the fact that I work for a small company at a salary many here would find insulting.

I too am a low paid developer. I spent the first 20 years of my life doing skilled trade work and following a blue collar lifestyle. I'm now in my first developer role where my title is "Lead Developer." However, I'm the only developer here and I'm paid poorly.

But it is far better than working in a manufacturing facility or anything else I ever did while working for someone else.

I don't want to be the type of person who says "well, I paid my dues, you should too." I want things to be better for everyone. Now one should have to go through the things I went through as a young man. No one should have to be forced to work 6 days per week 12 hours per day simply to be able to barely make ends meet.

Yes, for a lot of people, these blue-collar jobs will be terminal positions, and they are necessary; they should be afforded dignity.

idunnoman1222 765 days ago

What’s really appalling is the lack of solidarity.

Solidarity is frowned upon here in Alabama. Our own governor has recently been doing her best to prevent any kind of worker solidarity.

natsucks 765 days ago

terrible.

dh2022 765 days ago

Can you name and shame the company? And the city / state where this took place?