[deedubaya]

Burnout? Yes. Overwork? Maybe. Unionize? Eh…

The post reeks of privilege.

Go work a manual labor job outside in the sun for a few weeks and tell me how bad tech employees have it. Most of non-tech America is not empathetic to our plights. They’ll probably cheer on the offshoring of our jobs.

[mrbombastic]

I am not really decided if i am pro or anti tech unions yet but this argument always comes up and falls flat for me. It just smells like pitting the working classes against each other. Are we more privileged than most? Sure. We are still closer to broke then we are to the 1%.

[deedubaya]

I might agree from the tech worker’s perspective, except to someone working in fast food flipping burgers, a tech worker making $200k/$400k/$1M+ might as well be in the 1%.

[hackable_sand]

I have both perspectives!

I went from developer to "burger flipper". There is some mythologizing going on, but that is a lack of perspective. The people I work with don't have the time or money to graduate their skills.

Paramount, most of them could easily, easily train into tech roles given the opportunity.

[nimih]

On the other hand, your post "rinks" of a general ignorance of labor history in the US, where unions have (at least, historically) been able to support each other across industries and facilitate class solidarity amongst workers. Perhaps if you showed up to some picket lines in your city and worked to build connections with your fellow workers by providing support in their struggles, you'd find that they're supportive of yours in return.

[deedubaya]

Thanks for the spell check!

[thom__]

Couldn't agree more. My friend broke his finger and I told him how privileged it is to go to the doctor when there are plenty of people in the world with cancer and other more serious diseases.

[ilc]

Going to the doctor shouldn't be seen as privileged. Especially for a broken finger, which if it sets wrong can really wreck your life.

Admittedly not like cancer. But, a broken finger can be a serious long term injury if not treated correctly.

[null_name]

I think it is possible to acknowledge that privilege, while still highlighting the things that suck for us, and the ways unions can help. I wish the article did this. I firmly believe there is a strong case to be made here. It gets muffled by the narrowness of the author's perspective.

I've worked in a kitchen and a warehouse for a while, I absolutely know how good we've got it. I have friends who tell me about people dying at their workplaces. Pretty much everyone I know who's not a programmer is living paycheck-to-paycheck. I'm still incredibly burnt out, and probably couldn't continue for another 6 months if my life depended on it.

[fullshark]

"As long as other jobs suck more, be grateful and don't investigate legal avenues to improve your life"