[hnthrow0287345]

>If you're in this position (relied upon, validated, powerless), you're not imagining it. And it's not a communication problem. "Just communicate better" is the advice equivalent of "have you tried not being depressed?"

How about "have you tried unionizing?" Because the common theme here is lack of respect which is ultimately limited by your own bargaining power. That means it's only your individual value against the collective will of the company, and the individual is going to lose that fight more often than not (with very rare exceptions for extremely talented and smart people who won the life lottery who are smarter than everyone at a company).

[lukewarmdaisies]

Hard to unionize a digital industry, very easy to find someone willing to take lower pay and “scab” when location is not truly a factor. Not to say impossible, but software development is one of few trades that just by the nature of being digital is pretty hard to unionize.

[hnthrow0287345]

If we believe that, then the real question/answer for the OP's worries is that software development is in a race to the bottom, and then the advice becomes "have you tried switching to hard-to-automate-and-outsource industry?" because you are certainly never going to get respect by volunteering to be paid less just to remain competitive with cheaper workers

[lukewarmdaisies]

My advice broadly would be to find some way to be difficult to replace, and that’s one way to do it.

[raw_anon_1111]

I hate seeing the idea that unionization is the answer. I grew up in South GA. Every single time that a corporation didn’t want to deal with a union, they just picked up and left.

[bdavisx]

And if everywhere they went would do the same thing, then they wouldn't be able to leave. Too bad people have been convinced that unions are bad.

[raw_anon_1111]

They left for Mexico…

How hard do you think it is to get cheaper developers from LatAM?

[Rapzid]

All the corporations that left Georgia over unions left for Mexico?

[raw_anon_1111]

Not all of them M&M Mars left for Mexico, Firestone left for Alabama.