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by skybrian 25 days ago
It would be ungrateful to complain after earning enough in stock options and RSU's to retire early.

(It sounds like the union got a great deal for these workers, though.)

1 comments

are you saying workers should show gratitude to their employers?
Yes, if you're treated well. It was a fair deal. More than fair, generous. I can't point to anything I did that was worth so much.

You seem surprised? Do you know how things (sometimes) work in Silicon Valley?

I feel the opposite. Looking at the yearly revenue of these companies and dividing them by the number of people that contributed, I clearly created much more value than my comp gave me.

Labor is entitled to all it creates.

I learned pretty quickly that money in Silicon Valley has nothing to do with getting what you "deserve" after a co-worker sold a domain name at the height of the dot-com bubble and retired on the proceeds. Sometimes people get lucky and there's no point in getting angry about it.
Do you think it's reasonable Zuckerberg or Bezos get rewarded the way they do while Amazon drivers piss in bottles and barely paid contractors get PTSD from moderating Facebook?

The system is rotten to the core. We as tech workers are somewhere in the middle, simultaneously being exploited while also benefiting from the exploitation of others.

Would you rather people not be allowed to do these jobs at all? That wouldn't leave them better off. Even paying them more must necessarily be weighed against the opportunity of expanded hiring at the prevailing market wage, lest you simply create a new privileged high caste of super highly paid Amazon drivers or Facebook content moderators.
I’ve read news reports about those jobs and they do sound very bad. But as for being exploited, I’m certain that I wasn’t.
No, despite working there and (apparently) making too much money to complain. Spell it out for us please.
I think I have shown gratitude to all my employers. They have invariably treated me well, and I believe the relationships were mutually beneficial.

If you do not feel gratitude to your employer I suggest you find a different one. If you cannot find such an employer over an extended time frame, perhaps the problem is you.

I disagree.

You can feel a job has been worthwhile, lucrative, satisfying… (mutually beneficial)

But feeling gratitude to an _entity_ that puts profits before your well-being is misplaced. Maybe there are exceptions, but not in big tech.

I've only worked for one big tech(ish) company (Elastic). They have treated me fantastically and I'm grateful.

Mostly I choose to work for small companies, getting reimbursed in job satisfaction and work-life balance rather than a big paycheck.