Never going to happen. The great conceit of the tech world peons is believing they're above the simple garbage man or postal worker. After all they create such value. Admitting a union would help acknowledges they're not special.
IT workers could demand protection from the same abuses that custodians and delivery drivers fought for and earned decades ago. But then the industry might need to admit their collars aren't as white as they pretend.
But more to the point, if you desire a work/life balance you absolutely can find a programming job that will allow it. It'll pay less than the unpaid overtime job, but it exists, and will still pay more than most occupations.
You're fucking insane if you think the plight of the average programmer is anywhere near what custodians go through. I used to work for one of these IBM-like offshoring firms before I knew better and the quality of their work is simply garbage(there's some good people in there of course). For example, I was called in to troubleshoot a faulty URL - I asked them for it; they linked me to a localhost page. Other joys included network engineers who didn't know what port SSH runs on and Java programmers who literally copy-pasted straight from the web.
If what you really believed was true there's no way that someone like Barbara Lee could be in office with such huge wins every two years when so many of her constituents are the same people that work in the area you think is so terrible. Why are you even posting on HN? This is a technical news site.
This idea that all of us are equal (we are not even factoring in luck) is really just a modern day PC version of the way the world is not.
As an aside, I always leave the garbage man Gatorades because frankly the job looks like it sucks.
The guys that haul trash have got it exactly right. It's a hard job that no one wants to do so they know their worth and when they demand they get it. If I lose Facebook for an hour its a bummer. If the trash isn't hauled away its a health hazard.
> It's a hard job that no one wants to do so they know their worth
Well not exactly. They have a union in most cities and some of those jobs the pay is so good there is a waiting line to get the job actually. And since they can strike in many contracts they have quite a bit of leverage (what you are saying).
Link below is without overtime pay. In some cases with overtime the pay can easily be 6 figure. I can assure you that there are many takers for this job, although perhaps where you live that might not be the case of course.
Examples:
New York:
http://salarygenius.com/ny/new-york/salary/garbage-man-salar...
Cincinnati:
http://salarygenius.com/oh/cincinnati/salary/garbage-man-sal...
The issue is not whether one is special but special relative to someone who does that type of menial repetitive job.
And just that I think I have more capabilities than the average garbage man or postal worker. And I grew up in a time when it was ok to say something like that by the way.
But the HN Hivemind doesn't want to hear this, apparently.
It doesn't even matter whether you're right or not but you can't attack people's self-worth and expect to be rewarded for it.
Sort of like if I were to say that all company owners and management are fraudulent exploitative criminals.
Were you expecting upvotes ?
To self-nominate yourself as "more worthy" than others seems a road down a slippery and ugly path.
Then again, my worthy ancestors have fought on both sides of numerous bloody disagreements over this very concept.
More generally, and I mean this quite generally, I tend to find externally imposed tests far preferable to internally imposed ones. Human eugenics is internally imposed. The incestuous processes of party politics and academic mutual admiration societies strike me as similar. Likewise, to venture into more locally fraught, if less literally gut-spilling ground, defenses of Web or application layout and design which concern themselves with everything but what actual users actually need.
There's also the possibility that someday you'll find yourself less able, or perhaps just recognised and rewarded, than you are now. Will a deaf, or blinded, or crippled, or sick, or depressed, or senile you be less worthy than you are now? Be careful how you answer that, because the loads imposed should you find yourself there are all the more crushing.
Go out there. Do your fucking job, and do it well, for as long as you can.
But let others tell you you're a good person.
It's one of the better ways to be one.
Are you better in terms of intrinsic worth as a human being? No, they're just as human as you are.
Are you better in terms of physical strength or stamina, as mattwood asked? No.
Are you better morally than them? (Remember that "morally" includes not just overt acts like theft or murder. It also includes things like pride.)
Or is it merely, as you said in your reply to mattwood, that you think you're better mentally? (And perhaps in terms of achieving financial results.) But of all the possible axes of measurement, why did you pick that one to be the definition of "better"? (Cynically, I wonder if you didn't pick it because it's the one you win on...)
Yes. And I really don't see why you'd bring up pride, since if that's something that comes to your mind when you think about moral superiority, then you're barking up the wrong tree with the rest of 'em.
Because the union scandals of the 60s and 70s never happened, of course.
I assume you're referring to the current fascination with socialism? You know, that great political innovation that lead to a hundred million murders in the 20th century.
Sorry, couldn't resist.
You should look into the history of unions. You might be surprised at their non-progressive / non-egalitarian origins. You don't need a "right-wing opinion machine" to besmirch the name of unions; you simply have to look at the long history of state-union corruption.
Does your 100million lives include the many millions the USA has helped see to their deaths?
I couldn't resist.
Maybe a mix of Glass Door with Adhocracy or Liquid Feedback
The electricians all left at 5 PM. They belonged to the IBEW and had pension plans, job security with seniority etc. IT used to bitch about how they'd leave at 5 PM when we had to start doing some work. They would have stayed past 5 PM, but the super wealthy bank would have had to pay them (not us) overtime, and they almost never did that.
The other IT people would also moan about how stupid they were compared to us. How stupid are they? They leave at 5 PM, or get overtime if they do, they have job security, they don't have to work all hours or are paid well if they do any how, they had pensions and job security based on seniority. Who were the real fools?