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Comment by andywood | Hacker News Reader

Those are some rose-colored glasses. I could easily make a list of the best things about being in the hospital, too. I'd estimate that my 18 years in software development have been about 25% good, 25% tolerable, and 50% team/boss-induced inhumane mental torture.

The one thing I can't argue with is the money. Everything else has been highly volatile.

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Every time I read things like that I wonder if I've just been lucky or if there is something 'special' about the US. I've spent 10+ years working at companies of all shapes and sizes in Norway and Sweden, and with the exception of one 12 month stretch (working for an American ironically enough) all my bosses have been fine-to-great, and I've never had a real clash with any co-workers. And even that terrible American boss I had wasn't "inhumane mental torture".

Me too. I have over 15 years of experience both as an independent contractor and employee (roughly half and half) and have only once worked an 60+ hr week. And have always had bosses/clients that valued my input and my efforts.

Dumb luck on my part? I don't know.

It's possible. It seems a lot of businesses I've worked for in the US really just don't have their shit together, or they have some weird "business fear" or paranoia that really impacts their employees in a bad way.

It says more about you than your bosses ;)

In my over 10 years as commercial programmer I never had bad boss or torturous team members (apart from one angry inept guy who asked way too many basic questions when he was expected to pull his own weight and didn't last long).

That might be atypical because I spent more than half of my time freelancing which gives you great freedom in steering clear of harmful people and confidence to leave any employment when it stops being benign.

I know it sucks, but as a software developer, at least in the Bay Area, you needn't suffer more than a few honest months before jumping ship if it'll make you happier to get out. Then again, I've also had the worst position of my life turn into the best by sticking it out until our team was properly laid off internally.

How is that different to the generic employee experience? Most people don't enjoy their jobs 100%, or even close to that.

rose colored glasses was precisely the point

I think not actually having a boss and being picky about who to hire or work with turns it to 75% good and 25% tolerable for me over a period of 25 years prof software dev.

Try doing some work in IT: I feel the management problems are usually the same (if not worse) and the pay is half if you're lucky ;)

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