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Comment by demonshalo | Hacker News Reader

> Which is very positive for workers.

for YOU! not workers. Thinking that what you like is good for everyone else is rather narcissistic don't you think?

> I rather have that than the exploitation of workers in IT without unions.

What does unions have to do with anything? ... I was referring to the work mentality as a cultural phenomenon. It is nothing to do with unions -.-

> I can enjoy my evenings and weekends without spending a second thinking to get reached from work, and if I need to be on call I will get properly paid for it.

That's what I am talking about. Your work for you is just that, work. Which is perfectly fine. However, There is no way for Germany to ever get a remotely interesting tech scene with that mentality in place. That's not how you foster a startup culture.

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Won't mention my overall opinion, though I have some knowledge. Just a warning about this particular point:

"I’m Zach Holman. I was number nine at GitHub ..."

"More than once I had been confusingly introduced as a founder or CEO of the company."

"I had been the top committer to the main github/github repository for the last two years, I had just led the team that shipped one of the last major changes to the site, and around that time I had had a mid-year performance review with my manager that was pretty glowing ..."

"I’m pretty broke after working part-time and living in San Francisco for so long. Even though I helped move a company’s valuation almost two billion dollars, I haven’t made a dime from the company outside of making a pretty below-to-average salary. That’s after six years."

(https://zachholman.com/talk/firing-people)

Why is giving up all your other interests aside from your work a prerequisite for a "remotely interesting tech scene"? Surely you too see why people whould find that a slightly strange mentality?

I see why the two or three people CEO'ing a startup invest their free time, but it feels like you're advocating a culture where they can force that way of life onto all of their employees and calling it "good for startups". Well, it is, but so is slavery ;)

It has to do with unions, because the Betriebsrat always has a word to say how companies deal with their workers and overall policy.

Although I do concede not all companies have them and some do some pressure their employees (like hints about possible repercussions) not to form one.

> However, There is no way for Germany to ever get a remotely interesting tech scene with that mentality in place. That's not how you foster a startup culture.

So how do you foster startup culture, exploring employees with 60+ hours week, promising perks that don't get delivered like in SV?

And showing them the door after yet another FB clone fails with a "Thank you and please shut the door on the way out"?

I rather be part of the European work / life balance.

Healthy company culture beats startup culture.

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