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Comment by burlesona | Hacker News Reader

I would say it depends on the industry. In software engineering, in general, companies take extremely good care of their workforce because labor is very scarce and expensive. My other life experience is in architecture, and people are not treated nearly as well there, mainly because there’s a lot less scarcity of labor.

I don’t really know the dynamics of academia, but my impression is that there are a lot more people who want PhD’s and tenured professorships than there are openings for those roles, so knowing nothing else I would expect the work environment to be worse compared to software engineering.

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> In software engineering, in general, companies take extremely good care of their workforce because labor is very scarce and expensive.

Not that I've seen. I experienced a lot of "abuse" like OP mentioned in the last few years at my last job, and it was a common complaint from my peers at other companies around the country. It sounds to me like you're really lucky.

Never ever ever stay where someone treats you badly. There are great leaders out there, go work for them. I ask questions in my interviews to get at what kind of leader I'll be working for and that's the #1 consideration for me. I want to work with people who care.

By the same token, I try to take excellent care of my teammates and coworkers who report to me. The primary way I do this is by reporting to them as well.

It didn't start out that way. I worked in the same place for a lot of years, but it started deteriorating rapidly when new management came in, they tried to push "Agile", etc. I don't work there any more. Even when it was good for me, I would still here stories from friends and colleagues in other places about terrible management.

I've worked with people who would self-report feelings of being mistreated, but the real reason was that they were underperforming and the boss was not giving them the appreciation they mistakenly thought that they deserved. Their ego couldn't handle being rightly terminated or reprimanded, and they'd respond by forming uncharitably negative opinions about their prior boss, when it was their incompetence or negative attitude that was the issue.

So I always interpret such anecdotes very sceptically unless it's a particularly egregious account, unless I've witnessed it directly, or unless I know that I can trust them.

I'd compare to other industries.

My experience is perceptions of abuse and abuse are very different. What passes for abuse in software engineering would be a dream job in e.g. retail, education, construction, or many other segments of the economy.

Jerks and nice people are everywhere, but the underlying baseline is set by power dynamics.

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