Comment by ta3411 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ta3411 | Hacker News Reader

I am going to be voted down into oblivion but it's okay. This is my throwaway account anyway. Here are my 3 pragmatic takes regarding this situation:

- If you are an engineer, your total comp is easily north of $200,000. At that pay scale compared to other careers, I expect (and I did) to burn through the night as needed. That's a lot of money for anyone to expect to have a comfortable work/life balance. I always compare myself with doctors residency, accountants, or labor jobs, who would do a lot more work for a lot less. Tech pay, benefit, and work/life balance are outrageously good in my opinion.

- I have worked at AirBnB, Stripe, and Robinhood. And between the 3, AirBnB actually has the chillest work culture. It's known to be "too much democratic debate vs work output". But your experience may be different.

- Most importantly: Just as much as you can quit the company whenever you like, companies can also lay you off whenever they want. My main takeaway is to take care of yourself. Don't buy into Airfam or company family. You do what's right for you and company does what's right for them. (I can't comment on the specifics if Airbnb layoff was the right business move).

> If you are an engineer, your total comp is easily north of $200,000. At that pay scale compared to other careers, I expect (and I did) to burn through the night as needed.

How are other careers relevant? You take the best offer you can get in the (SWE) market, and if avoiding burnout is a choice criterion for you, you avoid the corresponding companies. Many of them are willing to pay the same compensation or more with a reasonable work-life balance, especially once they realize that they also benefit from it one way or another.

One benefit of a free market is to help optimize resource allocations, and telling yourself "it could be worse" rather than asking "could it be better?" is counterproductive.

>benefit of a free market

The US is mixed, and frankly leaning heavily to command-by-committee, same thing that caused the commies to fail. Our committee is the FOMC. Low rates increase valuations on anyone who promises 'the future'. High tech salaries are almost certainly a distortion of their meaningful value.

For me, it is less about the money and more about sort of an implied contract that exists at some companies and less so at others. That is, I'm willing to work extra hours to finish something or deal with a production emergency, with the understanding that:

- I get flexibility at other times to make up for it.

- It isn't super frequent or for very long.

- It is for a good reason.

I don't think even 300k or 400k (or whatever the going rate is for 20 YoE) would be enough for me to deal with regular death marches to help someone meet their OKRs for that quarter. I've happily worked until 3 AM a bunch of nights in a row on something that was important, but I've also busted my ass for things that could have been delivered later or not at all and it wouldn't have really mattered, and those ones are a real punch in the gut.

That's a lot of money ($200k) for anyone to expect to have a comfortable work/life balance.

This isn't true at all. In my last job (not tech) a "brutal" week might be 50 hrs and people were making double that, albeit in more senior roles (10+ years of experience).

What industry?

200k is too low in the US to overwork as a SWE. If you doubled that number I think you would be closer

200k is really not a lot of money. Nearly half if it taxed and when you factor things like housing costs and living expenses, it's not that much.. Engineers need to stop short selling themselves, you never see Lawyers going around and saying "they are making too much money".. My friend is an attorney and he charges 1,000$ just to write a single letter.

SWE is a high paying profession and rightly so because companies get to make millions off our backs.

You can't buy a home near work on $200k and send your kids to good schools in many places. Plenty of people make more than $200k and don't break their backs doing it, either.

> Airfam or company family.

Regarding that, there was an excellent business editorial in a recent Economist issue that wrote on that exact topic: "Company or cult?" [1]

[1] https://archive.ph/Uk9zC

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