Hacker News Reader

Comment by kleiba | Hacker News Reader

To be honest, if they paid me a 6 digit salary, I'd be happy to "answer an email" on a Saturday, it isn't exactly doing an 8+ hour shift at the weekend.

View on HN

You're selling yourself too cheaply. To habitually work on weekends I'd need at least a 7 figure salary. Maybe even 8 figures.

Sometimes to me it feels like HN posts come from a different universe to mine. $10 million to answer emails on weekends seems insane. I would gladly do it for 2x the minimum wage where I live. The situation on the market is really, really desperate, especially on the lower end.

It isn't literally "answer 1 email on a Saturday occasionally" though. I've done that for a lot less. The expectation is to work 7 days/week and/or be available to work anytime.

I appreciate that this is the reality for many jobs with lower pay - especially retail and fast food. Software and software-adjacent jobs are not like that though. Professionals in this field have, for the past quarter century, had better opportunities. I understand it's a unique job market right now and people do what they must.

I am in software. It's just that the bargaining power of juniors and new grads has fallen through the floor, but companies are still not willing to hire any of us. I would even work the full 7 work day/week schedule (despite all its negative effects) for CA$100k - which was once considered to be just an okay rate for a mid-level dev. I bet that many people I know would also take that offer.

Your willingness to work 7 days a week might just have a correlation with companies not hiring as many people

As far as I know, from the people I know, companies here aren't actually pushing people here to do this. Working conditions are about the same as they've been. Maybe a few are doing this, but there's not a trend. It's just that many have stopped or slowed hiring to the point where lots of people can't fit into the market.

But is this about "habitually work on weekends" or "occasionally attend to an urgent email on a Saturday"? To me, it's not exactly clear from the linked article, but it would be a big difference.

That said, we moved to Europe some years ago, so I have never really seen even a 6-digit salary in my life, even though I'm formally and practically qualified and have decades of experience. So there's that.

It’s not that a single email isn’t worth the bargain (it is). It’s that this is symptomatic of an unhealthy, performative culture.

This kind of behaviour incentivises a kind of pick-me, I’m suffering the most for the shareholders type of behaviour.

How many Saturday emails really make a difference? The whole thing is a ruse.

And the fact this shithead is spouting his nonsense on Steven Bartlett’s asinine podcast surprises me not.

More like 7-8 digit salary, in the case of the CEO's direct reports at Uber

Reply on news.ycombinator.com