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Comment by delmarc | Hacker News Reader

I have 3 kids and about to have one more in a month... people in the tech world act like its so amazing and different... get over it... no matter if you work in retail or work in a shitty work/life balance startup, its the same thing...

Just be thankful we make a bit more then most in the workforce...

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I agree it's not more amazing than someone working anywhere else, but startups are often seen as non-sense as you need to work 80 hours a week to get shit done, we were trying to break that a bit and just tell "hey, it's possible, it's not that hard actually!" :)

Correct the work/life is way offset but what about those people who need to work two jobs while their partner is also working...

Lets be realistic, its hard no matter what job you have... anything is possible... its the stigma that is attached to having kids in the tech industry that is the reason why people need to read posts like this...

I agree and not, it's easier for some people, and harder for other.

It is definitely harder for people with lower salaries who needs to have two jobs (I know some!).

It is also easier, at least here in Quebec, for people that works, as an example, for government. They have a lot of vacations, work less hours per week, flexible hours, sick days, etc.

I am glad I work @ Rainforest QA and to have so much flexibility, which makes it easier for me and my wife!

I think there's a big difference. In the tech world, there's this expectation that sometimes you're going to pull all-nighters or work 14 hour days or do sprints or whatever.

If you're working at the mall selling clothing that's pretty unlikely. In my former life in publishing, that was pretty unusual.

It's a cultural thing and it's not strictly relegated to tech, but it's not universal. Plenty of people have reliable 9-5 jobs, Monday-Friday. That's a lot easier to reconcile with parenthood than when there's a huge release sprint and they expect you to work from 9 a.m. Friday to 9 a.m. Sunday or whatever.

That's the expectation in a lot of industries (finance, consulting, law--heck my dad works in public health and he's worked 60-70+ hours most of his career). I worked at a big law firm in New York, and most of the partners had kids. Indeed, my daughter was born a month after I started at the firm. I immediately got put on an internal investigation, where the client was under threat of getting their stock delisted unless we made its auditor happy. It was a "if you're awake, you have to be in the office" situation. Somehow we all managed, despite several people on the team, including the partner, having small kids.

I think the attitude towards kids in the tech industry has more to do with its general youth worship. There's a big attitude shift towards kids from early 20's as you go into early 30's.

I agree, it is a lot of industries. It's not all of them, though, which seemed to be the point to which I responded.

There is always a tradeoff between reliability and availability when it comes to the 20 year old dev and the 35 year old dev.

It's not all of them, but it's a lot of them. In a way, having a professional job gives you a lot of flexibility. You show up 5 minutes late to your retail a few times, and you're fired.

It can be like that in tech or any industry too though, you can get fired after being late, if you have a schedule.

It's really not comparable, at least not in the places I've worked (both in tech and in law). Retail jobs and the like are very strict with schedules. As in counting minutes. Professional jobs give you a lot more flexibility as long as you get the work done. When you're a professional, employers give you a certain amount of slack because it's expensive to fire and replace you. When you're a low-skill worker, it's all zero-tolerance.

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sarcasm is always upvoted... Thanks bro!!!

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