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Silicon Valley AI Startups can embrace going fucking themselves!
9am to 9pm, 6 days a week, nothx
I usually have negative productivity after a solid 8 hours of coding because the number of mistakes and poorly thought out design decisions increases dramatically, just from sheer exhaustion.
Even if I have a good idea at 9:00 PM, I let it ride until the next day because I know it’s going to be implemented so poorly that I’ll have to rewrite it and I would rather just do it once.
Not to mention, the value in software engineers is in the quality of solutions they can derive, not the lines of code they can produce. I almost always solve the most challenging problems when I’m doing something besides staring at a screen. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had a “light bulb moment” while sitting on the lake in a bass boat.
Even Henry Fucking Ford, who was a greedy bastard, was smart enough to realize that overworked, underpaid employees cost a lot more than ones who are treated and paid well. Anyone who expects developers to just shill code for 12 hours a day, 6 days a week is a total moron just begging for their business to implode.
I’d say that’s more than controversial. It’s inhumane and should be outlawed worldwide. That’s more closer to Japanese “work yourself to death” kinda work culture than anything else. There’s a reason, from what I understand, that basically nobody, besides the bosses implementing this kinda policy, likes it.
What I think is funny is that Japan’s GDP per capita is less than half of that of the US, and Japanese productivity per work hour is also less than half of the US. In other words, Japanese business culture is all smoke and mirrors- it’s everyone performing for each other to appear to be working harder than everyone else but they’re actually less effective at generating economic growth than countries that don’t have this kind of work culture. This shit doesn’t work- we have data showing it doesn’t. Bosses like it because they’re obsessed with the appearance of productivity rather than the real thing because in spite of what all the data says, it feels like having half the workers work double the amount of time will let you get the same amount of stuff done even when that isn’t what the data says.
It’s going to hurt these companies. There is a special vibe when your workplace is entirely staffed by people who hate their lives. It is not an environment conducive to creativity or dedication. Long hours don’t make you more productive.
When I think my employer is mistreating me, I drag my feet, I engage in malicious compliance, I always decline to make the extra effort. If I see a problem somewhere that needs to be reported, actually no I didn’t. I’m the opposite when I feel rested, respected, and autonomous.
You see, AI increases productivity SO much that you need to work twice as long as those non-AI troglodytes, and we’ll fire your ass the second you finish training this model that will replace you! Isn’t it a wonderful opportunity? INNOVATION™!!!
Funny how the astronomical increases in productivity since the industrial revolution never translated into more pay for less work unless workers violently agitated for it.
It’s almost like forfeiting your rights to your work is making you vulnerable to exploitation…
Hmmm…
We are all fucked, by the way. Unless we stand up.
How the fuck can anyone think that’s sustainable?
well theyre usually not the ones doing any of the actual work
It’s not about sustainability, it never was. It was only ever about endlessly repeating the cycle of improving profit margins in the short term by any and all means. And what could sound better to venture capitalists than “improved productivity” regardless of whether or not it was true?
Very sustainable in an authoritarian regime.
Not even then, long term. Birth rates in China and Japan are really bad in part because of toxic work cultures like this. If you spend all your waking hours at work you can’t go out and meet a partner to start a family with. It’s just a practical problem. If you’re at work 12 hours a day and sleep 8 hours a day you have 1-2 hours in the morning to get ready and go to work and 1-3 hours at night to go home and get ready for bed. You do get a day off, but you’re probably so exhausted on that day off you don’t want to go anywhere. There is simply no time to go meet a romantic partner if you’re working that much.
“you’ll meet your partner through the pool of people you work with. Now get back to work! No talking!”
The PG factory I used to work at had 12 hour shifts. Everyone hates it. You get no time to do things outside of work on days that you work. Most people ate 2 of their meals at work. There was a high turnover rate for shift employees.
Yeah, I’ve worked temp factory jobs that were 12 hour shifts, 3 days on, 4 off, 4 on, 3 off, … Not 6 days/week though. It also seems stupid for software engineers, at least. Personally, my output craters when I work long hours. I’d probably get less work done on 996 than a regular 40 hour week. In the past, I’ve been in the fortunate position where I could just make my own hours, and I’m pretty sure I got about the same amount of work done doing 6 hour days as 8 hour days.
Edit: Growing up my dad did 12 hour shifts 5 days/week, and 8 hours on Saturdays. Dunno how he did it, but financially needed to.
In highschool, I did 12/5 noon-midnight for 2 summers at a corrugated plastic pipe factory.
It was grueling and hot and soul-crushingly monotonous. Have you ever listened to commercial top 40 radio for 12 hours next to >200F(100C) equipment? If I never hear Sting’s Desert Rose again, it will still be too soon. Or smell Dale’s chain-smoked vantage cigarettes (3.5 packs a shift, we made sure the fan was always in his direction).
The output was steady, so it was also punishing to human events like hunger or toilet breaks.
I can’t imagine doing it 6 days. As it was, I never saw friends, barely held a relationship, etc.
You were in a corrugated plastic pipe factory and the cigarettes were an issue? Damn. You would think the VOC off-gassing from hot plastic would break you first…
Yeah, I can still smell the place in my memory. Proustian.
I mostly worked on the “highway” line. 12 inch diameter by 10ft lengths, with drilled holes, wrapped with a fiberglass filter and packed in a bag. It was a 2 person task that has probably been more automated now. Those Vantage cigarettes man, they were really gross (and cheap) and he never took a step without one in his mouth. Lit one from the other, burning 2 at once, etc. You know, I’m probably the same age he was now.
The fun part was watching the 4ft diameter double-wall line go at the same time. That shit failed about 50% of the time so we were always cutting it up on the giant bandsaw to feed into the industrial grinder.
Ah, and that reminds me of working the coil lines. Giant bails of 3, 4, 6in. When we’d get bad runs, we’d splice them out, then feed the sometimes 50+ foot length into the grinder and run the fuck away because the other end would whip around. Workplace safety and all.
Can’t believe my parents thought that was a good way to spend my summers. I’m sure they thought it would pay for college like their summer jobs did. All for about $3/hr over minimum wage. At least I got overtime too. Lifers like Dale (or was it Dan) had worked themselves up to a bit over triple minimum wage, or $16/hr. Lol, what benefits? This was a Christian Reformed (Calvinist) run business.
I farm and work about 12-14 hours every day. Your dad’s hours sound heavenly.
Uhhh no thanks.
Fuck that
sigh
