A bit of a hit piece. No opportunity given for anyone at the company to give their take. Or actual views of people (not just one individual who was an atypical employee who intended to write a book) who work at the company. I fear a failure of reporting standard here. Opinion or not, it helps to be rounded!
13
Workers in the high tech industry are not only accepting this slavery, but believe that this is the only path, within their company. Be brave and do something. Your bosses are being treated badly too. And, once action begins, the head spinning at the top, is quite remarkable. New companies have no idea how strong collective action can incite, stir, and create quite the public commotion with stockholders. What do you have to lose? It's the only antidote, if you want to change your workplace, for yourself and others. This is why seniors are fired. They are not as compliant as the habitually oppressed youth of today. Seniors know the "other side," that is not as dark.
40
This was such an enlightening piece, Dan. Well said! Everyone thinks start-ups are the modern work utopia when there is a dark side to them. This piece puts things in the proper perspective. It's hard to believe companies burn through amazing talent like this. In the end, we're all a personal brand and we are in business for ourselves. I look forward to reading your book.
18
The tech industry is like the insurance industry: glorified clerks on steroids.
36
Most of these products are wholly unnecessary. Ditto for the producers of them.
And since we're in a radical mood these days (Sanders ? Trump?) why not just cut the work week to 15 or 20 hours and mandate unions.
Is it better to do something useless, or to do nothing ?? I vote for 'nothing' (like lions do most of the day), and let's go back to smelling the roses....
HubSpot ???? hahahahaha.....
And since we're in a radical mood these days (Sanders ? Trump?) why not just cut the work week to 15 or 20 hours and mandate unions.
Is it better to do something useless, or to do nothing ?? I vote for 'nothing' (like lions do most of the day), and let's go back to smelling the roses....
HubSpot ???? hahahahaha.....
30
We are constantly looking for, new awful ways to turn ourselves into slaves and machines. Look for it wherever someone claims to be making progress.
28
I love the lament at the end of this piece for long-lost American manufacturing jobs. These great tech jobs the writer describes are the sophisticated, well-paying jobs Bill Clinton was talking about when he signed NAFTA in the 1990's. All these jobs were going to magically show up matching our brainiac talents to a more sophisticated tech job of the future, and we'd all make more money and living standards would inexorably rise. Instead, what we got is what the author describes or Amazon, and I thank God I started my own business here about a decade ago where I'm more likely to employ a pipe wrench or a jig saw on any given day then an app - and much happier about it.
37
And this is why I am a librarian.
One other thing to note, the digital slaves (oops, I mean workers) I've meet are the most unhealthy people I know. Matched only by the displaced workers in the old factory towns (you are right, not much has changed). A free gym is not of much use if you don't have time to use it. Capitalism does not seem to be good for your health.
One other thing to note, the digital slaves (oops, I mean workers) I've meet are the most unhealthy people I know. Matched only by the displaced workers in the old factory towns (you are right, not much has changed). A free gym is not of much use if you don't have time to use it. Capitalism does not seem to be good for your health.
55
So glad I'm not in high tech. It sounds like a nightmare. People must start saying no.
27
The article clearly points out the workplace of today. Your job is your life - it over shadows everything you do. But how did it become like this? For many the mantra of hard work pays off blinds us when you realize too late that you really don't have a life. Family, friends....no....now they are really the people you work with. The American worker has to begin to internalize they are just a commodity to be used, nothing personal. So how can we begin to get our lives back to a sense of balance? Yes, that evil work in America, unions.
47
It's sad to see how current opinion has turned against tech culture. I, along with a lot of other people, are drawn to the culture described here. Try to imagine a Dan Lyons joining one of our Olympic sports teams to experience the training culture there, say water polo, for example. He would get chewed up and spit out faster than you could say "Amazonian". As Jeff Bezos would say, if you don't like it there's a lot of other places you can go. And Dan Lyons would proceed to write about how viciously cruel the training regimen is for water polo players, and how they've been brainwashed to believing this was fun.
Dan Lyons is correct, though, in many ways workers are disposable, but this isn't just at HubSpot or even the tech industry, it's everywhere--just ask the workers at Carrier Air Conditioning who have been given their walking papers. This has less to do with those "evil" companies, those "capitalists", and has much more to do with there being a choking over-abundance of humans willing to work under any conditions. With so many people battling for scarce resources like a viable job, things will get hot and heavy. Get over it, it's called survival, folks.
You want to solve this problem? Have less babies, reduce the population of the planet...
Dan Lyons is correct, though, in many ways workers are disposable, but this isn't just at HubSpot or even the tech industry, it's everywhere--just ask the workers at Carrier Air Conditioning who have been given their walking papers. This has less to do with those "evil" companies, those "capitalists", and has much more to do with there being a choking over-abundance of humans willing to work under any conditions. With so many people battling for scarce resources like a viable job, things will get hot and heavy. Get over it, it's called survival, folks.
You want to solve this problem? Have less babies, reduce the population of the planet...
30
Corporate capitalism is the Devil's work when it outgrows a local identity. Any company employing more than 100 people in more than one county must be at least 67% owned by the employees, not by some vicious abstract "management."
44
Nice article, but why no mention of the "we can't find qualified workers so we need more H1Bs" attitude? It fits perfectly with your point (no one wants to work there because they treat their employees so bad), but they have a lot of useless perks so people probably brag about it initially and then are probably somewhat loathe to reveal they were tricked so easily once they find out.
51
Me? 52 years in a Machine Shop. I tell my office working friends, "Now you understand how we were treated in the shop for so many years." The only hope for change is; One Monday morning everyone gets out of bed and does not go to work.
62
What you describe is luxurious compared with farm worker's treatment across the USA.
37
The start of this article sounds like the plot of Logan's Run. Just swap "graduation" for "renewed". Not exactly a glowing workplace culture comparison.
23
Right now my niece travels 50 miles by train to a tech job in NYC that doesn't pay her. It's an "internship". But all the kids that work there are graduated college. Still, they call it an "internship". She's desperate, so she pays the monthly LIRR ticket (what is that now 3-400$?). It's wage theft, but they probably have a catchy upbeat term for it like "latent synergy wage growth".
Sweat shop? You should be so lucky these days.
Sweat shop? You should be so lucky these days.
89
Having worked for years in tech I was well aware of the worker mistreatment by the industry's employers. Rampant age and sex discrimination; absolutely no job security; the demand to retrain and up skills - but always on your limited "free" time. Urged my kids to get government jobs. They did - and are happy as pigs in ..well, you know. Sad to say but government is just about the last refuge of humane employment remaining in this country.
64
Hub spot was ranked as the #1 place to work in Massachussetts by the Boston Globe in 2015 for large companies and Fortune Magazine has it in their top 100 places to work. I think those would have been informative details the author could have included in the article. He obviously has an ax to grind and this article has no credibility in my mind.
12
Adam Smith's 'invisible hand' bludgeons the 99% again and again. It is in the powerful's interest to maintain their power, but it is in the rest of our interest to 'fight the powers that be.'
Want a change? Feel the Bern!
Want a change? Feel the Bern!
41
Being 72, a museum tour guide volunteer, and a cancer patient sounds infinitely better than what is described here !
29
This model isn't new. Big name law firms hire many more recent law graduates than they can possibly keep. They pay them fabulous salaries knowing they won't have to pay them for long. They work them as close to death as they can. At the end of a year, they offer only the most workaholic, obsessed employees jobs as associates and fire the rest. Without a going away party.
43
Nice op-Ed. Sounds like the old "scientific management" has bee rediscovered
12
This is not new in the tech world. If you would like some historical context read “The Soul of a New Machine” published in 1981 by Tracy Kidder. It is a non-fiction book about a team of engineers who worked at Data General who were trying to design a new computer to compete with the Digital Equipment Corporation’s VAX. The book won 1982 National Book Award for Nonfiction and a Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction. I recommended it to all young engineers when I was developing hardware and software during that era.
31
Short HUBS into any rally -- above $53!
3
Exploitation, exploitation, exploitation. Exploitation is burned into the United States' DNA. It was a slave nation from the beginning, after all.
28
DO something. You and a half dozen people "graduated" on the same day. Wait outside for the big boss. Get in his/her face. Follow them home. Dog them on social media. Tenaciously. Go back the next morning. In their face again. Buy one share of stock, disrupt the shareholder meetings. Make ready made video pieces for broadcast, give them away. You tube. Use the very technology you are sweating for, against them. Vote Bernie by the way, as this is a step in the right direction. Charge up the hill folks. Sharpen your pitchforks.
31
At glass door.com this company gets very high ratings, 4.6 out of 5 stars, 93% would recommend it to a friend, and 96% approve of its CEO. I have never seen ratings that high that obviously do not jibe with this author's opinion.
8
Reminds me of an old R. Crumb comic about the future. When it's your "time to go", a jolly clown drives up to you on the golf course and hits you in the face with a cyanide pie.
24
It sounds far more like a bad company doing low skilled work rather than an indictment of an entire industry. I sympathize with your personal experience but once again wonder about the remarkable bias that the Nytimes has in choosing stories.
11
And to think, late 19th through mid 20th century economists thought advances in technology would lead to the 20 hour workweek, the rise of leisure, and a sustainable, prosperous creative class. If the American worker is jaded and cynical (as some here have accused Mr. Lyons of being), it is born of experiences like this. The avarice of capital and willingness to eek every available bit of time and energy from labor should never be underestimated. It is the duty of those who labor (and if you draw a paycheck, you are labor) to push back on these pressures. To the extent leaders like Mr. Bezos have the "right" to tell their employees "if you don't like it, go somewhere else" his employees have the right (and obligation) to say "this is our organization too and we should have some say in the culture of our workplace."
17
I cringe every time I hear "data-drive environment/workplace"...it has ruined the tech sector, education professions, etc...precisely, why I will never work at a charter school.
15
I will make a comment here based on personal experience that extends back over 35 years. After reading the article and comments, I will bet that there are a whole bunch of union organizers jumping up and down. This could be the salvation of a dying group - unions. The moguls of the tech sector are too young to remember, but this is EXACTLY how unions got started in the industrial sector. Treating your workforce (your most valuable asset, by the way) as disposable, is a classic invitation to be organized by a union.
Say goodby to your flexibility and mega profits, you have brought this on yourselves.
Say goodby to your flexibility and mega profits, you have brought this on yourselves.
29
Once cost pressures increase the sweatshop atmosphere tends to increase regardless of industry. Under Carly Fiorina HP laid off around 30,000 people and since she left has laid off another 100,000. Friends of friends in Delaware talk about the layoffs at Dupont, coworkers talk about manufacturing at IBM, etc., all with similar tales of the absurdities that occur in such situations. At one time such an environment was expected in sweatshops, but now the drive to glean every penny from every action and every minute has become so relentless that as the article notes the sweatshop atmosphere is much more common. Years back at HP teams would be driven hard when needed, but the attitude was that such efforts could not be sustained without burning people out. Today an increasing number of companies don't seem to care.
We are harking back to the days of 'Modern Times', the Chaplin film from 1936; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_1apYo6-Ow , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPSK4zZtzLI ,
We are harking back to the days of 'Modern Times', the Chaplin film from 1936; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_1apYo6-Ow , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPSK4zZtzLI ,
25
This is like reading Marx describing the working conditions of European workers in the 19th century. But, eventually they won the right to a 40 hour week, paid vacation, family leave, severance pay for job termination, health care and retirement benefits. What has happened to you America?
37
That is pretty cruel to send a person packing and act like it's a great opportunity. Most people don't really like change and would stay put their whole careers. However, this can lead to complacency so unfortunate decisions must be made.
But as for tech. I have to use software for work as do 99% of the people I know. I can't stand the random "upgrade" that I do not need. I usually have to waste an entire day trying to figure out what usually amounts to just a few different items I didn't need or ask for. THAT costs me money and time.
My other problem with tech is I feel like I'm some sort tracked animal being constantly hunted down. My inbox has anywhere between 75 to 100 new emails everyday trying to sell me stuff or rip me off. I asked almost all retailers to take me off their list and they say I will have to receive another email to confirm. I truly think it is making most people so uptight.
And for goodness sake, I don't expect people to know my profession but everyone needs their computers to work, so please stop acting like everyone had a double major in whatever field and computers science as well!!!
But as for tech. I have to use software for work as do 99% of the people I know. I can't stand the random "upgrade" that I do not need. I usually have to waste an entire day trying to figure out what usually amounts to just a few different items I didn't need or ask for. THAT costs me money and time.
My other problem with tech is I feel like I'm some sort tracked animal being constantly hunted down. My inbox has anywhere between 75 to 100 new emails everyday trying to sell me stuff or rip me off. I asked almost all retailers to take me off their list and they say I will have to receive another email to confirm. I truly think it is making most people so uptight.
And for goodness sake, I don't expect people to know my profession but everyone needs their computers to work, so please stop acting like everyone had a double major in whatever field and computers science as well!!!
16
Um, this isn't new, and it doesn't trace to 2009, and it isn't just tech.
10
This is why you always need to have a Plan B, C and D. It may not be pleasant to think about what you'd do if you we're suddenly fired, but unless you're independently wealthy, you'll need to do something to bring in income. Better to think about it when you're working and can plan and research, than when you're walking out the door in a state of shock with your box of personal items.
18
Thank you so much for this article I've thought that these "cool" places where nothing more than mind control shops. Who came up with this crazy idea that people at work are your friends and that you should share your life with them? There is a words for people at work - colleagues. No they are not friend. Friends never think of themselves first to your detriment. If they do they guess what they are ex-friends. The workplace does not have to be a nasty zone but often it is. If you look good then I look bad - zero sum. I for one would not want to be a 20 or 30 something in the current environment.
19
If these are the new sweatshops, then I can see unions coming back. People are being abused.
17
In 1642, John Donne wrote "No man is an island.."
Now it appears every worker is not only an island, but fated to be set adrift on an ice floe at the end of their utility.
Now it appears every worker is not only an island, but fated to be set adrift on an ice floe at the end of their utility.
18
A sweatshop? No, this sounds more like a stereotypical "first world" labor problem.
If you want to see what real sweatshops look like, check out China and Vietnam.
If you want to see what real sweatshops look like, check out China and Vietnam.
13
It is incomprehensible that the GOP recommends "saving" Social Security but raising the age when you can apply! With so many people losing jobs in their late 50's, not able to find another one.....what are they going to do in the lengthening interim waiting for Social Security? Doesn't make sense!!
31
"Treating workers as if they are widgets to be used up and discarded "
Well, yes, but this is nothing new. But apparently it's only since it's started happening to white collar workers that it's become something to worry about.
Welcome to the real world, white collar workers! Maybe you'll join those of us in the working class in our fight to revive the labor movement now instead of denigrating us. Maybe you'll realize that you have more in common with us than you do with the 1%er who owns your company and who holds your fate in his/her hands and who can ruin your life at a whim just to create a penny's worth of "shareholder value."
Well, yes, but this is nothing new. But apparently it's only since it's started happening to white collar workers that it's become something to worry about.
Welcome to the real world, white collar workers! Maybe you'll join those of us in the working class in our fight to revive the labor movement now instead of denigrating us. Maybe you'll realize that you have more in common with us than you do with the 1%er who owns your company and who holds your fate in his/her hands and who can ruin your life at a whim just to create a penny's worth of "shareholder value."
293
The more of anything there is, the less each unit of it is worth. Welcome to Hell.
11
Seriously?! Cry me a river. Sorry, but the difference for sweat shop employees are they're paid less than minimum wage whereas the average engineer in the tech/digital space is paid 130K. As a recruiter I should know and the diva attitude attached to most of these folks. So next time I say, count your blessings instead of whining about your "back-breaking" work.
9
Many programming shops are indeed like work in a garment factory. Like my job at Chase Manhattan Bank in the 1990's. The desktop computers laid out like sewing machines on an open floor. Screaming abusive immigrant supervisors with zero leadership and communication skills, ridiculous deadlines that set you up for failure. The "offshore group" of Russian and Ukrainian indentured programmers in the next room. I don't miss it.
23
When a computer designer I know was terminated by his younger boss (a much less qualified person and the protégé of the supervisor), the boss asked if he should throw him a goodbye party. It could be a Dilbert strip except the consequences are so serious (loss of retirement, etc.)
12
If you are told from birth that you're a superstar or "awesome" without haven't accomplished anything yet then you will be subject to this kind of manipulation.
16
George Orwell is spinnin' in his grave.
7
women make the mistake of turning theyre office into theyre bedroom. Its epidemic w/mothers. Theyre not in a work mind-set, theyre just a relocated mom = 70cents to the dollar.
If in business school, corporate universities, or as managers in the workplace we focused half as much on leadership as we do analytics, I dare say a lot of this silliness would go away.
9
This is not just in the start up company's this phenomenon is what business is all about. As a manager you must put the company first all others are tools to make money. That's just how business is done.
4
There is no app invented that created a new service that wasn't already available. Easier or readily available but not new. So take your sweat equity and invest it in something you enjoy beyond the slave labor you're engaged in.
It's a shame the hard work isn't put towards curing cancer or multiple sclerosis. But there are no stock options I guess.
It's a shame the hard work isn't put towards curing cancer or multiple sclerosis. But there are no stock options I guess.
12
The same people who complain about these conditions buy everything from Amazon, communicate via Facebook and Snapchat and Twitter and then wake up wondering where their souls went. Disrupt yourself!
140
what a cry baby
Here in the US, when people aren't productive, they are let go.
A furniture maker, 100 years ago, also fired, could have written a similar piece.
This is called capitalism.
Now is your chance, vote for Bernie next Tuesday...he will steal the "loot" from those risk taking capitalists and redistribute it to the workers.
Here in the US, when people aren't productive, they are let go.
A furniture maker, 100 years ago, also fired, could have written a similar piece.
This is called capitalism.
Now is your chance, vote for Bernie next Tuesday...he will steal the "loot" from those risk taking capitalists and redistribute it to the workers.
4
Dan Lyons is the author of “Disrupted: My Misadventure in the Start-Up Bubble.”
Push that book!
Push that book!
10
There's one answer: UNIONIZE!
17
Disruption, as newspeak jargon, is just another term for a more subtle form of work place violence than the overseers whips of generations before. Dressed up of course, and latte is served.
15
And this is why unions remain relevant.
13
Weak attempts at internal slang are a desperate Management effort to create "engagement" in their employees. Employers and their HR teams have been scratching their heads the last few years wondering why employees aren't committed or "engaged" to the work they do and their employer. Why can't they keep talent? Dan Lyons has hit the nail on the head with explaining why. These kids happen to have the "superpower" of knowing they are being used like Kleenex and so giving that last piece of themselves, mental engagement, is not going to happen by any employee with an ounce of self preservation.
12
It's Uber uber alles, friends. Pretty soon we will all no longer be employees and have no job security whatever.
That's why things like Medicare for all independent of you "job" is a necessity.
That's also why incrementalism is doomed to fail: the social contract is decaying faster than any incremental approach could begin to slow down.
That's why things like Medicare for all independent of you "job" is a necessity.
That's also why incrementalism is doomed to fail: the social contract is decaying faster than any incremental approach could begin to slow down.
16
For all the grand pronouncements of this new tech age and how it will revolutionize peoples lives and livelihoods, the only real truism is:
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
8
Glad I'm retired. Sad for my children. Thank goodness they can't take away the art of writing.
8
As someone who has worked for 50years in both Blue and White Collar jobs, Mr. Lyons sounds more like a thin skinned, privileged whiner than some champion of the working class. The brutal fact was, to that particular software developer employer, Mr. Lyons, as a non-technical employee was less valuable and thus more disposable than its technical workers. Just as at Newsweek, Mr. Lyons, as a writer, was more useful to that publisher than a janitor. That's life, bud. Get over your privileged self.
5
Soul-killing.
11
TheUS really lost the Cold War. All its corporations are communist dictatorships now.
13
This is completely true, too: "... UNFORTUNATELY, working at a start-up all too often involves getting bossed around by undertrained (or untrained) managers and fired on a whim. Bias based on age, race and gender is rampant, as is sexual harassment. The free snacks are nice, but you also must tolerate having your head stuffed with silly jargon and ideology about being on a mission to change the world. Companies sell shares to the public while still losing money. Wealth is generated, but most of the loot goes to a handful of people at the top, the founders and venture capital investors..."
9
My wife is a teacher. She generally works 12 hour days during the week and then puts in another 16 hours over the weekend. I was recently amused and then irritated by a proposal by the Pinellas County School board's to 'fix' some really bad schools. They said they'd pay the teachers an extra $25,000 a year to teach in these schools but the teachers would need to be willing to "work 9 hours a day sometimes"... What a joke.
18
I'd thought about getting LinkedIn Premium, but not anymore.
7
One my appointments on a recent business trip to Chicago was in tge old warehouse district west of the Loop. Now it's the home of high and medium end restaurants, startups and corporate back offices.
The meeting, in a nicely renovated warehouse, went well and I was given a mini tour of the place. Low and behold if it wasn't a scene from a vast garment factory floor from 100 years ago; except the young workers were indeed hunched over computers rather than sewing machines. And, yes, they're probably making about $40k or so a year; not a lot, especially for Chicago, and well below median. Meantime, upper management is getting eight figures. What do they do with all that?
What are the remedies? Unions? Maybe. Tax reform regarding that pesky top percentage, including off shore restrictions? Definitely. Corporate tax reforms? Ditto. There's more, I'm sure.
America must get itself out of this1920s type of inequality. Continuing on this track builds more "serfdom" and serfs eventually grab their tools and rebel.
The meeting, in a nicely renovated warehouse, went well and I was given a mini tour of the place. Low and behold if it wasn't a scene from a vast garment factory floor from 100 years ago; except the young workers were indeed hunched over computers rather than sewing machines. And, yes, they're probably making about $40k or so a year; not a lot, especially for Chicago, and well below median. Meantime, upper management is getting eight figures. What do they do with all that?
What are the remedies? Unions? Maybe. Tax reform regarding that pesky top percentage, including off shore restrictions? Definitely. Corporate tax reforms? Ditto. There's more, I'm sure.
America must get itself out of this1920s type of inequality. Continuing on this track builds more "serfdom" and serfs eventually grab their tools and rebel.
24
And the Republicans want to do away with the ACA? This is one of the best reasons for single payer I can think of. With all of the emphasis on the bottom line, whatever that is, one wonders how all of this nonsense affects the quality of the product.
8
Seems like IT has become the latest service industry with the added requirement of technical education.
1. no respect for workers
2. pay as little as possible
3. franchise holder/mupper management get all rewards
4. invent your own stupid meaningless language
5. drape everything in the cheeriness of a happy meal
1. no respect for workers
2. pay as little as possible
3. franchise holder/mupper management get all rewards
4. invent your own stupid meaningless language
5. drape everything in the cheeriness of a happy meal
126
After 15 years as a marketer in San Francisco, starting in 1998, I've seen these "enlightened" practices build year by year. To see such antiqued ideas lauded as brilliance was maddening, and the culture leaked from Silicon Valley into every workplace environment like a toxic accident. Working for a nonprofit, falsified metrics worship rose to the point that the very people we were trying to help came in last place. It was cruel.
22
We were working on a large software project for a Dutch firm.
The first day of the project, we were in our office working at 5:30 when the security guard came around and reminded us that he had to lock up at 6:00. At 5:00 the entire place emptied out.
We couldn't believe it.
It wasn't hard to get used to.
The first day of the project, we were in our office working at 5:30 when the security guard came around and reminded us that he had to lock up at 6:00. At 5:00 the entire place emptied out.
We couldn't believe it.
It wasn't hard to get used to.
40
I had a programming job, 8 to 5, paid weekly at near minimum wage. Often, to fix some urgent problem, I had to stay past 5, sometime till 1am. No extra pay for that, and still expected to be at my post 8 am next morning. I quit, never looked back.
23
it's all a part of the American race to the bottom...
21
They bring the skills of filling boxes at Amazon and cold calling from a script to Hubwhatever. These are jobs worth suffering over?
Try insurance sales, they'll hire the walking dead. Transamerica has tons of outposts where people work as second jobs. The idea is to sell fee laden annuities to all your relatives, friends, and their friends, and when they inevitably quit making monthly payments, the company claws back the fat commission check you got for selling it. Even better when you suck a pal into joining up, then you get an override from his work. Can you say Amway?
Oh, there's no salary, you pay for your insurance license and the test you took to get it, you even have to pay $100 for your own background check. Several nights a week, you get to attend 'educational' sessions where they play obnoxiously loud pump-you-up music and hand out cookies. Almost heaven.
Try insurance sales, they'll hire the walking dead. Transamerica has tons of outposts where people work as second jobs. The idea is to sell fee laden annuities to all your relatives, friends, and their friends, and when they inevitably quit making monthly payments, the company claws back the fat commission check you got for selling it. Even better when you suck a pal into joining up, then you get an override from his work. Can you say Amway?
Oh, there's no salary, you pay for your insurance license and the test you took to get it, you even have to pay $100 for your own background check. Several nights a week, you get to attend 'educational' sessions where they play obnoxiously loud pump-you-up music and hand out cookies. Almost heaven.
14
We need to change the policies that foster the mindset that employees are disposable. A good start would be promoting unions again.
19
If you don't like the pay and work conditions, feel free to start a company of your own (like the founders of HubSpot did) and run it the way you want.
5
I guess it's not surprising that a bunch of tech nerds place little value on people. Still, this seems to be part of a broad trend of "shareholders" over the average worker, one that started with Reagan and rise of conservatism. We need to oust the current crop of Republicans and restore balance.
100
So they all study the same thing and then wonder why any one of them is disposable?
This is just another argument for liberal arts educations for all undergraduates. Vocational training is only good as long as the workers are in demand. Other than that, you're stuck with a degree worth jack.
This is just another argument for liberal arts educations for all undergraduates. Vocational training is only good as long as the workers are in demand. Other than that, you're stuck with a degree worth jack.
84
And that is the reason why there are unions.
270
Tech workers should accept these conditions when they sign contracts that pay what professional ball players get AND have clauses in them that PROTECT THEIR INTERESTS if they get "injured".
The comparison is not even remotely comparable. Just goes to show that these people live in their own little bubble and have no idea what REALLY happens in the rest of the world.
The comparison is not even remotely comparable. Just goes to show that these people live in their own little bubble and have no idea what REALLY happens in the rest of the world.
Unfortunately, politicians on both sides of the isle can talk all they want about rebuilding the middle class, but as long as the modern workplace continues to evolve to the model described in the article, what was once known as the 'middle class' is doomed. That old notion of middle class was built on economic stability - union jobs, public service jobs, corporate managers who were rewarded for their long term stewardship of the enterprise - that allowed families to establish themselves in a community and build a life. Now, my kids have no notion of settling into a community, since they have no expectation that they will hold any one job for more than a year or two. I think this does a lot of damage to the social fabric of our country.
21
I doubt that all startups are like that because it depends on the founder and the culture they and the investors set, but the evidence sure is adding up that many, if not most industries especially in tech, where I see it most, are breaking the law. They do so by discriminating on gender, disability, age and of course ethnicity or race. I think it's about time for a review of EEOP laws.
Entrepreneurs and libertarian ideologues like Jeff Bezos want people that they can work round the clock at a set pay scale. My working 70 hours at startups was never mentioned in my hiring contract. It said that "upon occasion" I would be required to work more hours, but it grew to regular 70 hour work week and God forbid if I said no. I would be letting the "team" down.
This has ultimate consequences on STEM programs and hiring graduates from the US. STEM programs are currently a sham. I ask parents who have kids in tech and American workers who are knowledgeable in tech who do you think the "job creators" are going to hire? PhD.'s from overseas willing to work for 1/2 the fictitious wage posting or a citizen? It a race to the bottom.
BTW, I was once asked if I was a christian and if my beliefs would be an impediment to the firm's profitability, by two thirty somethings. I walked out of the interview.
Entrepreneurs and libertarian ideologues like Jeff Bezos want people that they can work round the clock at a set pay scale. My working 70 hours at startups was never mentioned in my hiring contract. It said that "upon occasion" I would be required to work more hours, but it grew to regular 70 hour work week and God forbid if I said no. I would be letting the "team" down.
This has ultimate consequences on STEM programs and hiring graduates from the US. STEM programs are currently a sham. I ask parents who have kids in tech and American workers who are knowledgeable in tech who do you think the "job creators" are going to hire? PhD.'s from overseas willing to work for 1/2 the fictitious wage posting or a citizen? It a race to the bottom.
BTW, I was once asked if I was a christian and if my beliefs would be an impediment to the firm's profitability, by two thirty somethings. I walked out of the interview.
17
One way out of this mess: be a techie, a good one, and companies big & small want to hire and keep you. I've had more or less my choice of software work over the past 20 years. Offshoring, bubbles, obsolescence, nothing's really affected the picture.
1
Isn't greed always driving business? People had to fight, give their lives to get decent work places, decent living wages, and to end child labor. Change didn't come because 'the bosses' were nice folks who handed these things over.
Why would Silicon Valley be any different? Or the Biotech industry? Billionaires didn't get that way by being Mr Nice Guy.
Time to see these arrogant Silicon Valley types and their industries for what they are - greedy, bigoted, and exploitative. Please don't tell me you're changing the world for the better. And don't think that giving away your billions after the fact makes it all ok in the end. It doesn't.
Great article.
Why would Silicon Valley be any different? Or the Biotech industry? Billionaires didn't get that way by being Mr Nice Guy.
Time to see these arrogant Silicon Valley types and their industries for what they are - greedy, bigoted, and exploitative. Please don't tell me you're changing the world for the better. And don't think that giving away your billions after the fact makes it all ok in the end. It doesn't.
Great article.
24
Start a new small business in any field from construction to production and see if you can keep it 9-5 M-F and be successful.
4
This is why workers need unions.
16
I so appreciate reading these stories bc each time we hear of a disreputable company, we add another name to our lengthening Do Not Patronize list. Because of NYT stories about Amazon and nail salons, we no longer patronize these unscrupulous businesses and I try to motivate others to redirect their purchasing power, too. When I'm envangelizing, the initial response is often shrugged shoulders and disinterest, but it's very interesting to watch people change their thinking as we talk. We are all convinced of our powerlessness, but because our cumulative purchases create these behemoth companies, our cumulative rejection will destroy them.
14
I recall having been laid off (fired) in the early 70s at possibly the worst moment in my life. I had just divorced and was attempting to rebuild my self-esteem, not to mention my bank account. I felt reasonably safe in my job, being two steps in seniority above the person on the line for being laid off (fired). I was laid off anyway, because the people below me in seniority were deemed indispensable by the executives they served. I was forced into involuntary freelance status as a writer, and began attempting to sell my services in an economy where things weren't going so well, when I was called by my former boss, who hadn't wanted to lay me off. He offered me an assignment with a great rate of pay -- to ghostwrite a piece for the chairman of the board of the company outlining why the company was determined to hang on to its young, talented, upcoming executives. I found this extremely amusing and wrote two pieces -- a satire describing how young executives would be laid off, but not really, and a sober-sided lie. I gave the satire to my former boss. He had a good sense of humor and laughed his way through it, then asked me for the real one. I was re-hired about six weeks later, then left the company a year after that. In the exit interview, my boss told me he understood and to keep in touch.
20
I am wondering whether this treatment is the "new normal" for engineers. With LinkedIn and the associated ease of locating replacement Technology Talent, we are competing on a global basis against our peers in Bangalore,Warsaw, and Sofia . For all the push to increase STEM graduates, it is globalization and lack of job security that is one of the big reasons why these fields do not attract a larger US career following.
74
I graduated from college in 2007, and as you can imagine had quite the rocky start to my working career as a result. In the years following the financial crisis, I was laid off on two occasions, and in the interim spent time piecing together freelance work where I could to get by. While it was not easy, it did impart on me an understanding about the working world that I think most people with better timing may loosely understand, but have not fully internalized. That is, a company, whose sole purpose of existence is to generate profit, cannot be "loyal" to you, or "compassionate" to you. These are emotions reserved for humans, and regardless of how the law may view companies, they are most certainly not human. As soon as it is not in the best interest of the company to employ you, you will be discarded. The number of late nights you put in or vacation days sacrificed will be of no consequence. Capitalism, like nature, has a cold indifference to your well-being.
Knowing this, we must work to create our own safety net. My wife and I are now gainfully employed but collectively do not make 6 figures. Yet we manage to save and invest around 50% of our income. We could easily weather an extended bout of unemployment, and if we are lucky enough to not be laid off, we'll be able to retire comfortably way before we hit 65.
You don't need to keep up with the Joneses. If we know the nature of the beast, it is our own fault if we are eaten.
Knowing this, we must work to create our own safety net. My wife and I are now gainfully employed but collectively do not make 6 figures. Yet we manage to save and invest around 50% of our income. We could easily weather an extended bout of unemployment, and if we are lucky enough to not be laid off, we'll be able to retire comfortably way before we hit 65.
You don't need to keep up with the Joneses. If we know the nature of the beast, it is our own fault if we are eaten.
62
I'm sorry that this is the working world you've grown up in, and I congratulate your foresight and maturity (saving 50% of your income is quite impressive). But there was a time in this country when companies cared about their employees AND made a profit; pension plans, paid vacations, on-site medical care, etc. And there are countries in this world (Scandinavian to name a few), where workers are protected while capitalism thrives. I for one do not adhere to the dog-eat-dog philosophy you have so easily internalized (through no fault of your own), but I'm of another generation and thank goodness, will hopefully retire in another 5-6 years and leave the US which, as a dual national, I have the option to do. I fear for the future of this country and in a way am glad I didn't have children. I would have cried my eyes out if a child of mine felt the way you do about the world.
39
Just described the contract attorney workforce in NYC (except the superpower part), and I'm sure, nationally. Some are hired directly by law firms, called "staff attorneys," and advertised by their own websites as such, so they look like employees and are supervised by non-attorneys. No one likes attorneys, but in this climate of inequality and market supply and demand, law firms determined to pay these contract attorneys half what they were paid 10 years ago such that making a living (paying rent, bills, law school LOANS) is severely impacted. While the media keeps indicating the labor economy is improving, contract attorneys still have to work until they literally drop dead while maximizing hours to earn half what they earned in an earlier day. I, myself, have to work 2 jobs and long for the quaint dream of one full-time job. It's not just tech or fast-food workers struggling to make a living wage, anymore; it's everywhere employers have transitioned to use contract labor or is merely cutting costs, and rights, at the employee's expense. Get on that, candidates.
20
The work environment that now exists for most people reminds me of observing wildlife.
Animals constantly must be alert for a predator about to take them for a meal.
Welcome to the new reality. This is the limit of what happens when workers are powerless.
Animals constantly must be alert for a predator about to take them for a meal.
Welcome to the new reality. This is the limit of what happens when workers are powerless.
14
This trend is not limited to high tech; it's spreading throughout much of American business. The ethos and the verbiage that goes with it is Orwellian, yet what's to be done about it? Should we look to Bernie Sanders-sponsored legislation making it illegal for the bad guys to behave in this way? That's a nonstarter from every perspective. More government regulation of business is not the answer, and in any case how do you regulate this kind of workplace behavior? It simply can't be done, practically speaking. We have reached a new landmark in the evolution of capitalism. The throwaway society now includes not just goods, but people. Most workers are disposable.
Each one of us must start making choices about how we work, what we work at, and how much we really need to consume. Either join the system and try to game it, or drop out and seek alternative life paths. Don't waste your time trying to change Jeff Bezos and all the Bezos wannabes.
Each one of us must start making choices about how we work, what we work at, and how much we really need to consume. Either join the system and try to game it, or drop out and seek alternative life paths. Don't waste your time trying to change Jeff Bezos and all the Bezos wannabes.
13
This kind of thinking is rampant among "professional" jobs, too. Law firms come to mind from personal experience. Use up those associates and see who survives.
Then there are temp agencies.
Temp agencies step in like hyenas when a company wants to "save money" and contract jobs. Talk about exploitation.
Whatever happened to training and retaining? That build loyalty and a sense of "family" not mumbo jumbo or Orwellian terms to make an employee "feel good" about being fired.
Then there are temp agencies.
Temp agencies step in like hyenas when a company wants to "save money" and contract jobs. Talk about exploitation.
Whatever happened to training and retaining? That build loyalty and a sense of "family" not mumbo jumbo or Orwellian terms to make an employee "feel good" about being fired.
18
Similar issue in the medical field with the rise of "management" - making decisions without consequences who go on to more "meetings" while the people who actually deliver health care are devalued. The best way to save money that they never admit would be to get rid of 99% of management but somehow they have become the bosses !
21
Things never change. The bosses at the top want to make sure they have TOTAL control over their employees' lives and dispose of them at a moment's notice. This was epidemic in the so--called "Gilded Age" and do you know what the answer was, that got decent wages, shorter hours, safer working conditions? The modern purveyors of that were, of course, Steve Jobs and H. Ross Perot. Bezos and others learned it from them.
Unions! That's right, that dirty word given satanic horns by Ronald Reagan and most plutocrats. In their era, the tycoons fought the unions tooth-and-nail in what was truly a civil war. They hired teams of thugs, frequently Pinkertons, to terrorize workers, sometimes committing murder, arson, kidnapping, beatings, framing "troublemakers". And backed by Presidents and Governors. One President went so far as to send in Federal troops to break a strike over the Governor's objections! So, when the Democratic Convention of 1896 was held in Chicago, Illinois Governor John Peter Altgeld used his significant influence to block President Grover Cleveland's re-nomination.
Unions and organizing workers again are the only way to stop such exploitation. THAT is the "revolution" America needs. Enough of this phoney bull-ony that being fired is anything but being fired and being denied income, with all the dreadful implications of that.
Unions! That's right, that dirty word given satanic horns by Ronald Reagan and most plutocrats. In their era, the tycoons fought the unions tooth-and-nail in what was truly a civil war. They hired teams of thugs, frequently Pinkertons, to terrorize workers, sometimes committing murder, arson, kidnapping, beatings, framing "troublemakers". And backed by Presidents and Governors. One President went so far as to send in Federal troops to break a strike over the Governor's objections! So, when the Democratic Convention of 1896 was held in Chicago, Illinois Governor John Peter Altgeld used his significant influence to block President Grover Cleveland's re-nomination.
Unions and organizing workers again are the only way to stop such exploitation. THAT is the "revolution" America needs. Enough of this phoney bull-ony that being fired is anything but being fired and being denied income, with all the dreadful implications of that.
36
Fascinating as anthropology, especially the interval of cult indoctrination. But I’m afraid it’s much broader. If you had predicted a few decades ago that people would be voluntarily walking around plugged into or hypnotized by gadgets from which their behavior was subtly being directed or at least influenced they would laugh. To some degree this is just an expansion and reordering of the television advertizing and conformist culture of the 1950s and early 60s. The great change has been the successful selling of technology as “cool,” a revealing co-opting of language. There is no counterculture in the old sense.
18
I hate to say it, because I have been fervently anti-union most of my adult life, but this is what unionization is for - to combat severe injustice in the workplace. Unions in the 20th century outlived their usefulness as they proceeded to negotiate unsustainable benefits and hyper-restrictive work rules that caused productivity to plummet below competitive levels -- anybody remember General Motors? Initially, they were formed to make work reasonable.
Since the 1980's. unions have largely gone by the wayside, but with employers such as Amazon, Hub Spot and the like, becoming the rule rather than the exception, unions ought to see a big wave of re-acceptance. I suspect that some smart "Super Stars" formerly with these companies may come around to the same thinking, and reinvent union organizing for the 21st century.
Since the 1980's. unions have largely gone by the wayside, but with employers such as Amazon, Hub Spot and the like, becoming the rule rather than the exception, unions ought to see a big wave of re-acceptance. I suspect that some smart "Super Stars" formerly with these companies may come around to the same thinking, and reinvent union organizing for the 21st century.
37
Two thoughts:
The bedrock of American capitalism is exploitation. Our country grew wealthy from our inception through slave labor. We need to invent a new form of capitalism that works for everyone. Worker own coops anyone?
If woman were more powerful in the United States and were as likely as men to run businesses, working conditions would be healthier and more balanced places to work.
The bedrock of American capitalism is exploitation. Our country grew wealthy from our inception through slave labor. We need to invent a new form of capitalism that works for everyone. Worker own coops anyone?
If woman were more powerful in the United States and were as likely as men to run businesses, working conditions would be healthier and more balanced places to work.
26
The commentary leads to one of the positive creations of this tech era scramble - The B-Corp, or Benefit Corporation. At last companies and thoughtful leaders who have a heart as well as a brain can declare clearly and loudly that they exist for more than profit going to their shareholders. At last stakeholders of all kinds - including the employees - can be front and center in what the organization stands for.
Beyond acting for the shareholders, rather than all of the key stakeholders - or what I like to call the constituents of the organization - leaders need to learn that maximum profit is almost never the best and most sustainable path. It is a very very rare organization that has maximized return to its shareholders and lasted as a leader in their field for more than a decade.
Craziness in service of profits is still craziness.
Beyond acting for the shareholders, rather than all of the key stakeholders - or what I like to call the constituents of the organization - leaders need to learn that maximum profit is almost never the best and most sustainable path. It is a very very rare organization that has maximized return to its shareholders and lasted as a leader in their field for more than a decade.
Craziness in service of profits is still craziness.
6
This article makes clear something I have long suspected, that "tech" work takes little specialized knowledge and education to perform. Anybody can do it. How else can you explain the very low value shown for skill, knowledge and experience? Ironically, the cities in which the most prominent tech start ups are based have the highest rental/ownership cost for living, which means when one loses one's job the choice is to take another bad one or move back with mom and dad.
14
There is only one candidate for President who addresses the reality at the heart of this issue.
Our society has been trained to admire and envy the obscenely wealthy as the model of "success" toward which to strive, and to believe that unfettered capitalism, the "free market," is part of God's plan. Why, then, should anybody be surprised at the result? Some people may recoil at the phrase "political revolution," but our model of extractive, oligarchic, corporate rule is thoroughly corrupt and morally bankrupt. We need to rein in these folks and focus on rebuilding a successful society. We should be striving for good quality of life for everyone--not just the billionaires.
Three books: Dark Money by Jane Mayer, Why Nations Fail by Acemoglu and Robinson, and Chasing the American Dream by Rank, Hirschl, and Foster.
Our society has been trained to admire and envy the obscenely wealthy as the model of "success" toward which to strive, and to believe that unfettered capitalism, the "free market," is part of God's plan. Why, then, should anybody be surprised at the result? Some people may recoil at the phrase "political revolution," but our model of extractive, oligarchic, corporate rule is thoroughly corrupt and morally bankrupt. We need to rein in these folks and focus on rebuilding a successful society. We should be striving for good quality of life for everyone--not just the billionaires.
Three books: Dark Money by Jane Mayer, Why Nations Fail by Acemoglu and Robinson, and Chasing the American Dream by Rank, Hirschl, and Foster.
31
The only change from the 30's and 40's I see here is the official, capitalist
rhetoric. And the author's effort to deal with it; the futile dance of a horsefly against the glass.
rhetoric. And the author's effort to deal with it; the futile dance of a horsefly against the glass.
9
I think one symptom of this system which sees employees as disposable is the universal adoption of the name for what used to be called the "personnel department." Now it is called "human resources." Pardon me, but I am not a "human resource" I am a human being.
29
Oh, "personnel" is so warm and friendly? Like words such as "beverage", have you ever heard that word used unironically in normal conversation between individuals outside of a business setting ("Would you like a beverage?").
Personnel is a buzzword from the military where concepts built around violence and killing are abstracted ("ordinance", "graves registration"). Its other connotation is as a weapon, the "anti-personnel" land mine)
"Human Resources" was actually intended as an upgrade to the impersonal "personnel" at a time when corporations had to appear to be concerned about their blue and white collar labor (as in "our most important resources walk out of here every day"). Now, considering what's written here and the obvious function of HR departments to cover management's behind, it's just more hypocritical Orwellian corporate speak. But it was probably a well intended change at the time in the 60s and 70s, before Ray-gun.
Personnel is a buzzword from the military where concepts built around violence and killing are abstracted ("ordinance", "graves registration"). Its other connotation is as a weapon, the "anti-personnel" land mine)
"Human Resources" was actually intended as an upgrade to the impersonal "personnel" at a time when corporations had to appear to be concerned about their blue and white collar labor (as in "our most important resources walk out of here every day"). Now, considering what's written here and the obvious function of HR departments to cover management's behind, it's just more hypocritical Orwellian corporate speak. But it was probably a well intended change at the time in the 60s and 70s, before Ray-gun.
7
Tis more now than ever that labor and profit form a pyramid which devolves into a Ponzi scheme where all profits go to the very top.
Creative geniuses who lead the company to success should own a large share but it can’t be 100 to 1. Investors, who risk their money, should get up to 5 times what they risk but not 100. This is more than just about fairness. The free market economy grinds to a halt when all the chips, i.e. wealth, end up in the hand of the top poker players. http://ideabits.blogspot.com/2014/05/job-market-pyramid.html
Mass unemployment is main cause of social issues. http://www.globalresearch.ca/war-terrorism-and-the-global-economic-crisi...
Trillions of dollars kept in offshore accounts and trillions of cash held by corporations. The purpose of money is to eventually complete a fair trade. Money that sits idle indefinitely is an indicator of a stalled market.
Taxing is not the only solution. Much of corporate income today is from constant revenue streams of renting, leasing, and subscribing. Perhaps, after the company is well past recouping all initial investment, a tiny portion of consumption spending should automatically go towards ownership of the company that provides the service.
Creative geniuses who lead the company to success should own a large share but it can’t be 100 to 1. Investors, who risk their money, should get up to 5 times what they risk but not 100. This is more than just about fairness. The free market economy grinds to a halt when all the chips, i.e. wealth, end up in the hand of the top poker players. http://ideabits.blogspot.com/2014/05/job-market-pyramid.html
Mass unemployment is main cause of social issues. http://www.globalresearch.ca/war-terrorism-and-the-global-economic-crisi...
Trillions of dollars kept in offshore accounts and trillions of cash held by corporations. The purpose of money is to eventually complete a fair trade. Money that sits idle indefinitely is an indicator of a stalled market.
Taxing is not the only solution. Much of corporate income today is from constant revenue streams of renting, leasing, and subscribing. Perhaps, after the company is well past recouping all initial investment, a tiny portion of consumption spending should automatically go towards ownership of the company that provides the service.
18
This is not a tech problem it is an American problem. I work for a company that does IT for small business so I see people in various industries. Sad to say this approach is everywhere. Staff in nursing homes that supposedly have union protection punch out and then keep working. People doing billing for medical equipment work from 6am to 6pm then go home and remote access the work PC to do an other hour or two. Property managers in NYC that leave home at 8 am and don't get home until 11pm day after day.
It all comes down to one thing. Almost every business I know of needs 10 to 20% more staff but the owners want to keep that money in their bank account instead of paying it out in salary.
It all comes down to one thing. Almost every business I know of needs 10 to 20% more staff but the owners want to keep that money in their bank account instead of paying it out in salary.
131
And those people who are willing to work "off the clock" and/or at home after hours and/or work 60+ hour weeks at entry level positions are also a part of the problem. They're actually feeding the very beast that's feasting on their flesh by handing chunks to it.
It's already been observed that companies have no social compact with employees anymore, so it is incumbent on individuals to set limits and stick to them. I did so, and never once got fired for doing so. Even if I had, and even if you do, are you really so desperate to keep "that job" that you're willing to quite literally sell your life away to keep it?
I don't want to work for any entity that doesn't recognize that I am a human being who not only has a life outside of work, but recognizes that I work in order to have that life, I don't live to work.
It's already been observed that companies have no social compact with employees anymore, so it is incumbent on individuals to set limits and stick to them. I did so, and never once got fired for doing so. Even if I had, and even if you do, are you really so desperate to keep "that job" that you're willing to quite literally sell your life away to keep it?
I don't want to work for any entity that doesn't recognize that I am a human being who not only has a life outside of work, but recognizes that I work in order to have that life, I don't live to work.
138
And every single worker I know made the choice to sign the paper to start those jobs, without a gun to their heads. Come to think of it.....same for all the people you know.
A terrific article, both for what it says about corporate America, and its worker bees. The underlying shock at not being given a gig for life fairly steams off the page. I felt that to be the reality in our country since the early 90's, when I decided to go back to school after 20 years out in the world in order to study Chinese medicine. My compassion is for those who were sold a bill of goods that their gig was solid, that their expertise was enough and that their willingness to please and play the game would get them through to the finish line. None of that is true, and perhaps it was thus only for a few decades in our history. The kids aren't really all right; they're narcissists whose parents really didn't give them the most essential of all survival tools when growing up: Learn to think for yourself and don't follow the herd, no matter what. The good news? They get to learn that in life, and become stronger for it.
12
Ha. Disposability is not limited to tech companies. I'm an old nurse who, in the 1980s, witnessed hospital executives treat RNs like widgets, mainly because nursing salaries are the biggest line expense in a hospital. Then, nurses started finding alternative positions and hospitals screamed and offered sign on bonuses. Nurses would come, work the time needed to collect the bonus, and move on - voting with their feet as it were. I predict there will be the time when young people will no longer clamor to work in one of these sweatshops and people like Bezos will be shown to be a sefl-absorbed jerk. Too bad; I really like Amazon's service but will reconsider the employee angle when thinking about ordering. Sort of like Costco vs. Sam's Club.
62
The toxic work environment we have today is, in my opinion, simply reflects our current American values. Employees were once a valued part of the organizations I worked for. Now they are disposable parts. Our children have been raised to value material gain at the cost of lifestyle and positive human experience, and we are paying the price in lower happiness and higher stress and related disease. This won't change until our culture changes.
316
Corporate America decided loyalty was not a value worth rewarding. They may learn this election cycle what comes around goes around.
37
Oh Please. Where was the NYT's article on getting fired when hundreds of thousands of Airline jobs went "poof" in the great Airline Shakeout of the 1980's? TWA, Pan Am, Braniff, Air Cal PSA, Eastern, Ozark Airlines, Piedmont Western Airlines (how many did I forget)? Domestic and International employees; Pilots, Flight Attendants, Ramp Services, Reservations, Mechanics. No Tears.
How many tens of thousands of Tire Plant workers: Armstrong Rubber became the Italian Company Pirelli Tire which disappeared into the sunset. How many hundreds of thousands of Automobile plant workers?
Loyalty-Schmoilty and no one cared or cares.
How many tens of thousands of Tire Plant workers: Armstrong Rubber became the Italian Company Pirelli Tire which disappeared into the sunset. How many hundreds of thousands of Automobile plant workers?
Loyalty-Schmoilty and no one cared or cares.
46
Since the "original" Industrial Revolution, workers became widgets. Before that, they were serfs, or worse, slaves. Get the picture, here? "See the new boss. Same as the old boss."
30
Mr. Lyons, "You too much T.V." (Karate Kid)
One of my first jobs was as a fabric cutter, in a Hole in the Ground. No heat in the Winter, and we had barely heard of air-conditioning, so Sweat-Shop in the Summers. Fights after work were weekly occurrences, and I lost most of 'em ... but I hit back. Illegals were everywhere, and no one cared. I made a rousing $1.25/hr, and Lord only knows what the latter made.
My 1st year of work, I made $454 for After-School work weekdays and 8-hours Saturday. The guy at Social Security, and I, had quite a laugh over that; I had forgotten.
Tech-Jobs' environment may be predatory, but you have no conception of Sweat-Shops, so put it where the Sun don't shine.
One of my first jobs was as a fabric cutter, in a Hole in the Ground. No heat in the Winter, and we had barely heard of air-conditioning, so Sweat-Shop in the Summers. Fights after work were weekly occurrences, and I lost most of 'em ... but I hit back. Illegals were everywhere, and no one cared. I made a rousing $1.25/hr, and Lord only knows what the latter made.
My 1st year of work, I made $454 for After-School work weekdays and 8-hours Saturday. The guy at Social Security, and I, had quite a laugh over that; I had forgotten.
Tech-Jobs' environment may be predatory, but you have no conception of Sweat-Shops, so put it where the Sun don't shine.
12
Yes, an IT career is daunting, especially the one of a contractor, but the financial and intellectual rewards are considerable. High risks, high rewards. To thrive, one must work hard and work many hours. Life is work and vice versa.
There is no free lunch. No one owes you anything. If you want a guaranteed job (with bennies) work for USPS.
There is no free lunch. No one owes you anything. If you want a guaranteed job (with bennies) work for USPS.
5
The Republican Agenda:
A sweatshop America where compliant workers live in ignorance, fear, illness and poverty, while the 2% bleed us, laugh and invest overseas.
You say you don’t share this dream? That’s what the 350 million guns are for, get it?
A sweatshop America where compliant workers live in ignorance, fear, illness and poverty, while the 2% bleed us, laugh and invest overseas.
You say you don’t share this dream? That’s what the 350 million guns are for, get it?
20
I know the HubSpot founders. They are both Democrats.
2
I walked away from a high paying job – prof – because I was finding myself boring and no longer interested to go make furniture and loved it for 20 some years. Co-workers “God I wish I could do that.” Then discovered bicycling and open one then two bike shops but keep up 10,000 miles a year on two wheels. Got offer to teach again in China; still there very retired reading the NYT on a VPN and writing junk. You can do it just simplify, or try politicking in VT. The world really is full of options.
10
Congratulations! You took responsibility and did something about it. Risky, but I would guess- rewarding.
Business figured out in the 70's that it was more profitable to have the American labor pool compete with other labor sources in the world than to invest in their own communities. First it was the unionized N.E. against the right to work South, then Mexico and Asia. Then when manufacturing started being transported overseas, the companies went after back office, and technology workers. Its a Capitalist system. There are no workers in capitalism. Money does all the heavy lifting and receives all the rewards. For your effort, you maybe get a cake, and your co workers get 15 minutes off to tell you how much you will be missed.
31
Cake? Not a chance!
2
Back in the day one as hired out of college at a low level position and you worked your way up slowly as you gained knowledge and experience. I can't imagine what it must be like for a 40 or 50 something to be supervised by a millenial who thinks he or she knows anything because they got a trophy every time they managed to tie their shoelaces without falling over. 'Graduating" may be a blessing.
53
back in the day you didn't graduate with six figure student loan debt that the corporations have managed to make bankruptcy exempt either so forgive us for demanding a salary we can live on.
6
Without impacting the innovative and functional autonomy of the modern age tech start ups, couldn't a better performance and productivity linked reward and punishment system based on some kind of the accountability criterion be worked out that minimises such painful subjective experiences? This could be either through some external independent regulatory mechanism approved by the tech professional representative body or collective in house self regulatory means.
Ok, and this is a load of academic mumbo jumbo.
2
Prof Sharma,
It seems to me you are suggesting something like creating a union where rules are collectively bargained and there is a process in place when a worker is deemed breaking the rules or unqualified. Kinda like how the NFL treated Tom Brady.
It seems to me you are suggesting something like creating a union where rules are collectively bargained and there is a process in place when a worker is deemed breaking the rules or unqualified. Kinda like how the NFL treated Tom Brady.
I came into the tech working world when technology was exciting, ever changing, and elite. It was the era of DOS based machines that were wonderous in terms of potential, but as cryptic, difficult to operate and maintain, as a modern day fighter jet. We IT FOLKS were ESSENTIAL, because computers were very prone to locking up, not booting up properly, or not working with essential peripherals like dot matrix printers. It was like being a wizard. Someone needed to "format" a box of floppy disks. We would take the precious and expensive disks to our office where, presumably, we typed strange incantations ( format:\A:\) and the computer would turn these five and a quarter inch pieces of useless plastic into safe repositories of precious data.
So rare were such talents, that one could say anything short of telling their technologically ignorant boss to have sex with themself. Raises and promotions were virtually guaranteed since these new computing devices were providing a real and tangible competitive advantage to companies who quickly adopted them, and integrated them into their work processes. Losing certain key IT personnel was tantamount to a power failure at that firm. What grand days those were for me, a self-taught PC nerd who had graduated college with a solid 2.5 GPA.
Unfortunately today, technology is being aggressively deployed to destroy jobs. What was once an ancillary effect of greater productivity, is now an end in itself. I'm so grateful to be nearly retired.
So rare were such talents, that one could say anything short of telling their technologically ignorant boss to have sex with themself. Raises and promotions were virtually guaranteed since these new computing devices were providing a real and tangible competitive advantage to companies who quickly adopted them, and integrated them into their work processes. Losing certain key IT personnel was tantamount to a power failure at that firm. What grand days those were for me, a self-taught PC nerd who had graduated college with a solid 2.5 GPA.
Unfortunately today, technology is being aggressively deployed to destroy jobs. What was once an ancillary effect of greater productivity, is now an end in itself. I'm so grateful to be nearly retired.
247
Good comment. Does anyone besides me (and the comment's author) know where the name Indrid Cold comes from? John Keel, R.I.P.
1
One of my staff -- just out of a very good college -- left my IT group (which includes lots of benefits, flex workday, and no b.s.) to work at a glossy NYC startup that was selling an dieting/exercise cellphone app. Because there are not enough of those phone apps already (cough). He left the startup one year later. He thought it would be an exciting work environment because it was an office filled with young people. He learned an important lesson or 2 there. I suspect the hiring managers at places like HubSpot are not expected care who stays and who leaves. Everyone is presumed transient.
26
One would think Jeff Bezos et al could afford forty acres and a mule.
At least the old fashioned bosses tended not to pretend. The new ones, carrying on in the finest tradition of the cults of the Seventies onward, depend on masses of people thanking these self-styled gurus of disruption for the privilege of being exploited.
At least the old fashioned bosses tended not to pretend. The new ones, carrying on in the finest tradition of the cults of the Seventies onward, depend on masses of people thanking these self-styled gurus of disruption for the privilege of being exploited.
16
The criteria that drove the article's author into this brave new world of work and capital, after being kicked out of a definitely more interesting job, seem pretty puerile, definitely a la par of the indoctrination mantras the author sneers at. And it took the author way too long--plus another firing--to discover that there is "exploitation" in "new" enterprises that fancy themselves to be game changers. The cool new work ethos is for suckers. It's been like this for several decades now. Good luck in your next venture. Many many still lay ahead in these days of job insecurity.
3
Americans are free to advocate for real worker protections and legally mandated work- life balances any time they want. As long as most Americans believe slavishly in a cartoon version of the 'free market' they are going to continue to be exploited. Simple as that.
32
There used to be child labor. People used to have to work 7 days a week Etc etc. Capitalism has no conscience, it's a system to use capital to create more capitol.
If people allow themselves to be used as widgets, capitalists will use them as widgets.
The nation seems to be sleepwalking except those who understand that it is possible to change things for the better if you elect a government that is not beholden to the capitalists. I can think of one person running for office right now.
If people allow themselves to be used as widgets, capitalists will use them as widgets.
The nation seems to be sleepwalking except those who understand that it is possible to change things for the better if you elect a government that is not beholden to the capitalists. I can think of one person running for office right now.
35
Having worked for such company, my one year there gave me the incentive to become independent and have my own place. the good thing is that now I have many clients, and if I do not like one of them, I fire the client.
9
I beleive you learned the wrong lesson. You do understand, that when whole fire the client thing gets around, you may find fewer clients. Clients are in fact more than ATM machines and they do learn quickly.
This business model originated in the Ante-Bellum South. Sure, there was slavery back then, but whites there in those days also had it tough. If you weren't a plantation owner (call them 'job creators'), you had to put your back into it.
This business model is also common in the Aerospace & Defense industry. 'Fire at whim' is common practice in the South, so it's important that the boss doesn't get the wrong idea (the thinking down there is not so rational, either). I've seen at one firm in Tucson, which also looks for a company of stars, and tries to push out those the management thinks aren't.
Millennials, with their libertarian attitudes, are to blame for their situation. This libertarian attitude underpins an atomistic society where people are not loyal nor trust each other. This prevents them from banding together in any common cause like political action or by organizing a union. Amazon needs to be - dare say it? - unionized.
I dread the day that the way things are done at Amazon and Linked in become the norm throughout all industries.
This business model is also common in the Aerospace & Defense industry. 'Fire at whim' is common practice in the South, so it's important that the boss doesn't get the wrong idea (the thinking down there is not so rational, either). I've seen at one firm in Tucson, which also looks for a company of stars, and tries to push out those the management thinks aren't.
Millennials, with their libertarian attitudes, are to blame for their situation. This libertarian attitude underpins an atomistic society where people are not loyal nor trust each other. This prevents them from banding together in any common cause like political action or by organizing a union. Amazon needs to be - dare say it? - unionized.
I dread the day that the way things are done at Amazon and Linked in become the norm throughout all industries.
32
Shades of the early Industrial Revolution and the anomie it created which still plagues us today.
Hip? Cool? I don't know about that but I know the type well. Thoroughly one dimensional and devoid of any humanity or guilt. Psychopaths are in all professions.
Hip? Cool? I don't know about that but I know the type well. Thoroughly one dimensional and devoid of any humanity or guilt. Psychopaths are in all professions.
13
What do you expect when only 11.1 percent of wage and salary workers belonged to unions in 2015, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In Scandinavia it’s between 52 and 67 percent, according to the OECD. There, workplaces are much more tightly regulated. The gig economy sounds great until you lose your workplace rights, health benefits, vacation time, sick leave, job protection and credit rating.
64
Unionize now! History as shown that there is no other solution, no other option to avoid exploitation. Also, become politically involved and fight to eliminate the obscenity that is the 'right to work' state.
69
Great, except that the Silicon Valley bosses will just say that they can't find qualified workers and lobby, nay, bribe the politicians to allow more H1-B workers, who really do replace each other through a virtual revolving door that is always moving, ensuring that permanent positions are continually filled with also exploited temporary guest workers.
Our country needs to start protecting its workers like other countries do.
Our country needs to start protecting its workers like other countries do.
18
Yayyy! Thank you Joseph!!! In reading many of there reviews, I do not understand how so many of the smart and savvy are not. Wake up guys!
2
Interesting piece. I once asked my son how he felt about working for Google (marketing division). I was surprised by his response. He said the best way he could describe it to me was by conjuring up Nurse Ratched. Now I know what he meant.
17
It's funny how the world turns. In the 80"s I was a manager for a computer company named DEC. They had all the same things however to do the opposite, to make the employees think they ran the company and we were all a big happy family. In the end they went out of business by merger after merger and now are part of HP, did not turn out so good. I expect the same from today's flash in the pan ideas.
6
What happened with DEC is far more complex. I worked at DEC and know a lot of people who worked at DEC.
By the way, the adage at DEC; "a failed engineer was demoted management; in order to not do any more damage to the company".
DEC has poor marketing; but great products. Its key failure was not seeing the PC revolution coming.
And yes, they were a superb company to work for, until the Silicon Valley bug, this article addresses, creeped in.
By the way, the adage at DEC; "a failed engineer was demoted management; in order to not do any more damage to the company".
DEC has poor marketing; but great products. Its key failure was not seeing the PC revolution coming.
And yes, they were a superb company to work for, until the Silicon Valley bug, this article addresses, creeped in.
5
During its latter days, there were many, many lazy people at DEC. The good ones had left to join the startups of the 90s. DEC deserved to die.
I worked for NORTEL, another big powerful engineering company that is just a memory. What is going on now is really different. The people under discussion are mainly salespeople, not engineers, AI is taking over more categories of real work every year. Time for a Guaranteed Income.
1
Plus, the method works with 401k plans. You must be with the company a year to be qualified, the company 'match' gets paid in one lump sum only to people who are eligible and employed at, say 12/3, and who are still on staff on the pay date, of, say 2/28. Great deal, eh?
9
This system is age-old in capitalist societies. The only thing that had any success at all in moving some of the power from the owner/managers to the poor people doing the grunt work was the labor movement. Labor unions got the workers some power to make their lives better because they fought and achieved a place in the process. Then, over the last 40-50 years or so, workers took that place for granted, and as soon as they eased up, the owner/mamagers shoved them back off the table, and they became wage slaves. They also foolishly sold their place at the table by giving their personal business to the likes of Walmart and Amazon, who gained power in the government to ensure that workers remained unorganized.
You want a better life for workers? You have to make sure they have a stake in the process. But I'm not holding my breath that I will live to see it. Too bad. It was a time when security and decent wages existed, and you could raise a family on what you earned. It was my parents' time. I was lucky to be a kid in that world and not this one.
You want a better life for workers? You have to make sure they have a stake in the process. But I'm not holding my breath that I will live to see it. Too bad. It was a time when security and decent wages existed, and you could raise a family on what you earned. It was my parents' time. I was lucky to be a kid in that world and not this one.
77
It is sadly and painfully unfortunate how rare such an article as this is. Why? Because American society has bought into the set of notions that this is how things ought to be. And because the news media are hardly "liberal" at all, despite right-wing propaganda to the contrary. And why does this situation continue? Because it has gotten so bad that people will suffer depredation simply to have any work at all. One can't simply "find another job," as some of the comments here suggest. We have become slaves to a cultural environment that benefits only those at the top, whom we admire far too much, and it is time to recognize them as our newest ancien regime.
Technology companies are like lotteries: if you're lucky, you will get stock options that make you disproportionate amounts of money. If you design a popular app, maybe you will too. A handful become billionaires, a few more handfuls become millionaires. The luckier employees under these regimes think that such earnings are a measure of achievement based on hard work, when in fact profit sharing has enabled technology companies to hide their true nature, which consists of the ruthless exploitation of labor by capital. The criticism of capitalism and free market ideology in America has been taboo for too long.
Technology companies are like lotteries: if you're lucky, you will get stock options that make you disproportionate amounts of money. If you design a popular app, maybe you will too. A handful become billionaires, a few more handfuls become millionaires. The luckier employees under these regimes think that such earnings are a measure of achievement based on hard work, when in fact profit sharing has enabled technology companies to hide their true nature, which consists of the ruthless exploitation of labor by capital. The criticism of capitalism and free market ideology in America has been taboo for too long.
286
Your comment should be a NY Times pick. This is very well stated and so true.
1
The tech equivalent hiring more and more adjuncts in higher education.
44
Adjuncts in higher education that receive no benefits - no sick days, no vacation days and no health care...but your child's tuition keeps going up.
6
The same could be said for any of these entrepreneurial, data based, techie approaches. For example, try being a teacher at a charter school based on results and it's really no different.
33
Mr Lyon's article lacks logical rigor. He mentions the scientific concept of what he experienced - "...this “new” way of working is actually the oldest(?) game(?) in the world: the exploitation of labor by capital." - just in order to dismiss this insight by completely ignoring its conclusive content, rather he lands on the question which occupation one should pick to reduce the miseries of wage-labor after vividly describing what he and his working fellows had to endure in the high-tech branches of capitalism. Do hand-crafted furniture in large cavernous red brick buildings make exploitation more tolerable or even forbid it? If there is anything that counters the permanent encroachment of capital on its human "widgets used up and discarded", it is the united, at best knowledgable struggle of working people against capital but not the pathetic question in what trade one better should sell one's hide.
12
Exploitation? Such a victim mentality. No one chains someone to a desk. You always get an appropriate return on the value you add. Expenses are cut. Investments are made. Bezos isn't running the United Way.
3
True and sad that most employees are not treated as people with differing and unique skills and talents. Bank of America actually state this to employees - they say their goal is to have every job turn-key if an employee randomly leaves - they can replace without incident". Nothing is more demotivating as knowing your skills aren't appreciated, and to be discouraged from "innovation". However, their employees need to pay their mortgage, their kids school, need healthcare - so they are trapped. They can't get off this new form of "corporate welfare" for the middle class.
46
Perversely, Bank of America treats its customers in the same way. They appear to be deliberately trying to make me close my account at their bank; this week their wish will come true when I switch to a different and, I hope, more humane bank (maybe that last is a contradiction in terms but I'll hope).
2
Only CEOs are so precious that each needs to sit on at least a half a dozen corporate boards.
3
Every large 24x7 organization has many turn-key type job requirements. The cops, nurses, doctors and assembly line workers or IT techs on the night shift have the same basic skills and training as the day shift. Just as they should. Does not prevent smart people from innovation leading to promotion.
3
Employers like Mr Bezos and co are ultimately sowing the seeds of their own destruction when it comes to recruiting talented people although Amazon is now so large they might have the critical mass to get away with it. One doesn't need to be too starry eyed about the older more paternalistic pattern (people got laid off during downturns or product failures) but basically you want people on the staff who are intelligent, experienced and willing to go the extra mile when needed and this entails a degree of reciprocal loyalty. Convince them they are as disposable as Kleenex and you create an atmosphere of cynicism in the workplace which ultimately transfers to an entire generation.
24
Your comments are spot on. I'm 64 and have worked my whole life. The workplace has always fit the description portrayed in this article and always will. Anyone - employee or contractor - has to add more value than the company pays them, or they are an expense rather than an investment. Expenses get cut. There is reinvestment in great investments. It's easy to take cheap shots at Bezos or other CEOs. But if his job is that easy, the whiners need to go do it themselves.
4
Isn't calling an office with free snacks and entertaining amenities 'a digital sweatshop' a bit too bitter? I agree working for a tech start-up, especially those aren't meeting their shareholders' unrealistic expectation of growth, can be stressful and unpleasant. As one of the 'techies' in the silicon valley, I can relate to some of the sentiments described here at times. Most of the time, I look around, there aren't any other job opportunities will pay you just as much, provide you all the benefits without any of these negative feelings. Lack of work-life balance, failures of middle managements etc are universal across industries and different company sizes.
35
I don't think it's true to say the crummy job conditions are "universal across industries and different company sizes." I started my engineering career in 1990 at a well-known A/E firm and fairly quickly found out the work environment there was toxic. As a young, new college graduate I wasn't sure whether I'd chosen the wrong career or just the wrong company. Literally everyone at the company I worked for (many of whom were deeply unhappy), told me "It's the same everywhere."
Three and a half years later I landed a job with a much smaller civil / structural / land surveying firm and I was blown away by the difference in company culture. The work was still difficult at times, but I was so much happier there.
I learned a big lesson with that experience. You can't trust people who've made a choice to stay at a company to tell you the truth. For one thing, they may not know if they've never worked anywhere else. But more importantly, they have to justify the decision they've made to stay where they're at.
Three and a half years later I landed a job with a much smaller civil / structural / land surveying firm and I was blown away by the difference in company culture. The work was still difficult at times, but I was so much happier there.
I learned a big lesson with that experience. You can't trust people who've made a choice to stay at a company to tell you the truth. For one thing, they may not know if they've never worked anywhere else. But more importantly, they have to justify the decision they've made to stay where they're at.
5
Fair comment, but we supposedly had moved on from the labor practices of the 19th century, whereas it seems we may be slipping back . . . only this time with more hypocrisy (e.g., "graduation").
4
I read Arthur Miller's play, "Death of a Salesman" when I was a kid. I saw my father, a salesman, fired at age 59 just short of vesting in his pension plan. He never worked again.
Me?
I got into the computer field in the early 80's when it was hot and the money was good. I saved every spare dime from my first day on the job. I paid off my mortgage and fired my boss in 1994 at age 41.
I never worked again, either, but it was *my* choice.
The idea that your company is some kind of family is a dangerous delusion.
To those who are just starting out in life:
Before you embrace the high life, set aside enough money to give you some semblance of control over your own destiny.
Debt, in particular, is a trap.
Just don't go there...
Me?
I got into the computer field in the early 80's when it was hot and the money was good. I saved every spare dime from my first day on the job. I paid off my mortgage and fired my boss in 1994 at age 41.
I never worked again, either, but it was *my* choice.
The idea that your company is some kind of family is a dangerous delusion.
To those who are just starting out in life:
Before you embrace the high life, set aside enough money to give you some semblance of control over your own destiny.
Debt, in particular, is a trap.
Just don't go there...
114
The only people who would last for longer than one year in such an absurd work environment are gullible 20-somethings.
16
The rich keep getting richer and keep everyone else down and "grateful" to be employed. Many of today's workers not only work in grueling environments but are considered "contractors" rather than employees. That way companies save on all those pesky extras like "vacation and sick pay". While Congress is pressing for paid parental leave, they are missing the ball on the abuse that is passing for employment today.
24
It's not just tech work. This kind of employment under duress is yet another symptom of the ever-worsening imbalance of power between capital and labor. So many problems in the world would be solved if only that balance could be restored.
9
Truly awful. The only approach for a young person seems to be, work for a large governmental or governmental like organization where one has rights or start your own "business". People who run these outfits are truly fascists. It's the only term close enough to capture this heartless, mindless, ugly business ideology.
8
There's so much that is observable and can be said here. There are no innocent parties in these transactions. No one is forcing anyone to be an employee. Some of you will read this article and still pour your hard earned money into the products and services of these companies that all tend to be financed by the same group of monied tyrants.
In reading this article, I read entitlement, irresponsibility, self-centredness and brainwashing in all parties involved.
In reading this article, I read entitlement, irresponsibility, self-centredness and brainwashing in all parties involved.
Unfortunately, Lyons is entirely right about all of this. The insipid idiots who run these tech companies treat employees as disposable sanitary napkins. The "loot" - great description - goes just to a handful. Overfed amoral types like Hoffman stuff their faces from the labor of the minions working in the pits - who get jettisoned willy nilly. What a horrid future we are hurtling toward.
11
Everyone works in a sweat shop now. One can be working and then be told begone by noon! No notice no nothing. A party would be highly unlikely as at noon the escorts appear and you are rushed out as if you had the combination to the CEOs safe. It's appalling.
Companies treat staff even highly motivated, educated and talented staff as fungible, disposable and easily replaceable with lower wage workers. Heck, they even import the new staff members and get the old disposables to train them....so much for no trained workers to fill positions. Corporations have ended any protections workers have and those they thought they had even going so far as suing pensioners to recapture their pensions and health care packages. Of course they don't do that to platinum covered former CEOs.
All hair the ubermench, the corporation is the real man at the table even when "he" is wearing a pants suit!
Companies treat staff even highly motivated, educated and talented staff as fungible, disposable and easily replaceable with lower wage workers. Heck, they even import the new staff members and get the old disposables to train them....so much for no trained workers to fill positions. Corporations have ended any protections workers have and those they thought they had even going so far as suing pensioners to recapture their pensions and health care packages. Of course they don't do that to platinum covered former CEOs.
All hair the ubermench, the corporation is the real man at the table even when "he" is wearing a pants suit!
17
I suppose Dan did not get the memo about how wonderful is America's *free enterprise* system. (See Arthur Brooks' column.) Or why we need billionaires like Bezos, even if they are a tad greedy and soul-less.
Call me a one-note commenter, but I blame "free trade" for many of our problems today: the lop-sided contest between labor and capital, the low wages, the economic inequality, crime, homelessness, suicides, and drug addictions. (No, I am not saying low tariffs are the sole cause of social problems.)
Today's job climate makes the rat race of the 1950s and 60s look like paradise.
4/10 @ 5:53 am
Call me a one-note commenter, but I blame "free trade" for many of our problems today: the lop-sided contest between labor and capital, the low wages, the economic inequality, crime, homelessness, suicides, and drug addictions. (No, I am not saying low tariffs are the sole cause of social problems.)
Today's job climate makes the rat race of the 1950s and 60s look like paradise.
4/10 @ 5:53 am
12
I worked for a business publishing company in the early nineties and what were all their books about? Downsizing. This was the era of "Chainsaw Al" of Sunbeam electric and other CEOs (including Jack Welch) whose compensation and perks skyrocketed (even into retirement) while everyone else was hanging on by their fingernails.
I recall writing a press release for the book "Corporate Executions" and then "Discipline Without Punishment."
I went on to work in an early tech company, which is no different than the ones described here. They were run by princelings while everyone sat in grungy spaces with cheap office furniture.
The new managers are too young to know they're just being slotted into the same dog-eat-dog business model. It's still run by Chainsaw CEOs. They're just younger and smarmier than the old ones.
I recall writing a press release for the book "Corporate Executions" and then "Discipline Without Punishment."
I went on to work in an early tech company, which is no different than the ones described here. They were run by princelings while everyone sat in grungy spaces with cheap office furniture.
The new managers are too young to know they're just being slotted into the same dog-eat-dog business model. It's still run by Chainsaw CEOs. They're just younger and smarmier than the old ones.
24
What we need is another "Craftsman" movement. At the turn of the century, when your warehouse was probably starting to go to machine build furniture so that they could remain competitive, a group of highly skilled men and women decided to stay with handmade artisan products. Of course it was harder, but look at the craftsmanship, the beauty. Now their products demand huge prices and sit in museums.
Humans can only thrive when they feel valued as humans. Hopefully some of the units with low VORP scores will revolt and create a new wave of start ups who say people are not units, they are the assets, not the widgets.
Humans can only thrive when they feel valued as humans. Hopefully some of the units with low VORP scores will revolt and create a new wave of start ups who say people are not units, they are the assets, not the widgets.
13
What this sounds like is a business culture run by adolescents, where the popular kids rule and everyone else tries to fit in. Conformity and bullying are the norm. But there is also that lack of any sense that what we do now affects the future of the company, and that retaining and supporting good employees has value to the long term health of a business. It is management by fourteen year old boys who believe they know everything and that they are immortal.
21
It's hard to believe, but those sweatshop workers who allow themselves to be mistreated and manipulated are not immigrants with no education and no language skills. They have graduated from top universities, and were supposedly endowed with a liberal arts education alongside their computer skills. Alas, they also have student loans to pay off.
16
True and sad that most employees are not treated as people with differing and unique skills and talents. Even companies such as Bank of America actually state this to employees - they say their goal is to "have every job systemitized so that if an employee randomly leaves - they can replace without incident". Nothing is more demotivating and works as a concrete barrier to "innovation". But people need to pay for their kids school, they need healthcare - so they are trapped. They can't get off this corporate welfare of this type.
14
I used to work at the USEPA, starting in 1976 in the Pesticide Registration Division. It was once said that someone overheard the director say that everyone can be replaced. Naturally that got around and its effect never left. Since I was new, I was learning the ins and outs, taking classes at night about it, and that made it interesting. Ultimately I reached escape velocity from the drone existence PRD, moving on to other regulatory aspects of those things. I'm more of a do'er than a climber, only happy if I'm learning, which ultimately saved me. So my advice to potential "Hubspotters" is to go into it with 52 weeks in mind, and starting on week 50, YOU give 'em notice, hit the road and let 'em party by themselves because that's their culture, not yours.
11
"Delightion" pretty much encapsulates the labor-capital abusive relationship. Delightion -- a neologism that disguises the suspicion of being duped, conned, to feeling elated. Capital dupes and cons labor, wants labor to believe it is valued as part of the organization when in fact labor is simply a resource with an accounting value - a value that can be depreciated on a spreadsheet and ultimately is disposable.
14
Lower wages = lower purchasing power = less business = more cost-cutting pressure to lower wages. It's time for conservatives to stop preaching this is the way life should be and find an argument to restore middle class purchasing power before this vicious circle turns uncontrollably rabid.
20
From my own experience and those of friends I can tell you it isn't, unfortunately, just the tech world. I have seen and worked for even mission-oriented non-profits that brag about their workaholic work cultures and drive employees to work endlessly. Then there's the uncomfortable, foced faux-camaraderie of "team-building" events, the insipid sloganeering about "passion, " "delighting the customer" "focus on excellence" and more.
Yes indeed, as I and others have commented here, George Orwell is truly spinning in his grave. And all of us need to wake up to the notion that until people who care only for their own advancement are placed on a more equal footing with those who make their advancement possible, this won't change.
For the individual - and I know this is often hard - start by not doing any job that insults your skills, contributions or intelligence. And speak up. Loudly. We're not marionettes, we're human beings.
Yes indeed, as I and others have commented here, George Orwell is truly spinning in his grave. And all of us need to wake up to the notion that until people who care only for their own advancement are placed on a more equal footing with those who make their advancement possible, this won't change.
For the individual - and I know this is often hard - start by not doing any job that insults your skills, contributions or intelligence. And speak up. Loudly. We're not marionettes, we're human beings.
31
Apparently, the key to survival in this environment is the same as in professional sports: raise your VORP, and leverage it for commensurate pay, either internally or externally.
Not referenced in this piece is an active recruiting industry seeking out those high VORPs, and enticing them with offers. The problem in many cases is that the "team" psychology is so overwhelming and effective that too many high-VORPs stay put instead of capturing their real value.
Bottom line to all workers: Ignore the blandishments. If you contribute disproportionately to revenue or cost reduction - especially the former - exploit that as fast and as far as you can.
Not referenced in this piece is an active recruiting industry seeking out those high VORPs, and enticing them with offers. The problem in many cases is that the "team" psychology is so overwhelming and effective that too many high-VORPs stay put instead of capturing their real value.
Bottom line to all workers: Ignore the blandishments. If you contribute disproportionately to revenue or cost reduction - especially the former - exploit that as fast and as far as you can.
4
Most American worker bees are but cogs in a wheel. At least at these tech companies they get paid more than the slave wages the Walton family doles out at Walmart.
The ethic of Bezos and Waltons of this world has resulted in the highest ratio of CEO pay to worker pay since the time of the Robber Barons in the late 19th Century and the concomitant wealth disparity in America now providing the fuel and oxygen for the demogauge from Queens.
I don't know how all this will work out but for me I don't shop at Walmart or use Amazon. There's a Sam's Club less than a mile from where I live but I rather drive the 8 miles to the nearest Costco where they pay their employees a living wage and treat them like human beings instead of things to be exploited.
The ethic of Bezos and Waltons of this world has resulted in the highest ratio of CEO pay to worker pay since the time of the Robber Barons in the late 19th Century and the concomitant wealth disparity in America now providing the fuel and oxygen for the demogauge from Queens.
I don't know how all this will work out but for me I don't shop at Walmart or use Amazon. There's a Sam's Club less than a mile from where I live but I rather drive the 8 miles to the nearest Costco where they pay their employees a living wage and treat them like human beings instead of things to be exploited.
41
Hillary Clinton was on Walmart's board, btw, so don't expect things to change.
1
I remember a time when employees were loyal to the companies they worked for with or without unions. Employers relied on that loyalty to run the company, create profit that would benefit employer, employee and stock holder. Employees would work for one company for years until retirement and receive a pension and a "watch."
It's different today, there is no company loyalty. It's work for the highest bidder. It's change jobs until one feel comfortable regardless of one's effect to the bottom line. When one doesn't believe in or practice loyalty how can one expect it?
It's different today, there is no company loyalty. It's work for the highest bidder. It's change jobs until one feel comfortable regardless of one's effect to the bottom line. When one doesn't believe in or practice loyalty how can one expect it?
10
Oh please, it was the companies that got rid of loyalty. Humans are reasonably happy doing a good job for decades in one big family for decent pay. Many times employees would even work for free to save companies in bad times.
It was the Wall Street and the corporations that decided that loyalty was not profitable enough and started firing everyone and moving capital to far away places with no labor standards so that they could get richer at some one else's expense.
It was the Wall Street and the corporations that decided that loyalty was not profitable enough and started firing everyone and moving capital to far away places with no labor standards so that they could get richer at some one else's expense.
21
A friend working for a web developer told me he was a token U.S. citizen employee. He said most of their employees were foreign workers on visas. He said the foreign workers were paid less and treated worse. They were totally vulnerable. If they complained they would be not only unemployed but sent home. It must not go over well in these other countries if the star student leaves to work in the U.S. and comes back in a year unemployed with no savings. He said the owners were the children of hedge fund managers who never wanted for or worried about anything a day in their life and though they were entitled to a high income at other people's expense.
28
It’s no wonder that the managers of software companies are so frosty and distant to employers. Serving efficiency to customers is the goal of IT companies so the effectiveness is also essential for their management. Once executives think some employees are useless, they will be easily dismissed from their posts. It is no wise to seek humanity in IT companies.
6
I make furniture, and it has its disadvantages: dusty, and noisy on the shop floor, brutal competition from mature competitors and cheap imports in the market place. But I've been able to provide stable employment for a committed crew of workers, some of whom I've employed for more than 20 years. My workers aren't disposable because people with their skills are scarce. Not to mention that treating them like used Kleenex just doesn't feel like the proper way for a boss to behave. The culture that's grown up around software is driven by an ideology that is of debatable merit. Does Apple treat their employees this way? Is treating workers like widgets actually the best way to succeed? I suspect that it's just one way to operate, but it gets disproportionate attention because it enhances the wealth of those in power.
34
Factories in China that make Apple products put up suicide nets around the barracks that their employees are forced to live in. It was cheaper than a raise.
3
Meanwhile, in a parallel universe across the Atlantic Ocean, in the workers' paradise of Sweden, this style of cut-throat capitalism is largely absent. Something like 90% of workers are covered by collective bargaining agreements, translating into a work-life balance almost unseen in the US. Five weeks of paid vacation is the minimum standard, overtime is rare and job security is high. After a six month probationary period, employees can only be laid off if the company is unprofitable and needs to downsize.
In the particular city in which I live, there is a shortage of skilled IT workers, tipping the labor-capital scale towards labor. Employee turnover is still a problem though. Not because of burnout or dispensability, but rather because the software developers are in such high demand that they realize they can get an easy pay raise by switching jobs after a year or two.
When my partner told her boss that she was pregnant and requested nearly a year of maternity leave, not only was she offered permanent employment, she also received a raise.
Despite all of this, my employer has healthy profit margins in the 15-20% range.
As an American expat, I do sometimes yearn for returning to my home country. But as a software developer, I do not dream of returning to little vacation, unpaid overtime and the risk of being "graduated" at-will.
In the particular city in which I live, there is a shortage of skilled IT workers, tipping the labor-capital scale towards labor. Employee turnover is still a problem though. Not because of burnout or dispensability, but rather because the software developers are in such high demand that they realize they can get an easy pay raise by switching jobs after a year or two.
When my partner told her boss that she was pregnant and requested nearly a year of maternity leave, not only was she offered permanent employment, she also received a raise.
Despite all of this, my employer has healthy profit margins in the 15-20% range.
As an American expat, I do sometimes yearn for returning to my home country. But as a software developer, I do not dream of returning to little vacation, unpaid overtime and the risk of being "graduated" at-will.
39
The mystique surrounding the online tech industry is part of the postmodern maze. Many of these companies do not make money, but just suck up venture capital and close in six months, their "incubators" moving on to the next air castle. The successful ones, such as Amazon, are not involved in producing anything, but are simply middlemen. This tech economy lives in a virtual world and can therefore easily spin out stories that construct hard-working, insecure employees as athletes, musicians, innovators, geniuses, prophets. When you are disconnected from the real world of actually making things, you can engage in play that masks real relationships. Silicon Valley is essentially a world of sales, and is always a tough world.
14
I have a unique perspective on this. Worked in a bunch of startups in the valley. Never drank the kool aid, exploited startups and companies to learn as much as i could. Got fired once too, no big deal, woke up next morning got 10 offers lined up. In fact with the severance package, i made two salaries the month i got fired. Got bored of it all eventually with no challenge left, Quit, moved to India, set up my own firm. Made a few right moves, and bam! 20 employees and rising. Make way more than the 'rockstar' salary i was paid in the valley with living costs 1/10th of the valley. No Hippies with beards an extra bonus.
Yes the valley is brutal, but so is life. People need to understand the risks that these founders are taking when they bootstrap. A startup cannot afford to have a person not pulling his/her weight. Have an open mind, look to learn as much as fast as possible and eventually try to emulate it yourself. Don't come in looking for a comfy 9-5. Sorry, It just does not work that way.
Yes the valley is brutal, but so is life. People need to understand the risks that these founders are taking when they bootstrap. A startup cannot afford to have a person not pulling his/her weight. Have an open mind, look to learn as much as fast as possible and eventually try to emulate it yourself. Don't come in looking for a comfy 9-5. Sorry, It just does not work that way.
6
Thank you for saying what so many have experienced. IMHO, a lot of this 'cloak & dagger' culture was borne out of behaviours that were practiced by SV titans.Those who followed with an ‘idea' & were lucky enough to have a connection to a venture capitalist, leveraged the prescription to practice the same pathological behaviours to achieve a level of ‘'success' where the shareholder comes 1st. Hi-Tech business applications, at their core, is a race to the bottom; biz software is an enabler to drive efficiencies to reduce costs,both within those who engineer it, & for those who consume it. In fairness, more mature high-tech companies are attempting to change the way they're perceived when it comes to making structural changes; ergo, they are attempting to take a more compassionate approach to how they restructure -realising that the cost of hiring & quickly firing is not sustainable in meeting short & long term goals to feed the strategy. On the other side of the coin, a challenge is finding a job to sustain a middle class lifestyle due to the efficiencies that have been gained via the mass consumption of high tech biz software ergo, the jobs or skills aren't there - it is a vicious cycle. Like you Dan, I would rather make furniture, than work for Amazon.Fortunately, we have the information at our fingertips to make that determination.In some aspect, that has changed the world after all with some intended &unintended macro economic consequences -capitalism at it's finest.
4
I've worked all over the world for decades. Much of that was helping to repair networks of companies in complex global demand-supply chains that had been pummeled by the normal changes in societies as they evolve. Autos. Consumer electronics. Computing/technology.
I spent time watching the former Soviet Union collapse in person, and saw the horrors of apartheid up close.
I also study history.
It's clear that healthy societies need a variety of private and public organizations to thrive and adapt.
It's also clear from history that no society can avoid dislocation of about 10-20% of its citizens at any time.
No such thing as a perfect society.
Even the city-sized "social utopias" like Sweden and Norway (I love both) have hard core alcoholic youngsters passed out on the streets and pockets of deep depression.
I have never, ever seen a corporation, or government agency that could avoid the problems, and messy human emotions described in this article.
One can call this kind of behavior exploitation, or a free society.
In a healthy society one can choose to be a sports star, knowing the risks. Or one can choose to be a tenured clerk or teacher, knowing those risks.
People can be depressed or happy in both roles.
But from the global perspective...
The writer should be very thankful he has the right and ability to write.
He is definitely hyping the situation to get eyeballs
And there are millions of Americans who thrive in the atmosphere he describes.
I spent time watching the former Soviet Union collapse in person, and saw the horrors of apartheid up close.
I also study history.
It's clear that healthy societies need a variety of private and public organizations to thrive and adapt.
It's also clear from history that no society can avoid dislocation of about 10-20% of its citizens at any time.
No such thing as a perfect society.
Even the city-sized "social utopias" like Sweden and Norway (I love both) have hard core alcoholic youngsters passed out on the streets and pockets of deep depression.
I have never, ever seen a corporation, or government agency that could avoid the problems, and messy human emotions described in this article.
One can call this kind of behavior exploitation, or a free society.
In a healthy society one can choose to be a sports star, knowing the risks. Or one can choose to be a tenured clerk or teacher, knowing those risks.
People can be depressed or happy in both roles.
But from the global perspective...
The writer should be very thankful he has the right and ability to write.
He is definitely hyping the situation to get eyeballs
And there are millions of Americans who thrive in the atmosphere he describes.
2
On the most basic of levels Dan Lyons' workplace at Newsweek, or for that matter where he currently gets his paycheck, was/is likely the same as what he describes of his time at hubspot. It's every job and he is merely the typical disgruntled employee dissatisfied with his place. Congrats to him for finding a better fit elsewhere along with what seems like some success and economic security!
Most workers must knowingly or unknowingly find a way to appear to "buy in", bending themselves in order to make a living. The reality is that white collar workers of all salary levels, from the entry level college grads to the middle aged "experienced hires", can choose where/when/what/who they work for.The more interesting question is why
A tv show and book deal will likely not materialize for most of Lyons' coworkers at hubspot, but as long as they get some experience on their resumes they have a shot at something else. The option to disparage their employer in the same tone as he has would usually risk jeopardizing future chances of employment.
I wonder how terrific a worker Lyons was in his ascent to editor, and then what was he like as a boss heading into the declining days of print?
Most workers must knowingly or unknowingly find a way to appear to "buy in", bending themselves in order to make a living. The reality is that white collar workers of all salary levels, from the entry level college grads to the middle aged "experienced hires", can choose where/when/what/who they work for.The more interesting question is why
A tv show and book deal will likely not materialize for most of Lyons' coworkers at hubspot, but as long as they get some experience on their resumes they have a shot at something else. The option to disparage their employer in the same tone as he has would usually risk jeopardizing future chances of employment.
I wonder how terrific a worker Lyons was in his ascent to editor, and then what was he like as a boss heading into the declining days of print?
1
It's amazing to me how easily duped our "best and brightest" can be when pursuing a career. Just tell them they're "changing the world" and you can sucker them into happily laboring in modern boiler rooms.
It just goes to show the enduring value of a liberal arts education as opposed to the current educational mania for teaching "practical skills." Maybe if more of these newly minted job seekers had been taught a broad understanding of history, philosophy and the arts in addition to business skills, they might have the intellectual skills to see some of these employment options for what they are - simple expliotation of their labor.
It just goes to show the enduring value of a liberal arts education as opposed to the current educational mania for teaching "practical skills." Maybe if more of these newly minted job seekers had been taught a broad understanding of history, philosophy and the arts in addition to business skills, they might have the intellectual skills to see some of these employment options for what they are - simple expliotation of their labor.
10
Recently retired, I make furniture, but only for my kids. People have suggested I go into business, but in this day and age, people are willing to pay for nothing, certainly not the time and materials required to make a quality piece of furniture. People want "just good enough" and at the lowest possible price and this mentality has spread throughout companies as well. It may be the new reality, but it certainly won't produce heirloom results.
11
Exploitation of employees is not so new. I worked for a while as a manager trainee for a large retail chain in the mid-1970s. The department managers often worked 60 hour weeks. They were expected to devote their lives to the company. They bought their suits from the men's department and could be uprooted and moved to a store in another state with a week's notice. Everyone seemed unhappy, but no one would dare to talk about it. The job did have security for those who could stand it.
8
Revealing article. I worked for an online educational assessment company . "Specialists" were hired for "projects" with a start and finish date. I did 5 "projects". I received a congratulatory letter stating that I was an important part of their initial success. When I contacted the company about the next "project", I was informed by a "receptionist" I was not on the list of potential "specialists" for future "projects". I later discovered the company had changed pay structure from a set fee per assessment to $12 per hour with a minimum of 30 hours per week- (the equivalent of a cyber sweat shop). Best to the college and university students who are told they are getting professional assessments on their portfolios.
13
This article clearly proves that 'slavery' is still alive and well and prevalent in 21st century in America and elsewhere.
Anyway, you cut it, these workers in tech companies and even in other corporate structures in America, are 'slaves' first and 'slaves' second.
I know it's not politically correct to call 'slaves' to some very bright interns or just plain foreign workers brought to America from China and India replacing the year old U.S. born American citizens with cheap tech workers who sit on long tables side by side for 18 hours a day .
The conditions these 'slaves' who are brought on H-1B visas, work on their computers are as deplorable as the workers in 'sweat shops' in Bangladesh or 'Haiti', work on.
Hunching on sewing machines,for almost 18 hours a day, these slaves in the third world countries as well as in New York where I witnessed first hand how the south American undocumented workers are producing cheap merchandises that we buy paying just a couple of dollars in WalMart and other departmental stores, not knowing that some 'slaves' somewhere are stitching them for us in the most horrible and inhuman conditions.
But these foreign tech workers who sit side by side in long tables, hunching down and looking at their Pcs for 18 hours a day, can very well be termed as 'slaves' as they are bought and 'fired' or 'graduated' as they call it in the dot.com jargon in the same way the 'slaves' in the 16th century and till 1864, were exchanged between 'slave masters'.
Anyway, you cut it, these workers in tech companies and even in other corporate structures in America, are 'slaves' first and 'slaves' second.
I know it's not politically correct to call 'slaves' to some very bright interns or just plain foreign workers brought to America from China and India replacing the year old U.S. born American citizens with cheap tech workers who sit on long tables side by side for 18 hours a day .
The conditions these 'slaves' who are brought on H-1B visas, work on their computers are as deplorable as the workers in 'sweat shops' in Bangladesh or 'Haiti', work on.
Hunching on sewing machines,for almost 18 hours a day, these slaves in the third world countries as well as in New York where I witnessed first hand how the south American undocumented workers are producing cheap merchandises that we buy paying just a couple of dollars in WalMart and other departmental stores, not knowing that some 'slaves' somewhere are stitching them for us in the most horrible and inhuman conditions.
But these foreign tech workers who sit side by side in long tables, hunching down and looking at their Pcs for 18 hours a day, can very well be termed as 'slaves' as they are bought and 'fired' or 'graduated' as they call it in the dot.com jargon in the same way the 'slaves' in the 16th century and till 1864, were exchanged between 'slave masters'.
8
Capitalism and the republican party, it is difficult to determine where the party of democrats stands on the matter of continued human existence, exist to keep human noses to the grindstone. No ethic exists but the work ethic and the thoughtful continuance of the human genome is becoming less important as the world overpopulates with the human species and machines take over for capitalists.
3
The Democrats are enablers. They say "cut it out Walls Street," then use political expediency as an excuse to give them what they want.
Top management cynicism regarding employees in my experience inevitably leads to pervasive cynicism. Customers, shareholders, products, even laws and governments become at best obstacles and at worst ignored.
Uber, Pfizer, CountrywideFinancial are the inevitable first order consequence. We have seen the second order.
Uber, Pfizer, CountrywideFinancial are the inevitable first order consequence. We have seen the second order.
4
It seems like the tech world will be the next spot for unionization. Collective bargaining and federal protections for unionized workers seeking to improve their employment environment would go a long way in improving the situation described.
11
Testimony of an era without organized labor and diminished labor rights. The simple equation is that management wants the most productivity for the lowest wage while employees want the highest wage for the least work. Therein lies an age old conflict that is the first law of labor relations. We live in a corporatocracy whereby "what's good for GM is good for America". Note the failed attempt to get some simple airline passenger rights through the Senate last week. Would a labor rights bill ever stand a chance? All this translates to protest votes for Bernie and Trump.
9
Yes, I was meaning to have a few calls with my senator in airplane safety and overcrowding... Party politics and corporate interests should not have priority over our best interests!
This and other current management and labor issues can be boiled down to one key change in the past 50 years:
Shareholders > Stakeholders
Stakeholders including employees, customers, partners, etc. have acquiesced all ownership and control to financial shareholders. There is a need to limit the power of the financial shareholder as one part of a greater group of stakeholders. Otherwise this is just the tip of the iceberg in new management styles and organizational development.
Shareholders > Stakeholders
Stakeholders including employees, customers, partners, etc. have acquiesced all ownership and control to financial shareholders. There is a need to limit the power of the financial shareholder as one part of a greater group of stakeholders. Otherwise this is just the tip of the iceberg in new management styles and organizational development.
13
@Meredith
Detroit
Shareholders are stakeholders. In fact they very often have much more at stake than those you list. It's been this way ever since the Joint Stock company was invented which was a lot longer than 50 years ago. These sort of comments are always interesting inasmuch their authors seem to have absolutely no idea of the connection between millions of ordinary Americans with defined benefit pension plans, IRA's, 401k's, annuities and the shareholders of corporations. You have seen the shareholders and they are us.
Detroit
Shareholders are stakeholders. In fact they very often have much more at stake than those you list. It's been this way ever since the Joint Stock company was invented which was a lot longer than 50 years ago. These sort of comments are always interesting inasmuch their authors seem to have absolutely no idea of the connection between millions of ordinary Americans with defined benefit pension plans, IRA's, 401k's, annuities and the shareholders of corporations. You have seen the shareholders and they are us.
2
The vast majority of shares are owned by the super rich, either directly or indirectly. Then the pension plans etc are looted regularly. One common scam is to spin off a company with no profits, just the pensions. Or the big players can crash the market by selling at the top, and then buy back cheap when prices bottom out. Or they can give kickbacks to pension fund managers for using wildly over priced hedge funds (which have been under-performing the market for ten years) so that fees eat up all of the increased value. The whole game is rigged to move our wealth to the .01%.
Then they whine about "redistribution of wealth."
Then they whine about "redistribution of wealth."
7
Just another version of the gig economy. Whether it is the Hubspot sweatshop, the Uber contract labor force, large financial company's free internships, or Walmart's taking advantage of our older citizens, it's all about cheap labor generating large amounts of wealth for executives and funders, while everyone else gets called a freeloader. Not sure what to do about it, but usually this type of economy doesn't end well for all involved. We should be ashamed by the way we have turned our country into an hollowed out economy,
17
I was once appalled to hear a friend who had lost his job say that, in the language of the large telecom company he was employed by, he had been "surplused." I reminded him that despite the corporate doublespeak used by his company, he was not some old typewriter being sent off to a warehouse. He was laid-off, or fired! Language is powerful, and we should not allow corporations to use Orwellian terms to obscure what is being done to workers. Once we were "personnel," which at least contained "person." Then we became "human resources," and now we are nothing more than interchangeable, disposable cogs in a machine. We are allowing corporations to create a miserable, sad, insecure existence for most of us.
15
It's easy to blame management for ruthlessly exploiting workers, but that's sort of like blaming a shark for killing and eating prey, it's just what they do. Any publicly-traded company must seek to maximize quarterly shareholder profits and if the value of churning through workers exceeds the cost of replacing those workers, why would a company act otherwise? I have far more issues with the labor movement. It's very much in their self interest to maintain high membership roles and yet, for the most part, they have never adapted from the 1950s heavy-industry, blue-collar model to the modern economy. As a result, most of us, would never think to join a union because they seem irrelevant to our lives when, in fact, they are clearly as necessary as ever.
5
Of all the union malaise and stink that has poisoned our industries and sent them packing, Silicon Valley is the one place that is truly and uniquely demonstrative of American dominance. There is nothing like it, not even close, and nowhere else it can be done better. It is a place where talent is rewarded, and wages reflect the value you bring.
So I guess we better start focusing on worker protections and evil corporations, to destroy it like all the rest.
So I guess we better start focusing on worker protections and evil corporations, to destroy it like all the rest.
2
None of what is described in this article is in any way limited to the tech industry. I'm rather amazed that the author sounds so surprised...like "it's not supposed to happen here." Of course it does, and of course it will. This is just old-fashioned contempt for employees, but in an exposed-brick setting with a latte machine off to the right. Perhaps some of the obvious arrogance feels new, but it really isn't. Workers, of whatever caliber and educational level, have always been exploited by employers and management, and that's not going to change just because it's the next generation being all wiz-zy. I've seen just about everything highlighted in this article not only in tech-related companies, but in other for-profit environments, as well as in non-profit and social service areas. In fact, the first time I heard a manager fling the word "productivity" at her staff was in a mental health setting. She was angry that counsellors weren't seeing enough patients per day...totally discounting that a lot of the patients, who were members of very stressed and troubled populations, weren't showing up. But of course, it was the fault of the staff, not the context.
All of this should remind people why strong and powerful unions are necessary, and why union membership should be embraced by us all.
All of this should remind people why strong and powerful unions are necessary, and why union membership should be embraced by us all.
504
If our work environment is the latest innovation and export to the world, the rest of the world should feel free to reject it. The dehumanization of people in today's global corporate mindset is what is going to end Western civilization.
The problem with having companies managed for nothing but investors or having companies so large that they cannot be managed in any way remotely humane is a product of globalization and what happens when companies can merge over and over until they become gigantic puzzles.
Every human age eventually encounters a central flaw that will bring it crashing down. I think we have found it.
The problem with having companies managed for nothing but investors or having companies so large that they cannot be managed in any way remotely humane is a product of globalization and what happens when companies can merge over and over until they become gigantic puzzles.
Every human age eventually encounters a central flaw that will bring it crashing down. I think we have found it.
4
This is eerily reminiscent of Lois Lowry’s dystopia "The Giver." Those with power in that ideal society determine the productive value of all individuals; any determination that a person is not ideal has dire consequences. The protagonist has been indoctrinated to believe that his father, the head "Nurturer" in the 'Nurturing Center" is a great guy. One of the best things the father does is run parties in which he "Releases" perfectly normal children who don't fit a societal ideal; it can be anything, 2 ounces off an ideal weight is enough. The celebration is purportedly about sending the child out into the world to make a great new start. It's nothing of the sort. The protagonist secretly views a party in the middle of which his father murders the child. Once it's done the father happily puts the child on a conveyor belt and everyone applauds. The child is supposedly being ushered out of the community and into a great new life, but since he's just been killed, he's just being disposed of. The book was meant as a cautionary tale, an indictment of a society which considers people to be disposable. The society is inherently evil and those responsible are abhorrent and cannot be forgiven. It's what forces the protagonist, selected as the conscience of this society, to flee. It is deliberately left unclear whether the protagonist dies in the process and all remnants of decency die with him. Thanks to Netflix, HubSpot, and Bezos this is less and less speculative fiction.
14
This is not just confined to the tech world. It's even worse in higher education where you're lucky if you even have a full-time job and you're lucky if you can make enough to make ends meet. At the same time, you are treated as if you are disposable. Hours are long, weekends are taken up with grading. Your boss has less experience than you and has no concept of how to manage. There is something not quite right about the work and business culture in America.
35
Most definitely this is not just limited to the tech world. Take a look at how "White Shoe" law firms in NY operate. Bathroom breaks being timed. People coming in after you if you don't get back to your desk in 11 minutes. Phone calls being tapped. And everything has a point value. If you don't get enough points each month, you're out. Lunch break? Forget it. People seen going out to lunch are basically shamed by the other, supposedly harder workers. Overtime pay? Never happened. Sixty hour weeks are the norm and you'd better not complain. Made a mistake and gave the wrong answer to someone? It comes out of your paycheck. The NY Times needs to do more investigating into what's happening in the workplace; how HR departments, orignally put in place to help employees, are now nothing more than the PR arm of the partners. If you complain, you're out. It won't be done immediately or obviously, but you've got a bulls' eye on your back. The stress was so bad where I worked, that people were throwing cups of hot coffee against the wall. This horror show is nothing more than rampant capitalism and these new "Carnegies" and "Rockefellers" are tyrants.
1
Perhaps, it's all about the few having control.
The US is largely a kiss up kick down pecking order. Happiness isn't even a factor in it.
1
The balance of power is shifting rapidly in favor of the employer.
A recent study by Harvard and Princeton labor economists found that contractors and temps accounted for all of the job growth in the past decade. This shift in type of employment arrangement was likely driven by employers, rather than by employee choice.
The social insurance contract between employer and employee is becoming non-existent, just as the direct employment relationship with continuity is rapidly being broken.
The employer provided social insurance traditionally included benefits such as employer paid medical insurance, workmen's comp, unemployment insurance, disability insurance, and retirement benefits. This burden has been shifted to the worker, without any increase in compensation.
Each contract employee cannot be expected to take on the full responsibility for all of the social insurance traditionally handled by the employer (especially without a higher compensation rate than the traditional employee). Unless the trend toward shifting employment to independent contractors and temps can be stopped, this responsibility must be transferred to the federal government. (The funding will need to be obtained from the employers.)
Employers cannot be allowed to privatize profits, saving money by hiring contractors and temps, while leaving the resulting costs of that shift in employment status to both the individual and the state government. No privatized profits, with socialized costs!!
A recent study by Harvard and Princeton labor economists found that contractors and temps accounted for all of the job growth in the past decade. This shift in type of employment arrangement was likely driven by employers, rather than by employee choice.
The social insurance contract between employer and employee is becoming non-existent, just as the direct employment relationship with continuity is rapidly being broken.
The employer provided social insurance traditionally included benefits such as employer paid medical insurance, workmen's comp, unemployment insurance, disability insurance, and retirement benefits. This burden has been shifted to the worker, without any increase in compensation.
Each contract employee cannot be expected to take on the full responsibility for all of the social insurance traditionally handled by the employer (especially without a higher compensation rate than the traditional employee). Unless the trend toward shifting employment to independent contractors and temps can be stopped, this responsibility must be transferred to the federal government. (The funding will need to be obtained from the employers.)
Employers cannot be allowed to privatize profits, saving money by hiring contractors and temps, while leaving the resulting costs of that shift in employment status to both the individual and the state government. No privatized profits, with socialized costs!!
22
I have spoken to the telemarketing serf-children at Hubspot and they are no different than "tin men" selling aluminum siding from a 1960s "boiler room," though apparently they see themselves as tech gurus rather than sales grunts. It's almost funny to listen to their scripted pitch, yet it is sad at the same time.
Clearly the new captains of industry, who blather an unending stream of HR and management drivel to cover their tracks, have learned their history lessons well and are determined to emulate "the Lowell Model" as long as the vast crew of Millennials is there to exploit.
Clearly the new captains of industry, who blather an unending stream of HR and management drivel to cover their tracks, have learned their history lessons well and are determined to emulate "the Lowell Model" as long as the vast crew of Millennials is there to exploit.
44
your mistake was attempting to combine alcohol w/work. Thats awful. Not to mention it encourages people to drink! No wonder your business is a revolving door, Alcohol does nothing to improve work ethic. Unless your using your Beer Hole to suck in those w/weak constitutions. Working long hours doesnt justify offering alcohol to employees. Bad Form.
Seattle-centered, here. I've been here for a little over a decade, and this city has dramatically transformed in just a few years into a sea of tech-zombies, Village-of-the-Damned-like, with company badges ever dangling from plaid and khakis, even after hours. Each day brings a rain of new tech and marketing jargon--new buzzwords, acronyms, trendy phrases and management theories, new meanings for old words that I thought were pretty solid in definition, like authoring. And with all this spreads a pressure in the general professional community--an anxiety thick throughout this empty, cold tech culture (for lack of a more fitting word) to stay 'current' if not 'ahead.' Or else. Young college grads are taking over this area, living in the city for the first time, making ridiculously high salaries at as developers and programmers, yet operating in such a confined bubble of experience that they are developmentally stunted and immature. (Think money-fueled teen-Bieber behavior but in a smaller context, with a boatload of cringeworthy geeks. Welcome to the nightlife.) So, too, is there a lot of hot-air bravado--I'm unsure if this is also part of the pressure to stay competitive in the job market?--so that you might assume a lot of people are curing cancer or feeding an entire Third World country, when in fact they're just building yet another app with 50 other people. Ugh, I never actually thought this place was dull and gray until now.
365
Don't feel too bad, Seattle. I was laid off at 60 when the recession 1st hit - and I got fantastic quarterly reviews. They made no difference. San Francisco, at the top of "Silicon Valley" is hosed, too. That's where I used to live. You have written many wise things that are completely true. One of the biggest things I remember is that ad that Apple put out in the '80s (was it for the Superbowl?) where all the kids were marching and a woman finally threw an axe at the screen. Little zombies will be at us - they're called millienials today and they all have cellphones and they (as always) are completely expendable - as long as there is laissez-faire capitalism. There will always be marching and zombies whether they cry or not at their desks. As long as there is Jeff Bezos or a Mark Zuckerberg and their ilk there will be expendable humans. Chew it up, use it up, spit it out! Rinse and repeat under another guise. The planet has unlimited resources. Look! I'm a Koch, or a Gates, or a Bezos or a Jobs or a Stanford or Harvard grad who made Google and ... ! I have billions of dollars and big cars and many houses! Who really cares about the little people? Are you impressed? Hey, I'm the KING!!!
112
And here I thought the "farewell party" was my former manager's spectacularly misbegotten idea. I suppose it came from a trendy management tome (whose author had better hope there is no karma).
I grew up thinking serfdom was a thing of the past. How naive I was.
I grew up thinking serfdom was a thing of the past. How naive I was.
71
I am buying the book.... It complements Andrew Keene's "The Internet Is Not The Answer," and the works of Lanier (who is playing both sides) and Morozov.
This problem, however, is older and more generalized. Young and snappy "managers" are taught at the Jack Welch school of Neutron Management (kills the people, leaves buildings standing). To compensate, you get the odd guru of gentle management doing a TED talk every now and then, or explaining in honey-dipped terms why more women have to be in the executive suites.
You find this in many industries. I live in Geneva and have experienced first-hand the brutality of the "humanitarian" organizations, which cured me, happily, of my idealism about them. I know many who work there.... bosses have an easy time, and if you are friends with them, everything is hunky-dory, if not, mind your back.
Here is the question: so what are you going to do about the neo-feudalism that has become the norm in our "democracies"?
This problem, however, is older and more generalized. Young and snappy "managers" are taught at the Jack Welch school of Neutron Management (kills the people, leaves buildings standing). To compensate, you get the odd guru of gentle management doing a TED talk every now and then, or explaining in honey-dipped terms why more women have to be in the executive suites.
You find this in many industries. I live in Geneva and have experienced first-hand the brutality of the "humanitarian" organizations, which cured me, happily, of my idealism about them. I know many who work there.... bosses have an easy time, and if you are friends with them, everything is hunky-dory, if not, mind your back.
Here is the question: so what are you going to do about the neo-feudalism that has become the norm in our "democracies"?
68
Sounds like fertile grounds for labor unions, but because of 0.1%'s trade deals, they'll need to be international. Get organizing!
85
There are employees who are not treated as disposable widgets -- executives. In many cases, even as they are driving their firms into the ground (as many did on Wall Street), they are given enormous 'retention' bonuses because, for some reason, they absolutely must be retained.
These are the great exemplars of American meritocracy, churned out of Harvard, Stanford, and Chicago. Or, in the case of Hubspot, MIT, and its "Entrepreneurship Center" ... because everything can be automated, including those eureka moments. And if the automation of discovery doesn't work according to plan, workers and consumers can still be robbed blind so that incompetent money-grubbers (rent-seekers in the language of economics) can continue to delude themselves and the likes of Thomas Friedman that they are actually worth something.
These are the great exemplars of American meritocracy, churned out of Harvard, Stanford, and Chicago. Or, in the case of Hubspot, MIT, and its "Entrepreneurship Center" ... because everything can be automated, including those eureka moments. And if the automation of discovery doesn't work according to plan, workers and consumers can still be robbed blind so that incompetent money-grubbers (rent-seekers in the language of economics) can continue to delude themselves and the likes of Thomas Friedman that they are actually worth something.
81
We need a tax schedule that prevents any citizen from making more than $250k after taxes, and laws requiring at least 67% employee ownership of companies that operate in more than one county or employ more than 100 people.
5
One alternative is to get some fresh air, enjoy the tax-free earnings, even free meals delivered to your very own street corner. Hundreds of people, young and old, are discovering the easy way to make a living, setting their own hours and answering to nobody. Act quickly, street corners are filling fast!
13
Brilliant idea! I now know how I'll retire. Here in Newark the streets are too mean to survive, so I'll need to travel westward looking for a comfortable underpass near a busy pedestrian street corner. Texas, here I come . . .
1
The image of these stressed and insecure workers pulling down pathetic pay levels in order to improve the executive and venture people's chances at making huge amounts of money....perfect metaphor for the entire income equality paradigm.
54
"Treating workers as if they are widgets to be used up and discarded is a central part of the revised relationship between employers and employees that techies proclaim is an innovation as important as chips and software. The model originated in Silicon Valley, but it’s spreading. Old-guard companies are hiring “growth hackers” and building “incubators,” too. They see Silicon Valley as a model of enlightenment and forward thinking, even though this “new” way of working is actually the oldest game in the world: the exploitation of labor by capital."
BULLSEYE!
BULLSEYE!
60
I wonder if all the issues pointed out are really "issues" from the perspectives of the 20, 30 year olds joining these companies today. They have no experience with or expectation of the "job security" from the previous generation. Indeed, they do tend to prioritize working for a "mission" and delivering impact. Even if this was a mere hallucination, is that a bad thing? It gives them a reason to be personally invested in the company, and many genuinely believe they are changing the world. This is not that unreasonable given that software startups like Google and Facebook did change the world!
This collective desire to make an impact might contribute to the intense, unforgiving, and work-obsessed culture, which certainly deserves to be examined critically. Indeed, it is becoming more common for people to work for only a couple years at one company. However, they do move onto a new one eventually. If they end up broadening their perspectives and are able to bring value to their next job, this is not necessarily a negative. Many people seem to value the flexibility.
The sweatshop analogy may still be appropriate. First world inhabitants condemned the exploitation, but to the workers, sweatshops still represented the opportunities they desperately needed.
This collective desire to make an impact might contribute to the intense, unforgiving, and work-obsessed culture, which certainly deserves to be examined critically. Indeed, it is becoming more common for people to work for only a couple years at one company. However, they do move onto a new one eventually. If they end up broadening their perspectives and are able to bring value to their next job, this is not necessarily a negative. Many people seem to value the flexibility.
The sweatshop analogy may still be appropriate. First world inhabitants condemned the exploitation, but to the workers, sweatshops still represented the opportunities they desperately needed.
5
I agree with you to a point: it's a fine system if all the twenty-somethings understand that their job is essentially temporary, that the minute they want a less stressful job so that they can devote personal resources to, say, building a family life they will essentially become undesirable. The days when "years of experience in the industry" was as important to a company as an employee's willingness to work 24/7 is essentially over, at least in what is called "tech."
So my message to the twenty-somethings? Work really hard at your well paid sweatshop job and save your money. Thirty is around the corner.
So my message to the twenty-somethings? Work really hard at your well paid sweatshop job and save your money. Thirty is around the corner.
2
Job insecurity is supposed to give one "..a reason to be personally invested in the company"? When my yearly review is downgraded because I did not report having done any volunteer work on my own time then suddenly I become very un-invested. There is massive difference between doing work for a company that is acknowledged and valued, and being coerced through fear.
It sounds as if you are searching for reasons that naive young adults should be grateful to have the wool pulled over their eyes so that they don't recognize that they are being exploited, and I don't see anything positive about that.
It sounds as if you are searching for reasons that naive young adults should be grateful to have the wool pulled over their eyes so that they don't recognize that they are being exploited, and I don't see anything positive about that.
5
I'm OK with the concept of high turnover as a n employment philosophy provided that it operates fairly. A few elements of fairness are equitable sharing of revenue with labor during employment and a safety net that provides income for as long as it takes to secure other employment following termination. I don't accept the notion that everyone who gets terminated will be re-employed in short order.
2
What would America look like today if we had stayed on the 1950's path of unionizing all employment?
Imagine, a world where employees had a say in their employment. Too bad we are still voting it away with the Supreme Court chomping at the bit to throw all our chances of a middle class down the drain.
Way to go voters! Bravo Wisconsin! Go Scott Walker Go!
Imagine, a world where employees had a say in their employment. Too bad we are still voting it away with the Supreme Court chomping at the bit to throw all our chances of a middle class down the drain.
Way to go voters! Bravo Wisconsin! Go Scott Walker Go!
79
I was a union member recently for over a decade and it was a horrible experience. No one could get promoted and we were treated like factory workers instead of highly educated and qualified IT professionals. There were also lots of people who didn't do anything all day and could never be fired.
Instead of unions Americans should be fighting for basic worker rights for everyone - a month vacation, a national pension system, can't be fired without due cause, etc. like the rights European and the Chinese workers have.
Instead of unions Americans should be fighting for basic worker rights for everyone - a month vacation, a national pension system, can't be fired without due cause, etc. like the rights European and the Chinese workers have.
2
OTOH, in one of life's little ironies, note that the current Supreme Court 4-4 balance is working in labor's favor ...
We already did that - go out and buy a used 70's Pontiac...
And watch it disintegrate around you as you drive it - if it actually starts.
And watch it disintegrate around you as you drive it - if it actually starts.
Giving someone two weeks notice is so old school. Usually, the employee is called into HR, handed a check for two weeks pay, then a burly security guard appears out of nowhere and escorts that person from the building. Meanwhile, a factotum rummages through the employee's desk, packs it up and Fed Ex's the belongings to the employee's home address. A two-week notice in corporate America is as rare and mythical as a unicorn.
97
A smart employee foresees that a hasty yet dignified exit may be called for at any time, and for this purpose keeps a cardboard box casually tossed in a corner of his/her office or cube, of the appropriate dimensions for packing his/her belongings quickly, and has mentally rehearsed how, given 5 minutes or less, he or she would efficiently pack the box with all the small personal items he/she would not want to see left behind or rummaged through by the burly dude or the factotum.
Or just keep all said small personal items in one of those Crate and Barrel-style canvas boxes, ready to go without packing ...
Or just keep all said small personal items in one of those Crate and Barrel-style canvas boxes, ready to go without packing ...
I think the worst aspect of this trend is the constant parade of books and articles written by tenured university professors telling us what a great system this is.
30
I've spent quite a bit of time in higher education, and never met a single one of those professors.
3
John - "...tenured university professors telling us what a great system this is."
They of course being die-hard, conservative Republicans, right?
They of course being die-hard, conservative Republicans, right?
It is all wrapped in the same paper, just different colors with different logos.
Now if we could just look at government the same way...........
Now if we could just look at government the same way...........
3
I joined one of the larger competitors of HubSpot a few months ago, and my experience has not been like the author's. While I do see some of the corporate culture being over the top, I also see executive management genuinely supporting philanthropic causes. Many of my colleagues have been with the company for 5+ years, so the revolving door doesn't seem to be much of a reality. Tech is, and I suspect will remain, where some of the most talented, smart, and ambitious people choose to go in their careers. If things were truly as bad as the author writes, people would look to other industries. They're not - and it's because at least some tech companies offer balanced, rewarding workplaces and phenomenal opportunities for people.
8
Tech is being automated and outsourced into the cloud - it results in a massive reduction of manpower needed to run the IT department at the company level...and five years is not stability.
"Balanced, rewarding workplaces and phenomenal opportunities" apply in growth industries and my bet would be that technology is going to see shrinking opportunities and an oversupply of labor.
"Balanced, rewarding workplaces and phenomenal opportunities" apply in growth industries and my bet would be that technology is going to see shrinking opportunities and an oversupply of labor.
4
" I also see executive management genuinely supporting philanthropic causes."
Guilty consciences maybe?
Guilty consciences maybe?
2
Speaking as a former Silicon Valley worker, please be aware, Mr. Lyons, that at least in concept you are conflating two very different issues: (1) how hard should one work? and (2) how much should one be rewarded for performance? Please don't make it sound like working hard is bad when the real issue is not being properly rewarded for the work one does. Just as an anecdote, an acquaintance of mine once went through the hardship you describe for 6 months -- but he got $15 million when the 6 months was over.
1
Alex - This is called winning the lotto. It is a statistical outlier.
3
He was a telemarketer and got $15mm. Don't be an apologist.
One person who got a big payoff out of how many? Please...
2
Hubspot started with a simple website app that measured the SEO of your website. It was called "WebsiteGrader.com" and it was just OK. Today, they trick small business owners into SEO scams and WordPress sites. Total garbage. They need to go away.
19
This article is spot on!
Workers are not valued. They are easily replaced by cheap foreign labor from China and India. Corporations have used their political lackeys to destroy American labor. The H1B program is but one abusive tool politicians have made available to the corporate thugs.
The American political parties see the wrath of the workers in the rise of both Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. Politicians like Hillary, on the corporate take for years still haven't woken up to the disgust the working classes feel towards them.
Radical change is part of the answer. Worker protections is another. The creation of more parties to challenge the current two corporate parties is essential. Perhaps moving away from our current political structure to a parliamentary system to rid ourselves of the absurdity of presidential politics is another answer.
The current crop of tech workers need to realize that they aren't changing anything for the better. They are working like dogs, and for what? In ten years or so, when they are burned out and replaced and are too old to get a job as a Starbucks barista, they will realize they are not super stars but super fools!
Workers are not valued. They are easily replaced by cheap foreign labor from China and India. Corporations have used their political lackeys to destroy American labor. The H1B program is but one abusive tool politicians have made available to the corporate thugs.
The American political parties see the wrath of the workers in the rise of both Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. Politicians like Hillary, on the corporate take for years still haven't woken up to the disgust the working classes feel towards them.
Radical change is part of the answer. Worker protections is another. The creation of more parties to challenge the current two corporate parties is essential. Perhaps moving away from our current political structure to a parliamentary system to rid ourselves of the absurdity of presidential politics is another answer.
The current crop of tech workers need to realize that they aren't changing anything for the better. They are working like dogs, and for what? In ten years or so, when they are burned out and replaced and are too old to get a job as a Starbucks barista, they will realize they are not super stars but super fools!
70
This article is thoroughly bogus. First of all, the author might have been working for a tech company, but he was not a tech employee. He was not even a "glorified" telemarketer - he was a plain old telemarketer. Had he been good at it, he never would have been fired. Barring economic necessity, no one fires people who can pull their weight.
On the other hand, if you are a really good techie, whatever your age, your company will bend over backwards to keep you, barring intractable personality issues. It is hard to find really good engineers of any age.
The griping comes primarily from typical mediocre programmers with delusions of competence. Just showing up doesn’t cut it once people are paying you for results. If you don’t carry your weight, you are history.
And that is as it should be. How many of the whiners would stick with a beneficent, nurturing employer if another company offered you considerably more money?
As millennials rush from job to job, they should not be surprised when their bosses rush to find someone who can do the job better than them.
On the other hand, if you are a really good techie, whatever your age, your company will bend over backwards to keep you, barring intractable personality issues. It is hard to find really good engineers of any age.
The griping comes primarily from typical mediocre programmers with delusions of competence. Just showing up doesn’t cut it once people are paying you for results. If you don’t carry your weight, you are history.
And that is as it should be. How many of the whiners would stick with a beneficent, nurturing employer if another company offered you considerably more money?
As millennials rush from job to job, they should not be surprised when their bosses rush to find someone who can do the job better than them.
7
How does it feel to be a corporate share-cropper? This country needs a thoroughgoing cleansing of narcissistic capitalist greed, either at the polls or on the battlefield. The sins are even greater when the capitalists pretend to be Christian while they do Satan's work.
3
I retired in 2007 at 55 having had my fill of new age tech speak. The newbies coming up were steeped in it. It struck me as a gibberish. They also brought with them a sense of impermanence that was new to our rather traditional industry. C'est la vie. I look back now and see it as just a trend, a chapter...and am happily onto the next chapter of my life...far more interesting than the repetition and grind of work. Soul murdering...and I had a great job!!
19
Before too long, AI and Expert Systems will 'deliver impact' on knowledge workers in the same fashion that robotics brought to the factory floor.
1
It's called a free economy. It's brutal. If you don't like it, join the CPUSA. Or a church of some kind.
There are sectors of the economy that are less . . . anarchistic and amoral. Seek them out. Entrepeneurs still create new, innovative companies and treat their employees with respect. Many of these people still embrace Christian values, which will horrify the confirmed secularists among us, but it's nevertheless true.
It was John Adams who said that our government was made “only for a moral and religious people and is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
It's the a"any other" part I worry about.
There are sectors of the economy that are less . . . anarchistic and amoral. Seek them out. Entrepeneurs still create new, innovative companies and treat their employees with respect. Many of these people still embrace Christian values, which will horrify the confirmed secularists among us, but it's nevertheless true.
It was John Adams who said that our government was made “only for a moral and religious people and is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
It's the a"any other" part I worry about.
1
If people are spending their days hunched over computers selling programs, that's just a low-level telemarketing job, regardless of how they dress it up or how many bean bag chairs they toss around.
Everyone there is probably looking for their next gig on their smartphones while they work, and if they aren't they should be.
The farewell party for new fire-ees was a trick used where I once worked. It was grotesque.
The woman who got the farewell "party" was crying and shaking, but she was forced to go into the party room anyway, where the rest of the staff was told she was "moving on".
ALL of this is the result of the "Great Recession" when people were expendable.. But now there are tales of companies having trouble finding and keeping people so hopefully the pendulum will swing the other way.
Everyone there is probably looking for their next gig on their smartphones while they work, and if they aren't they should be.
The farewell party for new fire-ees was a trick used where I once worked. It was grotesque.
The woman who got the farewell "party" was crying and shaking, but she was forced to go into the party room anyway, where the rest of the staff was told she was "moving on".
ALL of this is the result of the "Great Recession" when people were expendable.. But now there are tales of companies having trouble finding and keeping people so hopefully the pendulum will swing the other way.
17
Of my 33 years in the tech world, 23 have been in government. It isn't for everyone, but if you truly believe in public service it can be professionally and emotionally gratifying. The ones who want to make mega-bucks tend not to last long. We aren't driven by such things as the profit motive or billable hours. Things don't always progress as quickly as you'd like, especially with some of the older managers who don't understand why you'd want to change something that has "always worked in the past". But in the right place you can make government more accessible to the constituents, engage in interesting analytical work and make business processes measurably more efficient. While doing all that you have a chance to earn a reasonable salary and benefits without constant fear of layoffs. It isn't the worst way to spend one's career.
25
Disgusting ultra- capitalism..where will it end til wake up! To the antidote to this hell... Its called UNIONIZATION!!
21
Uber is the unmatched in exploration of workers. Unmatched. 3-500,000 "driver partners" without a voice. Why it's taking so long to expose Uber as the premier corporate cancer in America is testament to ultra marketing and lazy business journalism.
2
As a veteran tech worker in startups and mature companies in Silicon Valley, I was surprised to learn from my doctor in a medical office affiliated with a major health care company, that even he is being monitored electronically and measured for productivity. They monitor how long he spends with patients, generates reports on income produced and have a site manage roaming the halls looking for efficiencies. Somehow it's become all about data and all of the human kindness and empathy among workers has been removed.
We now all work for ourselves, as a hired gun. The goal is to develop your career to be as marketable as possible, and develop those marketing skills to be used many times in your career.
We now all work for ourselves, as a hired gun. The goal is to develop your career to be as marketable as possible, and develop those marketing skills to be used many times in your career.
11
This is true even in schools. We are testing kids and basing decisions on tests that have questionable validity. Now some schools are testing kids on whether or not they have grit....something any teacher could tell from working with a student for a short time.
1
I worked at MCI in the 90s, before and after Ebbers eviscerated the company and its culture, and at other tech companies after that. My jobs were either cut along with the entire department, or shipped overseas. My last tech job was for an absolutely miserable small sports company, managed by incompetent, nepotistic despots who ruled through fear and loathing. I quit after I was ordered to pirate another company's code, and decided that I'd had my fill of I.T. Sounds like the industry has gone from bleak to flat out abusive.
29
The author describes a particularly unpleasant address in the diverse community we call Tech. In reality, there are great disparities across sectors. Some mid level professionals are treated well and paid fairly. Others find themselves in declining companies, being asked to do ever more while their compensation is cut. The absurd corporate speak the author describes does not persist in industries that are successful over the long term. Bottom line: Not all tech firms practice the silliness described in this piece. It is a challenging sector to work in, but it can be rewarding.
4
This is a one-sided account of life in high-tech that is wholly inconsistent with my my 20 years of experience in high-tech. During that time, I've worked at big companies, research labs and start-ups. I've worked as both an engineer and a manager. I've been an employee and a founder. I've been a part of successful acquisitions and more than one company failure. And during that time, engineers, especially good ones, are rarely let go. Occasionally it happens during a big lay off, but it has been rare. High-tech companies are motivated to retain engineers because true because it's expensive to find and train good replacements. More often than, engineers leave of their own accord because they are offered better opportunities or bigger salaries. The author and many of those posting comments appear bitter and don't resemble the people I work with on a daily basis.
7
A good description of degenerate capitalism where profit comes from looting and skimming off the top. Amazon sells stuff and doesn't make a profit on it. Flashy startups are hugely capitalized but aren't profitable. Companies buy other companies instead of originating anything. Less competition and lots of fees for bankers & lawyers. Activist shareholders force companies to asset strip and operate for short term profit. "Platforms" like Uber are middlemen that make more money than drivers who do the work and, with surge pricing, milk the customers when they can. Financial services are a tax on the economy.
The few magnificent things like scientific progress, and technology that extends human capacity are crawling with parasites. Scientists are considering a private internet to avoid the commercial, thoroughly gamed, search engines and the overwhelming amount of streaming data that clogs the pipes.
It feels like the late Roman Empire. Change is coming. Let's hope physical, change, like climate change and ecological trashing doesn't dwarf the social changes.
The few magnificent things like scientific progress, and technology that extends human capacity are crawling with parasites. Scientists are considering a private internet to avoid the commercial, thoroughly gamed, search engines and the overwhelming amount of streaming data that clogs the pipes.
It feels like the late Roman Empire. Change is coming. Let's hope physical, change, like climate change and ecological trashing doesn't dwarf the social changes.
14
This is the New Order of Information. System=Violence. And the violence is seen as an efficient organization of commerce equating to a contest between each individual's social validity set against their highly provisional economic/employment status. It has much to do with the 21st century value imputed to 'architecture'. Which is not now thought of as it had been seen - a structural, practical and visual art inhabited by, and strengthening localized memories of human experience. Now architecture is seen as space organized by information transmission. It is a conceptual model originating in the foundational ideas of cybernetics, a word first coined by Norbert Wiener in his book, tellingly entitled, " The Human Use of Human Beings-Cybernetics and Society." The cynical lingo of the people who run these businesses like sick pep rallies is a direct result of a cultural de-humanization whose methods can be traced back to actual brain washing techniques institutionalized by many totalitarian regimes and also employed by countless dangerous cults. Yes, computer sweat shops have not done anything progressive for employee rights.
5
From the article, it seems inevitable that the exploitation of labor by capital would consume the digital world as it has consumed everything else. It also seems inevitable that we are heading toward a THX1138 world faster than expected. There are the rich hoarding resources, paying off the congress and there are the exploited doing work they despise eking out a living like the other 2,000 in the room next door. Our government is run by people there to make a profit and making sure the laws don't change and their names are republican and democrat alike because it's obvious they have the same goals in mind. The efforts toward the $15 minimum wage only mean that the exploited will be able to buy the big screen TV, not hit a restaurant once a week. I just watched "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." how strangely relevant to the discussion here.
6
It's the same surreal economic theories as dotcom 1.0 when the more money a company burns through (losses), the more valuable it becomes. We know how that ended up. I remember a junior staff member of mine who lamented on how his college buddies were hired at WorldCom just to surf the internet and being paid big bucks for it. I said to him that if this was true, WorldCom is a fraud. He insisted I just didn't understand the "New Economy". Well, WorldCom did turn out to be a fraud as well as the old fashioned notion that successful companies made profits nicely survived dotcom 1.0. Well, here we are in dotcom 2.0 and another "New Economy". Well, if those page views and users don't turn into profits, you have no company.
8
This kind of latter-day work Gulag is described often enough nowadays, and I've encountered it myself (tangentially, fortunately; I was never subjected to the full blast of it).
What's more striking, though, is that the op-ed writer, after "spending 25 years in journalism and getting laid off from a top position at 'Newsweek,' " winds up in a sales boiler room where telemarketers earn $18.75 an hour on average. He doesn't say he held one of those jobs, but neither does he say otherwise; he says only that he, like they, was "disposable."
What's more striking, though, is that the op-ed writer, after "spending 25 years in journalism and getting laid off from a top position at 'Newsweek,' " winds up in a sales boiler room where telemarketers earn $18.75 an hour on average. He doesn't say he held one of those jobs, but neither does he say otherwise; he says only that he, like they, was "disposable."
8
So, what else is new? Get used to the new way of making much less and having several jobs to cobble together a living. Heartless? Au contraire. We have been through this three times. Life is tough unless you are the one percent.
6
I feel sorry for how they treated you. I found HubSpot disgusting after reading this.
None of the companies mentioned in the articles are really considered as carrying the Silicon Valley's value. I found that "disposable culture" is closer to the old business model. I guess SV's value is more than just "free snacks".
None of the companies mentioned in the articles are really considered as carrying the Silicon Valley's value. I found that "disposable culture" is closer to the old business model. I guess SV's value is more than just "free snacks".
3
Workers of the world unite....you have nothing to lose but your chains....
16
Wow, thanks for shedding some light on this disturbing culture.
5
What about the stock options? Surely you didn't sign up with a startup without getting stock options...what would be the point?
1
Not just tech any more. Because tech execs have made so much money, every other industry's management has emulated their style. No one wants intelligence or experience. They want a task accomplished (and heaven forbid you mention that it's illegal or actually not useful) and then the position and employee is eliminated.
18
Spot on! Having seen this world close up and personal I can tell you that this is a fair representation of what happens at many tech startups and established tech companies. And, the model is spreading. It's almost Orwellian in its double-speak.
The "open-office"model (already shown by psychologists to be counterproductive) is praised as a way to create camaraderie. That's an outright lie. the open office came into favor to save early investors money, because separate offices are more expensive.
As for Jeff Bezos; he's no better than any of the Waltons. Amazon has helped to gut the small business sector in America. Bezos appears to be proud of stressing his workers to the max while he smiles with his shiny, hairless head for the camera as a tech innovator. What a laugh!
Then we have the VCs, basically a clueless bunch of insiders - well-connected, mostly male, mostly "top-20" schooled - as inbred a culture as you can find anywhere in an Ivy League law firm. I have been in VC meetings - many of them - where so many of these wealthy know-it-alls love to expound on the "market" and act like big shots, but come away with poor results. Big wins are the exception, and many of those "wins" are little more than market manipulation that "win" only for the investor.
Silicon Valley culture is toxic; it breeds selfish, insulated, non-sharing types who use language (the "sharing economy", "connecting people") to softens the edge on pure greed. It's a soulless culture.
The "open-office"model (already shown by psychologists to be counterproductive) is praised as a way to create camaraderie. That's an outright lie. the open office came into favor to save early investors money, because separate offices are more expensive.
As for Jeff Bezos; he's no better than any of the Waltons. Amazon has helped to gut the small business sector in America. Bezos appears to be proud of stressing his workers to the max while he smiles with his shiny, hairless head for the camera as a tech innovator. What a laugh!
Then we have the VCs, basically a clueless bunch of insiders - well-connected, mostly male, mostly "top-20" schooled - as inbred a culture as you can find anywhere in an Ivy League law firm. I have been in VC meetings - many of them - where so many of these wealthy know-it-alls love to expound on the "market" and act like big shots, but come away with poor results. Big wins are the exception, and many of those "wins" are little more than market manipulation that "win" only for the investor.
Silicon Valley culture is toxic; it breeds selfish, insulated, non-sharing types who use language (the "sharing economy", "connecting people") to softens the edge on pure greed. It's a soulless culture.
49
This is why Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders are getting such traction. There are enough people like me, age 59, who see how the workplace has spiraled back in time to the early 1900s. "Let's make America great again" means bringing back the widespread prosperity of 50 years ago. One politician promises to do so by bashing foreigners, the other by bringing in European socialism.
Both mainstream political parties and the elites who run them need to sit up and pay attention.
Both mainstream political parties and the elites who run them need to sit up and pay attention.
20
If this is the employment picture in the tech industry, and apparently many others judging by comments, why the hell are we busting our butts and pouring tons of money into STEM schools? So we can prepare people to be treated like this? This is ludicrous. These masters of the universe need to be disposed of, not the employees.
19
I loathe the affront to humanity that the Hubspots of the world are. I can only hope that those who lespouse these asinine mantras also die by them, spit out of their corporate cultures like so much gum that's lost its flavor.
5
Democratic Socialism aka Social Democracy sounds better which each passing day - at least for me.
18
Maybe it's time for...
...dare I say it...
...Unions
...dare I say it...
...Unions
60
Self employment is the only way to go.
4
After seeing what happened to my father and his brother, I vowed never to be self employed. They ran a small men's clothing store in a small town near what is now the southern end of the Jersey Turnpike. When the bridge over the Delaware was opened and people had access to the big stores around Wilmington, DE, just about all the merchants in the town went belly up.
I am 77 now and retired and positive I made the right choice.
I am 77 now and retired and positive I made the right choice.
3
We are in midst of the Gilded Age 2.0. We may have transformed from the sweat shop floor to the cubicle maze as the scene of mass exploitation, but the same formula of leadership by scheming, greed driven sociopathic executives, an environment of fear of job loss and some variant of corporate double-speak combine to alienate employees.
This is all classic Capitalism with a high tech glossy finish.
The only real hope for change are employee owned and operated enterprises.
This is all classic Capitalism with a high tech glossy finish.
The only real hope for change are employee owned and operated enterprises.
16
Whether it's Tony Hsieh at Zappos, Jeff Bezos at Amazon, Steve Jobs at Apple, or whatever bozo runs this company, the story is the same.
Corporation claims to have amazing culture that drives its success. That culture mostly means taking advantage of young adults who are the product of the high school overachiever culture by pushing them as hard as they can and ignoring their well being. Some quit, some simply cannot accept the notion of failure after a lifetime of success and work until they simply break, and some succeed, with randomness playing a bigger role than they like to admit.
A corporate propaganda machine eventually develops to rationalize this culture, both to the self satisfied billionaire CEO who benefits, and to the employees giving away their lives. They say "This place is different" and pretend they are visionaries. They commission business schools to come in and write puff pieces about their culture. They find friendly magazines to encourage it.
It's really the same simple thing packaged up with different wrapping paper.
Corporation claims to have amazing culture that drives its success. That culture mostly means taking advantage of young adults who are the product of the high school overachiever culture by pushing them as hard as they can and ignoring their well being. Some quit, some simply cannot accept the notion of failure after a lifetime of success and work until they simply break, and some succeed, with randomness playing a bigger role than they like to admit.
A corporate propaganda machine eventually develops to rationalize this culture, both to the self satisfied billionaire CEO who benefits, and to the employees giving away their lives. They say "This place is different" and pretend they are visionaries. They commission business schools to come in and write puff pieces about their culture. They find friendly magazines to encourage it.
It's really the same simple thing packaged up with different wrapping paper.
10
I feel your pain!!! Seriously!
1
Unions anyone?
16
I am a Indian resident,worked for Amazon development center in India - Permanent blue card full time employee for 3 Years on Amazon payroll. Not a back office but amazon itself, a swanky office with a similar setup as Seattle Amazon (nearly). Retaining employees is never a tech company strategy, its always stack and rank - the strong survive.Being strong is not just enough, but being obsolete over the years as fresh talent rolls in YoY and you'll be forced to graduate. One thing that they teach in a training on 'Making Great Hiring Decisions' is Hire the candidate ONLY if he is better than 50% of your current team. Does it mean your existing team is inefficient? No.We are making it meaner and leaner.,that is utilizing young naivety to over work and churn out targets. And people who 'just do their jobs' got to go.
Coming over to the economic perspective of setting digital sweatshop in India.A SDE 1 gets paid 12K USD/Year in Amazon India. A SDE 1 Seattle gets 90K USD/Year. Now one can guess why jobs are being outsourced, 10 times lower salaries. Though 12K USD/Year is a bigger deal in India than 90K in USA, the Indian is also overworked with a invisible pistol to his head. Amazon has a rocket company and makes flop phones and wont give up burning cash? You can imagine where the money comes from.
Coming over to the economic perspective of setting digital sweatshop in India.A SDE 1 gets paid 12K USD/Year in Amazon India. A SDE 1 Seattle gets 90K USD/Year. Now one can guess why jobs are being outsourced, 10 times lower salaries. Though 12K USD/Year is a bigger deal in India than 90K in USA, the Indian is also overworked with a invisible pistol to his head. Amazon has a rocket company and makes flop phones and wont give up burning cash? You can imagine where the money comes from.
33
"Hire the candidate ONLY if he is better than 50% of your current team."
It's inherently illogical. Why was the "current team" hired then, if people who are better than 50% of them were available? It's like a ponzi scheme, it has to collapse. Unless you deliberately started by hiring bad workers so that it would be easy to replace them with better workers ... (my head is going to explode).
It's inherently illogical. Why was the "current team" hired then, if people who are better than 50% of them were available? It's like a ponzi scheme, it has to collapse. Unless you deliberately started by hiring bad workers so that it would be easy to replace them with better workers ... (my head is going to explode).
2
Sounds like a sweatshop to me. What happened to the tech industry? It was supposed to be the great equalizer, progressive hippy types programming, female software engineers making just about as much as the men. It's sunk to the bottom of the food chain. And we're all the worse off because of it. Just depressing. What a nightmare.
8
A complicated subject. Startup culture is ruthless and uncompromising. But it is voluntary. And if you claim not to know that signing on will be risky, demanding, and present poor risk/reward ratio, then you weren't honest with yourself.
The startup model is a constant process of creation and destruction. Companies, Capital, Ideas, People are processed like raw materials and now and then this maelstrom spews out a success. The writer clearly was naive about his expectations. Still, if the article helps tilt the expectations closer toward the reality, then it's a good thing.
The startup model is a constant process of creation and destruction. Companies, Capital, Ideas, People are processed like raw materials and now and then this maelstrom spews out a success. The writer clearly was naive about his expectations. Still, if the article helps tilt the expectations closer toward the reality, then it's a good thing.
Way to blame labor for capital's decision to junk the social contract. The risk/reward ratio is the concern of people with actual equity in the start-up. Employees don't have access to the inside information needed to make a rational decision on its chances of success, and if the company hits big, their reward is...what, exactly?
5
Thank you so much for writing this. It gets to the heart of the issue. What I have always wondered is how so many still get bought into these glorified sweatshops and end up with children and mortgages. I guess there is no alternative.
2
The only bright spot in this story is that the misery only lasts a year or two and then you get to collect unemployment for several months and restore your dignity. I have always said, "I can do anything for a year." But I'm not sure I could last that long in such an absurd and inhumane environment. Of course, generations of factory workers probably had it just as bad and chose that over farm labor. Still, it must kill the soul. Sounds like IT needs a union.
261
Collecting unemployment? Dream on!
In the new economy of contract workers, corporations don't pay unemployment insurance for them, since they technically are self-employed.
In the new economy of contract workers, corporations don't pay unemployment insurance for them, since they technically are self-employed.
1
Collecting unemployment hasn't been a passive activity in years.
40 years ago, the engineering and technology employees of Lucas Aerospace became frustrated with a management that treated them as day labor, focused single mindedly on profits, and engaged in harmful businesses. They published a massive document called the "Lucas Plan" (research this on the web), which reimagined Lucas as a respectful, socially useful company. They had no success in implementing this visionary plan, but it stands as a landmark effort in tech management history.
Unfortunately tech people today are ill-prepared to revisit anything as ambitious as the Lucas Plan. There are no unions in tech, and what little organization exists is ineffective. Tech folks are "geeky" loners, not by nature but by acculturation. They are prized as individual superstars and happy to see themselves that way. They are not team players.
The hallmark of incompetent management is that promotion is based primarily on productivity in current function. As a result, technology managers are almost universally uber geeks, much worse than useless when it comes to the people side of their jobs. When such an organization reaches a critical size, socially incompetent management becomes a "feature", not a "bug". It doesn't seem possible for this to end well: the tech oligarchy has all the cards. Not only to hire/fire, but to relocate work to distant markets that are cheap and more easily controlled.
Unfortunately tech people today are ill-prepared to revisit anything as ambitious as the Lucas Plan. There are no unions in tech, and what little organization exists is ineffective. Tech folks are "geeky" loners, not by nature but by acculturation. They are prized as individual superstars and happy to see themselves that way. They are not team players.
The hallmark of incompetent management is that promotion is based primarily on productivity in current function. As a result, technology managers are almost universally uber geeks, much worse than useless when it comes to the people side of their jobs. When such an organization reaches a critical size, socially incompetent management becomes a "feature", not a "bug". It doesn't seem possible for this to end well: the tech oligarchy has all the cards. Not only to hire/fire, but to relocate work to distant markets that are cheap and more easily controlled.
182
New boss, same as the old boss.
8
Your entire article sounds like a generalization based on a single experience. I have worked in tech since 2011 and I've seen some of what you describe here - thankfully not the creepy "graduation" thing - but I disagree with your claim that the tech industry as a whole is no longer focused on retaining talent.
Your work at HubSpot appears to have been in a non-technical role. In my experience, non-technical roles such as sales, recruiting, and some in customer support are associated with higher turnover and more layoffs than their technical counterparts in engineering and product management. I think in my 5 tech years I've seen fewer than 5 software engineers fired while I've witnessed the layoffs of countless non-technical employees. The reason for this is at least partly based in a supply discrepancy between these two role types. Developers are still harder to find than sales people and as a result they are harder to replace.
The claim that "tech workers have no job security," is just not true. You should qualify your statement to say instead: "some tech workers have no job security."
In fact I would argue that the same bean bag chairs and beer garden you appreciate as company perks are themselves enduring symbols that the focus on retaining employees is as strong as ever.
I agree with Joe Sabin's comment when he says "tech has no heart," and I'm sorry you had a bad experience with HubSpot, but since when has any business with its eye on billions of dollars had heart?
Your work at HubSpot appears to have been in a non-technical role. In my experience, non-technical roles such as sales, recruiting, and some in customer support are associated with higher turnover and more layoffs than their technical counterparts in engineering and product management. I think in my 5 tech years I've seen fewer than 5 software engineers fired while I've witnessed the layoffs of countless non-technical employees. The reason for this is at least partly based in a supply discrepancy between these two role types. Developers are still harder to find than sales people and as a result they are harder to replace.
The claim that "tech workers have no job security," is just not true. You should qualify your statement to say instead: "some tech workers have no job security."
In fact I would argue that the same bean bag chairs and beer garden you appreciate as company perks are themselves enduring symbols that the focus on retaining employees is as strong as ever.
I agree with Joe Sabin's comment when he says "tech has no heart," and I'm sorry you had a bad experience with HubSpot, but since when has any business with its eye on billions of dollars had heart?
117
Totally agree: "...but since when has any business with its eye on billions of dollars had heart?" However, and this is a big however, they do need a conscience. I mentioned in a separate comment, and I saw one other commenter come to the same conclusion that workers need to organize; a union will create the need for employers to regain their conscience, or at least regain consciousness.
1
Somebody here has clearly had too much of the Kool-Aid served in their company's beer garden. My husband worked in IT for seven years, always in a technical, "software engineer role," and it was soul-sucking for him. He had resigned himself to a life of working like an automaton just to keep a roof over his head until we met and I showed him that it's STILL possible, even now, to pursue your dreams and make an adequate living.
Businesses as a general rule may not have heart, but as people we still do, and these days our choice of career and workplace standards in a democracy is almost more important a vote for our futures than we have for essentially interchangeable politicians.
Businesses as a general rule may not have heart, but as people we still do, and these days our choice of career and workplace standards in a democracy is almost more important a vote for our futures than we have for essentially interchangeable politicians.
2
In my chosen field we have something similar where bean counters have convinced the top tier of the company that employees should be a jack of all trades and that everyone should be interchangeable. I continually hear about being a team player and that when we can all function together everything will be great! I always seem to elicit an negative response from the middle managers when I ask the last time they saw Joe Montana play linebacker or Mike Singletary go out for a pass. but at least it gets the higher ups thinking and off our collective cases for a few months until a new metric for judgment of employee's is dreamed up by an up and comer
5
Welcome to the "dog eat dog" world of work where there's no longer company loyalty - on either side. It disappeared a long, long time ago ... in a galaxy far away. Having been in the workforce for almost 44 years, I have seen and lived the changes. Call it fierce global competition, call it overdependence on technology, call it the hollowing out of the middle class, call it labor contraction, call it anything you like ... but the fact remains that we are in big trouble for the future.
15
My spouse has worked there for a long time and doesn't act or speak the way the writer portrays, and hasn't been treated like a widget. This could be specific to the department, I don't know. My hunch, having met many of the folks who work there, is that the writer is sensationalizing his experience. He's used the company as a model for his caricature of the tech industry - and it's entertaining.
Likely because I am a teacher, it puzzles me when former and current employees complain about their experience there. Employees are treated well and allowed progressive benefits (family leave for all stages of life) that are lacking elsewhere. Whether departed by way of firing or by quitting, I would guess that most ex-employees aren't underemployed at present.
There are far more egregious happenings in other industries.
Likely because I am a teacher, it puzzles me when former and current employees complain about their experience there. Employees are treated well and allowed progressive benefits (family leave for all stages of life) that are lacking elsewhere. Whether departed by way of firing or by quitting, I would guess that most ex-employees aren't underemployed at present.
There are far more egregious happenings in other industries.
3
Unionize. Organize. Create kindred cells of 20 fellow IT workers, with staggered dates of hire: If one of you "graduates", the other 19 decide to graduate early. Discuss renewal of your contract when your project is 90% complete, not 100%. Moonlight so you can document some productive activity without having to rely on a recommendation from your current employer.
6
I recall seeing Reid Hoffman speak at the 2009 Putney School commencement. It was supposed to be a big deal to have him speak- Linkedin and all that. I remember that he was an obese man, who kept saying the word "entrepeneur" but kept saying it "enTREPeneur" and it was like the answer to everything. But I knew then that it was phony baloney. Yes, some will find opportunities and success in this new economy, many will try and fail, many will simply plod through. But i remember Reid Hoffman as a big, obese man, who was very full of himself. That is what I remember of that day in June of 2009.
7
Capitalism exploits and ultimately destroys the individual. Workers in this country spend their lives in fear of being fired or replaced. They work in dehumanizing conditions that pit them against each other in the hopes that the trickle from the top will reach them with enough volume to pay their rent or mortgage. And for what? An ideological myth that tells us that this is the best and only way to live. This why I will be voting for the sole candidate advocating a political revolution.
7
We've forgotten that not too long ago, it was fine for employers to mandate 7-day weeks, dangerous working conditions, abusive bosses, meager wages. Workers fought and died for the right to 5-day work weeks, safe conditions, reasonable pay, overtime pay, vacation pay! They formed unions to negotiate collectively. Conditions improved; a middle class evolved.
We've forgotten, so employers fashioning themselves "disrupters" flatter workers, skilled and unskilled alike, into thinking that they are above such hard-won protections. We've been convinced that unions are evil.
We've forgotten that making money at the expense of others isn't innovative. The robber-barons were "disrupters." They created new economies (e.g., coal, oil), were put on pedestals, and argued that abusing workers was necessary for the economy.
We've forgotten, so we heap praise on a new class of robber-barons. The result: Wal-Mart company towns, with governments subsidizing ill-paid workers who may have no choice but to work there, thus creating the very clientele that needs cheap goods. We have Uber, expanding on the backs, not just of established drivers, but of their own drivers and customers. And there's Amazon whose worker abuse has attracted government censure in multiple countries--the white-collar types at Amazon have it bad; their warehouse workers have it even worse. We let these companies wipe out markets, and create a new class of working poor.
We'd do well to remember.
We've forgotten, so employers fashioning themselves "disrupters" flatter workers, skilled and unskilled alike, into thinking that they are above such hard-won protections. We've been convinced that unions are evil.
We've forgotten that making money at the expense of others isn't innovative. The robber-barons were "disrupters." They created new economies (e.g., coal, oil), were put on pedestals, and argued that abusing workers was necessary for the economy.
We've forgotten, so we heap praise on a new class of robber-barons. The result: Wal-Mart company towns, with governments subsidizing ill-paid workers who may have no choice but to work there, thus creating the very clientele that needs cheap goods. We have Uber, expanding on the backs, not just of established drivers, but of their own drivers and customers. And there's Amazon whose worker abuse has attracted government censure in multiple countries--the white-collar types at Amazon have it bad; their warehouse workers have it even worse. We let these companies wipe out markets, and create a new class of working poor.
We'd do well to remember.
12
This model of work has spread to all sorts of sectors and is just plain unsustainable. "Job creators" extol the virtues of "flexibility" for workers in this zero-job-security model, when nobody I'm aware of can actually handle this kind of "flexibility" long term. The only people I've ever known who didn't want job security were about 19, free-spirited and well-off enough not to be in fear about money, and were working short-term so they could save for some big, aimless period of travel. Needless to say, this doesn't describe the vast majority of the working world!
6
Never forget, you can love a company, but a company can't love you back.
4
Think union. There has to be a countervailing force. Maybe it's rethought form of unionization structured for the digital age and using digital tools – but it has to happen. As long as all of the power is in the hand of the founders and capitalists conditions will continue to devolve.
7
Just shows that without capital you are nothing but if you give up your life for capital you die having done nothing. God Bless European America, the place of untrammeled self-interest to no avail. It only exists because it was stolen and impossibly rich in natural resources. As we lose that, we learn how bankrupt the theories and dreams are. As one of my old teachers used to say regarding the Arts in America: "No good deed goes unpunished." To which I would reply, I never did anything genuinely significant that I got paid the cost to produce it. [Classical performing art]
These folks aren't creating the future they are just being grifted like Melville's last the novel so many years ago called "The Confidence Man." It seems that these Americans can't wait now to get back home to Europe or to a new home in the Middle East. "Just be here and strip the place and then go home." NYTimes said this week that Wolverines were going extinct. Guess it's just the four legged variety. REH Oklahoma, Cherokee Indian.
These folks aren't creating the future they are just being grifted like Melville's last the novel so many years ago called "The Confidence Man." It seems that these Americans can't wait now to get back home to Europe or to a new home in the Middle East. "Just be here and strip the place and then go home." NYTimes said this week that Wolverines were going extinct. Guess it's just the four legged variety. REH Oklahoma, Cherokee Indian.
1
Macabre.
2
The commodification of the professions is happening as well. As the corporations take over medicine and education and law we'll soon enter the new dark ages and serfdom.
Teachers, lawyers, doctors--all fungible.
And if you work in corporate USA and dissent politically, you get to "graduate" quickly.
This article is the canary in the coal mine.
Now how can we stop this seemingly inexorable process?
I think the young people are telling us how.
Teachers, lawyers, doctors--all fungible.
And if you work in corporate USA and dissent politically, you get to "graduate" quickly.
This article is the canary in the coal mine.
Now how can we stop this seemingly inexorable process?
I think the young people are telling us how.
3
1
I would say that the worst position conceivable would be someone in "Human Resources" still possessing a soul. Throughout the corporate world HR personnel are like concentration camp Kapos, eagerly parroting all the claptrap you've mentioned and worse, probably believing it.
9
IT workers need a union and should demand individual contracts if they are such superstars. Remember that the price of loyalty id loyalty. Former employees should warn off others of what they will face. Try out a strike for a worker's bill of rights. The sweatshop is back. The ILGWU had the answer. The fight against workplace tyrants is not new. Organize, organize, organize.
6
What defines "sweatshop" is the hours. People I know who work at new media companies are at their desks by 9:30 a.m., seldom (if ever) leave before 7 or 7:30 p.m. and take "lunch" at their (communal) desks.
1
A terrific article. Describes perfectly the lunatic world we find ourselves in now.
What to do. So much to fix. Where to begin.
I think the lever to lean on should rearrange the stock market. So much of the awfulness this article describes is because of the way the stock market moves money around and into the pockets of the few, who trade and sell the shares, who succeed in abusing the many, who actually do the work underneath the stocks' "value."
Some modest proposals:
1. A transaction tax on every trade of every share.
2. This is probably unrealistic, but allow stock trading rarely, say, one day a month or so. Why must a share of common stock be more liquid than a CD?
3. Seriously tax-advantage long term capital gains, where long is 5 years or more, and seriously tax shorter term gains, like twice the rate of salary.
The point of course is to make honest work profitable and speculation much less so.
P.S. In the midst of all of Donald Trump's crazy statements, he at least appreciates that financial speculators don't do anything worthwhile but gamble, and some get lucky.
What to do. So much to fix. Where to begin.
I think the lever to lean on should rearrange the stock market. So much of the awfulness this article describes is because of the way the stock market moves money around and into the pockets of the few, who trade and sell the shares, who succeed in abusing the many, who actually do the work underneath the stocks' "value."
Some modest proposals:
1. A transaction tax on every trade of every share.
2. This is probably unrealistic, but allow stock trading rarely, say, one day a month or so. Why must a share of common stock be more liquid than a CD?
3. Seriously tax-advantage long term capital gains, where long is 5 years or more, and seriously tax shorter term gains, like twice the rate of salary.
The point of course is to make honest work profitable and speculation much less so.
P.S. In the midst of all of Donald Trump's crazy statements, he at least appreciates that financial speculators don't do anything worthwhile but gamble, and some get lucky.
8
Let's not forget how insane, and I do mean insane, it is to believe that people are actually cogs in a machine and that there is no value in seasoning and, as it used to be called, institutional memory. People who've "been there, done that," sometimes with the "that" being dressed up in a new business buzzword or on quixotic quests that cannot bear fruit, are one of the things that helps an organization to avoid making the same mistakes over again.
The idea that a newbie that's far less expensive can be plopped into the seat of a seasoned pro, and have everything go forward as though the two were the same, is the ultimate delusion. There's a lot of corporate delusion these days, and it's been a long time coming and will probably take decades to go away, if it ever does.
The idea that a newbie that's far less expensive can be plopped into the seat of a seasoned pro, and have everything go forward as though the two were the same, is the ultimate delusion. There's a lot of corporate delusion these days, and it's been a long time coming and will probably take decades to go away, if it ever does.
5
Using Information Technology to Punish the Working Poor & To Reward the Rich
Most high tech firms have very few employees. Most of the people working in high tech are independent contractors. "Independent contractors" are paid only for work done in a specific period of time and receive NO benefits at all. Employees are paid, whether or not there is work to do. Independent contractors absorb everyday business risk of low or non existent demand. When demand is down, they are not needed, they are not called in, and they are not paid.
Instead of helping people by giving them a job with a guaranteed income for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, high tech hurts people by giving them tasks to do as independent contractors. One day at a time, independent contractors may -- or may not -- get work. Independent contractors do lots of gigs that altogether take up much more time with much less compensation than having a job. Information technology and the internet are helping corporations make more money with less risk, while hurting people who are paid less with much more risk.
Instead of forcing individuals to absorb everyday business risks by being independent contractors, without compensating them for absorbing that risk, let corporations absorb everyday business risks of low demand by hiring individuals to be full time employees and by purchasing business interruption insurance.
Most high tech firms have very few employees. Most of the people working in high tech are independent contractors. "Independent contractors" are paid only for work done in a specific period of time and receive NO benefits at all. Employees are paid, whether or not there is work to do. Independent contractors absorb everyday business risk of low or non existent demand. When demand is down, they are not needed, they are not called in, and they are not paid.
Instead of helping people by giving them a job with a guaranteed income for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, high tech hurts people by giving them tasks to do as independent contractors. One day at a time, independent contractors may -- or may not -- get work. Independent contractors do lots of gigs that altogether take up much more time with much less compensation than having a job. Information technology and the internet are helping corporations make more money with less risk, while hurting people who are paid less with much more risk.
Instead of forcing individuals to absorb everyday business risks by being independent contractors, without compensating them for absorbing that risk, let corporations absorb everyday business risks of low demand by hiring individuals to be full time employees and by purchasing business interruption insurance.
9
No one person by their own efforts can ever become truly rich, that's why all great wealth is ultimately based on theft. The whole mechanism of civilization for the last 10,000 years has been designed to funnel the regular wealth of the many into hands of the few at the top.
So nothing has really changed except it's just easier to cry about it in public now, and certainly no one should be shocked if human nature has remained unchanged over that 10,000 year time span.
If you want real freedom and security then you have to earn it by starting your own company. In today's world you have no choice.
So nothing has really changed except it's just easier to cry about it in public now, and certainly no one should be shocked if human nature has remained unchanged over that 10,000 year time span.
If you want real freedom and security then you have to earn it by starting your own company. In today's world you have no choice.
1
Sounds like a lot of people would be happier if they worked for government with great job security, pensions, benefits, work-life balance, layers of trained managers, and no concern about earning profits.
5
But lower wages.
Come to San Francisco and you'll see what happens when an entire city is overrun by these people: soulless 20-something narcissists who stare zombie-like at their cellphones while waiting for white corporate buses to shuttle them to cubicles in Mountain View so they can write "world-changing" apps that allow them to hook up with other soulless 20-something narcissists.
19
When Millennials are told that they can do anything they set their minds to and are incubated in today’s hypercompetitive educational environment, how can today's tech culture have evolved any other way? If my goal is to “be the change” and anyone who needs a break “just can’t keep up,” and when nothing less than perfection is acceptable, of course work becomes life and life becomes work.
These impossible standards are self-reinforcing between workers and management. Sooner rather than later, everyone is constantly running to keep up with both their internal and external expectations. We all know that there’s another recent graduate who studied harder and is ready to sacrifice it all, and is a moment away from replacing you at any moment. Anxiety and depression run rampant, and any time off for self-care can be seen as a lack of commitment come evaluation time. (So is parental leave and family obligations – you just don’t care enough about the mission!). The non-disclosure agreements, mutual arbitration clauses, and (in some states) at-will labor laws also make it clear that you could be gone, really, at any moment. Meanwhile, the oppressive anxiety and internalized guilt of any hint of failure makes us work all the harder.
I think this is one of the reasons that so many of my peers support Bernie Sanders's progressive social policies. We know that we're going to fall off the gravy train sooner rather than later, and then what? Grad school? And after that? Who knows?
These impossible standards are self-reinforcing between workers and management. Sooner rather than later, everyone is constantly running to keep up with both their internal and external expectations. We all know that there’s another recent graduate who studied harder and is ready to sacrifice it all, and is a moment away from replacing you at any moment. Anxiety and depression run rampant, and any time off for self-care can be seen as a lack of commitment come evaluation time. (So is parental leave and family obligations – you just don’t care enough about the mission!). The non-disclosure agreements, mutual arbitration clauses, and (in some states) at-will labor laws also make it clear that you could be gone, really, at any moment. Meanwhile, the oppressive anxiety and internalized guilt of any hint of failure makes us work all the harder.
I think this is one of the reasons that so many of my peers support Bernie Sanders's progressive social policies. We know that we're going to fall off the gravy train sooner rather than later, and then what? Grad school? And after that? Who knows?
10
Eliminating the rampant fraud in the H-1B program would go a long way toward restoring tech workers' bargaining power.
9
It's called a strike. Try it.
8
"Going public." The worst phrase for a worker.
1
Some entry-level employees did quite well in the internet boom 1.0 and 2.0, but you can't mine the same space forever. Here we see how pressure from the rentier class just lands on the entry-level employees, then further up, after valuations evaporate. There just aren't that many unicorns.
1
I worked for 8 years at a company where we were continually referred to as a "family." Yet when I most unfortunately became disabled and no longer able to work, I was ultimately disowned. I hope companies quit referring to their employees as "family." It can be a painful letdown when you're abandoned.
13
We the 99% are just cogs in the machine of corporate profits We get paid as little as possible, with horrible actual benefits but free snacks. No job security, but u can take a vacation whenever u want. Oh, but if you do that you'll be fired for not being dedicated to the company religion. Changing the world.....for the shareholders anyway.
This is not just a problem in tech....our new service economy seems to be great at exploiting the common worker. No wonder us millennials look at social democracy and like it. Our employers give us nothing, and unions are dead. That's why us millennials want social democracy. The corporations give nothing back, so we are going to have to take it.
This is not just a problem in tech....our new service economy seems to be great at exploiting the common worker. No wonder us millennials look at social democracy and like it. Our employers give us nothing, and unions are dead. That's why us millennials want social democracy. The corporations give nothing back, so we are going to have to take it.
6
That's why we had unions.
1984 meets The Matrix, meets The Hunger Games
4
Unionize.
6
While the focus in North Carolina is on the "bathroom" provisions of HB2, a closer look reveals what may be the real purpose of the bill: To remove all of the state's legal protections from workers, forcing any labor matters to be taken up at the federal level.
Now the suspicion is that they will repeal the offensive LGBT provisions and keep the other nefarious gems.
Now the suspicion is that they will repeal the offensive LGBT provisions and keep the other nefarious gems.
3
This article is exactly right on. But, I'm not sure if it was invented in Silicon Valley. I think the whole Wall Street perspective of watching quarterly earnings, maximizing profit at the expense of morality and paying management immorally high salaries and bonuses is what started it. In this world, which is now our world, employees are only widgets to be minimized in terms of numbers and salaries. Also, where I work, you don't even get two week's notice. They just escort you to the front door. Nice world we've built.
9
While the comparison might make for a good article, the work in real sweatshops, in addition to often being physically difficult would be dangerous and underpaid (and that underpaid would be far worse , in relative terms, to the figures you describe as low pay at the end. Those would be wealth).
You might prefer making furniture today, Mr. Lyons, but you would not have preferred a real sweatshop.
You might prefer making furniture today, Mr. Lyons, but you would not have preferred a real sweatshop.
4
I worked in the corporate would for about 35 years, been up, down, sideways, rightsized, outsourced, on and on. The idea of loyalty is a one way arrow and its not pointed at you.
I now work with a bunch of old farts at a hardware store. We help people get things done every day, I attend many be 4 meeting a year and never have to wear a tie or fill out an expense report. Of course I make a fraction of my former salary, but I find I'm OK with that. I also find that having a customer come back in the store and shake my hand and say 'Thank You, you idea on my project worked great!' is a lot more rewarding to me than a flight on the corporate jet to a meeting where I would get told what my next impossible goals would be.
I don't have all the perks I used to have, but I work with people I like, I get instant feedback on how I'm doing and I can sleep at night. This may not work for everyone, but it is a trade off I'm very OK with.
I now work with a bunch of old farts at a hardware store. We help people get things done every day, I attend many be 4 meeting a year and never have to wear a tie or fill out an expense report. Of course I make a fraction of my former salary, but I find I'm OK with that. I also find that having a customer come back in the store and shake my hand and say 'Thank You, you idea on my project worked great!' is a lot more rewarding to me than a flight on the corporate jet to a meeting where I would get told what my next impossible goals would be.
I don't have all the perks I used to have, but I work with people I like, I get instant feedback on how I'm doing and I can sleep at night. This may not work for everyone, but it is a trade off I'm very OK with.
35
Also should read "Liquidated" by Dr. Kelly Ho--- an anthropologist who worked on Wall Street. She treated Wall Street's "disposable employee" culture as an anthropology research study.
2
Counterpoint: Many tech workers I know get paid 6 figures to surf the web and socialize over free gourmet food and drinks while occasionally checking in a piece of code. They are coddled and told they are the best of the best and allowed to work on projects that interest them and ignore stuff that doesn't. Sure, there's mental stress. Sure, many of these people take their jobs home and work a lot of "hours." Some of them even get fired. But a sweatshop, um, no. I get the hyperbole but I think it's inappropriate. The author should re-read "The Jungle."
7
The "superpower" and "adventure" terminology derived from 3rd rate B-school strategy of trying to make the employee feel like a "hero on a journey" so they will work harder. Its lifted directly and very un-imaginatively form Joseph Campbell. Its a tired attempt to make the tech employee feel special and that the tech company's mission is special, when the reality is the employee is a disposable commodity and the company's special world-changing mission is to accumulate as much money as possible before the next bubble bursts.
It would be comical if the naive young tech workers didn't swallow this stuff up whole-heartedly. Internal manipulative communications/PR/marketing has become as as customer-facing marketing.
It would be comical if the naive young tech workers didn't swallow this stuff up whole-heartedly. Internal manipulative communications/PR/marketing has become as as customer-facing marketing.
4
Gee, I wonder why we don't see this kind of story in my hometown paper, the Washington Post.... I guess Mr. Bezos doesn't subscribe to the maxim, "all publicity is good publicity".
11
The start-up culture is similar to management consulting firms. Either you are billing to meet your quota of billable hours which has been increasing to meet firm's profitability; in many companies billable hours runs close to 90% of annual number of working hours. If you are Asst. Partner & up you are expected to meet annual sales quota, which means one needs to constantly look for sales opportunities to hawk consulting firm's latest methodology to convince increasingly skeptical clients .
Most of the consultants are pigeonholed into their practice area of expertise. Constant travel, long hours, but many a time one bills 40 hours/week to keep the consulting engagement profitability. Depending on the complexity, many consulting engagements last 1.5- 4 months. End of engagements' performance, client satisfaction, billable hours worked all factor into annual review.
This is similar to lawyers, and can cause great amount of stress. On a per hour basis, many consultants do not make any more than employees working in client companies.The real beneficiaries are the partners & up at the consulting firm.
Most of the consultants are pigeonholed into their practice area of expertise. Constant travel, long hours, but many a time one bills 40 hours/week to keep the consulting engagement profitability. Depending on the complexity, many consulting engagements last 1.5- 4 months. End of engagements' performance, client satisfaction, billable hours worked all factor into annual review.
This is similar to lawyers, and can cause great amount of stress. On a per hour basis, many consultants do not make any more than employees working in client companies.The real beneficiaries are the partners & up at the consulting firm.
2
Welcome to the 19th century! If you really want a fundamental understanding of the dynamic you've just described, try reading Das Kapital. I say "try" because it's a bit of slog to put it mildly, but Marx understood (better than most) the necessity of labor exploitation for Capitalism to exist. It's not simply a matter of working out the kinks in whichever free-market fairytale is carted out, exploitation of labor is what defines Capital from top to bottom. Capitalism is at its fundamental best the more it exploits those who provide its disposable machinery, namely, labor itself. And that's the point.
13
Outstanding article.
The market is changing and the very concept of what it means to be an employee or employer are shifting, big time. As this happens more people will choose to become independent in one way or another. One will still depend upon's one's skill set to survive, but not the evaporating benefits of being part of a corporation or someone else's start up.
The market is changing and the very concept of what it means to be an employee or employer are shifting, big time. As this happens more people will choose to become independent in one way or another. One will still depend upon's one's skill set to survive, but not the evaporating benefits of being part of a corporation or someone else's start up.
7
Aren't we supposed to be thrilled? They are our new "Job creators". Never mind the sweatshop conditions, take your medicine and deal with it. The medicine tastes bad, but it benefits the rest of us. Aren't these the same sweatshop-tech employees who are creating the expensive living conditions in NYC, L.A. San Fran., Seatle, Portland? Stop your griping, fork over your dough for the rent, or mortage, smile when you pay $7 for that warm, watered-down Double Tall Mocha at Starbucks, and smile to the now-homeless family living out in their car, for you are the reason why their landlord jacked up their rent 5X and you're now living in their apartment. All is well, that is until someone is willing to pay even more rent for your place.
5
We work in a system where we celebrate how the brutal are placed in charge for no greater reason than that they can be. Why not run a more humane shop? Well, they don't have to, so they don't. Does this mean that inside, humans are more apt to choose brutality over at least treating employees with respect? I guess so. This is the old Scientific Management all over again where people are merely cogs in a machine.
2
The article is about start ups but the same can be said of the medical industrial health care system where productivity is measured as if we are doing piece work for a rate in a sewing factory in Indonesia, China, India, Thailand, etc. Those are all beautiful places. But people are not commodities. We float around the facility floors taking care of patients who want to get better. Then huddle at computers on wheelie carts to chart, write, and then churn out bleary reports that can sound like fiction. We are treating a chart and not the patient. We have to maintain productivity at 95% according to outsourcing agencies whose owners make enough profit off medicare to live large and reinvest so they own more healthcare facilities. We are demeaned and dismissed with frequency. Poorly trained replacements are then brought in to treat your mom and dad in those so called 4 and 5 star facilities. Then comes the cycle of hire, fire, rehire, displace, replace create a disgrace in patient care or any other business. We are treated like chattel. In my lifetime I have never seen it like this until now. No you are not a rock star,
you are a seamstress a cookie packer, a cold caller, a timed robot with many expiration dates assigned to you.
you are a seamstress a cookie packer, a cold caller, a timed robot with many expiration dates assigned to you.
9
In Silicon Valley, it is so common for engineers to get fired it's almost a mark up the professional ladder as you risie up the ranks.
5
Given the mayfly lifespan of tech companies, it's not surprising they grind their resources with ruthless efficiency, including human capital. There's pressure at every point in the management and financing chain of these companies to strike the gold as fast as possible and then fold up the boomtown when the vein runs dry.
That said, the VORP and other statistics that attempt to reduce human capital have some flaws despite their usefulness for short term efficiency. The human capital many of these starts up employ is some of the brightest in the world. I don't know about HubSpot in particular, but in many start ups I know, the human capital bell curve is skewed and the "replacement" is often another motivated highly educated person, not an unskilled laborer. Management that treats their employees weel will create an environment that develops and attracts talent... but I realize this is meaningless point to companies that only plan on lasting a year or three. There's no way to convince a short term venture with a long-term concern. Churning through this gold mine of skilled human capital while paying it lip service and small salaries will have its eventual cost to the sector as whole, though, even if some can make a profit off of them now.
That said, the VORP and other statistics that attempt to reduce human capital have some flaws despite their usefulness for short term efficiency. The human capital many of these starts up employ is some of the brightest in the world. I don't know about HubSpot in particular, but in many start ups I know, the human capital bell curve is skewed and the "replacement" is often another motivated highly educated person, not an unskilled laborer. Management that treats their employees weel will create an environment that develops and attracts talent... but I realize this is meaningless point to companies that only plan on lasting a year or three. There's no way to convince a short term venture with a long-term concern. Churning through this gold mine of skilled human capital while paying it lip service and small salaries will have its eventual cost to the sector as whole, though, even if some can make a profit off of them now.
1
Worthless workers making and selling worthless junk. If the plug were to be pulled, would anyone miss this junk? Probably not.
6
It's not just tech start-ups that treat their employees as disposable but also long established companies in the tech industry. My closest friend worked at Comcast in the California Bay Area and he shared with me inside stories of how senior management viewed employees as simply pawns on a chess board.
They would hire 500 call center tech support representatives and fire them all a year later, then send out inner-office memo's to remaining employees suggesting this would open the door to new and exciting opportunities for those who were laid off. Many of the older men dyed their hair since those with grey hair seemed to be first in line to be thanked for their service and then escorted off the property the same day by an HR rep no one had ever seen before.
One time after employees were getting restless about so many people losing their jobs a "training" seminar was provided to the entire area, a video entitled "Who Moved my Cheese". An animated mouse scurried around looking for his cheese that had been moved from the usual spot while the narrator explained that sometimes in life it's good to look somewhere else for your cheese. Some managers stood along the walls of the room trying to hide their embarrassment over the idea that employees should be thankful for the "opportunity" of losing their jobs.
They would hire 500 call center tech support representatives and fire them all a year later, then send out inner-office memo's to remaining employees suggesting this would open the door to new and exciting opportunities for those who were laid off. Many of the older men dyed their hair since those with grey hair seemed to be first in line to be thanked for their service and then escorted off the property the same day by an HR rep no one had ever seen before.
One time after employees were getting restless about so many people losing their jobs a "training" seminar was provided to the entire area, a video entitled "Who Moved my Cheese". An animated mouse scurried around looking for his cheese that had been moved from the usual spot while the narrator explained that sometimes in life it's good to look somewhere else for your cheese. Some managers stood along the walls of the room trying to hide their embarrassment over the idea that employees should be thankful for the "opportunity" of losing their jobs.
22
Capitalism is failing America and the wotld. It's past time for its excesses to be reigned in.
11
I work/teach at a university where it's true, kids these days have different sensibilities than us GenXers and BabyBoomers. But who raised these kids? Now they're starting to dominate the workforce with all their digital native talent, and some naïveté just as we had at 20-30something, and we're all having a hard time with it -- just as that other fuddyduddy generation bemoaned us a generation ago.
I also am a very happy Hubspot customer. It's false to say they sell spam (recall: that was our generation's invention!) Their model is the antidote to spam: it's all about creating value for a broad populace -- potential customer or not. It's free content on the internet -- y'know, that place you go to research stuff, learn new things, etc? Tell me you haven't found value in all the free guides, reviews, how-to's, whitepapers, ebooks, etc.
It's true, they do hire bright and help-oriented kids. I'm liking the fact that I really do get solid help, including followup, whenever I call their helpdesk -- which I do often, not because their product or services failed me, but because they keep building new helpful stuff I want to use. Can you believe? Ok, so they like junkfood, pingpong, beer and hookups in the office. Whatever.
I'm not saying the inequalities in the tech industry aren't real or a big deal. They are. Or that this transition to a gig economy isn't hard. It is. But blaming this on kids being kids, and a new solution-oriented ethos is not helpful.
I also am a very happy Hubspot customer. It's false to say they sell spam (recall: that was our generation's invention!) Their model is the antidote to spam: it's all about creating value for a broad populace -- potential customer or not. It's free content on the internet -- y'know, that place you go to research stuff, learn new things, etc? Tell me you haven't found value in all the free guides, reviews, how-to's, whitepapers, ebooks, etc.
It's true, they do hire bright and help-oriented kids. I'm liking the fact that I really do get solid help, including followup, whenever I call their helpdesk -- which I do often, not because their product or services failed me, but because they keep building new helpful stuff I want to use. Can you believe? Ok, so they like junkfood, pingpong, beer and hookups in the office. Whatever.
I'm not saying the inequalities in the tech industry aren't real or a big deal. They are. Or that this transition to a gig economy isn't hard. It is. But blaming this on kids being kids, and a new solution-oriented ethos is not helpful.
I work for an old guard tech company and I've been with the company for 20 years in a few different roles. Like the author, I'm 52. Often times when I look around this city I find myself wishing I was young and hip. After reading this, I'm grateful I'm 10 years from retirement and God willing I'll never have to work for any of these idiots.
22
This is what happens when companies are run by douches.
8
What we are currently experiencing is best described as "corporate feudalism".
18
That's why Henry Ford is the patron saint of these types of corporations: replaceable parts. Except now it is the workers who are the parts.
2
In it's latest annual technology forecast, Accenture talks about a "liquid workforce" in the near future, about three to five years away. And it recommends its client corporations adopt a "People First" business strategy that reads like "Employer First."
Why do Millennials get so much grief for being entitled or whatever, when this is their wonderful work future — each work moment, atomic and accounted for. At least they won't need managers when you are managed by data. It's horrible work environment but don't blame tech companies. Working at a startup is not like Dan described. He described a call center — not the engineering culture of a Silicon Valley startup.
Why do Millennials get so much grief for being entitled or whatever, when this is their wonderful work future — each work moment, atomic and accounted for. At least they won't need managers when you are managed by data. It's horrible work environment but don't blame tech companies. Working at a startup is not like Dan described. He described a call center — not the engineering culture of a Silicon Valley startup.
6
The ugly thing about hi tech sweat shops is the non-exempt classification that permits the robber barons to order 80 plus hour work weeks while paying a flat rate salary. They work you into the ground and replace you with an H1-B worker. Those are worked until sick or burned out, dumped into the US labor pool, and replaced by another H1-B worker. You can see the dumped workers desperately offering to program, work as a DBA, anything, for $10 an hour or less
17
We will hit the guardrail and swing back into some semblance of humanity but probably not until we burn out a whole generation. Either a company with humane policies will rise to ascendancy, or a Harvard or McKinsey group will come up with a several million dollar recommendation to reorg how companies manage people, and a new fad will bloom. Or it will get ugly. We are getting closer and closer to ugly.
The adage that we repeat history when we don't learn it is looking prescient. Why we would want Pinkertons and Molly Maguire's and riots again , I can't imagine, but we are working our way there.
Our labor laws were written to restrain exploitation; we need to look at them again.
The adage that we repeat history when we don't learn it is looking prescient. Why we would want Pinkertons and Molly Maguire's and riots again , I can't imagine, but we are working our way there.
Our labor laws were written to restrain exploitation; we need to look at them again.
12
Well....we have the labor laws that we deserve by virtue of our votes.
In Louisiana (as in many, perhaps most other states), you may be fired for a good reason, a bad reason, or no reason at all. Keep in mind that a Presidential Election in on the horizon and vote accordingly.
In Louisiana (as in many, perhaps most other states), you may be fired for a good reason, a bad reason, or no reason at all. Keep in mind that a Presidential Election in on the horizon and vote accordingly.
16
And you think a presidential election is going to change this ? You're living in myth.
1
sorry to remind you...
the Wobblies had this figured more than a century ago...
THE PREAMBLE
OF THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD
The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of working people and the few, who make up the employing class, have all the good things of life.
Between these two classes a struggle must go on until the workers of the world organize as a class, take possession of the earth and the machinery of production, and abolish the wage system.
the Wobblies had this figured more than a century ago...
THE PREAMBLE
OF THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD
The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of working people and the few, who make up the employing class, have all the good things of life.
Between these two classes a struggle must go on until the workers of the world organize as a class, take possession of the earth and the machinery of production, and abolish the wage system.
12
Fortunately due to my age I will never have to work at a company like this, not that I am old.. companies like this only hire 30 somethings and younger. Although age discrimination is illegal it's something as a techy you can look forward to after you "graduate" from this stage in your career.
But it's not all bad. While companies won't hire you full time, many will hire you under contract. And you get paid for every hour you work and more per hour, when you can find a gig.
I considered myself a super hero.. not a rock star, they are two different types. This kind of corporate culture makes me sick.
But it's not all bad. While companies won't hire you full time, many will hire you under contract. And you get paid for every hour you work and more per hour, when you can find a gig.
I considered myself a super hero.. not a rock star, they are two different types. This kind of corporate culture makes me sick.
3
It's time for a revival of those old-time unions. It's too bad that workers in the USA don't have any class consciousness.
9
Those with type "a" personalities often tend to rise in the ranks of management. This would be fine if most didn't seem to loose their ability to relate to anyone who isn't type "a" in the process. We all operate somewhat in our own little bubble of self-awareness. In my long career in tech, I've been exposed to this phenomena quite often. I would be dishonest if I didn't admit to being a bit on the type "a" side of the equation, mostly during my younger years. The purest type a, considers those who want to work only forty hours a week to be lazy non-producers. They simply can't understand why everyone doesn't think and act like them. Why would employees want to spend time with their families? Why don't they loyally worship the company that has zero loyalty to them? Why aren't they all possessed by the "entrepreneurial spirit", just like the boss? Don't they know our competitors will eat our lunch if we don't step it up? That last line is the key. Unions and labor laws were created to prevent pure capitalism from forcing good companies to become bad employers, mostly due to competitive pressure. Type "a" leaders are a natural phenomena that needs to be allowed to run free, up to a point. If they are left uncontrolled, society eventually ends up in oligarchy led servitude (or worse). New types of unions or "labor associations" need to be created for the needs a new century. Labor regulations need better enforcement and consistency. America must re-establish a proper balance.
14
It's unfortunate so many in the work force and the media buy into the beanbag, climbing walls "Golly! We've got free snacks!" veneer of these organisations. Too late, about the time they tick over 30, the eager recruits learn the Logan's Run nature of the game and the fact the Solyent Green available in the commissary is actually comprised of the dreams of dismissed colleagues.
27
These idiots think they are the smartest guys in the room. I have worked with a number of them. They are narcissistic and irresponsible but they are not the smartest......not dumb either but not half as smart as they believe. The vast majority of startups fail and they say they learned something and arrogantly go on to the next startup. The investors just hope that a small percentage of their investments make it big to make up for these idiots. The investors often won't provide their true investment results because they don't want to tell their money sources how pathetic they might be at picking investments.
I have a long business career and the worst managers who have no imagination or lack vision only look at ways to beat up their employees and/or fire them. Those employers have always been the least successful in my experience.
I have a long business career and the worst managers who have no imagination or lack vision only look at ways to beat up their employees and/or fire them. Those employers have always been the least successful in my experience.
4
"We're a team, not a family," says it all. I heard that phrase years ago during a large business restructuring. What it meant was - you are expendable, money is everything.
When anyone argues about the value of unions, here is a good place to start.
When anyone argues about the value of unions, here is a good place to start.
6
As a multi-decade member of the Silicon Valley technical and business community, I grew up in the work hard / play hard days of the Scott McNealy’s (Sun), Larry Ellison’s (Oracle) and Andrew Grove’s (Intel). While we did work hard, it was also fair. People were treated like human beings. We were paid well. We got sabbaticals. Stock options worked.
With the advent of what I will call the financialization of Silicon Valley, we are doing to Silicon Valley what we have done to the U.S. manufacturing industry and the home mortgage market in the 2000s. - killing the goose the lays the golden eggs. With Silicon Valley’s $300 billion in Unicorn investments that are worth close to nothing today, we can see the “magic” of private equity yet again.
From all this, one of the greatest pains for me is what we are doing to the millennials. They are saddled with insane college debt payments, feeling lucky to have “careers” working at these inhumane companies. It is baffling to me why they are not using technology like MeetUp and Facebook to work together to come up with way to get out and build new lives in low cost (and charming) places in the U.S. In my case, when it was obvious that the Unicorns were a huge risk for Silicon Valley (and my property value), I packed up my family and left. We now live happily and cheaply in Southwest Florida, building our own start-up and are quite happy doing it.
With the advent of what I will call the financialization of Silicon Valley, we are doing to Silicon Valley what we have done to the U.S. manufacturing industry and the home mortgage market in the 2000s. - killing the goose the lays the golden eggs. With Silicon Valley’s $300 billion in Unicorn investments that are worth close to nothing today, we can see the “magic” of private equity yet again.
From all this, one of the greatest pains for me is what we are doing to the millennials. They are saddled with insane college debt payments, feeling lucky to have “careers” working at these inhumane companies. It is baffling to me why they are not using technology like MeetUp and Facebook to work together to come up with way to get out and build new lives in low cost (and charming) places in the U.S. In my case, when it was obvious that the Unicorns were a huge risk for Silicon Valley (and my property value), I packed up my family and left. We now live happily and cheaply in Southwest Florida, building our own start-up and are quite happy doing it.
6
Last I looked, no one's holding a gun to anyone's head -- including Dan Lyons's -- to work there. If enough talented, sensible people do enough homework on what they're getting into, and develop the ability to say no to these types of working conditions and corporate cultures, these employers, whose work relies almost entirely on human capital, will change.
Until then, it's all useless fulmination.
One small additional point: Mr. Lyons says "I am old enough to remember the 1980s and early ’90s, when technology executives were obsessed with retaining talent." That's just romanticized nonsense. Companies like Apple, Microsoft, Cisco, Dell, and so forth were equally brutal in their work cultures.
Until then, it's all useless fulmination.
One small additional point: Mr. Lyons says "I am old enough to remember the 1980s and early ’90s, when technology executives were obsessed with retaining talent." That's just romanticized nonsense. Companies like Apple, Microsoft, Cisco, Dell, and so forth were equally brutal in their work cultures.
3
Productivity has been growing exponentially, but it now takes two workers often working more than two jobs to achieve a standard of living equal to that of the sixties. Where has all of that extra productivity gone. It has been stolen by the .01% A few hundred people have as much wealth as half of the human race, 3.5 billion people.
They manipulate every market, from interest rates to real estate to commodities. They skim or steal your pension. They charge fees on fees.
Then they hire the government to make all of their thievery "legal," and to cut their own taxes to zero or less, and cut government services or privatize them so they can make huge profits on government contracts, which they purposely screw up so they can blame government for being inefficient while getting paid double to fix the mess they made.
They own the mass media and get to decide who the "electable" candidates are.
They call themselves the "job creators" while they fire everyone, because sometimes they hire us back at half pay with no benefits.
They have gotten national governments to give away our sovereignty to global trade tribunals run by corporate lawyers that get to override our legislation by calling it a trade barrier. Tuna can no longer be called "Dolphin Safe" and meat can no longer be labeled by country of origin (Chinese steak anyone?)
Now you get to compete with nearly free labor from all over the world, including slaves and children.
But who has time to revolt? Let's go to Walmart!
They manipulate every market, from interest rates to real estate to commodities. They skim or steal your pension. They charge fees on fees.
Then they hire the government to make all of their thievery "legal," and to cut their own taxes to zero or less, and cut government services or privatize them so they can make huge profits on government contracts, which they purposely screw up so they can blame government for being inefficient while getting paid double to fix the mess they made.
They own the mass media and get to decide who the "electable" candidates are.
They call themselves the "job creators" while they fire everyone, because sometimes they hire us back at half pay with no benefits.
They have gotten national governments to give away our sovereignty to global trade tribunals run by corporate lawyers that get to override our legislation by calling it a trade barrier. Tuna can no longer be called "Dolphin Safe" and meat can no longer be labeled by country of origin (Chinese steak anyone?)
Now you get to compete with nearly free labor from all over the world, including slaves and children.
But who has time to revolt? Let's go to Walmart!
27
If anybody has any question about why people need to join a union, they should read this article.
What you describe is an outrageous way to treat human beings - and Amazon gets away with it. They're not going to get any of my business anymore.
George Orwell would have a field day with the doublespeak the author describes as part of the usual routine. What has happened to humanity? Has making money overcome all notions of decent treatment for workers?
What you describe is an outrageous way to treat human beings - and Amazon gets away with it. They're not going to get any of my business anymore.
George Orwell would have a field day with the doublespeak the author describes as part of the usual routine. What has happened to humanity? Has making money overcome all notions of decent treatment for workers?
5
My best friends arrogant daughters are finding as they approach 40 that they can no longer job hop. They can't just take off the summer, or quit a job and get hired for the next one. They are too old for these start ups in their 30's.
My big questions is how are any of these start ups ever going to make any money when the entitled brats working for them for snacks, playing video games, and checking their social media ever get anything done. They don't! That is why they aren't profitable.
My big questions is how are any of these start ups ever going to make any money when the entitled brats working for them for snacks, playing video games, and checking their social media ever get anything done. They don't! That is why they aren't profitable.
1
I wish every admiring story in the Styles or Business sections about these Masters of the Internet Universe would contain a link to this insightful article.
8
So, in sum, what drives people toward socialism and communism?
Capitalism!
As Karl Marx would say, nothing is new under the sun.
Capitalism!
As Karl Marx would say, nothing is new under the sun.
9
"In this new model of work, employees are expected to feel complete devotion and loyalty to their companies, even while the boss feels no such obligation in return."
And there's the problem right there. Employers feel no obligation to loyalty to employees, but demand loyalty of their employees. To support that, the employers are able to collude with other businesses and the lawmakers to make sure the jackboot remains on the throats of the employees.
That asymmetrical loyalty is the real problem. I fail to see how it could be solved without the presence of watchdogs and unions, but that isn't fashionable these days.
And there's the problem right there. Employers feel no obligation to loyalty to employees, but demand loyalty of their employees. To support that, the employers are able to collude with other businesses and the lawmakers to make sure the jackboot remains on the throats of the employees.
That asymmetrical loyalty is the real problem. I fail to see how it could be solved without the presence of watchdogs and unions, but that isn't fashionable these days.
7
Nature is simple, and we have artificially made our lives so complicated.
But we have not completely failed as humankind -- for I envy the Amish, the Bedouin, and Adivasis, their way of life is so much simpler and our purpose of life not any better.
But we have not completely failed as humankind -- for I envy the Amish, the Bedouin, and Adivasis, their way of life is so much simpler and our purpose of life not any better.
2
"In this new model of work, employees are expected to feel complete devotion and loyalty to their companies, even while the boss feels no such obligation in return."
This didn't start with Netflix. I've worked as a software engineer most of my adult life, and I was aware of this new approach to management over 20 years ago.
This didn't start with Netflix. I've worked as a software engineer most of my adult life, and I was aware of this new approach to management over 20 years ago.
4
Thank you for writing this. Due to the H-1B program where Indian engineers can be hired on the cheap, American engineers are being discarded like a used toilet paper. At American workplaces, there is no union for engineers, doctors, etc. I used to work in France and there is a union for everyone -- even sex workers (prostitutes) have their own union. It's no wonder why they have 6 weeks of vacation per year and job security that Americans can only dream about. At high-tech companies nowaday, they have a new paradigm called "agile" and "scrum." Basically you must document every single minute of your workday to say what you will do and then the next morning, you will tell everyone in your team what you have done yesterday etc (what a waste of time). Anyway, this whole practice reminds me of the years that I spent living in Communist Vietnam -- it was the same thing. You were monitored 24/7 and you were forced to stand up in front of everyone telling everyone what you have done. Your description of digital sweat shop actually doesn't fully describe the degrading experience working in high-tech today (especially Silicon Valley).
10
Once again I wonder why people in these jobs don't think about unionizing. I thank goodness every day for NEA.
6
Dan, clearly you no longer work at HubSpot, and I must congratulate you on that alone. Sadly, you're probably no longer needed anyway at HubSpot, as you've been replaced by someone with a cheerier disposition. Lastly, the bleary-eyed drones working there now are supposedly selling software to companies looking to get rid of their cold-callers. Not sure why HubSpot needs cold-callers, especially when they're selling software to purge them.
Oh, and one other point: now you're writing for a paper that probably has no interest in paying you a living wage either. You're bright, education and I bet an solid human being, but you and I both live in a world that places little to no value on what we are anymore.
Oh, and one other point: now you're writing for a paper that probably has no interest in paying you a living wage either. You're bright, education and I bet an solid human being, but you and I both live in a world that places little to no value on what we are anymore.
11
There has been a trend towards this sort of cut throat managerialism in academia as well.
While the US has largely been immune to the worst edge of this trend, there are now universities in which employee time in front of a computer screen in monitored by a clock that measures keystrokes. It does not take a genius (or even a PhD!) to guess that talented researchers stay away from such institutions in droves.
The real question is what sort of talent companies like Amazon are trying to attract and/or retain. In the case of the tech companies, they are clearly betting on a short memory among a young and quickly changing (aka disposable) workforce. But even these companies will have to realize that a reputation as an abusive workplace comes with a price, and can be very hard to shake.
While the US has largely been immune to the worst edge of this trend, there are now universities in which employee time in front of a computer screen in monitored by a clock that measures keystrokes. It does not take a genius (or even a PhD!) to guess that talented researchers stay away from such institutions in droves.
The real question is what sort of talent companies like Amazon are trying to attract and/or retain. In the case of the tech companies, they are clearly betting on a short memory among a young and quickly changing (aka disposable) workforce. But even these companies will have to realize that a reputation as an abusive workplace comes with a price, and can be very hard to shake.
4
@Thomas Dubois
My fear is that the abusive reputation is balanced by economic desperation. I think Amazon is betting that things are going to get worse or at least not better, therefore the balance will hold. It is a business plan.
My fear is that the abusive reputation is balanced by economic desperation. I think Amazon is betting that things are going to get worse or at least not better, therefore the balance will hold. It is a business plan.
1
I wonder how many people that work in places like HubSpot think about organizing and forming a labor union?
It would be nice to see that happen!
It would be nice to see that happen!
6
Millennials have the reputation of having been raised by their parents and their teachers to believe they are in fact “rock stars” and “inspiring people” who will “change the world" just for being themselves. They're the everyone-is-a-winner-just-for-showing-up generation. Silicon Valley bosses use this to muster a mindless dedication to a system in which they are worse than disposable. They are the playthings of the new workplace laboratory. But this is the culture we deserve. Steve Jobs, a thoroughly despicable human being, is our god. The end justifies the means especially if you can laugh all the way to the bank, the road to which is paved with the American working class. It always has been.
9
Globalization of financial markets, technology and changes in tax laws have completely changed the balance of power between capital and labor. Even the supposed "knowledge workers" can be treated like commodities with barely an iota of consequence.
But the laws enabling and supporting global financial markets and the tax laws are political arrangements. They are not things of nature. They are not inevitable. With sufficient political will, they could be changed.
Here's one possibility. We reduce the unemployment insurance contribution (in FICA) of companies a bit. But then in any year in which an employee is fired, we add half of that employee's unemployment insurance payments to the firing companies tax bill. If the ex-employee gets a new job right away, the firing company gets lucky.
This would make it harder for companies to treat employees like commodities. It creates an incentive for companies to train up their own rather than just discard and rehire (highly trained employees might get new jobs more quickly if you really do have to fire them, which is better for the company on that end).
It might make companies reluctant to hire, but in the short term, a company's FICA contributions are less. So, if they really do need more workers it decreases the cost of adding new ones.
If current capital and financial incentives are making work more like serfdom, let get creative, let's get political. We cannot all just take this passively.
But the laws enabling and supporting global financial markets and the tax laws are political arrangements. They are not things of nature. They are not inevitable. With sufficient political will, they could be changed.
Here's one possibility. We reduce the unemployment insurance contribution (in FICA) of companies a bit. But then in any year in which an employee is fired, we add half of that employee's unemployment insurance payments to the firing companies tax bill. If the ex-employee gets a new job right away, the firing company gets lucky.
This would make it harder for companies to treat employees like commodities. It creates an incentive for companies to train up their own rather than just discard and rehire (highly trained employees might get new jobs more quickly if you really do have to fire them, which is better for the company on that end).
It might make companies reluctant to hire, but in the short term, a company's FICA contributions are less. So, if they really do need more workers it decreases the cost of adding new ones.
If current capital and financial incentives are making work more like serfdom, let get creative, let's get political. We cannot all just take this passively.
7
Any wonder why students do not go into STEM careers?
6
This is why the tech companies are always calling for more H1b visas.
They churn and burn their way through the normal labor pool.
Work visas just encourage this kind of behavior.
They churn and burn their way through the normal labor pool.
Work visas just encourage this kind of behavior.
20
I think this may be a popular management strategy rather than one confined to tech or start ups. Perhaps a decade ago I worked in a school building in which the principal had the philosophy that the whole staff should see themselves as entirely interchangeable and replaceable. To this end, he often moved teachers from one course assignment to another so that teachers could not "own" their courses and develop increasing mastery in teaching them.
While there wasn't firing, there was tremendous attrition of the highest quality staff.
Ultimately, as the management policy of a workplace becomes well known, the institution or firm gets the kind of staff they manage for.
While there wasn't firing, there was tremendous attrition of the highest quality staff.
Ultimately, as the management policy of a workplace becomes well known, the institution or firm gets the kind of staff they manage for.
7
All I can say is that I'm glad I'm 60, and with cancer probably won't have that long to go, after reading about your experience and the working world I'm now too old for. Whenever I read about what things have turned into, the first thing I think about is my grandson who's only 12 and worry what his life's going to be like. But maybe it's all relative, as he won't have known anything else, so maybe I better not tell him what it used to be like, for his own sake and state of mind; about how my dad took me and my sister home to the farms that he and my mother each grew up on, every summer as kids. They used to sweat too, but a kind of sweat that was healthy and made them feel good, not like the kind now that's torture.
6
And yet!!
Worse has to come, no job at all.
The Dickensian environment in HubSpot is not unique in todays Apple App manufacturing companies.
It is clear that this is not different than the dot.com bubble, because we have already started hear these reports more and more and important and crucial positions are already taken such as Amazon, Google ,Netflix etc. The rest is trawling the bottom. Meanwhile New assault to working people life is already accomplished. This new tech companies do not have any decent, healthcare, union or any other employee rights or benefits. In fact they only advocate earn your salary and go away.
Again I would like to remind , worse yet to come.
AI become more utilitarian, we are going to see that once we called jobs are going to evaporate, no kidding, such as driver of any type of vehicle, to telemarketing, to cashier, housekeeper to accountant. In western world hundreds of job categories will never be available for humans any more.
Check out
http://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/connectedcar/autonomous-mercedes-benz-act...
Worse has to come, no job at all.
The Dickensian environment in HubSpot is not unique in todays Apple App manufacturing companies.
It is clear that this is not different than the dot.com bubble, because we have already started hear these reports more and more and important and crucial positions are already taken such as Amazon, Google ,Netflix etc. The rest is trawling the bottom. Meanwhile New assault to working people life is already accomplished. This new tech companies do not have any decent, healthcare, union or any other employee rights or benefits. In fact they only advocate earn your salary and go away.
Again I would like to remind , worse yet to come.
AI become more utilitarian, we are going to see that once we called jobs are going to evaporate, no kidding, such as driver of any type of vehicle, to telemarketing, to cashier, housekeeper to accountant. In western world hundreds of job categories will never be available for humans any more.
Check out
http://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/connectedcar/autonomous-mercedes-benz-act...
4
Heard you on NPR the other day. Sounds like it sucks. The military was great compared to what you described. Glad I'm retired.
2
It's a sign of boom times, actually. In the late 90s I worked at a booming software company whose founder had read that a properly functioning company should experience about a 10% employer turnover annually. It's probably a reasonable rule of thumb. The company had grown from a few employees to several thousand in the course of a couple of years by hiring carelessly, so it was reasonable to pay attention to who belonged and who didn't.
The founder's brainstorm was to implement the 10% rule by requiring every manager to fire 5% of his or her direct reports, twice per year, in a one-week bloodletting cheerfully called the Workplace Improvement Plan, or WIP. A few managers had hired carefully and had managed properly, and were exempt, but otherwise it was arbitrary. At the executive level, the destructiveness didn't matter - we could simply hire a few more bodies.
It was common for Sasha, or Susan, or Wan, to WIP his or her reports on Monday, then get WIPPED on Tuesday.
When boom times pass, executives often develop a little humanity and dial it back.
The founder's brainstorm was to implement the 10% rule by requiring every manager to fire 5% of his or her direct reports, twice per year, in a one-week bloodletting cheerfully called the Workplace Improvement Plan, or WIP. A few managers had hired carefully and had managed properly, and were exempt, but otherwise it was arbitrary. At the executive level, the destructiveness didn't matter - we could simply hire a few more bodies.
It was common for Sasha, or Susan, or Wan, to WIP his or her reports on Monday, then get WIPPED on Tuesday.
When boom times pass, executives often develop a little humanity and dial it back.
3
First of all, I thought we were short on STEM grads in this country? At least that's the reason the tech oligarchs always give when they call for more and more H1B visas to be given out like candy on Halloween.
Also, the "data-driven," saving-the-world, constant turnover theme sounds exactly like what's happening in public education, where needy children are subjected to inexperienced, demoralized teachers so a handful of people at the top can make the big bucks. Greed knows no limits.
Also, the "data-driven," saving-the-world, constant turnover theme sounds exactly like what's happening in public education, where needy children are subjected to inexperienced, demoralized teachers so a handful of people at the top can make the big bucks. Greed knows no limits.
14
Every man for himself. That is the current corporation leadership motto. Of course after they implement the Oz principle or Six Sigma or some other management fad. The current system is corrupt.
In the 80's and 90's I had a great time building great software. In 1990 the H1B laws were passed. It took a few years but a huge volume of cheap foreign labor has allowed corporations to ignore a whole generation of young college graduates and fire a generation of old IT workers. Replaced with a million H1Bs, at the prevailing wage of course.
It really is simple economics for a capitalist. Increase the supply and decrease the cost. The fact that they are human beings and your neighbors means nothing in this culture.
In the 80's and 90's I had a great time building great software. In 1990 the H1B laws were passed. It took a few years but a huge volume of cheap foreign labor has allowed corporations to ignore a whole generation of young college graduates and fire a generation of old IT workers. Replaced with a million H1Bs, at the prevailing wage of course.
It really is simple economics for a capitalist. Increase the supply and decrease the cost. The fact that they are human beings and your neighbors means nothing in this culture.
14
The workers that make Apple products, all up and down its supply chain, are often found treated poorly, except this is mostly offshore. It is not surprising then to see other companies following suit.
2
The mediocrity and inanity of our capitalist overlords never fails to amaze me. They simply don't realize the obvious contradictions that dribble forth from their mouths.
They say they want a team, and then they rotate the positions every 18 months, killing team chemistry. They say they're changing the world with their wares, even if those wares are tiny digital packets that exploit your internet history to get you to buy something from someone else. They want to hire serious, engaged workers, whom they will then infantilize with walls of candy and bean bag chairs. They preach the glories of capital, even as they work hard to unravel it by hoarding wealth, automating service, and "graduating" the very people that would have bought their products.
They are not the vanguard of progress. They are its undoing. And it will take a mass effort to take history back from these boring hucksters.
They say they want a team, and then they rotate the positions every 18 months, killing team chemistry. They say they're changing the world with their wares, even if those wares are tiny digital packets that exploit your internet history to get you to buy something from someone else. They want to hire serious, engaged workers, whom they will then infantilize with walls of candy and bean bag chairs. They preach the glories of capital, even as they work hard to unravel it by hoarding wealth, automating service, and "graduating" the very people that would have bought their products.
They are not the vanguard of progress. They are its undoing. And it will take a mass effort to take history back from these boring hucksters.
8
This is not a new model. Employers have always expected employees to feel complete devotion while expecting to offer nothing but a paycheck in turn.
4
It reminds me of Dilbert, based on Scott Adams' experiences in cubicle city at Pacific Bell in San Ramon. I saw so much of it at HP in Cupertino, US marketing HQ, 1987-92. Process was way more important than Results. I watched as Sun, Apple, Netscape, Oracle, Baan, Tandem, Novell, and others surged, unfettered by Tradition and Stanford-style gentility. Later they imported Carly Fiorina from NJ (as they'd done with me, at 1/40th her salary) to be the fire-breather, buying Compaq as a last resort. Essentially, not much has changed.
5
For the record, I'm one of the co-authors of "The Alliance," which Dan Lyons refers to and from which he quotes a single sentence fragment: "Your company is not a family." Everything else he writes in that section has nothing to do with the content of the book.
1) "You’re serving a “tour of duty” that might last a year or two" Actually, the book says the duration of a tour of duty depends on the mission the employee has agreed to tackle--tours of duty can be anywhere from 6 months to 6 years long.
2) "Companies burn you out and churn you out when someone better, or cheaper, becomes available." In the book we say few employees expect lifetime employment at a single company and companies can't realistically promise lifetime employment. Our approach allows both sides to make explicit commitments to each other that can survive the ups and downs.
3) "In this new model of work, employees are expected to feel complete devotion and loyalty to their companies, even while the boss feels no such obligation in return." Once again, the *exact* opposite of our book’s message. We argue employment should be a mutually beneficial alliance and that managers should be explicit about how an employee's job assignment is going to help develop his or her career. The whole premise of the book is that for companies to attract and engage great people, value and loyalty needs to flow both ways.
Dan Lyons certainly has right to his opinions, but he shouldn't have a right to misrepresent our ideas.
1) "You’re serving a “tour of duty” that might last a year or two" Actually, the book says the duration of a tour of duty depends on the mission the employee has agreed to tackle--tours of duty can be anywhere from 6 months to 6 years long.
2) "Companies burn you out and churn you out when someone better, or cheaper, becomes available." In the book we say few employees expect lifetime employment at a single company and companies can't realistically promise lifetime employment. Our approach allows both sides to make explicit commitments to each other that can survive the ups and downs.
3) "In this new model of work, employees are expected to feel complete devotion and loyalty to their companies, even while the boss feels no such obligation in return." Once again, the *exact* opposite of our book’s message. We argue employment should be a mutually beneficial alliance and that managers should be explicit about how an employee's job assignment is going to help develop his or her career. The whole premise of the book is that for companies to attract and engage great people, value and loyalty needs to flow both ways.
Dan Lyons certainly has right to his opinions, but he shouldn't have a right to misrepresent our ideas.
4
"Perceived" mutual benefit which can also entrench bad management and spell the slow or rapid demise of a incorporated venture, startup or otherwise. Not to mention sexual harassment, hiring incompetent relatives, untested market data, and poor competitive positioning. Explicit can be applied to bad perceptions of how to find and use talent over time.
We should devote ourselves to survival, not symbolic labor for the sake of one's superego. Emancipatory politics bring their own hypocrisies and challenges but are far more interesting than your managerial banter. One of the goals of capitalism is to maintain class hierarchy. It's no longer doing that in a sustainable way. It won't work with your trickle down model either. Automation will play a crucial role in the unhinging of Labor. Intellectual property and privatization of universal tools and systems will bring new apartheids. The system is causing itself to collapse not because it is doing poorly but precisely because it's doing too well for its own good. You cannot reframe the goals of the economy within an ethics because they are considered inefficiencies. You can compensate with good intentions and charity all you want but at the end of the day the dollar will always cause a bit more destruction than we can afford.
Meet the new economy... Same as the old economy... (With apologies to Pete Townshend)
1
When labor becomes a commodity the effect is to dehumanize human beings, employees as well as employers. Nevertheless, at this time, unions, as corrupt as they might become, are the only solution at this time.
6
In other words, it's dog eat dog? This is what happens when there are too many people in the world fighting over too little of everything, including jobs.
2
I read a lot of complaining. Not a lot of solutions. How would you run Hubspot? Easy to criticize and whine. Employees who complain frequently about problems without presenting solutions typically don't last long.
2
The article was not about "how to run Hubspot", it was about how Tech-sector workers are treated. There's nothing unique about Hubspot - all companies have a choice about how to treat their workers. Short-sighted and inexperienced managers treat workers as disposable.
1
That "graduation" euphemism only adds insult to injury. In the HR department I work for, a basic principle is to always retain the dignity of the person you are interacting with. Another colleague keeps in mind that a termination or layoff means taking bread off someone's table.
The corporations described here sound disturbingly indifferent to the reality of other humans as such.
The corporations described here sound disturbingly indifferent to the reality of other humans as such.
9
This should be required reading in MBA Human Resource (HR) classes. Is the human element that disposable?
Thank you, thank you -- a thousand times, thank you -- for exposing the Tech Emperor's lack of clothes. If I hear one more smug, self-absorbed techie tell me how he or she is "changing the world" or "creating a new paradigm" or some such hogwash, my brain is going to crash like the lousy, overpriced products they make. This idea that tech companies are "revolutionizing" the workplace is pure bunk. Tech workers are still expected to labor for long hours and virtually no job security. Letting them wear sweat pants or toss a Frisbee around every now and then doesn't change the fact that they are, in reality, no more than small cogs in a big machine where only a chosen few get really really rich.
13
The loot rarely goes to founders any more. They are often forced out just like the rest of the crew that actually does the work. Or forced to dilute as they raise additional capital to grow quickly. Start ups are increasing just becoming constructs for VCs to quickly turn higher profit than what they could do on the stock market.
3
I know hubspot pretty well. I met the founders and attended about 20 presentations of different content and marketing techniques. I was struck by what jerks they were. I also met the Hubspot recruiters and observed them in action trying to attract talent to their cute brick-laded office buildings. The people they hired to recruit were even bigger jerks that seemingly sought to exploit workers at all levels , promise the moon, work people to unreasonable levels of exertion and pay as little as possible. To an extent, the firm nevertheless has prospered in recent years. This is a shame, because the culture is toxic and many people who have tried joining Hubspot were taken advantage of by the employer Hubspot
6
Not much in the corporate mentality has changed since Upton Sinclair wrote "The Jungle". Except instead of being thrown out in the street, one now receives a smiley card from management and expressions of their best wishes on your new endeavors. At my corporation, when they were undergoing their periodic downsizings, they had worked out a cold blooded routine of informing the employee of his new life changing experience. When you arrived one fateful morning, a large security guard would be stationed at your office or cubicle. Distributed on the floor in your work area would be a half dozen empty cardboard boxes. The guard reading off a script would inform you that you had 15 minutes to pack all your personal belongings in the boxes and accompany him downstairs to Human Resources where your unemployed future with the company would be reviewed with you in detail. I had a friend who underwent that humiliating ordeal. He called me from a rest area on the highway wondering how he would explain the situation to his wife and two young children.
14
No one is immune to being fired. It doesn't matter if you are working for a startup in Silicon Valley, a mature tech company in Seattle or a wooden pallet recycling company in Toledo.
But at least the company in Toledo is honest about its value. The folks in Silicon Valley seem to feel they deserve to become billionaires because they've figured out another way to shove structures containing someone's name and other information over a network.
But at least the company in Toledo is honest about its value. The folks in Silicon Valley seem to feel they deserve to become billionaires because they've figured out another way to shove structures containing someone's name and other information over a network.
1
Your description of a frat house-kindergarten-cult is quite good, and appears to be spot on. I'm lucky enough to be retired, and to have worked in fields where things aren't quite that bad. In recent years I've seen what sons and daughters have faced, and can tell you with great confidence that the behavior you describe isn't limited to tech companies! One son was a project manager in a high-tech (but not "tech") firm and had a review meeting with the founder. When asked what was important about the research function he led, he said that he hoped the scientists were finding satisfaction and enjoyment in their work. At that point the CEO, a young, war-gaming MBA type, turned red in the face, pounded the table and screamed that if he heard the word "fun" one more time he would fire "everybody in the group". Needless to say, my son - a doctoral level research scientist - left soon thereafter for saner climes.
6
The Scientology reference is enlightening. It's funny that many young people wouldn't be caught dead in church because they are free thinkers and so on, but then they fall for an even more conformist brainwashing at the hands of someone SO MUCH WORSE, with much worse intentions, and with a much stupider and much less interesting story to tell.
Or rather, it WOULD be funny, if it weren't the source of nearly endless misery.
Or rather, it WOULD be funny, if it weren't the source of nearly endless misery.
4
BREAKING: White guy in US says tech job he doesn't like is "a sweatshop."
5
Dan! I wondered where you've been. I still re-read Fake Steve. You are a legend, sir.
I was a web designer whose job was outsourced to India. We were made to train our replacements or no severance pay. So it goes. Well I was 66. Pulled the plug.
I was a web designer whose job was outsourced to India. We were made to train our replacements or no severance pay. So it goes. Well I was 66. Pulled the plug.
46
There was a time when you could post your resume on any of the large job sites and the phone would ring right away. Skills were specialized, and rare. Now, with structured programming and increased standardization, that's no longer the case.
5
Anybody would rather make furniture. It would be more fun to make, and last longer.
6
You call it "frat house/kindergarten/Scientology." I call it "Reddit/video gamer/adolescent." And you are right: Capital holds all the cards and Labor is powerless once again.
Looks like we're going to have to rebuild the Labor movement from the ground up.
Looks like we're going to have to rebuild the Labor movement from the ground up.
94
Today I visited a furniture store jam packed with furniture made in India (I was told). I have made furniture myself, and I can tell you-- I could not hand make the furniture I saw, charge the wholesale price the store must have paid and make more than min. wage. My guess- the artisans in India are doing OK, but live in near poverty nonetheless.
You should have quit sooner, and unless you are going to use your best skills to differentiate your value to the market, you too will live in near poverty. Was your startup wrong to treat you the way they did? Only if they did not have an open door that you could have left out of at any hour of any day...
Skill/brand up, sir. The robots are coming, and they will be much smarter and more skilled than the artisans in India. They will work 24/7/365, and they will never write borderline whining articles for the NYT.
You should have quit sooner, and unless you are going to use your best skills to differentiate your value to the market, you too will live in near poverty. Was your startup wrong to treat you the way they did? Only if they did not have an open door that you could have left out of at any hour of any day...
Skill/brand up, sir. The robots are coming, and they will be much smarter and more skilled than the artisans in India. They will work 24/7/365, and they will never write borderline whining articles for the NYT.
10
What makes the current work environment unique (and you're right, this occurs across almost all businesses) is that we are witnessing the deployment of powerful technology whose primary function is specifically to seek out and. destroy jobs. We are not just talking about low level, labor intensive jobs, (although they are low hanging fruit as it were) but skilled, professional, good paying jobs that were once the virtual birthright of those intelligent and educated enough to master difficult tasks. These jobs are being actively targeted by powerful technology for elimination.
Make no mistake, their are process analysis tools today, that when paired with the massive productivity measurement tools deployed in the last ten years, can provide corporate "leadership" with "what if" tools that can remove every marginally necessary position in a company, while effectively eliminating any level of job slack (cushiness) that might exist in the jobs of those who are retained. These changes can be gamed-out and implemented in ways that turn the worker into the proverbial frog in the gradually heated pot on the stove. Thus keeping the workers just below the threshold that might make them jump out of the pot (quit). And if it becomes desirable to have certain individuals leave the firm, the company can initiate changes that cause those individuals to "opt-out" thereby saving severance and unemployment costs.
In short, there has never been a worse time to be entering the work force.
Make no mistake, their are process analysis tools today, that when paired with the massive productivity measurement tools deployed in the last ten years, can provide corporate "leadership" with "what if" tools that can remove every marginally necessary position in a company, while effectively eliminating any level of job slack (cushiness) that might exist in the jobs of those who are retained. These changes can be gamed-out and implemented in ways that turn the worker into the proverbial frog in the gradually heated pot on the stove. Thus keeping the workers just below the threshold that might make them jump out of the pot (quit). And if it becomes desirable to have certain individuals leave the firm, the company can initiate changes that cause those individuals to "opt-out" thereby saving severance and unemployment costs.
In short, there has never been a worse time to be entering the work force.
Inevitably, with a first-person account of abhorrent labor practice, there will be the "whiner" comment and the "man up" comment. I'm not sure if you read that that the author started working at Hubspot in 2013, and he obviously doesn't work there anymore, so he did "quit soon." Plus, I imagine that he would have gladly retained his previous job as a journalist, in which he worked for 25 years. Since we are not robots yet, it is incumbent upon us to speak out about injustice and exploitation. Those who call it "whining" will be the ones watching idly or cowardly as their colleagues fight for better conditions, yet they'll be the first to profit from any improvement they did nothing to contribute to.
7
I am reminded of The Stockdale Paradox:
You must retain faith that you will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties. And at the same time you must confront the brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.
What is so disturbing is that Admiral James Stockdale came up with this powerful manifesto after enduring years of torture in a prison camp. He couldn't just "walk out the door." Tragically people today must face the brutal fact that the companies they work for consider them totally expendable and to have a secure and satisfying work life is simply not part of the game any longer.
You must retain faith that you will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties. And at the same time you must confront the brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.
What is so disturbing is that Admiral James Stockdale came up with this powerful manifesto after enduring years of torture in a prison camp. He couldn't just "walk out the door." Tragically people today must face the brutal fact that the companies they work for consider them totally expendable and to have a secure and satisfying work life is simply not part of the game any longer.
2
There is nothing new under the capitalist sun, especially the trendy Orwellian jargon.
13
The in and then out was not pioneered by Silicon valley but public accounting.
When I worked fora Big 8 accounting form 25 years ago I found an office phone list that was three years old. Everyone below partner was gone.
When I worked fora Big 8 accounting form 25 years ago I found an office phone list that was three years old. Everyone below partner was gone.
41
We can thank Jeff Bezos, Cheryl Sandberg, Steve Jobs, Marissa Mayer and the pantheon on American tech heroes for this culture. How much longer until the Guillotine starts falling as the masses realize they out number the .1% by 1,000 to 1 and rise up in anger...
81
When the weight of oppression becomes great enough, the guillotine will come out - to be wielded by the people in a popular revolt.
And people think Unions are only for the old industries. Time for people to wake up, a sweatshop is a sweatshop is a sweatshop
109
The most amazing thing about this phenomenon is how very little pushback there is and has been from the rest of us. I cringe now when I turn on NPR and hear somebody touting the amazing benefits of technological progress--such as Artificial Intelligence.
47
Technology has allowed us to overpopulate the planet, and outstrip the planet's resources. Technology is allowing us to melt the ice caps and drown the future's cities and farmland. Apps won't save us.
I've worked for high-turnover and low-turnover employers, and I prefer the former. I've found that jobs with high job security end up being dominated by lazy and arrogant long-time employees who boss around underlings without taking their ideas seriously, actively resist change, and have no incentive to try to do better since they know they'll never get fired.
To be sure, it's more stressful working for a high-turnover employer, but it's also far more satisfying because your co-workers are always trying to do better. Senior employees can't afford to ignore good ideas and work no matter where they come from, and good employees thus rise up the ranks quickly. This makes the system more meritocratic.
To be sure, it's more stressful working for a high-turnover employer, but it's also far more satisfying because your co-workers are always trying to do better. Senior employees can't afford to ignore good ideas and work no matter where they come from, and good employees thus rise up the ranks quickly. This makes the system more meritocratic.
83
Mark, the downside of high-turnover companies is that they constantly have to recruit and train new employees. This costs money and slows down work since most jobs have a learning curve.
1
I have worked for such 'old boys club' firms too. They are not that competitive. But I would prefer them to some confederate sweatshop. I prefer to have a life.
1
Good luck Mark! You're going to need it.
2
Lyons presents little data to back up anything he says. He has his anecdotal experience at one company. He cites a Times article about another. He quotes one line (completely out of context) from a book written by a startup founder. And this is supposed to be a consummate observation of Silicon Valley culture?
Lyons' comment that tech companies can fire their workers on a whim -- the lack of job security in America is sad, and there's a good debate to be had there. But it's hardly unique to Silicon Valley. Any company anywhere in America, regardless of industry, can hire and fire anyone at will. And the obsolescence of pensions and unions and other things that characterize today's lack of employment security cross verticals and are certainly not endemic to the tech space.
Sure, there are some lousy tech companies out there. But Lyons also fails to mention that some of the most desirable places to work in America -- as rated by employees -- are tech companies. I'm not sure his personal experience at one startup is a good basis for his very broad generalization about the entire tech space.
Lyons' comment that tech companies can fire their workers on a whim -- the lack of job security in America is sad, and there's a good debate to be had there. But it's hardly unique to Silicon Valley. Any company anywhere in America, regardless of industry, can hire and fire anyone at will. And the obsolescence of pensions and unions and other things that characterize today's lack of employment security cross verticals and are certainly not endemic to the tech space.
Sure, there are some lousy tech companies out there. But Lyons also fails to mention that some of the most desirable places to work in America -- as rated by employees -- are tech companies. I'm not sure his personal experience at one startup is a good basis for his very broad generalization about the entire tech space.
10
Yes. But this depraved form of labor-harvest isn't restricted to tech start-ups. No. This is happening on a global, massive scale where the remedy must revolve around dismantling the draconian influence the world's elite (a handful of people) have over the rest of us. This situation is quickly becoming a crisis. But thanks to the free exchange of information via the internet, people are waking up and having discussion about this societal scourge. About the unfairness of it all. This discussion is gonna create a snowball effect where, eventually, the parasitic system in which The Establishment thrives will topple.
33
It's become common in the Aerospace & Defense industry. This style originated in the South, a fact well-known amongst southerners.
It's been clear to anyone who's paying attention for some years now that the technology and kindred industries run prettified sweatshops. Great food in the company cafeteria, on-campus gyms and child care -- because you're expected to spend all your time there, working like a dog, until you're used up. Then Hey! Hugs on the way out the door.
490
Not to mention: you can sit in a chair. You can try to sit on software, but you might fall, or...
...or you might have a hidden "superpower" that can lift you up into "delightion"!
But if you do have superpowers, consider doing something to actually save someone. (Maybe pick someone trapped inside a start-up. Oh God, that anecdote sounded terrible!)
...or you might have a hidden "superpower" that can lift you up into "delightion"!
But if you do have superpowers, consider doing something to actually save someone. (Maybe pick someone trapped inside a start-up. Oh God, that anecdote sounded terrible!)
1
Wow. One can only hope for karma in such situations. These new digital companies offer nothing new, just a different platform to sell us stuff we really don't need. But if enough people "graduate" and don't have jobs, or don't have jobs that pay enough in salary, these companies, along with the big box stores they replaced, will be empty. Certainly not the way to build a sustainable economy.
20
Of course, employers love a model that allows them to mercilessly exploit workers and feel good about themselves. But what gets me is the sadism of the middle managers which reminded me of the slogan the Nazis wrote over the gate of Auschwitz: "Arbeit macht frei"
91
I worked at a well funded startup in Denver (Convercent). Unlimited vacations for those who were foolish enough to take it. Bring your dog to work, only if your dog happened to be like the founders dog (blindly obediant). They only kept around the "A" players, all else were fired within 90 days. The irony is that the founders made a "B" player mistake and hired too fast, burned through all of their cash, and had to layoff half of the company. The weekly motivational chats of a hockey stick growth curve never quite panned out.
26
Hey, you chose to work at a start-up. By definition that is high risk.
When you're fired, you "graduate", and there's a party?
Orwell and Kafka - now, that's a potent mix.
Orwell and Kafka - now, that's a potent mix.
92
Dan,
I loved this piece. I didn't want it to end.
I'm ordering your book right now.
Thanks
I loved this piece. I didn't want it to end.
I'm ordering your book right now.
Thanks
22
Although I enjoy, and to some degree agree with, your story and your depiction of the nonsensical justification tech has for itself, one point I disagree with is the idea that managers expect loyalty while giving none in return. Loyalty went out the window twenty (20) years ago, replaced with self-interest, although, in fact, even transient hiring relationships are filled with more warmth and humanity than is commonly depicted. I work in financial technology, have done so for over twenty (20) years as both a contract employee and as a perm one, and both business domains are known for cutting staff and some degree of ruthlessness. No one is expecting slavish devotion. Companies are used as much as they use people, the primary problem being the power imbalance, but if you have skills for which they pay well, e.g., big data, software development. the game can work in your favor. So, yes, capital uses labor, but some can 'be used' favorably. As for "treating workers like widgets", that is true as it would be for any system - technology is about systems - but few like discarding people, or treating them cruelly.
4
Very soon this will come to an end, because there must be a limited supply of labor to abuse?! Ah, that's were the Federal H1B visa comes in, the work-around to provide a huge supply of submissive labor using standard fraud on vague wording like "technical" and "shortage."
57
I think many if not most of the salespeople at Hubspot are native-born or citizens or residents. These are people who choose to work here.
Where there's a will, there's a fraud.
1
Millenials, "Generation Me", can have that sense of entitlement. Companies can also create a corporate culture that plays by the same rules. Ultimately, we all become disposable resources. Perhaps one valid reason to work on intangible strengths.
4
This story reminds me of a time many years ago when my wife and I heard a knock at the door, eager magazine sales people who could not wait to talk to us. We had little money at the time, and as much as we tried to beg off, this young man and young woman persisted.
Finally, after a good hour of this, they entreated us to buy a magazine, any magazine, and we could just call in and cancel the subscription. I got a real sense of anxiety from them, but at our young age and us having little expendable money, we felt we had to refuse.
I read a story some time later about how young people being promised a life on the road of 'glamor and adventure' had instead unwittingly signed up to selling magazines, and those who were not successful on a day of selling were subjected to humiliation and sometimes beatings. There was a story too about these same kinds of young people, selling magazines, dying in a horrific vehicle accident when the driver, exhausted from the relentless pace, had gone asleep at the wheel while driving.
No matter how many praiseworthy words one is promised of an idyllic life or work place, if the actual experience does not match the promise, consider carefully if you wish to stay and endure it. It is not worth your physical and mental health to endure the Mad Hatters of the new corporate world, whose only interest in life is making a great deal of money, with no concern whatsoever for you or what happens to you .
Finally, after a good hour of this, they entreated us to buy a magazine, any magazine, and we could just call in and cancel the subscription. I got a real sense of anxiety from them, but at our young age and us having little expendable money, we felt we had to refuse.
I read a story some time later about how young people being promised a life on the road of 'glamor and adventure' had instead unwittingly signed up to selling magazines, and those who were not successful on a day of selling were subjected to humiliation and sometimes beatings. There was a story too about these same kinds of young people, selling magazines, dying in a horrific vehicle accident when the driver, exhausted from the relentless pace, had gone asleep at the wheel while driving.
No matter how many praiseworthy words one is promised of an idyllic life or work place, if the actual experience does not match the promise, consider carefully if you wish to stay and endure it. It is not worth your physical and mental health to endure the Mad Hatters of the new corporate world, whose only interest in life is making a great deal of money, with no concern whatsoever for you or what happens to you .
83
Reminds me of the movie "Logan's Run." Tech bros are masters of doublespeak. Full of crap, in other words.
108
Funny you mention this as I say this all the time here in San Francisco. Where are all the grown ups?
One might rationally ask why it is that executives were so focused on retaining technology talent in the 80s and 90s and so indifferent to it now. It’s because back then technology talent was harder to come by. You had to be a lot of things, an analyst, a business process architect, a programmer, a tester, a documentation writer, an interactor at fairly sophisticated levels. There weren’t that many who could put that many skills together in one lunchbox. Today, of course, it’s very different.
Every technological discipline now has its career-path, so people are far more replaceable because they don’t possess multiple skills – need a tester who only does testing and who knows Loadrunner? Dime a dozen. Then, more and more of the components of technology development are being automated, so people are increasingly disposable.
The type of technology work dissected in this op-ed, however, isn’t really technology work – it’s the kind of boiler-room sales activity that you can find today in almost all businesses. And that kind of work ALWAYS has been exploitative – you saw it in the original “Wall Street” (1987), with kids pitching stocks and heaven help those who didn’t make their “VORP” requirements then.
Capital has ALWAYS exploited labor, to one extent or another; and as we automate more and more, the exploitation will become more pervasive, wages will suffer as labor becomes more commoditized to better compete with hardware and software; until there largely is no labor left.
Every technological discipline now has its career-path, so people are far more replaceable because they don’t possess multiple skills – need a tester who only does testing and who knows Loadrunner? Dime a dozen. Then, more and more of the components of technology development are being automated, so people are increasingly disposable.
The type of technology work dissected in this op-ed, however, isn’t really technology work – it’s the kind of boiler-room sales activity that you can find today in almost all businesses. And that kind of work ALWAYS has been exploitative – you saw it in the original “Wall Street” (1987), with kids pitching stocks and heaven help those who didn’t make their “VORP” requirements then.
Capital has ALWAYS exploited labor, to one extent or another; and as we automate more and more, the exploitation will become more pervasive, wages will suffer as labor becomes more commoditized to better compete with hardware and software; until there largely is no labor left.
209
Your last sentence, Richard, almost sounds like the rationale for a basic income for all. You're not becoming a commie pinko, are you?
2
It's unsustainable as described. Selling requires customers, er, consumers. People are not insects, they are social animals that can change their programming - suddenly and explosively.
2
RXFXWORLD:
Noooo, never fear for that. But we may be forced into measures to deal with the reality of many billions of people with no work and a requirement to feed them or be destroyed by them. That likely will require economic mechanisms we've never needed to consider before, that if we're not extremely careful could destroy us all for all time.
Saint999:
Here's a question: other than a number, what distinguishes you from Saint998? Number of miracles you needed to perform to earn your distinction?
As described, it doesn't require that we do away with consumers. The people who work in such boiler-room environments aren't the only people who work or consume. They're simply the ones who are willing to sing Hosannas to Jeff Bezos ... until they no longer are.
Noooo, never fear for that. But we may be forced into measures to deal with the reality of many billions of people with no work and a requirement to feed them or be destroyed by them. That likely will require economic mechanisms we've never needed to consider before, that if we're not extremely careful could destroy us all for all time.
Saint999:
Here's a question: other than a number, what distinguishes you from Saint998? Number of miracles you needed to perform to earn your distinction?
As described, it doesn't require that we do away with consumers. The people who work in such boiler-room environments aren't the only people who work or consume. They're simply the ones who are willing to sing Hosannas to Jeff Bezos ... until they no longer are.
2
The problem with the business model that everyone is fungible(and ultimately worthless) is that it will migrate (or has migrated) into places where it does not belong, like education, medicine, and government. The idea that the entire world should function according to the kind of bottom line, "take-no-prisoners" philosophy exemplified by Damian Lewis' character Bobby Axelrod on "Billions" is not that it's ultimately a self-defeating idea but that it demonstrates our cultural and intellectual bankruptcy. "Round 'em up, use 'em up, throw 'em out" is not exactly a great recruiting tool.
204
It has already migrated to education, for one. The majority of university lectures are now taught by PhD "sessionals" or "adjuncts" with zero job security, paid by the course, turfed for good once a shiny new crop of PhDs need some work experience (and then the same thing happens to them).
5
This sweatshop approach will spread throughout industry and government. In government, one gets contractors taking on more of the work with their sweatshops. I've worked for one such contractor in Huntsville in the Aerospace & Defense industry.
4
"The problem with the business model that everyone is fungible(and ultimately worthless) is that it will migrate (or has migrated) into places where it does not belong,"
Well, it doesn't really belong anywhere, because it's inhumane.
Well, it doesn't really belong anywhere, because it's inhumane.
3
Anyone who believes these conditions are limited to start-ups is kidding himself. I work for one of the old guard tech companies. It has an "open office" environment for all but the executives. On my floor, more than 100 workers have to fight daily for one of 70 seats. It's not unusual to see grown men sitting on the floor, typing away at a laptop. Telecommuting is prohibited because we all need to be in the office to collaborate, even though most of us are unable to sit anywhere near the people we work with. A few weeks ago, one of our best developers was almost fired because she missed a deadline. She didn't even get a chance to explain why she missed it: because she was given two additional "priority" assignments that took her two days to complete. No one thanked her for handling the extra work; they just criticized her for letting it affect her ability to meet her other deadlines. Businesses old and new need to start treating humans like humans, not cogs. People are not disposable.
648
Businesses don't "need" to treat humans like anything. Businesses will treat humans humanly or otherwise to the extent prohibited or allowed by law, or to the extent the humans have leverage. The typical, average individual employee has zero leverage, and the law is either lax to begin with or prohibitively costly to apply, especially by an individual plaintiff. As long as the psychopathic, narcissist and Machiavellian are the choice personality profiles for the elites of the 1% who own us all, this will be the case. The system cannot be improved; only demolished and rebuilt.
8
I suggest that woman start looking for a new job where she may at least make more money, even if the working conditions are just as lousy.
And I note that managers are still subject to the "Peter Principle" - most of them are in way over their heads, but they're too stupid and/or vain to recognize it.
And I note that managers are still subject to the "Peter Principle" - most of them are in way over their heads, but they're too stupid and/or vain to recognize it.
5
Unfortunately, and I am not saying this without a sense of deep regret, people are disposable. How all of us will earn a living in the years ahead and stay employed until retirement is a mystery to me.
6
IN 1980 I saw war declared on the middle class not so much purposely by Reagan, but by hypercompetitive business practices that eliminated and consideration of loyalty at any level. Then began the corporations merging like snakes swallowing their own tails. The owners waltzed away with billions while the workers' hard earned benefits were lost, unions were busted and the downward slide of the quality of life of the 99% began its long slide down in a race to the bottom. With the likes of Grover Norquist proudly announcing that he wanted to shrink the government till it was small enough to fit into a bath tub and then then drown it. The impact of his goals was to undermine the middle class. On NPR he was asked what he thought the lowest minimum wage should be, to which he said that there should be no lower limit. Slavery was called open market competition in superficially polite but rapacious company. Privatized government loans were structured to be exploitive of borrowers. So we've got kids coming out of a 4 year college owing $250K in debts and having to work for a year or two at an unpaid internship to get a job a bit above minimum wage. Many of the upper middle class youth were now poor. And high tech giants figured out at long last that they could get $150K of a US worker's output for $25K in India. One place those schemes were a resounding failure were customer service centers where nobody spoke English. Bottom line is the 99% must waken its sleeping dragon.
545
My daughter works for a top 4 consultancy. She earns $ 12000 PA. Top grades from top colleges. The equivalent position in US in the same firm has a salary tag of $85000 per annum.
The firm is renting office towers by the wholesale now. 7 office towers are still not sufficient. They will take any available towers that are coming up.
The firm is renting office towers by the wholesale now. 7 office towers are still not sufficient. They will take any available towers that are coming up.
5
This just in: There's been an earthquake in Oxfordshire, UK; George Orwell turned over in his grave.
'Graduated'? 'Superpowers'? And the ultimate in what Orwell called 'avoidable ugliness" -- "delightion"?!
I guess I shouldn't be that surprised (or outraged, or flabbergasted). Five or so years ago - before I was laid off, oops, I mean, graduated - I was line editing a very dry manual on the subject of bidding on government projects. I queried one line by the author to the effect that the contractor should strive to 'delight the customer'. 'Delight,' I pointed out, is an emotion more naturally associated with butter pecan ice cream, Beethoven's Ninth, or the sight of your betrothed. One would not expect a government bureaucrat (or anyone, really) to be 'delighted' by a truckload of pre-stressed concrete slabs. Surely something like 'satisfied' would be more appropriate? But 'delight' was the new jargon, however absurd, so it stayed in.
But ... at least 'delight' is a word. 'Delightion' is evidently a backformation devised by someone who doesn't realize 'delight' is already a noun. (Like 'administrate', which I can't even type without wincing.) It's exactly the kind of word you'd expect someone to use who's capable of saying a fired employee has 'graduated'.
'Graduated'? 'Superpowers'? And the ultimate in what Orwell called 'avoidable ugliness" -- "delightion"?!
I guess I shouldn't be that surprised (or outraged, or flabbergasted). Five or so years ago - before I was laid off, oops, I mean, graduated - I was line editing a very dry manual on the subject of bidding on government projects. I queried one line by the author to the effect that the contractor should strive to 'delight the customer'. 'Delight,' I pointed out, is an emotion more naturally associated with butter pecan ice cream, Beethoven's Ninth, or the sight of your betrothed. One would not expect a government bureaucrat (or anyone, really) to be 'delighted' by a truckload of pre-stressed concrete slabs. Surely something like 'satisfied' would be more appropriate? But 'delight' was the new jargon, however absurd, so it stayed in.
But ... at least 'delight' is a word. 'Delightion' is evidently a backformation devised by someone who doesn't realize 'delight' is already a noun. (Like 'administrate', which I can't even type without wincing.) It's exactly the kind of word you'd expect someone to use who's capable of saying a fired employee has 'graduated'.
741
Do you think this is unique to start-ups and tech companies? This is the new reality of white-collar work — surreal and cruel and then, suddenly, over. If you're not crying at your desk, you're not doing your job.
313
This start-up keeps getting some interesting press - it seems like they operate as a cult. Both this article and the book written about them reflects that perception. On the other hand, Boston Business Journal says they're one of the Best Places to Work. Which one is it? Are these people normal? The business development positions aren't even paid that well, so why is it some competitive / cult-like? Why don't they just go work somewhere else that treats people more humanely? Am I missing something?
25
Being treated humanely is passe; you're considered a wimp or a loser if you want to be treated humanely.
I'm just sorry there are so many young people in need of a job that companies like the one profiled here can stay in business this way. A good shortage of workers would do wonders for the balance between management and labor.
I'm just sorry there are so many young people in need of a job that companies like the one profiled here can stay in business this way. A good shortage of workers would do wonders for the balance between management and labor.
2
Some 10 years ago, I told my brother, a talented and ethical economist, the news that the bouquet, highly prestigious consulting firm which he worked for had been named as one of the Great Places to Work. I'll never forget his sour smirk when he replied, "That place in the list was surely bought. My company is none at all like a great place to work, rather the opposite. I attest to the back-stabbing and the extremely high pressure they put on us."
So much for the naïveté of believing in that "survey".
So much for the naïveté of believing in that "survey".
11
Business, and their political arm, the Republican Party, are like the Soviets in that they try to manufacture an 'objective reality' to people to swallow. Republicans do it through propaganda. Business does it through articles, and hiring trolls to enter favorable comments in Glassdoor. And the trolls no doubt work in digital sweatshops - In America you'll find people who will do anything for a buck.
4
Best article I've read on "work" in years! Loved the way the author skewers the absurdities of language, attitude, and behavior! It describes more than the world of tech startups, too! Much of publishing, banking, retail, marketing--well, just about any workplace these days that has a vast numbers of employees and/or applicants treats its employees like widgets.
299
That's why employees need to be smarter but they won't be. Just like a company looks at an employee as a disposable asset and employee needs to treat the company just like it. You get what you pay for when it no longer works. Move on. No 2 week notice unless money is tied to it but no extra because quite frankly companies have no loyalty to their workers so why should workers have loyalty to the company
183
Instead of trying to be genius until the next round of layoffs, I've decided to exit the labor market (except occasional temp work), and market software development, private lending and other business services for a commission.
13
Good for you and good luck to you. Unfortunately, the job market our fathers or even grandfathers had is gone forever. Difficult to plan life without a steady job, but this is the new normal, if this is what you want to call it.
If you can work for yourself at least you can't be fired or laid off. You may not be able to afford health insurance but you are your own boss. Good luck to you!
If you can work for yourself at least you can't be fired or laid off. You may not be able to afford health insurance but you are your own boss. Good luck to you!
3
Frying pan to fire.
2
Meanwhile, HBR articles (and countless other books and articles backed by substantive research) extol the value of humane workplaces, and suggest, no, declare a correlation between business outcome and competent management. Does anyone else wonder why these places have a hard time making money?
47
A humane workplace is all well and good, but there are supply and demand fundamentals at work. For forty years people have been broadcasting far and wide the message "get into IT! it's where the money is." From here to Bangalore people have listened. The result, as Adam Smith would have predicted, is that you can get surprisingly good tech talent for below minimum wage.
1
Great article...Needs to be expanded to become a book. In India IT workers have high levels of depression ; suicidal ideation ; actual suicides ; marital problems ; identity crisis ; culturally lost with no identity except for corporate culture and Bollywood or Hollywood culture. But at least they don't pretend they are changing the world. They know it is just "a job for survival to avoid poverty or economic hardships". In the US people are given all kinds of lies, and their ego boosted beyond belief by cunning manipulative corporate bosses or capitalistic employers.
I have always known that technology is only a tool to alleviate physical hardship, reduce physical or mental stress, ease work or reduce hazards, dangers or threats to safety and/or make things more affordable. Some technology has been transforming like "vaccines ; anaesthesia; trains, planes & wheels ; easier cheaper printing that has helped make books affordable & more easily available to the masses, etc.". IPhones, etc have not been transformative....just helped us become more mobile and made communication faster and cheaper. Has it saved lives? No, or not much. What do I do with so many devises that has actually ruined families' face to face each communition, and has even destroyed community and democracy in some places. But who is reading and thinking, other than manipulating what I write or misunderstanding what I say?
I have always known that technology is only a tool to alleviate physical hardship, reduce physical or mental stress, ease work or reduce hazards, dangers or threats to safety and/or make things more affordable. Some technology has been transforming like "vaccines ; anaesthesia; trains, planes & wheels ; easier cheaper printing that has helped make books affordable & more easily available to the masses, etc.". IPhones, etc have not been transformative....just helped us become more mobile and made communication faster and cheaper. Has it saved lives? No, or not much. What do I do with so many devises that has actually ruined families' face to face each communition, and has even destroyed community and democracy in some places. But who is reading and thinking, other than manipulating what I write or misunderstanding what I say?
113
Your wish is the author's command: http://www.amazon.com/Disrupted-My-Misadventure-Start-Up-Bubble-ebook/dp...
Smartphones have not been transformative? They have connected hundreds of millions of people in the developing world to information, commerce, and communication networks never before accessible to rural villagers. Even a very poor person in Haiti can have a cheap smartphone charged with a small solar panel on the roof of their hut, which they can use to educate themselves, access medical information, and message virtually anyone in the world. One of the best selling games in the app store was created by a Vietnamese villager who taught himself how to program as a teenager. In 20 years we're going to look back at the smartphone being the one of the most transformative advancements in human history.
1
I have worked, in IT, for my entire career 37 years), and still do. Anyone reading this, contemplating working in IT; find another field. You will be unappreciated and looking over your shoulder watching your peers replaced by Asian imports.
The common denominator, virtually anyone put in a position of management, in IT, is poorly trained to do the job, should never be in management or were put into IT management because they failed somewhere else in the company.
Some jobs were more "sweat shops" than others. My average tenure was about two years per job. When a recession hit; it was time for guaranteed unemployment. Why? Every place I ever worked; IT was seen as a cost requirement. The company saw it as a "necessary evil". Thus, IT people were at the low end of the totem pole, and were cut fist or replaced with H1B contractors.
Also, reorganization were common place. You get hired fro job "X", but the rug gets pulled out from underneath you and you are told you now do job "Y". Yes, you are working in IT, but a job you would not seek out if you were looking for work. Why? The company wants you to quit so they do not have to pay unemployment or severance pay.
In the end, the employee works at the pleasure of their manager. Effectively a nice Medieval arrangement. Only thing missing is the torture chamber and indentured servitude to a feudal lord.
My current job is 6 years. It is not a picnic and I need to eke it out for teh next 17 1/2 months. Welcome to High Tech.
The common denominator, virtually anyone put in a position of management, in IT, is poorly trained to do the job, should never be in management or were put into IT management because they failed somewhere else in the company.
Some jobs were more "sweat shops" than others. My average tenure was about two years per job. When a recession hit; it was time for guaranteed unemployment. Why? Every place I ever worked; IT was seen as a cost requirement. The company saw it as a "necessary evil". Thus, IT people were at the low end of the totem pole, and were cut fist or replaced with H1B contractors.
Also, reorganization were common place. You get hired fro job "X", but the rug gets pulled out from underneath you and you are told you now do job "Y". Yes, you are working in IT, but a job you would not seek out if you were looking for work. Why? The company wants you to quit so they do not have to pay unemployment or severance pay.
In the end, the employee works at the pleasure of their manager. Effectively a nice Medieval arrangement. Only thing missing is the torture chamber and indentured servitude to a feudal lord.
My current job is 6 years. It is not a picnic and I need to eke it out for teh next 17 1/2 months. Welcome to High Tech.
316
Just want to second what's been said here. Misrepresentation of work assignments is common, the quality of work is abominable for anyone who has been in the business for a while and can remember when we were treated like engineers, and our product (code) had to be trim, elegant...and it had to work right.
Note also that in addition to "surplusing" -- a term IBM used to lay off thousands in the late 1980s, salaries are not what they once were. Post-Y2K, with the influx of H2B visas and outsourcing, I make less than half of what I did then, doing the same job.
If I could afford it, I'd rather be washing cars.
Note also that in addition to "surplusing" -- a term IBM used to lay off thousands in the late 1980s, salaries are not what they once were. Post-Y2K, with the influx of H2B visas and outsourcing, I make less than half of what I did then, doing the same job.
If I could afford it, I'd rather be washing cars.
15
@Nick Metrowsky: We need to change the whole system. I don't know of a field that pays enough to have a decent life where one isn't hearing a tale something like this. For two decades, I've been telling people not to go to law school because there is a serious glut of lawyers. Law schools have raised their tuition to rates that students cannot pay back unless they happen to get one of the tiny sprinkling of jobs that pay well.
Should they then go into medicine? No - the insurance companies have made it so that doctors are worked much more and paid much less than they used to be. Become veterinarians? No - most of them will also be in debt throughout most of their adulthood. Corporate chains are muscling out small, veterinarian-owned practices throughout the country. Academics? Surely you're joking, as tenure-track professors become only slightly more common than passenger pigeons.
Hearing these tales, one thinks: When will we get together and decide to make it stop? I am grateful that we have Bernie Sanders running for President, showing how many of us think "business as usual" isn't working.
Should they then go into medicine? No - the insurance companies have made it so that doctors are worked much more and paid much less than they used to be. Become veterinarians? No - most of them will also be in debt throughout most of their adulthood. Corporate chains are muscling out small, veterinarian-owned practices throughout the country. Academics? Surely you're joking, as tenure-track professors become only slightly more common than passenger pigeons.
Hearing these tales, one thinks: When will we get together and decide to make it stop? I am grateful that we have Bernie Sanders running for President, showing how many of us think "business as usual" isn't working.
10
Nick, everything you say is true, I am sorry to say. I am so glad that I am about to retire. The contempt that IT management has for workers never ceases to amaze me.
8
I worked for a tech company for almost 13 years. The company was bought by a larger company and I was told I'd have one year guaranteed employment. I was 54 at the time. I thought my professional life would be over at 55. Ironically I survived, was brought into the larger company and given a significant role. Things looked good for me. Then the company hired a new C-level person to take over the area I worked in. I "met" her and she decided I would report to her directly. I was given a task to do that was "The most important thing to her to get done." I did a great job on it, marshalled resources across the company to make it a success.
We launched it on time and with great customer satisfaction. 30 days later I was told my position was being eliminated.
Boom 58 and an unemployed technical guy with 33 years of progressive computer tech experience. From programming to running a full team of technical staff. Fired, just like that. 16 years 1 month with the combined companies.
Yes, tech has no heart, that is for sure.
We launched it on time and with great customer satisfaction. 30 days later I was told my position was being eliminated.
Boom 58 and an unemployed technical guy with 33 years of progressive computer tech experience. From programming to running a full team of technical staff. Fired, just like that. 16 years 1 month with the combined companies.
Yes, tech has no heart, that is for sure.
821
Joe,
I feel for you, truly I do, but I can't imagine being our age (I'm a couple years younger) and having been in tech as the 1990s were drawing to a close and not seeing "the writing on the wall."
I knew then that I was disposable, and that no matter how good I was at my job (and I was very good) that if you didn't tell the higher-ups what they wanted to hear you'd be relegated to the corner for telling the truth and when you spouted the ridiculous and impossible-in-the-time-allotted party line you'd be punished when it couldn't be made to happen.
Tech has been a meat grinder for a long time now, but I guess that some places less so than others. The telecom industry IT abattoir was in full swing at least 20 years ago. I guess I'm lucky I bailed when I did, and have never looked back.
I feel for you, truly I do, but I can't imagine being our age (I'm a couple years younger) and having been in tech as the 1990s were drawing to a close and not seeing "the writing on the wall."
I knew then that I was disposable, and that no matter how good I was at my job (and I was very good) that if you didn't tell the higher-ups what they wanted to hear you'd be relegated to the corner for telling the truth and when you spouted the ridiculous and impossible-in-the-time-allotted party line you'd be punished when it couldn't be made to happen.
Tech has been a meat grinder for a long time now, but I guess that some places less so than others. The telecom industry IT abattoir was in full swing at least 20 years ago. I guess I'm lucky I bailed when I did, and have never looked back.
5
Sorry, Joe -- really. But you committed the "sin" of being over 55. I'm actually impressed you hung on until 58.
13
I am sorry to hear that but your experience is only too common these days. Gone are the days where we could expect to work for a company for a number of years, if not a lifetime if we selected to stay.
How on earth is one going to have a family, children, a home, without the security of a job?
Whatever happened to America?*
*This is also happening in Germany, a labor-friendly (or once labor-friendly) country.
How on earth is one going to have a family, children, a home, without the security of a job?
Whatever happened to America?*
*This is also happening in Germany, a labor-friendly (or once labor-friendly) country.
7
Nor is this confined to the world of technology even though the model may be most refined there. Higher education is moving inexorably in the same direction. A growing share of the academic workforce consists of faculty hired on a course-by-course or year-by-year basis. The memorable Mr. Chjps has long since disappeared into retirement enclaves in Florida, Arizona, or Costa Rica. Outside elite or very expensive institutions undergraduate education is largely in the hands of graduate students or, increasingly, a cadre of itinerant academic piece-workers who rarely have time to more than acknowledge students on their way to the next teaching gig across town. Services such as writing insightful letters of recommendation for scholarship or employment or a thoughtful debate on social change over a coffee slip away even faster. Some more senior faculty have relatively comfortable positions after thirty years of publications, committee meetings, administrative responsibilities, or similar service. Others are thankful for tenure as they fend off the ever-growing legion of assistants to middle-level managers eager to save $14.93 in faculty salary by replacing full-time professors with disposable academic gigs, dismissive of the value of continuity and unmeasured tasks imbedded in the disappearing full-timers. If one does not generate research overhead, contracts that can be handled by grad students, or an occasional patent time to pack for a Costa Rica condo or gun-ridden Arizona.
321
Yes, we know all about this trend. Don't wish to elaborate, though.
1
Meanwhile as tenured teacher positions disappear the cost of college skyrockets (not held down by that mythical invisible hand always cited by those that say free school would make tuition skyrocket) as the CEO, er, president of the school triples his salary and those of other top administrators.
3
This is so emblematic of the "everybody gets a trophy" generation. You don't get "fired." That's so last century. Now you "graduate" and can use your "superpowers" elsewhere.
But you still have to get out in 2 weeks (or less) and don't let the door hit you on the way out.
I'm glad that I'm not in the corporate world anymore.
But you still have to get out in 2 weeks (or less) and don't let the door hit you on the way out.
I'm glad that I'm not in the corporate world anymore.
284
What do you do to get out of the corporate world and still make above minimum wage?
3
It's worth noting that the "everybody gets a trophy" generation was manufactured by the previous generation...my own, Gen X. And this is the sorry world we've left our children. By calling them "entitled," or "soft," or "narcissistic," we can feel a little better about the meat-grinder they're being shoved in to as they graduate (with ten times the debt that we graduated with, no less). If we belittle them, it enables us to feel schadenfreude instead of guilt. But I hope to God they rise up to kick our neo-liberal tails. We have it coming...
14
I went back to school, got my Master's and am in Education. It took a very long time going to school part time at night but I did it. Now Education has its problems but it's a lot better -- at least for me -- than the corporate world. In fact, I work a lot harder now as an educator than I ever did sitting in a cubicle. And it's a lot more rewarding.
6
The purpose of Silicon Valley is to generate wealth for founders and venture capital investors. Founders who are not interested in generating wealth and power but rather in creating something useful, well-designed, and elegant will wind up becoming eaten by someone who is interested in wealth or power, or being transformed into such a person himself or herself.
Everybody else in Silicon Valley is just a cog in the wealth-generation machine, and this machine is run in such a way that the cogs need frequent replacement. But as long as new cogs are inexpensive and readily available, this is the best way to run the machine. Cogs that are (or can appear to be) indestructible can become founders and investors.
Without the excitement and romance of being at the frontiers of technological and social development and writing the next chapter in the history of mankind, this model is unsustainable and organizations trying to use it will decay. The model will have to be outlawed for general use, and reserved for wartime or emergencies or volunteer activities not designed to make anyone wealthy.
Everybody else in Silicon Valley is just a cog in the wealth-generation machine, and this machine is run in such a way that the cogs need frequent replacement. But as long as new cogs are inexpensive and readily available, this is the best way to run the machine. Cogs that are (or can appear to be) indestructible can become founders and investors.
Without the excitement and romance of being at the frontiers of technological and social development and writing the next chapter in the history of mankind, this model is unsustainable and organizations trying to use it will decay. The model will have to be outlawed for general use, and reserved for wartime or emergencies or volunteer activities not designed to make anyone wealthy.
122
Well, conservatives would counter that greed is the greatest motivator. Then again, a great number of those conservatives also worship Fox News Jesus.
3
One topic that came up at the retired guys weekly conclave yesterday: is it possible to build up a large company in a short time without being as ruthless as John D Rockefeller or Andrew Carnegie? The answer seems to be no.
Unfortunately, you can be just as ruthless as any of these guys, and not even be successful.
Unfortunately, you can be just as ruthless as any of these guys, and not even be successful.
142
Behind every fortune is a crime.
-Guy de Maupassant
-Guy de Maupassant
11
Like the US in WWII.
Ruthless is what got it done!
yeah yeah.
Ruthless is what got it done!
yeah yeah.
Oddly enough, Rockefeller's Standard Oil had excellent labor relations probably because its innate profitability was so huge that it paid higher wages. On the other hand, Carnegie had his share of strikes and labor violence.
1
"The free snacks are nice,..."
Reminded me of the old saying, "There's no such thing as a free lunch."
Reminded me of the old saying, "There's no such thing as a free lunch."
131
TANSTAAFL
I see people often use this, with no idea where it comes from. It is from Robert J. Heinlein's 1966 novel, "The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress".
(It happens to be one of my favorites of his novels, and I've never figured out why no filmmaker thought of making it into a movie.)
I see people often use this, with no idea where it comes from. It is from Robert J. Heinlein's 1966 novel, "The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress".
(It happens to be one of my favorites of his novels, and I've never figured out why no filmmaker thought of making it into a movie.)
1
no good deed goes unpunished.
2
Sorry you have to find out first hand, Dan. One minor disappointment. It is not just start-ups doing this anymore. Why, Amazon is no start-up. Or Netflix for that matter. Worse, there are plenty digital sweatshops that are multinational fortune 500 sized, private and public alike.
Welcome to the brave new world when the old are put out to the pasture, or send out in the blinding snow, so the natural predators would finish the job
Welcome to the brave new world when the old are put out to the pasture, or send out in the blinding snow, so the natural predators would finish the job
567
Soylent Green is PEOPLE!
4
This is a perfect description of these arrogant, spoiled, libertarian "start up" and tech ventures, "Imagine a frat house mixed with a kindergarten mixed with Scientology, and you have an idea of what it’s like." We must remember - they are ALL Wall Street constructs meant to generate immediate revenue and nothing of sustainable value. They are ALL controlled by the same 62 PEOPLE who own half of the world's wealth. When one supposed "company" doesn't make enough profit to please the "investor" kingpins they pull the money, put it out of business and create a new one. It's a giant shell game/ponzi scheme. Nothing more. That is why I will not buy from Amazon, will not have a facebook account or participate in other social media except to comment on public forums like the New York Times. It is time to put these supposed "masters of the universe" back into their place in society - to support it not own it.
http://www.oxfamamerica.org/press/62-people-own-same-wealth-as-half-the-...
http://www.oxfamamerica.org/press/62-people-own-same-wealth-as-half-the-...
772
Boycotting them will not do very much. The way they treat their workforce has to be made illegal or impossible because it harms the general welfare, and this means political action and government and such. The free market will not make them behave; it cannot even save itself from those who try to replace it with oligopoly.
247
"I feel your pain!!!" Seriously!!!
10
This does not apply strictly to tech startups. I relocated to NJ for opportunities in 'Pharmaceutical Alley' (home of Pfizer, Merck, J&J, etc,), but even with 5 years exp and a BS degree, I can only find 6 month contract/temp work. Most of Big Pharma has cut staff following mergers and acquisitions, despite $Billions in profits.
151