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It depends on your point of view. The boss wants the most sophisticated talent he can get, and he doesn't want to pay anything for it. Every penny he pays, an

It depends on your point of view. The boss wants the most sophisticated talent he can get, and he doesn't want to pay anything for it. Every penny he pays, and every second of your life he doesn't get for it, is a failure in his eyes. Since the 1980s, employment has become a game. Employers don't like it if you realize this and play them right back, of course, but there's not really any other option. Their viewpoint is dominant and essentially universal. In response to monumental productivity multiplication due to technology, they froze wages, destroyed pensions, cut benefits, and extended the work week. They believe if an employee becomes irreplaceable, they have become expendable. Keeping employees dispensable is weighed as far more important than keeping skilled talent. Read books written by managers for managers. Their actions aren't random or stupid, most people just don't understand their reasoning. And if you only get one tattoo in your life, I highly recommend this centuries-old quote from The Rubiyat of Omar Khayaam: "Make game of that which makes as much of thee."

IndianAstronaut 10y ago
I thought it was me. But now I see each job as a place where I grow my skills. I actively pick projects where I gain more technical skolls over those where I develop internal company knowledge.
summadat 10y ago
"fuck the game, don't let the game fuck you"
RCortex 10y ago
Do you have any recommendations for books for managers written by managers? The last book I skimmed on this topic was "The Alliance," by some people at linkedIn. According to one of the reviews on amazon it mainly just talks about industry-wide blacklists for employees if they leave their jobs for a better one.
dasil003 10y ago
I think this game is much more openly recognized in SV without too much cynicism. The average tenure is probably around 3 years, and people move between companies often. This serves both the employee by diversifying their skillset, and it serves companies by facilitating knowledge transfer for certain techniques, particularly around scaling and operations for larger tech companies that individuals can't get through mere education or even small-scale work. Consider that we openly talk about Bus Factor as a way of explicitly quantifying the indispensability of certain people; but the solution is not to get rid of them, it's just to train more people on those aspects. Of course there's still some amount of Machiavellian maneuvering, but at least while talent is thin on the ground employees still have enough leverage not to get screwed—not as badly as most non-unionized employees anyway.

IndianAstronaut 10y ago

I thought it was me. But now I see each job as a place where I grow my skills. I actively pick projects where I gain more technical skolls over those where I develop internal company knowledge.

summadat 10y ago

"fuck the game, don't let the game fuck you"

RCortex 10y ago

Do you have any recommendations for books for managers written by managers? The last book I skimmed on this topic was "The Alliance," by some people at linkedIn. According to one of the reviews on amazon it mainly just talks about industry-wide blacklists for employees if they leave their jobs for a better one.

dasil003 10y ago

I think this game is much more openly recognized in SV without too much cynicism. The average tenure is probably around 3 years, and people move between companies often. This serves both the employee by diversifying their skillset, and it serves companies by facilitating knowledge transfer for certain techniques, particularly around scaling and operations for larger tech companies that individuals can't get through mere education or even small-scale work. Consider that we openly talk about Bus Factor as a way of explicitly quantifying the indispensability of certain people; but the solution is not to get rid of them, it's just to train more people on those aspects. Of course there's still some amount of Machiavellian maneuvering, but at least while talent is thin on the ground employees still have enough leverage not to get screwed—not as badly as most non-unionized employees anyway.