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It's because many companies are overly oriented towards cost accounting and labor is classed as a cost. Some people might just say that's just a normal business

by dv_dt 10y ago

It's because many companies are overly oriented towards cost accounting and labor is classed as a cost. Some people might just say that's just a normal business calculation, and to some extent it is. But there is a another aspect to it which could be viewed through more of a class-conflict viewpoint (not necessarily a upper vs middle sense but a capital vs labor sense). This isn't just in the STEM areas - if one looks at real wage growth vs productivity, STEM areas are one of the few employment areas that are given a more generous allocation of produced benefits to labor ... leading to language of a "shortage". Edit: clarified real wage to real wage vs productivity.

Swizec 10y ago
We make things, we don't manage people. As such we are below the people setting wages. Yes, engineers are professionals and all that, but we are seen as the executors. The final rung on the ladder who finally executes and builds the thing. So our wages do not scale that great with value of output. In many cases we are factory workers, maaaybe artisans, in a feature factory --> https://hackernoon.com/12-signs-youre-working-in-a-feature-factory-44a5b938d6a2#.kn3tutvxz https://hackernoon.com/12-signs-youre-working-in-a-feature-f...
- squozzer 10y ago
  To the suits, we are little better than chimps.
- gumby 10y ago
  If it makes you feel better, in MBA speak you're a "direct contributor" (unlike everyone else who has to justify the value they supposedly provide) and all those suits are stuck in the "overhead" bucket (i.e. "a burden, not contributing to revenue in any way").
- dv_dt 10y ago
  Doctors and lawyers are direct executors in a sense. Do they have a similar problem? And I would differ with your assessment that tech wages scale poorly with productivity. Better than many other areas, engineers can leverage their productivity extremely well - especially in software, but even moreso in the future with information and mechanical automation becoming ever more capable.
  - dilemma 10y ago
    Doctors and lawyers have controls in place to limit the supply of labor.

by dv_dt 10y ago

Swizec 10y ago

We make things, we don't manage people. As such we are below the people setting wages. Yes, engineers are professionals and all that, but we are seen as the executors. The final rung on the ladder who finally executes and builds the thing. So our wages do not scale that great with value of output. In many cases we are factory workers, maaaybe artisans, in a feature factory --> https://hackernoon.com/12-signs-youre-working-in-a-feature-factory-44a5b938d6a2#.kn3tutvxz https://hackernoon.com/12-signs-youre-working-in-a-feature-f...

squozzer 10y ago
To the suits, we are little better than chimps.
gumby 10y ago
If it makes you feel better, in MBA speak you're a "direct contributor" (unlike everyone else who has to justify the value they supposedly provide) and all those suits are stuck in the "overhead" bucket (i.e. "a burden, not contributing to revenue in any way").
dv_dt 10y ago
Doctors and lawyers are direct executors in a sense. Do they have a similar problem? And I would differ with your assessment that tech wages scale poorly with productivity. Better than many other areas, engineers can leverage their productivity extremely well - especially in software, but even moreso in the future with information and mechanical automation becoming ever more capable.
- dilemma 10y ago
  Doctors and lawyers have controls in place to limit the supply of labor.