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It seems like most news outlets treat "tech workers" as anyone who works at a "tech" company. I wonder if they would call her a "construction worker" if she wo

It seems like most news outlets treat "tech workers" as anyone who works at a "tech" company. I wonder if they would call her a "construction worker" if she worked in the same capacity for a construction company.

azemetre 3y ago
No but you can say they work in the construction industry, like how the health care industry is more than just nurses, doctors, and surgeons. I think it's fair to say that product owners and UI designers are tech workers too, but maybe the issue is that "tech industry/worker" is way too broad of a term. Especially when a lot of these roles are extremely new to humanity (engineering and doctor/healer have been around for thousands of years whereas a marketer is barely over a 100 years old).
- ehnto 3y ago
  I agree with the general point but I suspect marketing has been around in some form for longer. Branding at least certainly has been.
  - ghaff 3y ago
    Modern consumer product branding with respect to e.g. food mostly dates to when self-service supermarkets put in an appearance. So mostly 20th Century. Although certainly there were sales adjacent and promotional activities long before that that are pretty much marketing, at least if you squint a bit.
- sophacles 3y ago
  > whereas a marketer is barely over a 100 years old This suggests you may be off by a few millenia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_marketing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_marketing I lean towards the "people have been people since there were people" side of the debate and assume there has been marketing since at least the invention of agriculture and its resultant ability to allow humans to make a living doing something other than calorie acquisition.
  - azemetre 3y ago
    Interesting, I wonder if it would be pedantic in construing modern marketing being drastically different than marketing pre 1800s? It doesn't seem fair to to me to classify a shopkeep from antiquity shouting they have the best wine in a bazaar to be equivalent to a marketing job in Meta. But the examples in your wiki page show just that, really neat stuff. Thanks for sharing.
    - sophacles 3y ago
      If you make marketing pre-1800s, with people branding their widely distributed amphorae, making ads and so on as drastically different than modern techniques, you'd have to also consider engineering drastically different. Also, the idea of surviving a visit to the doctor is a pretty novel modern concept.
Aromasin 3y ago
I posted a comment a while back about this same phenomenon, which I can't for the life of me find now, but it was quoting some data from media posts about job cuts in the tech industry. The overarching theme was that the "tech worker layoffs" almost never featured actual, STEM degree educated, feature making, bug fixing, engineering focused, individual contributors. The layoffs impacted Sales, Marketing, Product, HR, and Manager roles. Despite this, media outlets continued to make it out as if engineers and scientists were the ones being primarily impacted. They were doing it by hiding the actual jobs roles of those being interviewed deep into the article, in a short one-liner. There was never good data to suggest who those being most effected really were. I don't understand the reasoning behind it beyond blatant ignorance, or perhaps that they have a dislike for silicon valley types and get satisfaction out of demeaning the job role in some way by making engineers out to be as "easily dispensable" as everyone else. It's bizarre. I guess, whatever generates the most clicks.
- staticcaucasian 3y ago
  The "hired to do nothing" Tech Company meme was almost entirely actually just recruiters: https://www.wsj.com/articles/these-tech-workers-say-they-were-hired-to-do-nothing-762ff158 https://www.wsj.com/articles/these-tech-workers-say-they-wer...
- hotpotamus 3y ago
  It came around. > The latest round of layoffs at Facebook parent company Meta is impacting workers in core technical roles like data scientists and software engineers — positions once thought to be beyond reproach. https://www.vox.com/technology/2023/4/21/23692515/tech-workers-software-engineers-layoffs-meta-coding https://www.vox.com/technology/2023/4/21/23692515/tech-worke...
  - 908B64B197 3y ago
    Meta is different. They are pivoting hard from VR to AI.
    - TremendousJudge 3y ago
davemp 3y ago
I think there is an apprehension to use descriptive titles for whatever lame reason (I think it was to avoid status signals originally). What's wrong with administrator, clerk, etc?
i2cmaster 3y ago
They do this with actual products as well. Companies like Ycombinator for some time were often thought of as "tech companies" and not investment banks.
nonethewiser 3y ago
I think tech workers are people who work at tech companies. Including non technical roles.
- austhrow743 3y ago
  Do you think construction workers are people who work at construction companies in the same way?
  - nonethewiser 3y ago
    Technically yes. Just like healthcare workers are people who work in healthcare and arent necessarily doctors or nurses but could be, for example, administrative or academic.

azemetre 3y ago

No but you can say they work in the construction industry, like how the health care industry is more than just nurses, doctors, and surgeons. I think it's fair to say that product owners and UI designers are tech workers too, but maybe the issue is that "tech industry/worker" is way too broad of a term. Especially when a lot of these roles are extremely new to humanity (engineering and doctor/healer have been around for thousands of years whereas a marketer is barely over a 100 years old).

ehnto 3y ago
I agree with the general point but I suspect marketing has been around in some form for longer. Branding at least certainly has been.
- ghaff 3y ago
  Modern consumer product branding with respect to e.g. food mostly dates to when self-service supermarkets put in an appearance. So mostly 20th Century. Although certainly there were sales adjacent and promotional activities long before that that are pretty much marketing, at least if you squint a bit.
sophacles 3y ago
> whereas a marketer is barely over a 100 years old This suggests you may be off by a few millenia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_marketing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_marketing I lean towards the "people have been people since there were people" side of the debate and assume there has been marketing since at least the invention of agriculture and its resultant ability to allow humans to make a living doing something other than calorie acquisition.
- azemetre 3y ago
  Interesting, I wonder if it would be pedantic in construing modern marketing being drastically different than marketing pre 1800s? It doesn't seem fair to to me to classify a shopkeep from antiquity shouting they have the best wine in a bazaar to be equivalent to a marketing job in Meta. But the examples in your wiki page show just that, really neat stuff. Thanks for sharing.
  - sophacles 3y ago
    If you make marketing pre-1800s, with people branding their widely distributed amphorae, making ads and so on as drastically different than modern techniques, you'd have to also consider engineering drastically different. Also, the idea of surviving a visit to the doctor is a pretty novel modern concept.

Aromasin 3y ago

I posted a comment a while back about this same phenomenon, which I can't for the life of me find now, but it was quoting some data from media posts about job cuts in the tech industry. The overarching theme was that the "tech worker layoffs" almost never featured actual, STEM degree educated, feature making, bug fixing, engineering focused, individual contributors. The layoffs impacted Sales, Marketing, Product, HR, and Manager roles. Despite this, media outlets continued to make it out as if engineers and scientists were the ones being primarily impacted. They were doing it by hiding the actual jobs roles of those being interviewed deep into the article, in a short one-liner. There was never good data to suggest who those being most effected really were. I don't understand the reasoning behind it beyond blatant ignorance, or perhaps that they have a dislike for silicon valley types and get satisfaction out of demeaning the job role in some way by making engineers out to be as "easily dispensable" as everyone else. It's bizarre. I guess, whatever generates the most clicks.

staticcaucasian 3y ago
The "hired to do nothing" Tech Company meme was almost entirely actually just recruiters: https://www.wsj.com/articles/these-tech-workers-say-they-were-hired-to-do-nothing-762ff158 https://www.wsj.com/articles/these-tech-workers-say-they-wer...
hotpotamus 3y ago
It came around. > The latest round of layoffs at Facebook parent company Meta is impacting workers in core technical roles like data scientists and software engineers — positions once thought to be beyond reproach. https://www.vox.com/technology/2023/4/21/23692515/tech-workers-software-engineers-layoffs-meta-coding https://www.vox.com/technology/2023/4/21/23692515/tech-worke...
- 908B64B197 3y ago
  Meta is different. They are pivoting hard from VR to AI.
  - TremendousJudge 3y ago

davemp 3y ago

I think there is an apprehension to use descriptive titles for whatever lame reason (I think it was to avoid status signals originally). What's wrong with administrator, clerk, etc?

i2cmaster 3y ago

They do this with actual products as well. Companies like Ycombinator for some time were often thought of as "tech companies" and not investment banks.

nonethewiser 3y ago

I think tech workers are people who work at tech companies. Including non technical roles.

austhrow743 3y ago
Do you think construction workers are people who work at construction companies in the same way?
- nonethewiser 3y ago
  Technically yes. Just like healthcare workers are people who work in healthcare and arent necessarily doctors or nurses but could be, for example, administrative or academic.