8 ms·

This is something i think has been slowly changing in the US. At least among the people i know. Work is now just work. Five years ago it had to be your passion

• nlitened 3y ago
  > This is something i think has been slowly changing in the US. At least among the people i know. I think your cohort is just aging.
  • mooreds 3y ago
    It's hard to know, right? I think that COVID knocked the crap out of a lot of social norms, one of those being "live to work". But it could also be aging, as nothing helps you understand life is short like seeing obituaries of people only a few years older than you (or even younger than you).
    • roenxi 3y ago
      I'd guess the sequence is people start off young and naive, live through a downturn and then discover that the contract lays out precisely what their employer thinks of them. Doing the job then going home is not a new philosophy. The people living to work are just gullible.
      • nickd2001 3y ago
        As you work in tech for a number of years you discover that (a) employers don't become permanently more loyal or generous to you if you "work your ass off" and (b) working long hours doesn't actually make you more productive overall anyway. I suspect one reason for ageism in the industry is that management are too inexperienced themselves to have discovered either of these.
  • k8svet 3y ago
    As a young 30 something I cannot disagree more. I'm flabbergasted at have met my bff's ex and found out he was an old school company man. I've never seen a person so used and so unaware of it in my life and of course he finally left with nothing to show for years of being a victim of labor laws violations. His dad was like a life long Walmart mid-upper-level person. No one I know, besides him, has job loyalty. Not the senior dev in Seattle making 400k, not the dog trainer, not the chef, not even my parents. And younger generations are just more and more cynical about it. As they should be.
    • mooreds 3y ago
      I don't know about this. I have found a few places with great bosses/owners that deserved my loyalty. They proved it by investing in the team, making hard choices to cut their salary rather than lay people off, and in general being loyal first. When you find a place like this, I advise hanging around for a while.
      • nickd2001 3y ago
        I agree with this. However, the flip side is, a great company can get bought out by a horrible one. A great boss who appreciates the good stuff you did might leave for a another job. (though maybe you can follow them). Things can change quickly. Public sector is different. Its far more long-term. Which is great. Although, OTOH things that are wrong with it remain the same for a long time. Ironically, the reverse is true. I know someone that worked for a company that was horrible and he thought about leaving, then it got bought out by a decent one.
  • bogota 3y ago
    Very likely. For context im 33 and mostly hang around people from 28 to 38 range. Although I also notice a different attitude with the new devs that we hire who are 24 to 26.
• scarface_74 3y ago
  I am almost 50 and on my ninth job. I haven’t been “passionate” about my job ever. It has always served as no more than a means to support my addiction to food and shelter.
  • Epa095 3y ago
    How booring. Has there really not been anything fun and exciting in any of your nine jobs?
    • DinaCoder99 3y ago
      Like what?
      • rad_gruchalski 3y ago
        Like having a little bit of fun? You know, like just for yourself, liking it a bit?
        • DinaCoder99 3y ago
          While I do have a lot of fun coding, I can't say I've ever had this experience at a paid job. Maybe if I had the opportunity to write open-source software but that seems like rather a niche career path at this point.
      • eastbound 3y ago
        Like helping the new marketing girl grow from a noob in everything to an absolutely master of a PO, Like building a product so well made that it makes people say “I’ve searched for 15 years for this product”; Like watching this self-absorbed geek grow from a 40-yo single to a polished mannered person with a girlfriend. I mean no-one is excited to build an accounting software, but I’m excited when people grow. Actually, I’ve once heard that an army of psychologists will never take a man out of depression, but give them a hammer and they’ll get to work, get recognition and gain positive experiences. And the opposite: Being barred from working, from giving your labour, to a company that appreciates it, is an extenuating experience for men.
• herbst 3y ago
  I was never passionate about work until I did my own thing on my own time. Now I am proud and really like my work. I don't think I could have ever lived that feeling working for someone else.
  • bmitc 3y ago
    How did you make the transition?
    • herbst 3y ago
      Burnout, travelling, moving back to my mom, consistent trying and evolving and possibly great luck. If you ask from a financial perspective, mostly trough our social system. I wasn't able to work, when I was again nobody stressed me to do so and now I am back, happily paying back into the system, at my own pace.
  • ChrisMarshallNY 3y ago
    Couldn’t agree more. I was a manager for 25 years. It was soul-sucking. I think I was a very good manager, but I hated it. I did code on the side, mainly to stay sane (not sure if it worked -Ed.). When I was finally let go, after almost 27 years, I ran smack-dab into SV’s notorious ageism. It was humiliating, humbling, and infuriating. I fairly quickly gave up looking, as the search was way more soul-sucking than being a manager. I had the means to retire early. I hadn’t planned for it, but we make plans, and God laughs. As it turned out, it was probably the best thing that could have happened. I have been furiously coding, ever since (solid green GH Activity Graph). My family also had some rather serious medical issues, and it was good that I could stay home. I live in a state with great health coverage, so I’m grateful.
• coolThingsFirst 3y ago
  FAANGs just stopped being interesting for me at 26. The realisation dawned that life is really not that long and it really doesn't matter how good you are. Before that it was a race to learn as much as possible with every waking moment. Doing that for years and years until you're given the opportunity to keep doing it for even more became incredibly boring. It's like it's not enough that you aim to be slave but you need to be the best slave and even then we can let you go if god forbid your health gets bad. I just don't care anymore, don't give a rat's ass about tRPC.
  • twojobsoneboss 3y ago
    If you’re at a FAANG, the point is to stash and save as much as possible as quickly as possible so you can escape being a slave
    • coolThingsFirst 3y ago
      If you are in US sure, in Europe it’s much much harder.
  • jondwillis 3y ago
    The tRPC comment hits home… what have I been doing with my life?
    • hkk22sjwjurjdb 3y ago
      [flagged]
• shipscode 3y ago
  Goodwill dissipates hard when your remote only company starts mandating an injection.
  • canaus 3y ago
    Oh boy… This is a sentiment a large portion of workers feel, and a large portion of workers aren’t remote.
  • evantbyrne 3y ago
    I've always assumed that vaccination requirements were just intelligence tests in disguise.
    • dennis_jeeves2 3y ago
      Depends on which side of the intelligence fence you are on. Each side claims to be intelligent, of course only on one side is.
• znpy 3y ago
  I think it’s mostly (corporate) disconnection from reality. It’s understandable that a failing business lays off a bunch of people to try and stay afloat, to survive. But companies thriving, making a bunch of money and seeing their share price increase… and still laying off a bunch of people? If that’s the game companies play, it’s understandable that people will adapt sooner or later.
• mr_tristan 3y ago
  The “great recession” didn’t seem to impact tech like the dotcom bust did. So millenials and younger really hadn’t lived through a lean era in tech like we’re living in now. This is easily the worst jobs market since that dotcom bust. So it’s been a while. Nothing like seeing how arbitrary layoffs are to seeing how shallow leadership decisions can be. This is the period that actually defines good leadership. A good leader, at least to me, won’t be led by investors to making largely short term decisions. They will define how their organization needs to evolve and challenge them to make it happen. But what I mostly see, are leaders doing stupid things like RTO then layoffs (goodbye, loyalty!), and then shrug and whine about having to maintain margins while cutting money losing projects that shouldn’t have been started in the first place. And then turn around and say “the future is AI” without really having much of a plan. The leadership BS really stinks during these times, and it’s something that the younger generations haven’t really experienced.
• twojobsoneboss 3y ago
  It’s tricky. I used to have a passion which was a small bootstrapped side business, then due to life circumstances I had to give up on that. I found that getting more invested in my 9-5 and my coworkers made it easier to get through the day, cause if not, good god it would be hard. But now oh don’t get too invested as a guard against getting laid off… Like I said, it’s tricky. I do agree on signing off latest at 5 unless absolutely needed to tho, you’re just punking yourself otherwise
• ThrowawayR2 3y ago
  > "Work is now just work. Five years ago it had to be your passion it is what you wanted or at least i wanted to be defined by." Surely you jest. The Dilbert comic strip started in 1989 and even then people were remarking about how eerily realistic it was about how uncaring, lacking in loyalty, stupid, and generally soul crushing corporations and corporate life was. It was tremendously popular for just that reason.