5 ms·

If you work in a tech company with >5k employees it's extremely likely it's been forced down on you to wear the pink feathered chicken suit, and told to not com

by piva00 7mo ago

If you work in a tech company with >5k employees it's extremely likely it's been forced down on you to wear the pink feathered chicken suit, and told to not complain about the pink feathered chicken suit because it is the inevitable future, and no one will be wearing anything that doesn't look like it ever again. Also, we are watching every straggler not in a pink feathered chicken suit, put yours on or leave the building.

dgxyz 7mo ago
If enough people say no, it'll stop. For ref I'm usually the guy who comes in and cleans up all the chicken corpses after.
- pdimitar 7mo ago
  I don't know what is so mysterious about the following: People can't just leave Wednesday and be in a new job with the same or better pay next Monday. Rent/mortgage, bills and food are still due. Comments like yours always baffle me. Empty idealism. For the record, I usually get called to clean up and make things good again as well. Most of my career was like that.
  - dns_snek 7mo ago
    > People can't just leave Wednesday and be in a new job with the same or better pay next Monday. They don't have to leave, they can refuse to comply with unreasonable requests which are likely to cause harm by jeopardizing the security of user data. Maybe your position is too precarious to risk getting fired, but if your job is asking you to do something unethical then you should be doing everything you can to get yourself out of that situation, either by supporting unionization or by being willing to take a manageable pay cut to find a new job as soon as possible. If you're a software developer then you can almost certainly afford at least a moderate pay cut for upholding ethical conduct. The vast majority can even if we don't want to, but these situations are where we find out if our ethics are for sale or not.
    - pdimitar 7mo ago
      A fairly filter-bubble take. > Maybe your position is too precarious to risk getting fired You mean yours isn't? Or even that of at least 95% of all devs worldwide? I can definitely say "no" to my CEO if he wants something too big that would take too much time and energy for questionable business results -- I am even expected to ground him. But if my colleagues hand me a ticket, I cannot just refuse without repercussions. I'll not get fired on the spot, that much is certain. But if it happens 2-3 times they'll start looking for a replacement. Same will happen if I outright tell my CEO I can't do something due to ethical concerns. That's how it is almost everywhere I looked and asked (and have very rarely worked with US companies). > If you're a software developer then you can almost certainly afford at least a moderate pay cut I can't even afford a 10% pay cut. I want to live in your world.
      - salawat 7mo ago
        The thing you two are missing is "solidarity" and our industry sucks at it. In fact, it's been relied upon and conditioned into most IT/tech types we're "special" somehow in a way blue collar workers aren't. We aren't and the same dynamics apply. If everyone stops asking the boss how high to jump, and refuses to jump, only then will you see a meaningful reining in of behavior in executives. That action potential has to start somewhere, and as the current generation of alleged adults in the room, we're it. Our juniors need an example set or the cycle repeats. It isn't empty idealism. It's hard effing pragmatism at it's most brutal. If we don't change, nothing can change. Therefore, we must change.
        pdimitar 7mo ago
        Yes I am missing it, as in, I know it's theoretically possible but I've never once seen it. It seems to be a fantasy. > It isn't empty idealism. It is if it's never happening. Pragmatism it would be if it was already an established practice. I like my dragons purple btw. > If we don't change, nothing can change. Therefore, we must change. Obviously. But that "if" is trying to lift an impossible amount of weight is what I am saying. It's one of those powerless "oh, if only!" cries that we the people are prone to.
- piva00 7mo ago
  Enough people could say no and take a stance if there was collective solidarity in the tech industry. Unfortunately we don't have that, tech workers are in the vast majority skeptical of or anti anything resembling unionised work. The bosses won on that front, and now they can dictate freely that you must wear the pink feathered chicken suit. People, in general, want to keep their jobs, saying no is an option when you don't care what happens with it or have the backing of the collective to walk out together.

by piva00 7mo ago

dgxyz 7mo ago

If enough people say no, it'll stop. For ref I'm usually the guy who comes in and cleans up all the chicken corpses after.

pdimitar 7mo ago
I don't know what is so mysterious about the following: People can't just leave Wednesday and be in a new job with the same or better pay next Monday. Rent/mortgage, bills and food are still due. Comments like yours always baffle me. Empty idealism. For the record, I usually get called to clean up and make things good again as well. Most of my career was like that.
- dns_snek 7mo ago
  > People can't just leave Wednesday and be in a new job with the same or better pay next Monday. They don't have to leave, they can refuse to comply with unreasonable requests which are likely to cause harm by jeopardizing the security of user data. Maybe your position is too precarious to risk getting fired, but if your job is asking you to do something unethical then you should be doing everything you can to get yourself out of that situation, either by supporting unionization or by being willing to take a manageable pay cut to find a new job as soon as possible. If you're a software developer then you can almost certainly afford at least a moderate pay cut for upholding ethical conduct. The vast majority can even if we don't want to, but these situations are where we find out if our ethics are for sale or not.
  - pdimitar 7mo ago
    A fairly filter-bubble take. > Maybe your position is too precarious to risk getting fired You mean yours isn't? Or even that of at least 95% of all devs worldwide? I can definitely say "no" to my CEO if he wants something too big that would take too much time and energy for questionable business results -- I am even expected to ground him. But if my colleagues hand me a ticket, I cannot just refuse without repercussions. I'll not get fired on the spot, that much is certain. But if it happens 2-3 times they'll start looking for a replacement. Same will happen if I outright tell my CEO I can't do something due to ethical concerns. That's how it is almost everywhere I looked and asked (and have very rarely worked with US companies). > If you're a software developer then you can almost certainly afford at least a moderate pay cut I can't even afford a 10% pay cut. I want to live in your world.
    - salawat 7mo ago
      The thing you two are missing is "solidarity" and our industry sucks at it. In fact, it's been relied upon and conditioned into most IT/tech types we're "special" somehow in a way blue collar workers aren't. We aren't and the same dynamics apply. If everyone stops asking the boss how high to jump, and refuses to jump, only then will you see a meaningful reining in of behavior in executives. That action potential has to start somewhere, and as the current generation of alleged adults in the room, we're it. Our juniors need an example set or the cycle repeats. It isn't empty idealism. It's hard effing pragmatism at it's most brutal. If we don't change, nothing can change. Therefore, we must change.
      - pdimitar 7mo ago
        Yes I am missing it, as in, I know it's theoretically possible but I've never once seen it. It seems to be a fantasy. > It isn't empty idealism. It is if it's never happening. Pragmatism it would be if it was already an established practice. I like my dragons purple btw. > If we don't change, nothing can change. Therefore, we must change. Obviously. But that "if" is trying to lift an impossible amount of weight is what I am saying. It's one of those powerless "oh, if only!" cries that we the people are prone to.
piva00 7mo ago
Enough people could say no and take a stance if there was collective solidarity in the tech industry. Unfortunately we don't have that, tech workers are in the vast majority skeptical of or anti anything resembling unionised work. The bosses won on that front, and now they can dictate freely that you must wear the pink feathered chicken suit. People, in general, want to keep their jobs, saying no is an option when you don't care what happens with it or have the backing of the collective to walk out together.