r/SimpleApplyAI • u/Economy-Hat7077 • 15d ago
News Tech Workers, Long Treated Like Aristocracy, Are Now Human Waste
https://futurism.com/future-society/tech-workers-human-waste5
u/grandmasboyfriend 15d ago
Yes keep us all hating each other
1
u/throwaway0134hdj 15d ago
If you’ve worked in tech you’d already know how devs hate each other and the fierce competition there is. Zero solidarity amongst them, everyone hoarding knowledge trying to sabotage other devs and talk badly about their colleagues to management. There is also a fair bit of autism in the mix which makes things worse. Devs are not a collaborative bunch, they eat their own.
2
u/Friendlyvoices 15d ago
That's the exact opposite of the last 15 years of my career. Software development is inherently collaborative.
1
u/hockeyketo 15d ago
I feel bad for you if that's been your experience. I've worked as a SWE for almost 20 years and only experienced one or two people like that. Maybe it's because I've mostly avoided the huge companies where you become more of a metric.
1
u/throwaway0134hdj 15d ago
That’s reassuring. I’ve most worked at smaller shops and the barrier to entry is kinda low. Could just be that. Any advice on finding those comparative places?
1
15d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/throwaway0134hdj 15d ago
A lot are in it simply for the money, therefore they’re going to be more on the selfish/greedy side by default. Noticed a lot have the “fuck you got mine” mentality. A union may have been possible before AI, now it’s too late.
6
15d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
7
u/throwaway0134hdj 15d ago
There was already lots of competition from offshoring/h1bs and now AI is the final nail in the coffin for most devs.
1
u/Financial-Event377 14d ago
it was never safe
2
u/Naughtygirlsneedlove 14d ago
I’ve been slinging code professionally for 21 years. I frequently got cold calls from recruiters until about two years ago and never worried about my employment
It was a hell of a lot safer than it is currently
4
u/SecretRecipe 15d ago
Meanwhile the tech workers over at r/overemployed holding down 3x tech jobs without difficulty are like
1
u/SakishimaHabu 15d ago edited 15d ago
Most of those folks aren't doing good work in two of their three jobs.
2
u/dingopaint 14d ago
They don't do good work in any of their jobs. They probably suck even when they're only holding down one job.
1
0
3
u/Icy-Stock-5838 15d ago
The reckoning was coming, as elevated Tech salaries made them a magnet for "efficiencies"..
There isn't a profession since the dawn of history that hasn't priced itself out of it's own employment from high-demand-high-salaries to eventually low-demand-lower-salaries...
1
u/BuySellHoldFinance 14d ago
Doctors. But they limit the supply.
1
u/Icy-Stock-5838 14d ago
Actuaries are the same, control supply to keep salaries up..
Neither profession is easy to school for..
1
6
u/_Heathcliff_ 15d ago
Some people get laid off and that makes them “human waste?” The fuck is wrong with this writer?
3
u/throwaway0134hdj 15d ago
Haven’t you been paying attention to the layoffs? Nearly 200K were tossed out like yesterday’s garbage just over the last few months. Devs are as disposable as garbage.
2
u/Paintsnifferoo 14d ago
The market is “bad” but based on numbers. Devs are less than the 50% of tech layoffs. It’s all the other roles like HR, project management, etc that are being culled.
Here’s the comptia latest employment report.
https://lecbyo.files.cmp.optimizely.com/download/6b6fc8e4ff4a11efbebeaeb5c39a94d9?sfvrsn=725f3c8d_0
Actual tech people unemployment is less than the national average.
1
u/Psycho_Syntax 15d ago edited 15d ago
Man y’all need to learn how to read lol (and that includes the dumbass that wrote this article). 200k tech workers being laid off does not mean 200k devs were laid off. If someone working in HR or sales is laid off from a tech company it’s classified as a tech layoff. They do it that way because it makes for juicier clickbait headlines.
1
u/PotentialReason3301 14d ago
Tons of middle managers and other supporting roles are getting laid off ahead of developers. Lots of entry level developers getting axed though too since they are being seen as inferior to AI already. Senior and some juniors are making the transition though just fine. AI has only augmented/enhanced my position. I'm able to move at lightning speed now. The problem though is so is everyone else - sector competition is reaching fever pitch...
I think some of these really large companies that were paying the huge salaries, like double the industry average for example, are also cutting heads because they are realizing with AI, they just don't need as many now.
That doesn't mean there isn't a market for those devs elsewhere...but they might have to take a paycut. Still better than learning to be a plummer...
1
u/holdmyspot123 13d ago
Honestly that's how tech workers used to talk I remember here on Reddit hearing one on California saying homeless people should just leave so he didn't have to see them. My empathy is there but a lesson needed to be learned.
No one is human waste, although some humans are selfish and evil.
1
u/_Heathcliff_ 13d ago
Yea idk I’m a tech worker and I’m constantly reaching out to people on LinkedIn who have been laid off and trying to help if I can. It’s the CEOs who are the enemy. I’d tear into any coworker I heard talking about laid off folks like that.
0
0
15d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/_Heathcliff_ 15d ago
Why does being laid off mean that a person is literal shit? Walk me through it.
0
u/ItAllFallsToShit 14d ago
How did you misunderstand this so poorly? What the fuck is wrong with you?
5
15d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/Illustrious-Film4018 15d ago
You thought they were pushing you to tech because they didn't see AI coming years ago?
What are you talking about?
2
15d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/ThrowRA-NFlamingo 15d ago
But what is the goal with that?
1
15d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/ThrowRA-NFlamingo 14d ago
But how does a tech company encouraging people to work in tech accomplish that? And why would they specifically be carrying that out? What is the specific misdeed they are trying to commit and what is the goal?
1
14d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/ThrowRA-NFlamingo 14d ago
Most of the push toward tech seemed to be coming from journalists, tech companies, popular consensus, and the fact that there were lots of high paying jobs with great benefits which will naturally attract people. Don’t you think if the department of education was pushing it it would’ve been much more unilateral? There wasn’t really one unified push from all of the public schools.
I think you are just kind of talking in vague conspiracy speak without really having a coherent narrative for what is actually happening here, where the incentives are, and who is benefiting. I think at best you can say that tech companies pushed coding because it was a tax write off thing they could do to build goodwill, and it also might help oversaturate the tech field so they can pay them less.
1
u/ViewAdditional7400 15d ago
I don't think you work in tech.
1
u/vitriolholic 15d ago
I don’t think you work. *** fixed it for you
1
u/No_Damage_8927 15d ago
I also don’t think you work in tech. Very few people saw how good it would get so rapidly. It wasn’t certain at all. And if you somehow had a crystal ball and knew the future, but didn’t work in this space, then you’re the biggest idiot of all. Could have made hundreds of millions
1
u/SpookiestSzn 14d ago
I wish I could live in your fantasy world it seems so much more interesting than reality.
2
2
2
2
15d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/HenryDorsettCase47 15d ago
Yup. Nothing last forever. And when something seems to have endless growth, ample opportunities, and great pay, you should definitely be expecting the other shoe to drop eventually.
0
u/sigmaluckynine 15d ago
I disagree about people staying in the cutting edge. I've seen way too many people that are slow. I think you're talking about a very slim group (80/20 rule). Honestly, there's a lot of people that are frankly putting it useless.
The field is also not sensitive to interest rates or market fluctuations. That's why tech is so coveted - software has very little overhead and with SaaS models there's predictive revenue that's constantly growing. This is not a blip. Amd honestly there's a lot of tech companies that's easily replaceable in today's change
1
u/fushiginagaijin 15d ago
Don't want to hug any of them because they probably haven't showered in a week.
1
1
1
u/Brackens_World 15d ago
Human waste, really? No, in truth there was an onslaught of people across the globe who entered tech in the 2000s, and we have reached a pivotal moment where supply way outstrips demand. Tech was always built around remaking the landscape, "change" at it core, the opposite of "stable". The notion of stability more stems with there being a demand for tech and tech workers no matter the direction tech was taking, and that has been true until now. The field may now be overcrowded and alternatives have not exactly presented themselves.
We're now at a sort of sea change, and while I doubt tech workers will disappear, demand for their services may decline, and whole swathes of folks will have to rethink their career choices. This was always in the offing but came sooner than we were prepared for. The funny thing is if you check out prognostications made in 1960s science fiction, we did not advance anything as far as they thought we would (e.g., flying cars, settlements on Mars, humanoid robots helming all sorts of tasks).
2
u/metamucil_buttchug69 15d ago
good, learn to hold a wrench nerd
2
u/InevitableEven3076 15d ago
I am licensed master electrician working as software engineer, if I m ever laid off next day I m kicking you out of your job easily.
0
u/metamucil_buttchug69 15d ago
software engineers can't even update their tickets without a scrum master or project manager holding their hand, I'm not worried about some Eastern European CRUD developer taking a real job
1
u/InevitableEven3076 15d ago
Tech lead working remotely for US company managing 5 guys across the globe, I ll be fine.
1
u/Salty-Plantain-4299 15d ago edited 15d ago
They are basically treated like every other worker. You can still get a job in the tech industry, but only if you're willing to be paid 50k to 60k ... it no longer has 100k starter jobs like there were before ...
The fall was definitely massive and sudden. It's especially bad because a lot of the cs majors, cybersecurity, IT, information systems, etc., can't take about 5 or 6 years to graduate. Basically, when they started college the industries were booming and jobs were pretty much guaranteed. By the time they graduated they were screwed.
The AI shift happened too quickly for anyone to adapt.
1
1
u/slow_down_1984 15d ago
There are two kids of tech workers on Reddit.
1). Has 15 job offers that pay 125% more they’ll accept if someone tries to make them spend four minutes in an office once a year.
2). Unemployed since the second Bush administration.
There appears to be no in between.
Really though the post Covid hiring boom really changed how everyone thinks about work. The sub Reddits are full of people complaining about doing three interviews or how they have a degree but still haven’t been hired. I wonder what happened to all those boot camp grads from 2021?
1
1
u/Spare-Region-1424 15d ago
Sorry but everyone in the “day in the life” videos who were eating amazing free food while having meetings outdoors can fuck right off they deserve what they are getting. Never in history have more people been so overpaid for what they actually do.
I can’t stand Elon Musk but he showed all of Silicon Valley that they employed too many people and spent too much on silly perks.
1
1
1
u/mathaiser 15d ago
They were so smug about it.
“I’m over employed”
“I work 2hrs a day making $200k”
“I work from home / I’m a tech nomad”
I feel bad, I did then, and I still do now for them. Too many thought they found the cheat code and reality is coming down hard.
1
u/Gullible-Question129 14d ago
reality coming down hard on people that probably have 1m+ invested/saved at this point? Please 😃
1
u/mathaiser 14d ago
Oh that’s riiiight because they just go home and game and don’t go outside or any of that. Shoot. Good for them!
1
u/magick_bandit 15d ago
To be fair, all those day in the life videos of tech workers not actually working…
There are a lot of useless tech workers.
1
u/vhalember 15d ago
The responses here are fucking sad.
Joy at tech workers being discarded.
No one is asking where is that money going now? To people worth 10,000x these tech workers being replaced.
And this is why the billionaires are, and will continue to win... We fight each other.
1
1
u/Cute_Bread_271 15d ago
Gone are all those crazy perks for working at one of these companies. Welcome back to realty, tech workers
1
1
u/PotentialWhich 15d ago
People with admin passwords were vastly overvalued by every organization I’ve ever worked at.
1
u/Lady_Rubberbones 15d ago
My mom worked in tech (software developer) in the very early years (the 90s). She was always considered human waste.
1
u/Divid_Pakit 14d ago
More of this. Only way to bring down the bro/goggins/rogan/jocko wing of SWEs who have been ruthlessly anti-union. They only paid you because they couldn't do it without you. They still can't do it without you -- but they can do it with far fewer.
1
1
u/SpookiestSzn 14d ago
Human waste is dramatic but it is wild to see how quick companies known for how great they treat their workers just turning around on them
At the end of they're still pretty well treated well paid workers but between offshoring and H-1B's and AI not clear how long that'll be the case
1
1
u/DopamineSavant 14d ago
Sounds like your mixing up the billionaire tech bros with normal employees.
1
1
u/wynnwalker 14d ago
A lot already made a huge bag from years of work. They all seem to be doing fine.
1
1
u/WhyYouLetRomneyWin 14d ago
Whyy exaggerate like that? I was certainly never royalty--nor am I now 'human waste'. I know it's hyperbolic, it just seems unsubtle and extreme.
Yes, We are being deprecated. Software development will go away in a few decades just like shoemakers and lamplighters careers did.
1
1
1
u/Hawkwise83 13d ago
The ones at Amazon at least in part deserve it. The ones in the warehouse related section often talked about the warehouse workers being lazy trash people basically. Now they know what it's like to be on the desposable end of capitism. In stead of pampered little special boys.
0
u/MathematicianAfter57 15d ago
Tech workers also created and normalized the conditions they’re now the victims of. I see very few acknowledging that organizing labor aka UNIONS are the only way forward for this sector.
1
u/metamucil_buttchug69 15d ago
I thought tech workers resisted unions because their compensation and advancement is more merit based than other careers
1
u/MathematicianAfter57 15d ago
Yeah it’s so merit based they are training their own ai replacements
Tech workers are anti union bc like most white collar professionals they believe they don’t need any sort of labor protection, that the hammer won’t come for them. High comp is part of it but things like advocating for job security, penalties for off shoring etc are all things that organized labor laws can help with.
1
29
u/Ambitious_Skirt_2774 15d ago
Feels dramatic, but I get the frustration. A lot of tech workers were sold stability and found out how quickly markets can change.