NYT: Fringes vs. Basics in Silicon Valley (high-tech worker exploitation?)

[DeepModem Mom]

Fringes vs. Basics in Silicon Valley
By MATT RICHTEL
Published: March 9, 2005


....Electronic Arts, based in Redwood City, Calif., has become the focal point of a debate over whether technology companies are exploiting workers by demanding long hours and using on-campus fringe benefits while skimping on tangible benefits like overtime pay, and rewarding worker loyalty by sending jobs to cheaper labor overseas.

The debate has called into question the longstanding Silicon Valley compensation formula in which long hours were soothed with stock options and bonuses. But with no technology boom to fuel stock prices, and new accounting rules making options much more expensive to grant, stock options are no longer the currency that has fueled the traditional Silicon Valley work ethic.

Electronic Arts, responding to this financial shift and to its labor critics, plans to announce this week that it will depart from tradition by beginning to pay overtime to some workers. Those workers would no longer be eligible for options or bonuses.

The move, while not unprecedented in the Valley's recent lean years, is certain to be watched closely by executives at other technology companies....

***

The clash between Electronic Arts and its employees was prompted by an online essay late last year by the wife of a game programmer. She accused the company of driving its workers to the point of collapse. The lament, widely circulated and discussed, has ignited an industry debate over whether there is a need to rethink the rights of high-technology labor....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/09/technology/09games.html?8hpib

[ixion]

1. As a software engineer, I can certify that this is common practice

The average work week is 60 hrs, with peak periods going as high as 80+, with no extra compensation.

Could I work less? Sure, but then I wouldn't have a job.

[DBoon]

2. If you leave work after "only" 10 hours

you get tagged as having an "attitude problem"

Yup, sounds familiar

[NashVegas]

7. The "Creative Class"

Is the biggest cultural lie I can think of right now.

The difference between a programmer or other "creative class" worker who puts their time in, while wondering whether or not their job will be outsourced, and a skilled laborer is, the laborer a) gets to have some mental capacity for their *own* use when they go home at the end of the day, and b) owns their ideas and the fruits of them.


Game developers, though, once worked in relatively small companies and took enormous pride in the products they created. Now, amid a consolidation that has put the video game business in the hands of a few big public companies like Electronic Arts and Activision, and in which best-selling titles can cost $10 million to $20 million to create, many developers say they feel like cogs in someone else's machine.

[htuttle]

4. You need to find yourself a nice medium-sized non-IT business...

...get hired doing their in-house IT work, and stay there forever.

Years ago, I took a job doing IT at a non-IT business (in transportation) for about 1/2 what I would have made in Silicon Valley. I have turned down a whole number of much higher paying IT-industry jobs in the years since. I haven't regretted it for a moment.

Sure, I'm stuck slogging a lot of uninteresting in-house accounting and inventory control code all the time, and I even have to run the network cabling myself when the need arises, but my job is much lower stress, and much, much more secure than had I followed the 'gold ring' in the IT industry. You get a lot more respect in an in-house position like this too, because you end up being the company's 'hired wizard', so to speak. And while I'm on call 24/7, I'm only expected to put in 8 hours a day in the office.

I didn't need a Porsche anyway...

:shrug:

[ixion]

5. yeah, I've been thinking about that

I was with a liberal arts college for a couple years managing their computer labs, and it was alot more fun and worlds less stress, but I made one third of what I'm making now.

Still, I suppose if the right opportunity presented itself that I would be very tempted to take it...I would have to move though. :-(

[Sub Atomic]

8. That's great advice.

Last year I abandoned ship from the "IT" industry after being laid off for the third time in 4 years.

I now do application development in the manufacturing industry.

Less stress, better perks, and a much nicer work environment are here.

And I don't have to worry about being asked to work 80 hours a week anymore.

[bemildred]

3. The relationship between capitalists and the engineers they employ

has usually been somewhat adversarial, which explains how
crappy most commercial software is, you can't do good software
when you are distracted. Much of this is driven by the high
prices capitalist are forced to pay for good engineers, the
money boys are nothing if not arrogant, and many strategies have
been employed over the years, both real like "outsourcing" and
the H1B program, and imaginary like "structured programming" and
"object oriented design" and various other attempts to make software
engineering "easy".

[mike6640]

6. I am one of those people

I was an Animator, worked insane hours to the point of serious injury just to hold a job in this business climate.

I am on disability now. Hope to get better and work for myself for a while.

I have done work with EA in the past and know quite a few of their development team staff. Good for them, I hope they succeed. It would set a precedent for the better.

[DeepModem Mom]

9. Wow, mike -- thanks for the inside view, and best to you! nt

[AndyTiedye]

10. Working Programmers That Hard Is No Good For Anyone

It doesn't have to be that way, and you'll get better code with fewer bugs.

Though my employer has a similar reputation for overworking employees,
the group I work in isn't like that at all. I usually don't have to
work overtime to get my job done, and our group has a reputation for
producing code of good quality. Most of us work at home 3 days a week,
which considerably boosts our productivity.

[bemildred]

11. It's stupid, no need to beat around the bush. nt