IT Survivors – Staying Alive In A Software Job
Before I started working for myself, I spent some years in some of the top IT companies in India and still have many friends working in various software companies. I wrote a blog Recruiting like crazy, about the same time last year about how Indian companies are recruiting like there’s no tomorrow and the possible consequences. However I was avoiding writing this particular piece as it seems like an unpatriotic thing to do, to tell the world how bad the working conditions in software companies in India have become. And there’s always the risk of excerpts being used out of context to bash up IT in India.
I am now writing this because I just keep hearing horror tales from the industry and it doesn’t seem like anything is being done in the matter, so I thought I will do my bit and write.
First and foremost, before stereotypes about India kick in, I would like to clarify that I am not saying that Indian software companies are sweat shops where employees aren’t being paid and made to
work in cramped uncomfortable places. The pay in software companies is very good as compared to other industries in India and the work places are generally well furnished and plush offices. India being a strong democracy, freedom of expression is alive and well and Indians are free to express their opinions and voice their concerns. Yet, I say that the software industry is exploiting its employees.
IT work culture in India is totally messed up and has now started harming the work culture of the nation as a whole. Working 12+ hours a day and 6 or even 7 days a week is more the rule than the exception.
Consequences:
- A majority of IT people suffer from health problems.As most of the IT workforce is still very young, the problem isn’t very obvious today but it will hit with unbearable ferocity when these youngsters get to their 40s.
- Stress levels are unbelievable high. Stress management is a cover topic in magazines and newspapers and workshops on the subject are regularly overbooked.
- Most IT people have hardly any social / family life to talk of.
- As IT folk are rich by Indian standards, they try to buy their way out of their troubles and have incurred huge debts by buying expensive houses, gizmos and fancy cars.
Plush offices, fat salaries and latest gizmos can give you happiness only if you have a life in the first place.
The reason I feel this culture has emerged, is the servile attitude of the companies. Here’s a tip for any company in the west planning to outsource to India. If you feel that a project can be completed in 6 weeks by 4 people, always demand that it be completed in 2 weeks by 3 people.
Guess what, most Indian companies will agree. The project will then be hyped up as an “extremely critical” one and the 3 unfortunate souls allocated to it will get very close to meeting the almighty by the time they deliver the project in 2 weeks. Surprisingly, they will deliver in 2-3 weeks, get bashed up for any delays and the company will soon boast about how they deliver good quality in reasonable time and cost. Has anyone in India ever worked on a project that wasn’t “extremely critical”?
I was once at a session where a top boss of one of India’s biggest IT firms was asked a question about what was so special about their company and his answer was that we are the “Yes” people with the “We Can Do It ” attitude.
It is all very well for the top boss to say “We Can Do It “.. what about the project teams who wish to say “Please….We Can’t Do It ” to the unreasonable timelines…I was tempted to ask “What death benefits does your company offer to the teams that get killed in the process?”. I sure was ashamed to see that a fellow Indian was openly boasting about the fact that he and his company had no backbone. The art of saying No or negotiating reasonable time frames for the team is very conspicuous by its absence. Outsourcing customers more often than not simply walk all over Indian software companies. The outsourcer surely cannot be blamed as it is right for him to demand good quality in the least cost and time.
Exhaustion = Zero Innovation
- How many Indians in India are thought leaders in their software segment? – Very few
- How much software innovation happens in India? – Minimal
- Considering that thousands of Indians in India use Open Source software, how many actually contribute? – Very few
Surprisingly, put the same Indian in a company “in” the US and he suddenly becomes innovative and a thought leader in his field.
The reason is simple, the only thing an exhausted body and mind can do well, is sleep. zzzzzz
I can pretty much bet on it that we will never see innovation from any of 10000+ person code factories in India.
If you are someone sitting in the US, UK… and wondering why the employees can’t stand up, that’s the most interesting part of the story. Read on…
The Problem
The software professional Indian is today making more money in a month than what his parents might have made in an year. Very often a 21 year old newbie software developer makes more money than his/her 55 year old father working in an old world business. Most of these youngsters are well aware of this gap and so work under an impression that they are being paid an unreasonable amount of money. They naturally equate unreasonable money with unreasonable amount of work.
Another important factor is this whole bubble that an IT person lives in.. An IT professional walks with a halo around his or her head. They are the Cool, Rich Gen Next .. the Intelligentsia of the New World… they travel all over the world, vacation at exotic locations abroad, talk “american”, are more familiar of the geography of the USA than that of India and yes of course, they are the hottest things in the Wedding Market!!!
This I feel is the core problem because if employees felt they were being exploited, things would change.
I speak about this to some of my friends and the answer is generally “Hey Harshad, what you say is correct and we sure are suffering, but why do you think we are being paid this much money? It’s not for 40 hours but for 80 hours a week. And anyway what choice do we have? It’s the same everywhere.”
So can we make things change? Is there a way to try and stop an entire generation of educated Indians from ending up with “no life”.
Solutions
1) Never complement someone for staying till midnight or working 7 days a week.
Recently, in an awards ceremony at a software company, the manager handing over the “employee of the month” award said something like “It’s unbelievable how hard he works. When I come to office early, I see him working, when I leave office late, I still see him working”.. These sort of comments can kill the morale of every employee trying to do good work in an 8hr day.
Companies need to stop hiding behind the excuse that the time difference between India and the west is the reason why people need to stay in office for 14 hours a day. Staying late should be a negative thing that should work against an employee in his appraisals. Never complement someone for staying till midnight or working 7 days a week .
2) Estimates:
If time estimates go wrong, the company should be willing to take a hit and not force the employee to work crazy hours to bail projects out of trouble. This will ensure that the estimates made for the next project are more real and not just what the customer has asked for.
3) Employee organizations / forums
NASSCOM (National Association for Software and Services Companies) and CSI (Computer Society Of India) are perhaps the only two well known software associations in India and both I feel have failed the software employee. I do not recall any action from these organizations to try and improve the working conditions of software employees. This has to change.
I am not in favor of forming trade unions for software people, as trade unions in India have traditionally been more effective at ruining businesses and making employees inefficient than getting employees their rights and helping business do well. So existing bodies like NASSCOM should create and popularize employee welfare cells at a state / regional level and these cells should work only for employee welfare and not be puppets in the hands of the companies.
If the industry does not itself create proper forums for employee welfare, it’s likely that the government / trade unions will interfere and mess up India’s sunshine industry.
4) Narayan Murthys please stand up
Top bosses of companies like Infosys, TCS, Wipro, etc. need to send the message loud and clear to their company and to other companies listening at national IT events that employee welfare is really their top concern and having good working culture and conditions is a priority. Employee welfare here does not mean giving the employee the salary he/she dreams of.
Last word
I am sure some of my thoughts come from the fact that I too worked in such an environment for a few years and perhaps I haven’t got over the frustrations I experienced back then.
So think about my views with a pinch of salt but do think about them. And if you have an opinion on this issue, don’t forget to add a comment to this article.
Or so it seems for soooo many folks writing on this blog!! Ever wondered why folks who work in non IT companies, dont complain as much as techies about late working hours, working weekends, stress blah blah? I have worked in a number of Indian IT companies (some are mentioned here ;o)) and know what goes on in the name of ‘work’. Working abnormally late hours, weekends and holidays is the standard norm which everybody follows. I have asked younger team members several times as to what other interests they pursue other than work. Are they fond of reading, travelling, getting involved with social organisations or any other activity besides writing, testing and debugging lines and lines of code (Mostly written by someone else..). The only passion these young people seem to have is hanging around their cubicles in front of their computer screens. What kind of personalities will they develop I wonder. Is this not leading to a stunted and limited personality? Is life only about work and more work? I dont think there is any sense is blaming the IT organizations’, the managers and so on. It is entirely upto an individual what he wants to do with his time and how much he respects his individuality and the need to explore more in the outside world rather than live life like a cubicle rat. Work is a ‘part of life’ not life itself.
Or so it seems for soooo many folks writing on this blog!! Ever wondered why folks who work in non IT companies, dont complain as much as techies about late working hours, working weekends, stress blah blah? I have worked in a number of Indian IT companies (some are mentioned here ;o)) and know what goes on in the name of ‘work’. Working abnormally late hours, weekends and holidays is the standard norm which everybody follows. I have asked younger team members several times as to what other interests they pursue other than work. Are they fond of reading, travelling, getting involved with social organisations or any other activity besides writing, testing and debugging lines and lines of code (Mostly written by someone else..). The only passion these young people seem to have is hanging around their cubicles in front of their computer screens. What kind of personalities will they develop I wonder. Is this not leading to a stunted and limited personality? Is life only about work and more work? I dont think there is any sense is blaming the IT organizations’, the managers and so on. It is entirely upto an individual what he wants to do with his time and how much he respects his individuality and the need to explore more in the outside world rather than live life like a cubicle rat. Work is a ‘part of life’ not life itself.
Harshad, true but few things can be changed as well.
1. Indian engg need to spend less time on doing other stuff e.g smoking and socializing in office.
2. They need to talk less, phone less and concentrate full 8 hours in office, then 100% they can finish what they are doing in 16 hrs 🙂 believe me.
3. In india per hour culture still in nascent stage that you have forgotten.
4. In USA and UK its problem of skilled people, india you get them easily so ready to work more.
5. If manager will give you promotion for staying late, they why not i, that comes to many peoples mind in india, find some solution on that mate.
Harshad, true but few things can be changed as well.
1. Indian engg need to spend less time on doing other stuff e.g smoking and socializing in office.
2. They need to talk less, phone less and concentrate full 8 hours in office, then 100% they can finish what they are doing in 16 hrs 🙂 believe me.
3. In india per hour culture still in nascent stage that you have forgotten.
4. In USA and UK its problem of skilled people, india you get them easily so ready to work more.
5. If manager will give you promotion for staying late, they why not i, that comes to many peoples mind in india, find some solution on that mate.
First, a very good article and am sure all Indian IT’ians will agree to this.
I have worked in India and now in US with both US and Indian managers. It
all depends on you on how you want to manage. I used to leave at 5pm in India
and here in US too unless I want to stay (sometimes for free dinner in India
or feel like finishing some work here). Yeah, it effected me in my annual
reviews and the % growth was not much but I understand that as I can spend
more time with my family and outside.
Its important to learn saying ‘NO’ whether its a Indian manager or a
American Manager. No one is going to kill you. If you’re good (both personally and professionally), no one can touch you but yeah it might hurt your pocket a bit.
Moreover, if you work sincerely for 8 hrs, I don’t know why people extra hours. Most of the times I have seen my friends staying late either browsing or burning some mp3’s but
get credit for coming late to office the next day from his/her manager with swollen eyes.
So its a trade off and the best thing is to balance between personal life
and professional life with personal life always being a priority.
-KPK
First, a very good article and am sure all Indian IT’ians will agree to this.
I have worked in India and now in US with both US and Indian managers. It
all depends on you on how you want to manage. I used to leave at 5pm in India
and here in US too unless I want to stay (sometimes for free dinner in India
or feel like finishing some work here). Yeah, it effected me in my annual
reviews and the % growth was not much but I understand that as I can spend
more time with my family and outside.
Its important to learn saying ‘NO’ whether its a Indian manager or a
American Manager. No one is going to kill you. If you’re good (both personally and professionally), no one can touch you but yeah it might hurt your pocket a bit.
Moreover, if you work sincerely for 8 hrs, I don’t know why people extra hours. Most of the times I have seen my friends staying late either browsing or burning some mp3’s but
get credit for coming late to office the next day from his/her manager with swollen eyes.
So its a trade off and the best thing is to balance between personal life
and professional life with personal life always being a priority.
-KPK
I believe, this article is crap. Anybody working only 8 hours will not succeed professionaly. Tell me in which profession do people work only 8 hours(except the govt. babus- where they dont accomplish anything anyway except become rich by unfair means..I am not talking about every govt babu here). Lot of Doctors work 24 hrs and nobody writes about them. The Film Actors work 2 shifts but nobody cares about them and they also do not complain, the police works extended hours and shifts, nobody cares for them, the industrial workers work odd timings, not just today, but have been working at odd timings for long, be it in the power plants, mines or textile mills or even Car plants but nobody has ever written any side-effects about them working odd shifts but if the IT guys work odd hours, its suddenly a big issue. I think no company can ask its employee to work late nights unless it is very necessary. And then it all depends on the PM who estimates the work and the software engg. who accepts the estimates. Why dont you tell on the PM’s face that you cannot do the work as per his estimates and give him a new estimate, any reasonable manager would accept your explanation and then if he does not then he must be some kind of sadist which i believe are few in number in the whole industry. So this problem basically breaks down to the individual who wants to stay late either he is inefficient or the manager is inefficient.
Working late and odd shifts is an age old phenomenon and exists in practically every industry and I dont think anybody should make a big issue about it. Just because you are staying late and most of the time it would be because of your problem, I dont think you need to write such a big article and people should start commenting and praising it.
People wake up, there are hundreds who work odd shifts and odd timings in worse conditions not sitting in plush a/c offices like you. If you want to be successful, you should come out of this mindset of working just 8 hrs but concentrate on your work and think how that work is going to help you become a better person and how your contribution is going to help yourself and also the company.Tell me, I dont think Harshad has written so many books by just working 8 hrs every day and I also do not think that he closes his offices sharply at 6 PM and asks his employees to leave, so wake up and think about yourself, you are the master of your destiny, if some crap PM tells you have to work for 12 hrs everyday no matter what and if you feel that he is exploiting you just change your job, no point in working for such a man but if you really feel that you are capable of doing and the job criteria is such that you have to work for 12 hrs then you have to take the decision.
So Harshad and others who go on cribbing about odd timings and odd hours please stop doing it. People in this industry are more matured and educated and they know what is best for them and am sure if any body feels they are being exploited, they will not take it lying down.
And remember guys ‘ You cannot become great or rich or successful by just working 8hrs a day unless you are born with a ‘golden and diamond spoon in your mouth’.
VIjay Kishore
I believe, this article is crap. Anybody working only 8 hours will not succeed professionaly. Tell me in which profession do people work only 8 hours(except the govt. babus- where they dont accomplish anything anyway except become rich by unfair means..I am not talking about every govt babu here). Lot of Doctors work 24 hrs and nobody writes about them. The Film Actors work 2 shifts but nobody cares about them and they also do not complain, the police works extended hours and shifts, nobody cares for them, the industrial workers work odd timings, not just today, but have been working at odd timings for long, be it in the power plants, mines or textile mills or even Car plants but nobody has ever written any side-effects about them working odd shifts but if the IT guys work odd hours, its suddenly a big issue. I think no company can ask its employee to work late nights unless it is very necessary. And then it all depends on the PM who estimates the work and the software engg. who accepts the estimates. Why dont you tell on the PM’s face that you cannot do the work as per his estimates and give him a new estimate, any reasonable manager would accept your explanation and then if he does not then he must be some kind of sadist which i believe are few in number in the whole industry. So this problem basically breaks down to the individual who wants to stay late either he is inefficient or the manager is inefficient.
Working late and odd shifts is an age old phenomenon and exists in practically every industry and I dont think anybody should make a big issue about it. Just because you are staying late and most of the time it would be because of your problem, I dont think you need to write such a big article and people should start commenting and praising it.
People wake up, there are hundreds who work odd shifts and odd timings in worse conditions not sitting in plush a/c offices like you. If you want to be successful, you should come out of this mindset of working just 8 hrs but concentrate on your work and think how that work is going to help you become a better person and how your contribution is going to help yourself and also the company.Tell me, I dont think Harshad has written so many books by just working 8 hrs every day and I also do not think that he closes his offices sharply at 6 PM and asks his employees to leave, so wake up and think about yourself, you are the master of your destiny, if some crap PM tells you have to work for 12 hrs everyday no matter what and if you feel that he is exploiting you just change your job, no point in working for such a man but if you really feel that you are capable of doing and the job criteria is such that you have to work for 12 hrs then you have to take the decision.
So Harshad and others who go on cribbing about odd timings and odd hours please stop doing it. People in this industry are more matured and educated and they know what is best for them and am sure if any body feels they are being exploited, they will not take it lying down.
And remember guys ‘ You cannot become great or rich or successful by just working 8hrs a day unless you are born with a ‘golden and diamond spoon in your mouth’.
VIjay Kishore
[B]Good ariticle Harshad[/B]
This article will defenitely make people think more about the kind of work culture happening over many states in India esp. in software industry. Basically this 12 hrs a day, 6 days a week kind of work culture is based on each company and/or projects. Mainly this is happening because of the younger generations working in the industry who are just getting exposed to the new world. And the software industry is just maturing in India.
This will be changing as the system matures over the time. There will be something like the gap between the west and the east vanishes.
[B]Good ariticle Harshad[/B]
This article will defenitely make people think more about the kind of work culture happening over many states in India esp. in software industry. Basically this 12 hrs a day, 6 days a week kind of work culture is based on each company and/or projects. Mainly this is happening because of the younger generations working in the industry who are just getting exposed to the new world. And the software industry is just maturing in India.
This will be changing as the system matures over the time. There will be something like the gap between the west and the east vanishes.
Good that someone is atleast talking about this nonsense culture in Indian software industry.
Need of the time is Total Attitude Shift of MANAGEMENT !
The sooner the better.
And what are those arguments i am seeing here …Hey we waste time surfing net, listen music, check mail ….woah …during this ‘waste of time’ by employees what the heck is manager doing ??? sleeping ?? or else he too watching cricket, check mails,… ??
why cant the manager just walk in and just say ..
[B]hey people lets finish of the work fast and
go home fast [/B]
are we asking too much or what >>?? :roll
Good that someone is atleast talking about this nonsense culture in Indian software industry.
Need of the time is Total Attitude Shift of MANAGEMENT !
The sooner the better.
And what are those arguments i am seeing here …Hey we waste time surfing net, listen music, check mail ….woah …during this ‘waste of time’ by employees what the heck is manager doing ??? sleeping ?? or else he too watching cricket, check mails,… ??
why cant the manager just walk in and just say ..
[B]hey people lets finish of the work fast and
go home fast [/B]
are we asking too much or what >>?? :roll
Daym!!! If so many people are so disturbed by this trend, why in friggin god’s name cant people do something about it!
Ok this is my theory, im a engineering student in Hyderabad and ive been working for about 6 months, I havent been-as yet – exposed to this element of the ‘brutal software industry’ but i think i know why the IT chaps find themselves so overwhelmed.
‘Get them at the roots’, is what I would say. Ok take Hyd. for example, engineering freshies are some of the first victims of this potential quagmire of ridiculuous work hours. The FACT [which is the operative word here] is that, they know dickshit about Computers, let alone software..most of them have no clue about what they are working, they fail to understand the value of their creations!!! So educate the god damn engineers, you’ll have less of them working there [highly improbable, no amount of education would deter a money-hungry computer literate from vijayawada from sacrifing the ‘high life’]
Its the age old problem with Computer engineers, we’re always unsatisfied…because our engineering deals with the ‘untangible’..and its difficult to measure the untangible…so if an employee cannot measure the worth of his creation or his contribution to his company, he remains unsatisfied..I would probably be theorizing by saying that these measures of worth..are being substituted by the Mr.Murthy’s and their goose-bumpy pep talks of how they have always ‘strived to overacheive’…sorry but ur stupid IIT idealism isnt getting you anywhere in the long term.
Its the media which is in the game too, showing off swanky people with swanky cars with their swanky materialistic pile of junk…[oh but how many people actually use this stuff..umm 1?]
Lastly, these IT chaps are sad and lame and this is generally speaking taking the whole society into consideration…they use their accents, they use their laptops…they use their -‘…but HELL NO THOU SHALL NOT USE THY MIND…..its sad…..we are literally an army of latent androids…much like the Republican Clone Army…and somebody HAS GOT TO BE THE GODAMM JEDI!!!
/ /
Daym!!! If so many people are so disturbed by this trend, why in friggin god’s name cant people do something about it!
Ok this is my theory, im a engineering student in Hyderabad and ive been working for about 6 months, I havent been-as yet – exposed to this element of the ‘brutal software industry’ but i think i know why the IT chaps find themselves so overwhelmed.
‘Get them at the roots’, is what I would say. Ok take Hyd. for example, engineering freshies are some of the first victims of this potential quagmire of ridiculuous work hours. The FACT [which is the operative word here] is that, they know dickshit about Computers, let alone software..most of them have no clue about what they are working, they fail to understand the value of their creations!!! So educate the god damn engineers, you’ll have less of them working there [highly improbable, no amount of education would deter a money-hungry computer literate from vijayawada from sacrifing the ‘high life’]
Its the age old problem with Computer engineers, we’re always unsatisfied…because our engineering deals with the ‘untangible’..and its difficult to measure the untangible…so if an employee cannot measure the worth of his creation or his contribution to his company, he remains unsatisfied..I would probably be theorizing by saying that these measures of worth..are being substituted by the Mr.Murthy’s and their goose-bumpy pep talks of how they have always ‘strived to overacheive’…sorry but ur stupid IIT idealism isnt getting you anywhere in the long term.
Its the media which is in the game too, showing off swanky people with swanky cars with their swanky materialistic pile of junk…[oh but how many people actually use this stuff..umm 1?]
Lastly, these IT chaps are sad and lame and this is generally speaking taking the whole society into consideration…they use their accents, they use their laptops…they use their -‘…but HELL NO THOU SHALL NOT USE THY MIND…..its sad…..we are literally an army of latent androids…much like the Republican Clone Army…and somebody HAS GOT TO BE THE GODAMM JEDI!!!
/ /
I agree with whatever Harshad has acclaimed…but at the same time…we(people@IT) have every need to pose a question to ourselves..haven’t you ever seen a colleague staying back late nights even though you think he doesn’t have much to do at that time @ office ? Yes..! absolutely you would have had a many..but if you see from the other side even he may think the very same..It all depends on the individuals…again…
I donot blame the managers for this. It is ultimately you who will wish to take the responsibility and work lates if required, and want to get noticed by the manager whom you think is not as good as you at technical aspects than you…… :zzz
I agree with whatever Harshad has acclaimed…but at the same time…we(people@IT) have every need to pose a question to ourselves..haven’t you ever seen a colleague staying back late nights even though you think he doesn’t have much to do at that time @ office ? Yes..! absolutely you would have had a many..but if you see from the other side even he may think the very same..It all depends on the individuals…again…
I donot blame the managers for this. It is ultimately you who will wish to take the responsibility and work lates if required, and want to get noticed by the manager whom you think is not as good as you at technical aspects than you…… :zzz
Nice article and I agree to most of it. I’ve been in a similar situation for four years. Now I with an organization which respect employees in every aspect.
On the contrary, what I see now is the “GREAT INDIAN ENGINEER”
Descriptions of “THE GREAT INDIAN ENGINEER”:
Browsing the web all day on “personal interest/movies/songs/what not?”
Spend hours on personal calls at work on mobile and on landline
Stay late on purpose to enjoy the dinner, snacks, internet, phone, coffee, cool drinks, late night drop orrrrrrrrr just because their “pair” is working late.
You have plenty of Indian holidays in addition to your leaves and you want a shutdown during Christmas/Newyear also.
Change companies every six months for extra few thousand rupees.
I wait for the day when my son (or I???) would be dying to get a work permit to TCS/Infosys/Wipro Beijing.
Nice article and I agree to most of it. I’ve been in a similar situation for four years. Now I with an organization which respect employees in every aspect.
On the contrary, what I see now is the “GREAT INDIAN ENGINEER”
Descriptions of “THE GREAT INDIAN ENGINEER”:
Browsing the web all day on “personal interest/movies/songs/what not?”
Spend hours on personal calls at work on mobile and on landline
Stay late on purpose to enjoy the dinner, snacks, internet, phone, coffee, cool drinks, late night drop orrrrrrrrr just because their “pair” is working late.
You have plenty of Indian holidays in addition to your leaves and you want a shutdown during Christmas/Newyear also.
Change companies every six months for extra few thousand rupees.
I wait for the day when my son (or I???) would be dying to get a work permit to TCS/Infosys/Wipro Beijing.
100% right.
100% right.
i dont think any indian companies are interested in doing something hightech. as long as the shares are booming on the stock market the top mgmt is happy.
i dont think any indian companies are interested in doing something hightech. as long as the shares are booming on the stock market the top mgmt is happy.
Joel Spolsky starts his essay ‘Building Communities With Software’ with (emphasis mine):
The social scientist Ray Oldenburg talks about how humans need a third place, besides work and home, to meet with friends, have a beer, discuss the events of the day, and enjoy some human interaction. Coffee shops, bars, hair salons, beer gardens, pool halls, clubs, and other hangouts are as vital as factories, schools and apartments [‘The Great Good Place’, 1989]. But capitalist society has been eroding those third places, and society is left impoverished. In ‘Bowling Alone,’ Robert Putnam brings forth, in riveting and well-documented detail, reams of evidence that American society has all but lost its third places. Over the last 25 years, Americans ‘belong to fewer organizations that meet, know our neighbors less, meet with friends less frequently, and even socialize with our families less often.’ [2000] For too many people, life consists of going to work, then going home and watching TV. Work-TV-Sleep-Work-TV-Sleep. It seems to me that the phenomenon is far more acute among software developers, especially in places like Silicon Valley and the suburbs of Seattle. People graduate from college, move across country to a new place where they don’t know anyone, and end up working 12 hour days basically out of loneliness.
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/BuildingCommunitieswithSo.html
This problem is not unique to India, I guess and its cause-effect analysis should be more in-depth. Yet the points made in the article are appreciated
Joel Spolsky starts his essay ‘Building Communities With Software’ with (emphasis mine):
The social scientist Ray Oldenburg talks about how humans need a third place, besides work and home, to meet with friends, have a beer, discuss the events of the day, and enjoy some human interaction. Coffee shops, bars, hair salons, beer gardens, pool halls, clubs, and other hangouts are as vital as factories, schools and apartments [‘The Great Good Place’, 1989]. But capitalist society has been eroding those third places, and society is left impoverished. In ‘Bowling Alone,’ Robert Putnam brings forth, in riveting and well-documented detail, reams of evidence that American society has all but lost its third places. Over the last 25 years, Americans ‘belong to fewer organizations that meet, know our neighbors less, meet with friends less frequently, and even socialize with our families less often.’ [2000] For too many people, life consists of going to work, then going home and watching TV. Work-TV-Sleep-Work-TV-Sleep. It seems to me that the phenomenon is far more acute among software developers, especially in places like Silicon Valley and the suburbs of Seattle. People graduate from college, move across country to a new place where they don’t know anyone, and end up working 12 hour days basically out of loneliness.
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/BuildingCommunitieswithSo.html
This problem is not unique to India, I guess and its cause-effect analysis should be more in-depth. Yet the points made in the article are appreciated
beware of wealth earned with compromised health