Dark Side of Silicon Valley

One guy describes his life like this: “Wake up, shower. Being stuck in traffic for one hour. Arrive to work, no good parking spots. Breakfast at desk. Work. Lunch. Work. Being stuck in traffic for one hour. Sleep. Repeat. Yeah Silicon Valley is awesome.”

Besides long hours and long commutes, other programmers talk about other frustrations. One laments that the dark side of working in the Valley is, “Making a great salary, yet still not being able to afford a house in a good neighborhood.”

You. Stop whining and get back to work!

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Hey, it is capitalism at its finest. If you are good enough to leave and make your mark elsewhere good for you. But you are right, if you are able to have a job here, stop whining, save and then go buy that nice home. Let’s be honest, you have a leg up on a LOT of others so no excuses. Get back to work!!!

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Way better than my life. Work like dogs and get peanuts. I would choose SV anytime. Blogging whatever you like while being gainfully unemployed.

Atherton? Dream on. Those are for geniuses and risk takers. Programmers are sissy who got lucky being born in today’s world, probably left to die in Sparta. In a certain small Asiatic island, two graduates (one of them PhD) can only afford to stay in an entry 3 room HDB.

I know very few who work that much. Those that do are very early stage startup. The job market is too hot to burn people out. They are getting contacted by recruiters just by being on Linked In. All they have to do is be unhappy enough to start entertaining those conversations. Attrition kills the pace of projects.

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Where did someone mention Atherton?

My husband is home on weekends. He does come home and do more work, but I don’t think he feels like this. He does feel very tired, but that’s a sleeping issue.

I worked at a startup recently. Most of the software engineers strolled in at 10:30am and left around 6:30pm. They did work from home for maybe another hour or two but they also goofed off playing ping pong and video games at work. They made $150k+.

I am sure a lot of companies require more but there is so much demand for engineers that they can easily switch if they don’t like the company culture.

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Just look at traffic patterns. You can tell when most people go to work and leave by when the roads are busiest.

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_“Wake up, shower. Being stuck in traffic for one hour. Arrive to work, no good parking spots. Breakfast at desk. Work. Lunch. Work. Being stuck in traffic for one hour. Sleep. Repeat.”

How is that so different than anyone else’s work/lfe balance in the Bay Area?

I’m not in the valley. I’m not in tech. But that still pretty much describes my workday. Except that I am going reverse commute so the traffic isn’t so bad. But I still spend an hour and a half commuting each day and put 60+ miles on my car.

I can think of people I know that aren’t white collar office workers that do this as well. Carpenters, contractors and restaurant owners who pretty much live the same way.

I’m just glad that I no longer put in the 80 hour workweeks I did years ago as a newbie in the hopes of “getting ahead”.

Nothing new here folks. Just move along.

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Hey. And here I thought tech was supposed to fix that for us. Telecommute, work from home, virtual office and flexible hours and all that.

What happened? :open_mouth:

Seriously though, many of you know that I work in public transportation. And, it is often perceived as “the answer” to all of the commute mess. Which is pure BS for so many reasons I could write a book. Too many to go into here.

The heavily subsidized cost is the epitome of why we shouldn’t look to public transit as a “solution”. Much cheaper alternatives are available. Just by changing our habits and rituals a bit. Maybe even gently forcing employers to do so instead of allowing them to outsource their employee’s costs for commuting onto the government and thus the public.

And I say that with the full recognition of my disdain for government interference. :confused:

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Write the book. Then you can retire :slight_smile:

Raise your hand if you ever wanted to work with some comfort, just get in your car, drive 1 mile a minute and be at your job at certain hour or time. We all look for the best for our own bodies.
Don’t get offended, myself a little bit fat, but I have met so many high tech guys and maybe they are not as fat as a pig, but somehow chubby or fattish. Why? Because they are stuck to their computer all day long, some with no time to exercise, then, after their hard work, they have to drive another hour back home. To just eat dinner, hit the sack and go to sleep.
Housing in this area requires many sacrifices. Health shouldn’t be one of them. Do as I do, I don’t like a job, I quit and go somewhere else where I feel happy and not a ready to go postal on anybody.

On the other hand, same I would say to those who complain about crime, the sun hitting their eyes, being snobs by wanting to live in another town because they feel rich, and that house doesn’t go with their social status, etc.
Shall I tell them to “shut up”, or “stop whining”?

You are very welcome!

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buyinghouse

Have been thinking about you…Welcome to this forum…

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I too sit at a desk all day but I make it a point of hitting the gym 3 times a week. Been to too many funerals to not have that constant reminder that a sedentary body is a decaying body. Now granted our company offers a free gym with full lockers/showers for its employees and I do live in the city but if you plan for it you can do it. No excuses, folks, get your exercise in!!!

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In the field we called office workers red asses…sitting all day on the job is a killer…Even buyinghouse says he is gaining weight…When he was painting he was in shape…up and down a 28’ ladder all day…lol

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Lol! Hello Jil!
Hello elt1…yes, I still go up and down the ladder, except nowadays I don’t worry about falling down, I will rebound easily…:smile:

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What’s going on, @manch???

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/feds-accuse-silicon-valley-firm-hiring-bias-42373387

Peter Thiel owned that company. Why don’t you ask that vampire?