Ask HN: Why do we have asymmetric views about work life balance in professions?

2 points by quintin 8 years ago | 2 comments

Correct me here and this is a genuine question.

We (software professionals) expect to go home at a reasonable time, still be paid the best salary among all verticals and we often complain about work life balance. But we have a different set of expectations when it comes to doctors, day care professionals, military etc. We don’t expect a doctor to discontinue his operation if he worked for 9 hours a day or infantryman to stop shooting. Heck, I will be furious if the daycare professional chose not to keep a watch on my child even beyond the designated time if I fail to show up.

Is this because we lack empathy or are we living in our own bubbles?

jaclaz 8 years ago |

>Is this because we lack empathy or are we living in our own bubbles?

Coming from someone that is not a software professional, you are actually living in your own bubble BUT you have a number of mitigating circumstances.

The work of (I presume) a programmer is not entirely new and can be likened to a number of "intellectual professions", what has changed (again as seen from the outside) is the toxicity of the environment around you.

I mean, a programmer at IBM or Bell Laboratories or NASA in the '60's has probably written possibly "more important" code, very likely being paid comparatively much less, but he/she did it in a proper office, with some "proper" management and much less "company pressure".

And - since I believe you are from the US - remember that the "best salary among verticals" is not "worldwide", generally speaking in the EU programmers and "software professionals" are not usually paid better or much better than other technical professionals (like engineers, architects or similar).

codingdave 8 years ago |

I think it is because our minute-to-minute work doesn't impact the well-being of either ourselves or other people. Your other examples all have a direct impact on people's lives, potentially up to life/death consequences. Whereas whether or not I finish updating this react component... not so much.

Now, contrast that with the work I did at a hospital. I was fully expected to keep working if whatever I was fixing had a negative impact on patient care, even if it was something trivial. We had a standard criteria for when we went home which was that if patient care was not impacted, we could put it off for later, but nobody walked out that door if a patient could be harmed by our inaction.