When Did White-Collar Work Start to Look So Bleak?

When Did White-Collar Work Start to Look So Bleak?(newyorker.com)

15 points by littlexsparkee 6 hours ago | 18 comments

JohnFen 6 hours ago |

For me, the first noticeable encroachment of bleakness was when we stopped having offices and started having to work in cubes.

rwmj 3 hours ago | |

My dad had a private office, and his secretary had one too. Both offices looked out over a lake, and were large rooms. My dad had an informal sofa area by the window, and the secretary's office was slightly less grand but still had plenty of space. He earned about the same as me inflation adjusted. His secretary obviously far less, though they both got a gold-plated final salary pension on top.

What are the chances of that happening today for anyone not in the C-suite?

I never had a private office until I started working from home. My pension comes out of my salary and all the risk of markets falling etc falls on my shoulders.

lubujackson 22 minutes ago | |

I also miss smoking my pipe in the office, surrounded by rich mahogany.

littlexsparkee 5 hours ago | |

My first few white collar jobs were miserable experiences - stress, temperamental bosses, lack of agency, etc. It got better but that took years of effort, at which point I was already thinking about leanFIRE, compelled by AI (this back in 2018) and climate concerns.

anitil 2 hours ago | |

Looking at the early scenes in the matrix, I think it must be nice to have a little cubicle, rather than the hot desk situation we have now

ChiperSoft 1 hour ago | |

You mean the 80s?

bag_boy 3 hours ago |

I don’t know if bleak is the right word, but keeping up with the pace of change with LLMs is exhausting.

aaulia 2 hours ago | |

Same, which is why I just go with my own pace and stop being FOMO. Fortunately my org is not that gung-ho about pushing AI.

tocs3 1 hour ago |

Bob Cratchit had a hard time as a clerk.

cratermoon 6 hours ago |

In the 80s, after you graduated from college and got a white-collar job, you probably didn't have much in student loans, and if you did, you could be assured you'd pay them off in a couple of years. Then you'd have money saved up to put down on a house. If you wanted you could get married and have kids. Take two weeks vacation every summer to the shore or the mountains. You expected to be able to afford to put your kids through college, and after 35 years or so of service, you could retire with a pension and a gold Rolex as thanks for your service.

littlexsparkee 1 hour ago | |

It's my understanding that pensions were quite rare, certainly much more so than 401ks, so at least that expectation might be a bit more rosy than reality.

jleyank 3 hours ago | |

Where there ever pensions in the tech business? Maybe ibm in the 50’s or 60’s…. Did DEC have pensions? Large, old employers like governments or pharma or union-supporting companies had pensions, but the rest had “defined contribution” retirement instead.

Computers blew away the pink-collar job fields which took away much of the non-tech employment. Hard to assemble a 2 tech family with children due to the lack of remote work and the lack of affordable housing where the job-islands are. And a house then was way, way smaller and less featureful than what people want today an and toys were also way cheaper and simpler.

defrost 57 minutes ago | | |

> Where there ever pensions in the tech business?

Superannuation schemes in Australia, Singapore, etc.

Mind you these kinds of schemes provide pensions for all workers across all industries and aren't limited to the tech business.

HeyLaughingBoy 2 hours ago | | |

I started a job in summer 1998 and I had a pension until they were acquired in about 2011 or so. It was so invisible that I forgot all about it until I switched to another job and they contacted me to decide what to do about the pension now that I'd left.

There aren't many, but they are out there.

littlexsparkee 3 hours ago | | |

what the market delivers and what people want aren't always the same. imo demand is there for smaller dwellings, it's just not profitable enough to get delivered either because of the margin on large spaces / needing to overcome high labor & overhead. i would love to live in an ADU were it to be cheaper than a 1 bed or well sited / modern.

cratermoon 2 hours ago | | |

I did not distinguish pensions per se from other programs run and, most importantly, guaranteed by the employer. In all cases the employee could be assured of a minimum retirement income based on years of service and salaries. This is in contrast to 401k and similar investment schemes where, at best, the employer will partially match employee contributions but at the end of 35 years the actual value of the funds is subject to the vagaries of the stock and bond markets and may not be sufficient to live and could even be zero. The point being: risk and responsibility for retirement is entirely on the individual.

phendrenad2 15 minutes ago |

The boomers' massive retirement funds are depressing competition. The institutional investors who capture the majority of 401k assets are incentivized to not take any risks and maintain the status quo. As a result, every company is incentivized to not take risks. As a result, employees are needed to keep the lights on, not to push the boundaries of what's possible. You're not paid to be creative or gain deep knowledge into the company vertical over decades, you're paid to come in and operate the machinery. We're all technicians now. We're just following the flowchart. I can't wait for the boomers to cash out and for cutthroat competition to start again. I'm ready coach, put me in the game...

newtonianrules 1 hour ago |

Many of the people I work with have had successful exits and I’m assuming are quite wealthy. They’re also some of the most miserable people I’ve ever worked with. Nothing satisfies them for long. It’s like theyre can’t appreciate what they have. Beautiful wife, great kids, well paying job, house in the Bay Area. Literally the dream.

I just don’t get it. Makes me want to leave the industry though, I’m tired of trying to stay positive around miserable people.