he point is that wanting a part-time job without having a really good excuse is a bad signal of one’s work ethic. What else could be a good excuse?
One part of the declining societal work ethic is it’s quite a bit more common to decide to work less, without needing much of an excuse. I know a LOT of people under normal retirement age, who describe themselves as “semi-retired” or “working enough to keep my head in the game”, rather than optimizing for career and future earnings potential. Note that this is mostly long-term software devs who’ve amassed quite a lot of savings, and I ALSO know many who are near or past normal retirement age and need to keep working for the money. A lot of motivation isn’t about work ethic, it’s about transactional optimization.
The tradeoff of “pretty good compensation” for “more time/energy than I’d like to spend” is pretty rampant. That part isn’t about sexism or having a good excuse, it’s just the bundling that seems to work for most employers.
I guess, from certain perspective, my question is “how can I send costly signals of work ethics if I don’t have one?” and the obvious answer is “you can’t (or it is really difficult), because that’s exactly what makes it a costly signal, dummy!” :D
The annoying part about the time-energy/compensation tradeoff is that it isn’t linear. There is no simple lever I could push to spend 50% of time-energy for 50% compensation and find out how that works for me. (I have explored some options, but if seemed that the drop in compensation was dramatic, something like 50% compensation for 80% of time-energy, which isn’t really the thing I want. It would make much more sense to stay unemployed between jobs.)
There seems to be no convenient way to even explore the landscape of possibilities, because companies do not transparently advertise how e.g. stressful or meaningless the work is. It is supposed to be your responsibility to ask the right kind of questions during the interview, but in my experience that doesn’t work either, because sometimes different departments work differently, and they hire you for one department and after you sign the contract or maybe a few months later they move you to a different department that functions differently. Or a new manager comes and changes the rules.
Even the concept of “work ethics” sounds a bit misleading. It’s not like there is a uniform thing called “work” and you either like it or don’t. You may find some aspects of work okay and other aspects unbearable. For example, as a software developer somewhat on the autistic spectrum, I find “developing software, with clear requirements, without interruptions, in a quiet room” a pleasant experience, but “developing software, with unclear requirements that contradict each other and change all the time, with constant interruptions and task switching, in open space” deeply unpleasant. So it’s not like I fundamentally lack “work ethics”, but rather that I am more compatible with some work conditions and less compatible with others (and sadly the latter seem more popular among managers so the entire industry moves that way).
Also, what is the opposite of “work”? Some people spend their free time watching TV or scrolling on social networks. Other people have hobbies and projects, which can be similar to jobs in complexity and time-energy requirements, it’s just that they do not generate income. If someone does difficult and useful things, but they do not generate profit, does it make sense to accuse them of not having “work ethics”? Basically, the motte-and-bailey fallacy, where we equivocate between “work” and “work for money”.
Fully on-board with the annoyance at this equilibrium. I don’t see a better way, unfortunately, with the information and motivation asymmetry between software employers and employees, both of which have large variances in quality.
I’ve focused on the technical and social/team aspects of software development as a (very) senior IC, rather than as a manager in title. Even so, I’ve been deeply involved in hiring, organizing, motivating, and aligning teams for a number of large projects. I’ve found a very strong correlation between the signaling of “work ethic” in terms of energy and hours and the actual performance and impact of an employee. Like all heuristics, it’s nowhere near 100%, and it’s sad that there’s no easy way to identify the exceptions. Sad as it is, it’s true—as an employer of software engineers, I would prefer not to hire part-time.
Which means the expected-productivity curve for employers is nonlinear, so there’s no reasonable way to make the pay/effort ratio constant.
100% (or more—this justifies hyperbole) on applying “work ethic” to other aspects of life. This difficult tradeoff of motivated effort on behalf of others applies to housekeeping, care for partner/children, some parts of hobbies, and a lot of other things. It’s not work-for-money, it’s work-for-others-preferences.
One part of the declining societal work ethic is it’s quite a bit more common to decide to work less, without needing much of an excuse. I know a LOT of people under normal retirement age, who describe themselves as “semi-retired” or “working enough to keep my head in the game”, rather than optimizing for career and future earnings potential. Note that this is mostly long-term software devs who’ve amassed quite a lot of savings, and I ALSO know many who are near or past normal retirement age and need to keep working for the money. A lot of motivation isn’t about work ethic, it’s about transactional optimization.
The tradeoff of “pretty good compensation” for “more time/energy than I’d like to spend” is pretty rampant. That part isn’t about sexism or having a good excuse, it’s just the bundling that seems to work for most employers.
I guess, from certain perspective, my question is “how can I send costly signals of work ethics if I don’t have one?” and the obvious answer is “you can’t (or it is really difficult), because that’s exactly what makes it a costly signal, dummy!” :D
The annoying part about the time-energy/compensation tradeoff is that it isn’t linear. There is no simple lever I could push to spend 50% of time-energy for 50% compensation and find out how that works for me. (I have explored some options, but if seemed that the drop in compensation was dramatic, something like 50% compensation for 80% of time-energy, which isn’t really the thing I want. It would make much more sense to stay unemployed between jobs.)
There seems to be no convenient way to even explore the landscape of possibilities, because companies do not transparently advertise how e.g. stressful or meaningless the work is. It is supposed to be your responsibility to ask the right kind of questions during the interview, but in my experience that doesn’t work either, because sometimes different departments work differently, and they hire you for one department and after you sign the contract or maybe a few months later they move you to a different department that functions differently. Or a new manager comes and changes the rules.
Even the concept of “work ethics” sounds a bit misleading. It’s not like there is a uniform thing called “work” and you either like it or don’t. You may find some aspects of work okay and other aspects unbearable. For example, as a software developer somewhat on the autistic spectrum, I find “developing software, with clear requirements, without interruptions, in a quiet room” a pleasant experience, but “developing software, with unclear requirements that contradict each other and change all the time, with constant interruptions and task switching, in open space” deeply unpleasant. So it’s not like I fundamentally lack “work ethics”, but rather that I am more compatible with some work conditions and less compatible with others (and sadly the latter seem more popular among managers so the entire industry moves that way).
Also, what is the opposite of “work”? Some people spend their free time watching TV or scrolling on social networks. Other people have hobbies and projects, which can be similar to jobs in complexity and time-energy requirements, it’s just that they do not generate income. If someone does difficult and useful things, but they do not generate profit, does it make sense to accuse them of not having “work ethics”? Basically, the motte-and-bailey fallacy, where we equivocate between “work” and “work for money”.
Fully on-board with the annoyance at this equilibrium. I don’t see a better way, unfortunately, with the information and motivation asymmetry between software employers and employees, both of which have large variances in quality.
I’ve focused on the technical and social/team aspects of software development as a (very) senior IC, rather than as a manager in title. Even so, I’ve been deeply involved in hiring, organizing, motivating, and aligning teams for a number of large projects. I’ve found a very strong correlation between the signaling of “work ethic” in terms of energy and hours and the actual performance and impact of an employee. Like all heuristics, it’s nowhere near 100%, and it’s sad that there’s no easy way to identify the exceptions. Sad as it is, it’s true—as an employer of software engineers, I would prefer not to hire part-time.
Which means the expected-productivity curve for employers is nonlinear, so there’s no reasonable way to make the pay/effort ratio constant.
100% (or more—this justifies hyperbole) on applying “work ethic” to other aspects of life. This difficult tradeoff of motivated effort on behalf of others applies to housekeeping, care for partner/children, some parts of hobbies, and a lot of other things. It’s not work-for-money, it’s work-for-others-preferences.