<story><title>Getting free of toxic tech culture</title><url>https://blog.valerieaurora.org/2018/01/17/getting-free-of-toxic-tech-culture/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>trhway</author><text>&amp;gt;What is toxic tech culture? Toxic tech cultures are those that demean and devalue you as holistic, multifaceted human beings. Toxic tech cultures are those that prioritize profits and growth over human and societal well being. Toxic tech cultures are those that treat you as replaceable cogs within a system of constant churn and burnout.&lt;p&gt;has there been any factory floor, farm, private or government office where things have been different? Except may be for a situation like a tenured professor at Stanford. Or a 4 star general who after having been a cog for like 30 years finally gets to be the one burning and replacing the cogs at his will&amp;#x2F;choice.&lt;p&gt;If anything, i think tech is among the most progressive places, if only for the fact that one can easily switch jobs instead of suffering for years for example under harassing boss like it was before and still is in the other industries where job market is worse. With employees having such freedom, the tech companies and management are forced to treat the employees better than at the other industries. I wonder how many of the people complaining about toxic tech culture did actually work at non-tech places.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Consultant32452</author><text>I feel like some of this may be more pronounced in areas like SV.  Specifically, areas of the highest competition.  The personality traits that correlate most strongly with success are: high conscientiousness, high stress tolerance, and low agreeableness.  Of course it makes sense that the people in the areas of stiffest competition in tech are in an environment of high stress and are generally really disagreeable to be around.  This is going to be the case at the top of any field with stiff competition.&lt;p&gt;I live in a 2nd tier city (not NY, SF, LA, etc) and these depictions of the &amp;quot;tech industry&amp;quot; are unfamiliar to me.  Sure, there&amp;#x27;s the odd asshole, but those are everywhere.  I feel like people around SV and other high competition big cities are generalizing about the industry in a way that doesn&amp;#x27;t reflect my day to day life.</text></comment>
<story><title>Getting free of toxic tech culture</title><url>https://blog.valerieaurora.org/2018/01/17/getting-free-of-toxic-tech-culture/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>trhway</author><text>&amp;gt;What is toxic tech culture? Toxic tech cultures are those that demean and devalue you as holistic, multifaceted human beings. Toxic tech cultures are those that prioritize profits and growth over human and societal well being. Toxic tech cultures are those that treat you as replaceable cogs within a system of constant churn and burnout.&lt;p&gt;has there been any factory floor, farm, private or government office where things have been different? Except may be for a situation like a tenured professor at Stanford. Or a 4 star general who after having been a cog for like 30 years finally gets to be the one burning and replacing the cogs at his will&amp;#x2F;choice.&lt;p&gt;If anything, i think tech is among the most progressive places, if only for the fact that one can easily switch jobs instead of suffering for years for example under harassing boss like it was before and still is in the other industries where job market is worse. With employees having such freedom, the tech companies and management are forced to treat the employees better than at the other industries. I wonder how many of the people complaining about toxic tech culture did actually work at non-tech places.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>sotojuan</author><text>Difference is that tech poses itself as &amp;quot;new&amp;quot; (i.e. different from old, traditional things&amp;#x2F;companies) and its leaders (actual business magnates or your average CEO) either indirectly or directly talk about making the world&amp;#x2F;people better. Therefore, when they do stuff any other company does (because they&amp;#x27;re just like any other company, surprise), it feels or sounds a lot worse.&lt;p&gt;Also, stories on tech (maybe because of the above?) are trendier. No one cares if a factory or finance firm have toxic cultures (because we all expect them to?).</text></comment>