this post was submitted on 10 Aug 2023
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Antiwork

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cross-posted from: https://yiffit.net/post/1029567

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/2936916

Tech workers react to UPS drivers landing a $170,000 a year package with a mixture of anger and admiration::Some tech workers questioned whether UPS drivers deserved high pay — others jumped in to note the importance of the jobs and harsh working conditions.

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[–] queermunist@lemmy.ml 41 points 1 year ago (2 children)

To people who think they "don't deserve it" - if their job is so easy, why don't you get off your ass in your nice air conditioned office and do it yourself?

[–] Bonehead@kbin.social 19 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

Actually, I did do it. I was in IT for 20 years, 10 of it doing tech support. Now I deliver mail. Best decision of my life. And it is surprisingly easy for someone with a tech background. Sure, there's a lot of physical labour involved. And winters suck with the massive increase in Christmas parcels and mail on top of the shitty weather. But summers are light and I'm outdoors most of the day.

EDIT: for clarity

The sad part is that I had to leave a 20 year IT career to find this job which will eventually lead to a 6 figure salary. By the time I left IT, my wage had stagnanted for a decade and I couldn't see any path to 6 figures. It's not that delivery drivers don't deserve that kind of salary...we do for the work during the crunch times. It's that IT workers deserve a union that will back them up and get them that salary.

If I'm up at 2am fixing a crashed server before the 6am reports are generated, and I still put in a full day the next day to do the post-mortem analysis, I deserve more than some encouraging words and a half day at some point in the future that I'll never have the chance to take.

[–] Necronomicommunist@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think all workers deserve a union that gets them all they can get. The problem is that unions are the workers. Organising labour has been a struggle for decades. I just hope hearing about things like this invites others to take note and organise their workplace too.

[–] lencioni@midwest.social 2 points 1 year ago

There's a book coming out very soon on this subject that sounds pretty interesting: https://abookapart.com/products/you-deserve-a-tech-union

[–] southernbeaver@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Oof. This is exactly what I am going through right now.

[–] IphtashuFitz@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

I don’t know if they still do it, or if it’s as lucrative as it used to be, but back in the 80’s when we were around 18-20 years old my brother and I both got 6-week jobs at UPS over the holiday rush as drivers assistants. Between the decent hourly rate and the huge amount of overtime we made a ton of money. But it was a hell of a grind. We’d start at 7 am with a truck packed literally to the gills with packages. We’d get it all delivered then meet up with another truck, load up our delivery truck again, then repeat the process. We didn’t finish most of those days until around 8pm or so…