Tech workers react to UPS drivers landing a $170,000 a year package with a mixture of anger and admiration

Technology@lemmy.world – 566 points – 1 years ago

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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"This is disappointing, how is possible that a driver makes much more than average Engineer in R&D?"

Because the engineer is being exploited and refuses to unionize.

"To get a base salary of $170k you know you need to work hard as an Engineer, this sucks."

Bitch, UPS workers work harder than I ever did as an electronics engineer.

"To get a base salary of $170k you know you need to work hard as an Engineer, this sucks."

Bitch, UPS workers work harder than I ever did as an electronics engineer.

If he wants the $170k so badly, he should go get a job as a driver then.

"To get a base salary of $170k you know you need to work hard as an Engineer, this sucks."

As someone who has worked as a UPS driver and now as a software developer, I can say that the UPS drivers definitely work harder than your average engineer.

That quote is also deftly ignoring the fact that you’re generally paid for the value you generate, not how hard to you work.

Generally you're paid the least they can get away with (with some variance in what they think that is).

It generally requires a union to get paid closer to the value you generate.

Fucking truth, especially for software engineers. I spent most of today debating whether to use npm or pnpm for some project that's probably just going to get mothballed anyway.

I mean I know my worth, but I definitely don't work even 1/23rd as hard as even the laziest delivery driver imaginable. Even pretending to be a delivery driver is more work than my actual job.

I'm starting to think people should be forced to have at least 1 year of experience in a, so called, blue-collar job before they are allowed to have an office job.

As a tech worker in rhe U.S. we are definitely not being exploited. I'm all for unions but we're doing just fine.

Narrator, as Elon dances over Twitter headquarters with strobe lights and Google charges employees $99 per night to stay at their own hotel:

"They were being exploited."

Let's just say that some tech workers in the US are being exploited more than others. A lot more

I hear what you're saying: we're very well compensated. But think of the profit your team helps generate for your employer. It is a lot more than the combined salaries of the people who actually make the product / service.