The problem is not with the "coders" or "coding," it's with management. The management has molded agile development into "Agile" development. Meaning that they have succeeded in turning knowledge work into factory work. If management can find a way to get as much productivity out of you to the point of just breaking you, that's what they will do. Managers get rewarded for getting more work done for the same amount of money. And since most managers don't know that software development cannot be built in the same way that a car can, they get it wrong most of the time, at the expense of the developers. As a result, the culture turns into a Darwinist free for all, and the ones that break get the boot. Fresh bodies are then hired only to go through the same cycle.
This trend will only progress and I predict that within 5 years you will see a large amount of knowledge workers unionize.
We don't have the social skills to unionize though... We simply work harder to avoid conflict. As an industry we've welcomed abuse with open arms. There are enough developers willing to put up with it that those who make noise are outliers and tend to be replaced quickly.
The problem is not with the "coders" or "coding," it's with management. The management has molded agile development into "Agile" development. Meaning that they have succeeded in turning knowledge work into factory work. If management can find a way to get as much productivity out of you to the point of just breaking you, that's what they will do. Managers get rewarded for getting more work done for the same amount of money. And since most managers don't know that software development cannot be built in the same way that a car can, they get it wrong most of the time, at the expense of the developers. As a result, the culture turns into a Darwinist free for all, and the ones that break get the boot. Fresh bodies are then hired only to go through the same cycle.
This trend will only progress and I predict that within 5 years you will see a large amount of knowledge workers unionize.
We don't have the social skills to unionize though... We simply work harder to avoid conflict. As an industry we've welcomed abuse with open arms. There are enough developers willing to put up with it that those who make noise are outliers and tend to be replaced quickly.
I agree.