So here's what I can't seem to get my head around. I keep reading how we - programmers, developers, software people - are in such high demand while observing a world where the perception, at least, is that we're a dime a dozen. On the one hand, I make good money doing something I genuinely enjoy all day - not retire early money, but not "how am I going to pay the water bill this month" either, and I've only been out of work for a month in the past 25 years. On the other hand, I sit in a wide-open bullpen next to people who are shouting into speaker phones all day and inputting timecards at 15-minute granularity. I have to forecast how I'm going to spend my time weeks in advance, and that forecast had better not include anything as mundane as "reading the Bootstrap documentation" because education is my responsibility, not their problem. I've been rejected from four times more jobs than I've been accepted to. Now, you may say that I'm in this relatively low-status position because I suck - and you may be right - but I have decades of experience and a master's degree in CS. Nobody can say that I don't at least look good on paper. We "technology people" ought to have the upper hand here. We shouldn't need a union - we should just be able to say what we need to produce what we're being asked for (time and quiet) but the prevailing atmosphere is more like "you're lucky you even have a job; shut up and stop complaining".